This project is part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2007-2013: Europe investing in rural areas. It is being delivered through the South West RDA, with Defra as the Managing Authority.


This is the section where we offer a regular recipe service to reflect the changing seasons and varying availability of ingredients. Our recipes are written exclusively for us and will guide you through the cooking year, offering advice on how to use what’s in season or, sometimes, what we have on special offer in the shop. Over time this will build into an online archive which you will be able to turn to whenever you’re stuck for inspiration. The recipes will change monthly.

CHURSTON FARM SHOP NOVEMBER RECIPES

No two ways about it, winter is here – but the bonus is that so are wonderful winter vegetables, the signal for many of us to start making soup. This month’s suggestion is for minestrone, which you might think of as a summer soup but which can be eaten all year round – and is particularly good in winter because it comes as near as any soup can to being a complete meal.

Make use of curly kale in this variation, which features beans as well as pasta so really is a very hearty concoction. For a little Italian authenticity drop in a hunk of parmesan rind, if you have one in the fridge. It will add wonderful depth to the soup as well as giving it a tantalising aroma. Any left-overs can sit happily in the fridge and will taste even better on days two and three.

Beef, particularly stewing beef, is very good value at the moment. Try using thin slices of skirt of other braising cuts for beef broufado, which was a great, one-pot favourite of the families living aboard the barges that travelled from the Mediterranean up the Rhone – and who always added anchovies for that little zip of flavour. Who said surf and turf was a modern invention?


Recipes with beef

Recipes with chicken

Recipes with offal

Recipes with vegetables