The autumn kitchen: harvest time and the larder
September and October: the crate is full and the evenings cooler. Soup, gratin, börek, and pesto as larder moves, and the road onward to the storage page for the rest.
Autumn is the harvest's paradox: never more silverbeet, never less time to eat it fresh. At the same time the cooking changes character. Pots and the oven take over from the grill and the quick pan, and silverbeet's stronger autumn flavour is made for exactly that.
Pesto is the season's most important larder move. One batch swallows a whole bunch, uses both stem and leaf, and freezes perfectly in ice-cube trays. It is fifteen minutes in September that becomes pasta dinners in January.
The rule for the rest of the crate is simple: eat the week's share, and preserve the rest before the leaves go limp. Everything about freezing, drying, pickling, and fermenting is in the storage guide.
The recipes
Silverbeet, Potato & Chickpea Soup
Hearty enough to be the whole dinner, and the silverbeet goes into the pot in two rounds: stems first, leaves last.
Creamy Silverbeet & Potato Gratin
Oven on, cream in the pan, and a whole bunch disappears between the layers of potato.
Stem-and-Leaf Silverbeet Pesto
The larder move above all others: one batch swallows a whole bunch and freezes perfectly in cubes.
Silverbeet Börek with Filo Pastry
Crisp layers of filo around a deep-green filling, and a whole bunch fits in one dish.
Tips
- Everything you don't eat this week belongs on the storage page: blanch and freeze before the leaves go limp.
- Make a double batch of pesto and freeze half in ice-cube trays; it is autumn's most important quarter-hour.
- Coarse autumn stems can turn stringy: pull off the toughest strings as you would on a celery stick.