We’ve had our first harvest from the community garden – a batch of fresh, delicious spinach grown right here on campus!
When the garden officially launches, it will be run by and for our community. All meals made with the produce will be available free of charge to students and staff.
The first batch of spinach made its way into a couple of tasty dishes. Chefs Andre, Jayson and Mark used it to make a spinach, sweet potato dahl in lime tree, enjoyed also by Shaun Thomas, who helped tend the garden and grow the produce.
The rest went into a delicious veggie lasagne, created by Cheryl, who also supported the team to make sure the food wasn’t leaf-al! You’ll find Cheryl’s recipe below in case you’d like to give it a go at home.
Three cheese and spinach lasagne
20 minutes prep time, 30 minutes cooking time
Ingredients
- Bag of spinach (or if you are lucky a bag of free spinach from the community garden)
- Tub of Ricotta cheese
- Salt and Pepper
- Butter or non-dairy alternative
- Box of dried lasagne sheets
- Jar of bought white sauce
- Grated cheese to garnish
Method
- Thoroughly wash the spinach.
- Put washed spinach in a microwavable bowl with salt, pepper and a knob of butter/non-dairy alternative
- Microwave on full heat for 2 mins. You will see the spinach wilt and release all the yummy juices
- Add a tub of Ricotta cheese and grate in some fresh garlic
- Use clean scissors to chop the spinach into bite sized pieces. Filling done!
- Get an oven proof dish and start to layer the spinach filling between lasagne sheets. Do not worry if the mix looks wet. The juices will soak into the dried lasagne sheets.
- For the final layer of lasagne sheets pour over a jar of white / cheese sauce. I opted for a cheese and mushroom sauce for extra flavour.
- Finish with grated cheese, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
Top tips
- Make sure the lasagne sheets cover all of the filling on each layer. The sheets can be cracked to fill in all the gaps. I always put strips around the perimeter of the dish as this holds the filling
- When using any leafy green avoid cutting with a knife and instead rip the leaves apart. This avoids spoilage and prevent cell breakage of the food which retains the nutrients. Great for preventing lettuce from going brown
- Never make and cook a lasagne on the same day. This can result in a really sloppy dish. Prep a day ahead and give all those lovely juices time to soften the dried pasta.
Shelf life
If you are keeping leftovers for another day, cool and keep covered in a fridge for up to 4 days. If freezing, cool, portion and individually wrap and eat within 3 months.
Staff across the department have contributed to this project, and we’re very excited by how the garden is progressing.
Keep a look out for more updates around the official launch of the garden.
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