Going green

No, I am not into environmental politics and I am not feeling seasick, but it just so happens that all my recipes this week are in various shades of green. Having finished with the winter greens – broccoli, cabbage and spinach – it is now the turn of summer greens, with lettuce, fennel, cucumbers, marrows and melons all looking good at the moment.

Everyone must have been told by their mum at some time in their life to “eat your greens, they are good for you”. So they are, but they have other medicinal uses as well. I have a wonderful little book called The Healthy Food Directory which, apart from giving all sorts of nutritional information, gives all sorts of other interesting food facts (or trivia) too.

For example, did you know that lettuce is good for insomnia, agitation and bronchitis? Or that you should not eat asparagus if you suffer from gout? So if you happen to know a gout-stricken, agitated insomniac, tell them to avoid asparagus but eat lots of lettuce.

And did you know that warm bruised cabbage leaves are very good when applied to arthritic joints, sports injuries and sprains. My husband recently injured his shoulder quite badly, but when I offered to wrap it in soggy cabbage leaves, what was his reply? “No thanks, I will stick with the Panadol.” How ungrateful!

Obviously, salads predominate at this time of year, but I have some fairly unusual recipes for starters. The first is a chilled grape, cucumber and asparagus jelly which is particularly nice at the moment, in our 34º/35ºC temperatures.

The second is melon. At one time in England, the only melons generally available were yellow Spanish honeydews the size of rugby balls. It was terribly trendy to sprinkle them with powdered ginger, but I didn’t care for the melon or the ginger. Fortunately, we started importing different varieties from other parts of the world like sweet, juicy ogens from Israel.

Melon with powdered ginger might be very dated, but a carpaccio of melon with a fresh ginger and lime dressing is bang up to date and it makes a cool, light and easy starter. If you swap the dressing for a ginger-infused syrup, you have an equally cool and delicious dessert.

Then there is some zucchini, although they are no longer just a summer vegetable. I like them boiled, I love them sautéed in butter, and I adore them with zalza pikkanti, but the current favourite is to stuff them with rice and spinach.

Fresh spinach has just about finished, so I use a bag of baby imported spinach which you can find in the salad section of most of the larger supermarkets. Failing that, use half a pack of frozen, defrosted spinach, which might not be quite so pretty but is just as tasty.

Salads come in all shapes and sizes from plain green to those that include everything but the kitchen sink, so what you choose depends on what you like. At the moment I have a thing about fennel. Thinly sliced and tossed with crunchy lettuce, spring onions, olives and either fresh or dried ġbejniet in a mayonnaise dressing, it makes a tasty and substantial salad.

So, take my advice and do as your mother told you and eat your greens – they are not only good for you, but delicious as well.