Homegrown Gourmet
Garden Day is all about honouring our green spaces, and what better way to celebrate your garden than with a garden-inspired recipe that puts your herbs, fruit or veggies to work with a garden-inspired feast to remember on Sunday, 17 October.
To help you celebrate, Garden Day has enlisted a crew of enthusiastic amateur and professional gardeners including award-winning chef and home gardener, Mogau Seshoene – better known to her 510,000 Instagram followers as The Lazy Makoti.
According to Mogau, using fresh produce from her garden makes for better, more delicious and healthier meals. She particularly enjoys growing herbs such as sage, mint, thyme, coriander and rocket, which she uses in her cooking. Her choice of what to grow is greatly influenced by her sister Mosa, who is a third-generation farmer. Mosa advises Mogau on what would grow best in the different seasons.
Mogau, who is looking forward to sharing the day with her family, creates imaginative indigenous dishes – often with a modern twist.“I’ll be pulling out all the stops for a family celebration on Garden Day,” she tells us. “We’ll be wearing home-made flower crowns and I will prepare a herb rainbow couscous salad, using fresh ingredients from the garden for everyone to enjoy as we toast this special day.” Mogau’s herb rainbow couscous salad is one of her latest recipes from her second cookbook - “Hosting With The Lazy Makoti”- so gather your ingredients, dig in with your family and friends this Garden Day and don’t forget to tag #GardenDaySA and show us what you’re serving up.
Sorghum rainbow salad
Sorghum is a proudly South African ingredient that’s loved by many. Most of us have had it in ting and mqombhothi, but you might not know that, much like couscous, you can include it in salads as well. Try this.
Prep time: 15 minutes plus overnight
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 cup (250 ml) sorghum, soaked overnight, then drained
3 cups (750 ml) water
1 cup (250 ml) cherry
tomatoes
1 feta round, crumbled
1 red onion, finely chopped
½ cucumber, chopped
1 cup (250 ml) finely
chopped herbs (parsley, chives, dill)
salt and pepper to taste
In a medium pot, cook the sorghum in the water until soft, about 40 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.
Place the sorghum in a large bowl, along with the tomatoes, feta, onion, cucumber and herbs.
Season well and toss to combine.
If you’re not sure which herbs or plants from your garden can be used in the creation of your dishes this Garden Day, you can join and ask the free Candide app garden community. Candide features an extensive knowledge base of plants, plant identification, growing tips and even additional garden-inspired recipe ideas.
Follow @GardenDaySA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and don’t forget to tag us and use #GardenDaySA when you dig in for your Garden Day celebration.
