How to make the most of summer fruits and vegetables

Are your tomatoes looking a little sad? Are your eggplants a bit exhausted? Here's how to save them, according to Alex Elliott-Howery, owner of Cornersmith.

This oven-baked ratatouille for wrinkly summer vegetables is a great way to use up tomatoes, zucchinis, and capsicums that have seen better days. Source: Cath Muscat

Things have changed a lot since Cornersmith-owner Alex Elliott-Howery began her sustainable food journey in the early 2000s. 

"Back then, I thought you had to make everything from scratch, and I thought you had to make big batches of everything and spend the entire weekend bottling tomatoes," she says.

But in her latest book, The Food Saver's A-Z: The Essential Cornersmith Kitchen Companion, written with Jaimee Edwards, Elliott-Howery argues that small acts of preservation can go a long way.

"If you've got two oranges that have really seen better days, you can quite quickly make one jar of marmalade. That doesn't have to be overwhelming, and you don't have to have mad skills to do that." In fact, she says it's easy. 

"And then you've got marmalade for two weeks. So you've saved a couple of oranges, you've also saved yourself some money."

Making marmalade is a great way to preserve the bounty of colder months. Source: Getty Images / Tim Platt

Here are some of Elliott-Howery's tips on how to make the most of your fruits and vegetables.

Countertop or fridge: why not both?

"It's best to store tomatoes, or any fruits really, on the countertop until they're perfectly ripe, because that's how they're going to get their flavour. But then once they're ripe, they need to go in the fridge.  

If you put them straight into the fridge when they're firm, they're not going to ripen and get the flavour in the same way.

If you've got two oranges that have really seen better days, you can quite quickly make one jar of marmalade.

Vegetables like capsicums and zucchinis and eggplants don't like to be too contained; they need a little bit of air. Put them in a loose, reusable plastic bag when they go in the fridge or in a beeswax wrap.

Know when to eat what you buy

It's really important to remember that a lot of produce doesn't last. People do this big once-a-week shop and then expect food to last, but it doesn't always. So if you're buying raspberries and pineapple at the same time, eat the raspberries first. If you're buying zucchini and potatoes, obviously eat the zucchini before the potatoes, because they just last longer. 

What to make with tired-looking produce

Slow cooking is often a really good way to hide imperfections. That's why dishes like ratatouille exist. This dish utilises an abundance of summer vegetables. It doesn't matter if your eggplant, zucchinis and tomatoes look crappy because this melts away with long, slow cooking. No one knows what the vegetables looked like beforehand. Everything becomes delicious.

Slow cooking is often a really good way to hide imperfections.

It's also great to braise wrinkly veggies. Blitzing them works a treat too.

If you've got herbs that are really tired looking, blitz them into a green sauce and no one will know what they were once like.

Festive season food-saving tips

My biggest tip for people to save food and money during the festive season is to buy less food. Just having food "because" is not a sound approach. Think about what your household eats or who's coming to the party. That way, you can be strategic so you don't end up with four potato salads. 

I love traditions, but I feel like some people get stuck in them and maybe it's time to pull themselves out. For example, if you buy a big tray of mangoes every year but you don't eat them, maybe rethink this.

Cook less as well, and have a plan for leftovers. If you have a dinner party, prepare yourself with containers so that everyone can take food home.

Make smaller salads than you usually would, because salads don't last well in the way that ham does. Oh, and dress the salad at the table so it stays fresh for longer." 

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Ratatouille for wrinkly summer vegetables

When the garden or fridge is full of ageing summer vegetables, make ratatouille. This oven-baked version chars the vegetables first to intensify their flavour. The high heat will hide all the vegetables' imperfections. Serve ratatouille with eggs, stirred through pasta, with sausages, on toast or with grilled fish.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 kg roughly chopped summer vegetables (for example, a mix of zucchini, eggplant, capsicum and red or brown onions)
• ¼ cup olive oil for roasting vegetables (plus 2 tbsp for step 3 of the method) 
  
• 4 large tomatoes
• 2 tsp crushed coriander seeds or crushed fennel seeds
• ½ tsp salt
• Ground black pepper 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a roasting tin, place 1 kg roughly chopped vegetables and drizzle ¼ cup olive oil over everything. Sprinkle with salt then roast for 30–40 minutes or until soft and the edges start to char.
2. Meanwhile, lightly oil 4 large tomatoes and place in a separate roasting tin. Put in the oven and blacken for about 30 minutes. Once they're jumping out of their skins, remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.
3. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C. Roughly chop the tomatoes and remove any big bits of tough skin or core. Add this to the charred vegetables with 2 tsp crushed coriander seeds or crushed fennel seeds, salt, lots of ground black pepper and the 2 tbsp of olive oil. 
4. Mix everything together and return to the oven for 15–30 minutes, depending on how tender you like your ratatouille.
5. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
6. Serve hot or cold.

Images and text from The Food Saver's A-Z by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards. Photography by Cath Muscat. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99.

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