🥒 Cucumber Ribbons

stir fry ingredients: green beans, cabbage, red peppers med veg ingredients: butternut creamed spinach: spinach mashed pumpkin: pumpkin or butternut pre-cooked baby beetroot tender stem broccoli WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN WE TALK ABOUT RIPE PRODUCE Tomatoes: the first way to tell if your tomato is ripe is to check if the skin has turned from a dull, matte surface to one that is glossy and slightly shiny. Next, check the color, which should be fairly deep red. Your ripe tomato will give slightly to the touch. It shouldn’t be soft but rather a little tender, tomatoes ripen from the inside out. Tomatoes that are not ripe will feel hard to the touch. A ripe tomato gives off a lovely fragrance as well. If you receive under ripe tomatoes they should be stored in the dry store in a crate to ripen before using. You would need a rotation system to facilitate this. Best practise would be to ask your green grocer to keep tomatoes and ripen them on your behalf. Cucumbers: The best cucumbers are hard and dark green , a soft cucumber is old and not suitable for our kitchens. Carrots: Ripe carrots should possess a tender texture that is firm and tender, not soft, limp or chewy . Fresh carrots have a distinct orange colour and when wet the colour is shiny. Old carrots are dull and when wet remain grey and dull. Zucchini: Ripe zucchini is dark green in colour, without blemishes. The zucchini is firm and when cut open a buttery texture. Old zucchini becomes lighter in colour, is limp and spongy when cut open. A fairly good size for use in our kitchens is around 10 cm or more, tiny zucchini is not an option. Green Peppers: A unripe red pepper is a green pepper, a fresh pepper is firm to the touch , crunchy when cut and not soft and limp. Peppers can also turn soft and slimy if not stored correctly. Green Chillies: All Green chillies grow from green, the colour matures into dark green, red or yellow when they are ripe. mint onions brown onions red spring onions tomatoes rocket: arugula & mint as herbs