VegBox Recipes

Potatoes

Potatoes come in many shapes and sizes and are usually a standard item in a veg box. We discovered, from the The British Potato Council, that there are thousands of varieties of potato grown around the world, and around 80 varieties are grown here in the UK.

In Season?: Potatoes are a seasonal crop, usually harvested in the UK between May to October. ‘Earlies’ or ‘new potatoes’ are potatoes that were planted in the winter and harvested in Spring or early Summer.

'Maincrop' potatoes are harvested in late Summer or early Autumn and as well as being sold immediately are stored for sale throughout the rest of the year. Most of the potatoes sold in the UK are 'maincrop' potatoes.
Buy?: Look for smooth hard potatoes and don't buy potatoes with sprouts or green patches if you can help it.
Store?: Store your potatoes somewhere cool (not the fridge) and dark in a cloth bag (not plastic).
Freeze?: Par boil for around 5 minutes, drain, cool and freeze. They should keep for about a month.
Cook?: Potatoes are brilliant boiled, baked, roasted, chipped, mashed, sauteed, in stews and curries and cold in salads.

More Potatoes Information

Graham's Rhubarb Pudding
Looking around for different ways to cook rhubarb as we have a lot of rhubarb in the garden,
Ingredients
Method Wash rhubarb, cut into 3cm / 1" lengths and place in a flan dish covering the base. In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the beaten egg. Mix in the flour and milk, lightly beat then spread over the rhubarb. Bake for 40/45 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180C / 350F / Gas4. (Fan assisted 30/35 minutes at 160C).
Cupboard-To-Table

Suggested Potato Recipes

Aubergine & Potato Bake

AUBERGINE & POTATO BAKE, TOPPED WITH CHEESE

Recipe shared by Sybil - a Vegbox Recipes reader.

Tasty and simple dish of aubergine and potatoes, baked with cheese. Serve with salad and crusty bread for a light vegetarian meal, or serve as an accompaniment to meat and fish. This can be refridgerated and reheated the next day.

Autumn Vegetable Soup

This is a great way of using up the end of your veg box. It works well with most vegetables. It's a tasty, but healthy recipe, because you don't even need to use any fat. Just prepare the veggies, chuck them in a pan with the stock and stir occasionally. My kind of after-work cooking!

Baked Autumn Omelette

This baked omelette can be customised using so many different veggies, herbs and spices, and makes a fab lunch on its own, and a hearty dinner served as a side.

Beetroot Soup (Borscht)

This recipe is a great way of using end of season beetroot. It is simple and delicious - just beware its staining potential!
The potatoes are optional and aren't usually included in the traditional Borscht recipe, but they help thicken the soup, which makes it less messy for kids to eat.

Black Nero Cabbage Soup

I must confess I never thought I would fall for "cabbage soup"!

So I was really surprised by how delicious this recipe is. Even my toddler came back for third helpings, which is unheard of...

Note: you can use kale or Savoy cabbage, too.

Burns Night Neeps and Tatties

January 25th is Burns Night - arguably THE night of the year if you're a proud Scot. A celebration of the Scottish national hero and bard from the 18th Century, Robert Burns, there are many dishes traditionally associated with this event.

The main dish, as most of you will know, is Haggis, which was originally sheep's heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, salt, stock, and traditionally boiled for several hours in the animal's stomach.

Now whether you'll be enjoying traditional or vegetarian haggis is another matter, but whether you do or not, you could always join in the food festivities by cooking up the traditional haggis accompaniment: Neeps and Tatties.

Here's a Neeps and Tatties recipe.

Carrot And Celeriac Soup

The sweetness of sauted carrots and onions balance the pungence of the celeriac in this carrot and celeriac soup recipe. The coriander leaves give the finished soup a real lift, turning it into a filling autumn or winter treat.

Celebration New Potato Salad

The new spuds herald an end to peeling and removing of suspect black bits from the old spuds! Here’s a recipe to celebrate their flavour in style!

Chicken Carrot and Pearl Barley Soup

This recipe came to us from our friends at British Carrots to accompany our feature on ethical meat consumption.

They say:

"The next time you’re having a roast chicken, this soup is the ideal thing for the next day. Use the chicken bones to make delicious fresh chicken stock, the last bits of chicken meat and any leftover vegetables like potatoes or peas - all can be stirred in. Pearl barley thickens the soup and makes it really hearty too. It’s a delicious, warming soup for any time of year."

Courgette Soup

What? Courgette soup? Are you sure? Yes! Sceptical at first, but now converted. Amazingly simple and a great way of using and preserving a glut of courgettes.
So whether you've got courgettes in your veg box for the 5th week in a row, or a glut from your allotment's 15 courgette plants, this soup makes a tasty change.

Crushed Potatoes with Tuna and Sweetcorn

This delicious recipe has been provided by the Potato Council.

Potato Council has launched Master Spud – a chance for budding chefs and keen cooks up and down the country to upload their favourite quick, easy and healthy potato recipe to a special new potato website to win the opportunity to star alongside celeb chef and heart throb Jean Christophe Novelli in a national TV advert. Click through to find out more.

Dauphinoise Potatoes by Matt Tebbutt

Matt Tebbutt says "either serve immediately or chill and use to make "Savoyarde" potatoes ... a delicious and quite naughty treat. Don't worry about all the cream and butter, and don't try and reduce the quantities - that would spoil it. Just don't eat it every day!"

Denise Tolson's Smoked Haddock and Early Apples

Apples come into season in the UK in August, and there are varieties in season all the way through till the end of March.

Denise Tolson, VegBox Regular and our "Appointed Apple-Afficionado for August", recommends a savoury recipe using smoked haddock and early season apples.

Dutch Potatoes with Winter Greens

This side dish is absolutely perfect for a cold Winter's night.

Dutch Potatoes with Winter Greens

This is just perfect for a cold night.

Easy Italian Potato & Tomato Soup

This recipe has been provided by the Potato Council.

Perfect for a hot lunch during the colder months, and ideal as a starter for a dinner party.

Fennel And Potato Bake

This fennel bake recipe is great as a side or as a main with a salad. It's a comforting dish for an rainy weather and the combination of flavours helps make the fennel's aniseed more subtle.

French Blue Cheese And Potato Soup

I discovered this potato soup recipe whilst on holiday in the Auvergne region of France. Many of the local dishes are based on potatoes, cream and cheese, and this one is no exception. This version has been adapted to make it slightly less artery-clogging.. But it's so delicious and simple to make that you'll want to enjoy it now and then as a treat.

Garlic Potatoes

This is a deliciously simple recipe that can add variety to plain, boiled potatoes. If you've cooked too many spuds and kept some in the fridge for a day or two, then this recipe can be knocked up with about 5 minutes' preparation. Easy!

Garlic Soup

This is, strictly speaking, a garlic and potato soup, but we call it garlic soup because it has so much garlic in! By roasting the garlic before using, it's much less pungent and has an even more delicious flavour.

Gratin Dauphinois

“Dauphinois” was used to describe this dish designed for the young prince, heir to the throne, in France. It has been cooked for hundreds of years and there are many variations. It is delicious with a green salad for a lighter meal, or a tomato-based dish for a more filling dinner.

Hallowe'en Soup

This recipe for Hallowe'en Soup is on test - but still available for you to try. Why not give it a go?

Healthy Potato Salad

The first new potatoes of the season are such a treat, after the last few months of stored spuds, needing heavy peeling and careful chopping. My traditional potato salad recipe is, unfortunately, laden with mayonnaise... So I decided to design a mayo-free, healthy alternative.

Homemade Chicken Stock

In the spirit of zero waste and do it yourself, and to accompany our feature on ethical meat consumption, here is a basic homemade chicken stock recipe.

Honest to Goodness' Cinnamon Roasted Seasonal Vegetables

This recipe was donated to us by Paul at our 'Scouse Veg' friends, "Honest To Goodness" who contacted us to be added to our free directory of vegbox providers.

We love how simple this is, and we love the cinnamon variation on roasting whatever's in season.

Jerusalem Artichoke & Vegetable Soup

This recipe has been provided by Moelyci. They operate a box scheme in Gwynedd.

Kohl Rabi & Root Veg Curry

This recipe has been most generously shared with us by the wonderful folks over at The Nearly Naked Veg Company. We hope you enjoy it, and that you take a minute to check out their website, which is another great source of tasty seasonal recipes and an online veg and fruit box shop to boot.

Leek And Potato Soup

Leek and potato soup has to be a winter classic. And if you're not too bothered about calories, a splash of cream transforms the flavour.

Left-overs Pot Pie

This recipe was inspired by my dear friend Caroline P, an ex professional chef, who was describing to me her favourite way of using up savoury left-overs.

Do let us know if you try it. And if you want to use the left-overs without having to eat them immediately, these pies freeze really well.

Mixed Veggie Roast

This recipe was sent in to us by Sue C in Fiji, who says:

"A veggie-lover's delight! There are a number of varieties of Sweet Potato - including white, orange and purple."

Monastery Soup

There are many variations on monastery soup but here is one that works well with spring and summertime vegetables.

Pink Mash

This recipe for beetroot pink mash is vibrant, packed with nutrients and really tasty. It's a great way to experiment with fresh beetroot. Why not give it a go? Thanks to Natasha Mangion for sending this in!

Natasha says: "My friend Karen & I went through a stage where we were interested in Chakras and colour therapies and we used to experiment with what we called 'Chakra Cooking'. This recipe is both fun and Very colourful and really gets you in touch with your Base Chakra which is Red.

I just like it because it's an interesting way to liven up mashed potato and it really looks striking!! Nice and bright on those dark winter days!

It's also a great way to get kids to eat veg."

Potato & Garlic Celeriac Mash

Using celeriac with the potatoes makes a nice change from 'just' mashed spud. Celeriac is a useful source of winter vitamins and minerals and the garlic is a known immune system booster. This is a lovely side dish, if you fancy trying something a little different.

Potato Gratin

This recipe is really easy. Just a little pre-cooking of the potatoes, then bung it all in a dish and in the oven for an hour. You're rewarded with a delicious, bubbling mass of creamy potatoes, which are delicious with fresh vegetables or as an accompaniment to a main dish.

Pumpkin / Squash and Carrot Soup

This delicious squash soup is vibrant orange and warms up any autumn or winter's day. It works equally well with pumpkin or an orange-fleshed squash and is really easy to make - as well as tasty.

Pumpkin Or Butternut Squash Soup

This is a great autumn lunchtime soup. We end up making it on Saturday lunchtimes, usually when it's raining! It really is as simple as chop the veggies, cook them in the butter, add the stock and then leave it.

Roast Potatoes

Roast potatoes are one of those dishes that everyone assumes you can cook. But they can be quite tricky to get right. Just follow the "tricks" in this recipe and you're guaranteed to get everyone coming back for seconds!

Root Veg And Bean Stew

This ragout (stew) is great because, after the initial cooking, you just bung it in the oven and get on with something else.

Although the recipe suggests using parsnip and kohlrabi, you can use it to finish off almost any leftover vegetables at the end of the week.

It's great with jacket spuds or brown rice.

Root Vegetable 'Crumble' with Cheesy Topping

This is a delicious recipe for baby or Chantenay carrots and other roots veggies. The secret ingredient gives it a warming kick. Make the most of your turnips, swedes, parsnips and sweet potatoes. You can also use celeriac or kohlrabi.

Salmon & Cream Cheese Mash

This recipe has been provided by the Potato Council and promises to add a little sparkle to your mash!

Slightly Healthier Roast Potatoes

Roast potatoes don't have to be off the menu, just because you're eating healthily. Here's a recipe with 100% of the taste of roasties, but only 1/3 of the fat.

Spicy Cabbage Soup

You can use any type of cabbage for this recipe, so it’s a great way of using up leftovers. Spices are a good way of boosting your metabolic rate, which can get sluggish in winter, so this soup should leave you feeling full of energy.

Spicy Cabbage Soup

Spinach And Potato Curry

If you've got some spare spinach and fancy a filling evening meal, this one is easy to make. It's similar to the Indian Sag Aloo. It also works well with Swiss chard, instead of spinach.

Spinach and Potato Pie

This recipe has been most generously contributed by Karen Close of the wonderful Avid Organics. Avid serves South and West Yorkshire with tasty fruits, vegetables, bread, eggs, cheese, organic whole foods, earth friendly cleaning products and organic beer and wine. Golly. Amazing you had time to rustle up this recipe for us, Karen! Thank you.

Spinach Gnocchi

Adding winter spinach to gnocchi gives them a wonderful flavour, as well as boosting their vitamin content. Sometimes winter spinach can seem a bit tough, but using it in this variation on the Italian classic makes the most of the earthy-flavour of this leaf.

Stefan's Swede Cakes

Thanks so much to Stefan D for inventing this recipe and sharing it with us. We're inclined to agree with him when he says that he now prefers swede-based cakes to the more traditional potato variety!

Swede, Carrot And Potato Mash

I've never been a huge fan of swede (rutabaga), but this swede mash recipe actually had us all coming back for more. It's sweet, deliciously creamy and the pepper gives it a real kick. We're all looking forward to the arrival of our next swede!

Thai Style Squash Curry

This curry is easy to make and pretty quick. Just make the paste, chop the veggies and cook it all in a wok (or large frying pan) with the coconut milk. Works well with pumpkin, too.

Three Bean Summer Soup

This is a delicious summer soup. Lighter than those of winter, it makes the most of the new season’s vegetables, whilst still filling you up and being wonderfully warming. You can use haricot beans or butter beans for this recipe, depending which you prefer. The main thing is to stick to what’s in season with the vegetables. That way they’ll be packed with flavour – and good for you too!

Vegetable Tagine

This recipe has been kindly donated by The British Potato Council. It's so simple yet good enough to serve at a dinner party. Depending on the time of year you make it, you may have to do without the red pepper.

Vegetarian Moussaka

TRADITIONAL GREEK DISH TOPPED WITH AUBERGINE AND POTATOES

This classic Greek dish of subtly spiced mince and tomatoes, topped with potatoes, aubergine and cheese, is easily transformed into a vegetarian dish. Simply replace the mince with a vegetarian alternative such as Quorn, or lentils.

Vegetarians will rave about it, and meat-eaters looking for a healthy alternative will love it!

Our easy to follow recipe is for an 8” x 10” dish that will provide 6 portions. This dish will taste just as good the next day, so it’s ideal for preparing in advance and refridgerating, or for saving leftovers.

Serve with salad or fresh vegetables.

Warm Beetroot, Broad Bean and Potato Salad

This recipe was submitted by Karen L, who says:

"I looked in my fridge and had a lot of the above and didn't know what to do with it all. I'm sorry I don't measure the ingredients I just bung it all together and its what I have to hand, however the result is a very tasty mess! I used to hate broad beans, having been forced to eat them as a child, but i find if they are skinned they are actually quote tasty. Its nice to eat a meal were all the ingredients were grown on my allotment."

You put us to shame, Karen - this is a wonderful creation and all the more exciting given that you grew all the ingredients!

Watercress Soup

Although thought of as a summer leaf, farmed watercress is often available from UK growers in winter, too. It's packed with vitamins and its bright green colour can brighten up a cloudy winter's day. Or enjoy for a springtime lunch.

Winter Vegetable Soup

This soup is a family favourite. It’s a great way of using left-over winter vegetables and also sneaking a few more vitamins past the kids.

Got one? Send us your recipe!

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