Cooking from the garden: a Christmas lunch for less than $10 per head

Posted on December 23, 2013

Earlier this week I invited my team from work home for a Christmas lunch. As it is every year, cooking produce from the garden was the focus for the meal.

In total, I did a three course lunch as follows:

Starter:

• home-baked focaccia
• home-made hummus dip
• home-made baked beetroot dip

Main course:

• slow roasted shoulder of pork
• parsnip and green beans, pan-fried with honey
• baked potatoes
• carrots with vinegar and sesame seeds
• beetroot salad with feta and walnuts
• home-made apple chutney
• tomato and tamarind chutney

Dessert:

• eton mess, with home-baked meringue and mulberries

Other than what we already had in my pantry, these were the only items I had to buy:

• 5kg of pork ($10/kg from my local meat wholesaler)
• a 2kg bag of potatoes
• a tub of greek yoghurt
• two tubs of cream
• a block of feta

That’s it! All up, it worked out to be less than $10/head, which I think is pretty good going 🙂

It definitely proves the value of growing what you eat, with the freshness of the ingredients a big extra benefit.

PS. sorry no photos — too busy cooking all day!