Recipes for home-grown fruit and vegetables

We are buillding up a collection of recipes for you featuring fruit, vegetables and edible flowers that you can grow and harvest in your garden and then create some culinary delights! Fruit and vegetable plants will sometimes have very productive years and produce a 'glut', which although this is is always a good sign it can be a daunting knowing what to do with it all! So why not take some inspiration from the recipes below to give you plenty of ideas of how to use up your fruit and vegetable gluts!

The recipes have either been sent to us by our customers or they are favourites from members of the Thompson & Morgan team.

If you've got a recipe that you would like to share with us all simply send us your recipe along with you name, where you are from and a sentence about why you love it to web@thompson-morgan.com. If you have a picture of yourself and your culinary masterpiece, feel free to send these in too.

Elizabeth McMahon from Ayrshire has sent in this cucumber pickle, which is great for using up a glut of cucumbers. Elizabeth says "It is very easy to make and delicious served with cold chicken any cold meat and salad - any left over juice can be used as a dressing for your salad. Also the cider vinegar is good for arthritic problems."

Click here to view the recipe.

Wendy has kindly sent in this great recipe which is great for making the most of a productive chilli pepper plant. Wendy says "This is a good sauce, tastes just like the sweet chilli sauce you can buy in the shops but without the sometimes chemically taste you can get with it.". Taken from her blog Heaven is Home Grown Veg.

Click here to view the recipe.

If you're growing your own pumpkins this year and want to use them for more than just a spooky decoration for Halloween, this delicious soup is perfect! Rebecca says "This is a really warming soup, perfect for a chilly day. We often use a teaspoon or so of dried, crushed chillies from a jar."

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This creamy soup is perfect for using up a glut of courgettes and a great way to make use of those extra-large courgettes! You can add extra parmesan to the soup when you serve, some fresh chilli and even a swirl of cream depending on your taste.

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This delicious recipe is ideal for plums but can also be used with other fruit such as apricots, peeled apples or peaches. Taken from her book, Minding 'My Peas and Cucumbers: Quirky Tales of Allotment Life', Kay Sexton has kindly donated this yummy recipe which is a great way to use up a glut of plums!

Click here to view the recipe.

Belinda Estell from Southampton has sent in another fabulous recipe. This time she has shown us a great way of using up a glut of tomatoes - even the green ones! You can adjust the amount of chillis you use depending on how spicy you want it to be as well!

Click here to view the recipe.

This delicious, summery salad is really easy to make and will help to use up your home-grown beetroot and carrots if you find you have a glut. Ideal as an accompaniment to a BBQ or simply on its own for a healthy lunch.

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Try Belinda's delicious cocktail inspired by her holiday to Jamaica. "Calypso was my favourite holiday cocktail in Jamaica earlier this year, this is my UK version. I've just had a glut of home grown strawberries so I've made freezer bags full of strawberry cubes to last the summer."

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Wow! A fat free cake. Jacqui says: "Here is my favourite recipe that I bake at least once a week as I just love something sweet at the end of a meal, but being virtually fat free it isn't too naughty! We are lucky enough to have an orchard in Poitou-Charentes, France and we freeze the fruit to use all year round."

Click here to view the recipe.

Another fabulous recipe. Belinda says: "As hubby and I don't like aubergines this is my alternative dish to use my courgettes from the veggie patch, it makes a great pasta sauce or as a tasty accompaniment to sausages and mashed potato. I usually make large batches to freeze, in portions for two."

Click here to view the recipe.

This recipe was sent in by Ken Stockley via our Facebook page. Ken says: "A lovely, creamy soup. All of the veg items came from my garden and only used ONE Apache chilli, but still made my mouth tingle! Don't forget to wash your hands after clearing out the chilli seeds."

Click here to view the recipe.

If you get a glut of plums in your garden this summer, don't let them go to waste! Take a leaf out of Helen's book and make some delicious plum chutney, which can be served with cold meats or cheeses. Helen sent us this recipe via our Facebook page and says that "this ones lovely!"

Click here to view the recipe.

Use up your glut of broad beans to make this fresh, summery salad! Clare says "I have lots of braod beans this year which is great. I always freeze them and they freeze really nicely."

Click here to view the recipe.

If you have lots of juicey blackcurrants in your garden why not try this wonderful recipe for blackcurrant buns. You can always try and make a cake!

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