Carrots, Thyme, Pineapple Sage and Thai Basil. These lovelies have been growing in my garden so time to put them to use in my kitchen! So here are four garden inspired recipes.

Marvellous Maple Carrots

There were a few carrots left in my garden. I decided to make one of the kids’ favourite carrot dishes – Marvellous Maple Carrots

This time I remembered to measure what I used. Normally I’m a ‘measure by eye’ person with anything that isn’t a cake.

This recipe includes 25g butter (melted), 2 tbs olive oil, 1 generous tablespoon maple syrup, and a sprinkle of salt. Combine these ingredients in a bowl, drizzle over your carrots on a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for approximately 30mins at 180 degrees. Remove the foil and bake until golden (about another 10mins).

There is always some of that yummy sauce at the bottom of the dish. When I make these carrots I take the opportunity of a hot oven to roast more veggies. Roasted sweet potatoes are a favourite of mine. The sweet potato is perfect dunked into that delicious sauce. Yum-Yum!

Note: If you would like sweeter carrots you can add more maple syrup. But I have noticed if you add more than a third ratio of maple syrup to your sauce mixture, you may find that the sauce caramelises and will burn when left in the oven for too long.

Lemon Thyme Steak Marinade

I love this simple recipe from the Nigella Express cookbook. I don’t always follow her measurements, as I sometimes will put in extra garlic or lemon juice depending on what flavour mood I’m in!

To create this marinade, you will need a shallow dish. Add in 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 80mls of olive oil, zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt and pepper.

Cook a piece of rump steak (about 600g) to your liking. Medium-rare is how we do ours. After you cook the steak, put it in the shallow dish to marinate for a few minutes on each side. Then take the steak out, slice it thinly and put back in the dish to continue marinating. Put the dish on the table and dig in… it is soooo good! Be sure to dunk some bread in that marinade – it’s super tasty.

This is a great recipe when you have a few people to feed. My family will have it for dinner and have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Pineapple Sage Tea

I have always wanted to use pineapple sage leaves in my kitchen. I’d look at the bush and admire the leaves and flowers. I would just pick some leaves and enjoy that pineapple-y smell. That smell is the reason why I planted Pineapple Sage in my garden in the first place.

The bush is getting leggy now and needs a trim, but I was still able to pick some leaves to make tea. I had hopes to make a pineapple sage butter sauce, but I will save that for next time.

This tea recipe is so simple. Pick a small bunch of leaves, put them in a teapot, pour in boiling water and steep for 10 mins.

I wish I had made this brew sooner. I loved this tea! The tea had a light refreshing taste. I think I will try to dry some of the leaves out and store them in a jar for future tea purposes.

Note: This tea had a light refreshing taste when steeped for 10 mins. There was a bit left in the teapot and an hour later, I decided to finish it off… it was too strong!

Thai Basil Beef

How could I not make my favourite stir fry when there is loads of Thai Basil in the garden?

Now over to you: What garden goodies have you been using in your kitchen? We would love to hear it! Please share in the comments below.

Want more Pineapple Sage recipes? Check out this interesting article from Backyard Patch Herbal Blog.  The Pineapple Sage and Ginger Chicken caught my eye!