For the past couple of years I’ve had a bit of a vegie garden – mostly in pots.
I’ve had mixed success. Cherry tomatoes, beans, and pumpkins have been prolific and seem to just love our Redlands climate, although I’ve never had any luck with zucchini, and my radishes refuse to “bulb”!
But the one thing that is constant is my two pots of shallots. Just call me the “Lady of Shallots” (with apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson for stealing the name of his poem)!
I cut the leafy tops off to use in my cooking at least once a week (some people call them spring onions or scallions. Whatever. I call them shallots).
Shallots are great in stir fries and cheese balls, as a garnish on potato bake, omelettes, my awesomely yummy brown rice salad (if you’re really lucky I’ll share the recipe with you in an upcoming post! It’s a hit wherever I take it and I always get asked for the recipe), in fact as a garnish on just about any salad or savoury dish. Shallots can be used in any dish which requires a milder onion flavour.
I must have saved a fortune over the past two years. Imagine, if I bought a bunch of shallots at the supermarket every couple of weeks for a couple of dollars each time.
Instead, from an initial outlay of a couple of dollars for the seedlings, I have shallots anytime I want them – and the pleasure of knowing they are home grown and garden fresh! And we all know that fresh means more vitamins and other goodies – the leaves of shallots boast vitamins A & C, fibre and folic acid, to name but a few.
Have I convinced you to grow your own shallots yet? Do you grow any herbs or vegies?