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I heard that watermelon rind is edible and that it makes nice jam or chutney so I wanted to give it a try. I celebrated our first watermelon of the season by saving the rind until the melon was all gone and then having a go at chutney. Here is the recipe I came up with. The rind has a mild, but pleasant flavour which I combined with some apple and red onion for a chutney. I did have to blend it a little, which I don't generally do with jams or chutneys as the rind didn't break down much even after considerable simmering. It just stayed in the little cubes I had cut, so blitzing it briefly gave the chutney a more even consistency. Ingredients: Rind of 1 small watermelon, diced 3 red onion, diced 1 apple, diced 3/4 c herb vinegar 1 tsp salt 3/4 c sugar 1 red chilli, diced 2 tsp (or more) red chili flakes - I used pul biber 1) Place watermelon rind in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until almost tender. Add other ingredients and cook for a further 30 minutes or so. 2) Blitz briefly until chunky-smooth (chutney consistency) and taste test. Place in hot, sterile jars while chutney is still hot and seal, allowing to cool. I am really pleased with how this came out. I wasn't sure what to expect nor really what direction to go with it, so proceeded by taste testing and adjusting. The apple went in both for taste and to add pectin to help it all come together. We've tried it with crackers and cheese and a couple of sun dried tomatoes and it held up well! With the next watermelon, I think I am going to try watermelon jam....

A friend sent me a recipe from another blog, agoodcarrot.com, for Turkish rice. The recipe looked good and it occurred to me that I hadn't made any stuffed grape leaves in a while, and that I had the necessary ingredients on hand. Tomorrow's lunch planned! Massive caveat to doing this in the late morning with a teething 1 year old: it takes a while to fold grape leaves! The rice, slightly modified to suit my pantry and tastes, took no time to cook what so ever, but then folding was another story. Moral of this: plan a little further ahead and give yourself more time than I did! They were tasty enough to make up for the delay in lunch though, so no worries. Ingredients: for the rice: 1 onion, chopped 1/2 c raisins, chopped 2 1/2 tbsp dried mint, crushed 3 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c walnuts, chopped 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp allspice 2 c rice 3 c water salt and pepper to taste 1 packet grape leaves, washed 1 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 egg, beaten 1) Heat oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions until they are translucent. Add the nuts and toast lightly. Add the raisins, spices and rice and cook for a further couple of minutes on medium heat, until the rice becomes translucent. 2) Add the mint and water and stir, and bring to the boil. At this point, put a tight lid on the pot and then you can either do what I did and put it in a Wonderbag slow cooker, or you can lower the heat and cook until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). 3) Cool the rice! Then fold into the grape leaves: cut the stem off a leaf and place it stem-stump down on your palm. Place a small amount of rice filling (approx. 2 tsp) in the centre and fold in the sides then roll it up to the top. Place seam side down in a heavy bottomed pot. Use torn or small leaves to line the pot. 4) Pour 1 1/2 c water and 1 tbsp olive oil over the top and place a plate on the stuffed bundles to keep them from floating. Heat the pot over medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes. 5) Beat the egg and lemon juice together and pour evenly over the stuffed leaves and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. 6) Serve! These were really tasty! I highly recommend them, provided you have enough time. The rice is very tasty on its own too, so if you don't have time to fold them, just serve it as a side for something else. With some of the left over rice, I made rice balls stuffed with orange peel and raisins with cloves and fenugreek, a couple of days later and served them with a very simple minty tzatziki and lentil sliders.

As mentioned in Day 46 of The Challenge Soup season continues! (Does it ever really stop?) A friend recently gave us quite a large bag full of sage, so needs must... This was a first try at this soup, but it will be sticking around now. Very tasty, quick to pull together and a good twist on the various other carrot-based soups we make. Many thanks to my hubby for putting it together! Ingredients: 1 kg carrots, chopped 2 onions, chopped 4 potatoes, chopped 1 l of veggie stock 1/2 c dried sage 2 tsp honey 1/2 tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a soup pot and sauté onions. Add carrots and potatoes and allow to char briefly on the bottom of the pan. 2) Add stock and sage and bring to a simmer. Add honey and cook for about a half hour. 3) Blitz til smooth, taste test and serve. This has got to be one of the simplest of soups, but it was warming and satisfying on a cold October lunch. We had it with crusty bread, local cheese and home made Green Tomato Chutney.

As mentioned in Day 41 of The Challenge Vegetables stewed with prunes and warm (rather than hot) spices served over couscous. What better for a rainy autumn afternoon? Especially not knowing how well the friend coming to lunch tolerates spice... Ingredients: 3 red onions, chopped 2 tomatoes , diced 3 carrots, chopped Half a head of garlic, sliced 6 celery sticks, chopped 400g chickpeas 400ml vegetable broth 1/2 c tomato passata 100 g prunes, pitted and chopped (or apricots could work) 1 cinnamon stick 1/2 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp tandoori powder (I like the light heat and the warmth of this spice, but you can use paprika if you'd rather) 1 tsp of Aloha Spiced Cacao (or cocoa powder) 3 tsp urfa biber or chilli flakes Salt and pepper to taste 1) Put a heavy oven proof dish in the oven without its lid, and heat to 180°C. 2) Chop your veg and add to the preheated dish. Add spices and stock, replace in the oven and allow to cook 1 - 1 1/4 hours until vegetables are almost tender (I like the carrots and celery to have a little bite left) and flavours have blended. Taste test and serve over couscous. Super simple, tasty and easily adapted to different veg, chicken or different levels of spice. It diffuses a lovely smell through the house, and on a cold afternoon warms you from the inside.

As mentioned in Day 38 of The Challenge This can be vegetarian, as this was, or with ham and bacon, but either way it's tasty and satisfying, while also being easy and quick to assemble. Ingredients: 2 c peas 1 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 4 potatoes, chopped 2 carrots chopped. 2 tbsp lemon Salt and pepper to taste 1) Sauté onions in oil in a saucepan. Add potatoes and carrots and sauté for a minute longer, then add the peas and enough water to cover the veg. 2) Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Blitz to desired smoothness. 3) Serve into bowls and drizzle the lemon juice over the top and season as desired. Simple and satisfying especially served with crusty bread and some cheese.

For my friend, HibiscucKook's recipe for vegan pancakes on her blog, click here.

As mentioned in Day 80 of The Challenge Quinces are something that (aside from being seasonal! I know! So many seasonal fruits and vegetables in the autumn!) I had only really encountered in jelly or in preserves until recently. And then a couple of years ago a colleague came to work with a bucket of quinces from her garden for anyone to help themselves, and so I started playing around with them. They are like fuzzy green stones, pear-shaped wannabes when they are raw. They need a bit of cooking, usually boiling (I tried roasting one and it sort of worked) to make them edible. This is the first (or one of the first) savoury things I tried with them. As with so many other recipes, it is one I had seen the title of but then lost the recipe link before reading it, so I made it up. Ingredients: 2 onions, chopped 1 tbsp olive oil 600g of carrots, chopped 1 large quince, chopped 1 tbsp honey 2 tsp sumac 1 tsp garam masala 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves Salt and pepper to taste Herbs de Provence 1) In a soup pot, sauté onions in the olive oil until translucent. Add carrots and quince and enough water to cover it all. Add spices and honey. Simmer for 45 min or until carrots and quince are tender. 2) Blitz until smooth (or almost. Quince won't go silky smooth like some other vegetables). Taste test and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with garlic and thyme croutons. This was very tasty but my husband said he found it too earthy and sweet. Adding the herbs at the end brightened it all up though and brought the flavours into alignment. Some lemon juice might also work. Let me know what you think!

My second foray into using watermelon rind as an ingredient went well. I really enjoyed trying Watermelon Rind Chutney, so decided to see how it would work as a jam. The rind does have a mild flavour, but a little bit of spicing and it worked out nicely. As with the chutney I did have to partially blitz the jam as the chunks of rind did not disintegrate at all with the cooking. The watermelon rind also appears not to have any pectin so I added some home-made apple pectin to help it firm up. All in all it worked out very nicely and I am very happy with it. Ingredients: Rind of 1 medium watermelon, diced 1 1/2 c sugar 2 c apple pectin 1/2 tsp cloves 1) Place the watermelon rind pieces in a pot and cover with water. Place over medium-low heat and simmer for about an hour until the pieces of watermelon rind are tender. 2) Add other ingredients and stir. Using a hand blender, partially blitz the jam mixture to desired consistency. Taste test and cook down until thick. 3) Boil clean jars and lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill with jam while the jam is still bubbling, wipe the neck of the jar clean and seal. Place upside down to cool, sealing in the process. I am very happy with this jam, tried out on fresh home made English Muffins. The cloves added a much needed depth of flavour to the jam, and the flavour of the watermelon rind itself came through nicely. So happy to have more jam for my cupboard!

I am not vegetarian, gluten-free or vegan (a glance at my other recipes should confirm that for anyone I did use some sausage in this but it can easily be skipped to make the recipe vegetarian or vegan.

As mentioned in Day 54 of The Challenge I planted a bunch of tomatoes this year by putting sliced tomato under a thin layer of earth. I ended up with 19 tomato plants on my little balcony. Because of how late they sprouted, we only had a few ripe tomatoes from them. The rest were growing nicely but didn't get the chance to ripen. With the first frost predicted, we harvested them and my dad's remaining green tomatoes and turned them into chutney to avoid having them go to waste. I had never tried this before but was quite pleased with how it came out! Ingredients: 2.5 - 3 kg of unripe tomatoes 3 cooking apples, cored and chopped 3 onions, chopped 1 1/2 c raisins 1 c red wine vinegar 1 1/2 c white cooking wine 1 1/2 - 2 c brown sugar 2 tsp ground ginger 2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tbsp chilli flakes ( I used pul biber, Turkish red chilies) 1) Stew the tomatoes, apples and onions in a little water until they disintegrate. Add raisins, sugar and vinegar, then the spices and cook over a low heat. Place a saucer in the freezer. 2) Stir occasionally to prevent the chutney from sticking. As it thickens you'll need to stir more consistently. Taste test to check for sugar and spicing, and feel free to tweak to your taste! 3) Drop some of the hot chutney on the saucer from the freezer. If after a minute if starts to solidify and the top wrinkles and pulls tight, it should gel nicely once cool. If not, then boil it a bit longer or add sugar (or both). 4) To sterilize jars: boil clean jars and their lids for at least 15 minutes. Fill them with the boiling chutney immediately on removing them from the boiling water (canning tongs make this so much easier and makes it less likely that you'll burn yourself, but you can do it with a spoon or a spatula and a dish cloth). Fill to just below the rim, wipe the grooves clean and screw the lid on tight. As the jars and contents cool, the centre of the lid should be sucked down and the jars will be sealed properly. Place the jars upside down on a clean cloth. Label when cool. (The part about putting them upside down is from my German Oma, I don't know what's behind it but it works.) This chutney was a little on the sweet side, which I hadn't expected. There was a slight bitterness to the after taste when it was hot that I tried to compensate for. It is not overly sweet and still has the sour, spiced chutney notes, no more bitterness. It is very tasty, especially with the baked pancakes! I highly recommend this if you have green tomatoes you don't want to spoil!