From Scott Gooding and Matilda Brown, co-owners of the popular Good Farm Shop in Sydney, comes The Good Farm Cookbook. Everyday family recipes for a nourishing hopeful life.
The book starts with their individual food journeys and what led them to open the Good Farm Shop, a ready meals business that prioritizes caring about the environment, human health and animal welfare. They have also written a section on regenerative farming and why it matters, a cause close to their hearts.
Then comes a chapter on how they feed their own family with healthy, nutrient-dense food that is natural and unprocessed. Their meals are built around protein, either meat or plant-based. Then, they build in veggies and other elements. All are gluten-free. The photographs of their happy, healthy family enjoying good food were an incentive to try some of the 80 recipes that are featured straight away!
Every part of the day is covered, including mornings, afternoons, and evenings, as well as chapters on sweets, treats and staples.
Morning:
There are so many great recipes to start the day. I was spoilt for choice and found it hard to choose between the healthy crunchy granola (full of nuts, seeds, spices and shredded coconut) and a hearty Chili Con Carne and Guacamole on Toast. But it was the sweet banana scramble pancake drizzled with honey and served with yoghurt and blueberries that won my heart.
And for a very special occasion breakfast the Creamy Mango-Nut Breakfast Trifle sounds scrumptious!
Afternoons:
We love Caesar salad! In this gluten-free version, croutons are out, and crunchy roasted chickpeas are in! With its creamy avocado dressing, it has already become a family favourite.
In their Naked Cheeseburger, the buns are replaced with lettuce leaves. Deliciousness without the carbs! It’s definitely a keeper!
Evenings:
There are many hearty nourishing meals in this section including Bryan’s Steak and Chips with black olive butter, Slow-cooked lamb shoulder with beer, and a steak and Kidney Pie with Buttery Colcannon which I know the meat eaters in our whanau will love. Their French Restaurant Dinner (Steak au Poivre with Roasted Chat Potatoes and Café de Paris Butter) is a showstopper recipe! I’ll save that for a special occasion.
Lighter plant-based dishes are also featured. One which I enjoyed making was the Warm Cauliflower Salad with Sweet Potato Puree, a warm and comforting meal. It was not in the least bit stodgy and looked so decorative on a large platter.
Sweet treats are just an occasional treat in their family as it is in ours. I think the adults would love the Spicy Apple Crumble with star anise and a topping ‘healthified’ with hemp seeds but do think it would have more adult than kid appeal as star anise is not a spice they are familiar with.
The Vegemite Butter Popcorn is hailed by the authors as:
The ultimate movie night accompaniment, especially for those who like their popcorn to come with a good dose of salty, umami flavour. ‘ If you don’t like it, we can’t be friends’ they say.
In the interest of maintaining our excellent Aussie-Kiwi relationship, we shall try this with open minds.
The Salted Caramel and Honey No-churn Ice Cream was a triumph! It’s free from the additives, preservatives and food colouring that shop-bought ice creams are often laden with. Making caramel can be quite tricky, but they have simplified it.
It is always useful when some staples are included in a cookbook. From the section on these at the end of this book, I chose barbecue sauce. While most shop-bought barbecue sauces should come with a health warning as they’re full of sugar and preservatives, this is a healthier version, so I will happily serve it with summer barbecues.
We love salads so I’m finding lots of uses for their Tangy Lime Dressing too. Although it will keep in the fridge for a month, we had used it up well before that.
All in all, with so many nourishing flavourful recipes that are good for us and for the planet, it’s a great family cookbook!
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Murdoch Books
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