I OWN MORE cookbooks than is sensible, and though I can sometimes be accused of being a little slow on the uptake, I’ve spotted a trend in them of late. Yes, my fellow laggards, I bring you astonishing news: to an increasingly large number of our fellow citizens, carbs are bad.

But fear not – if you’re finding the idea of going gluten-free a bitter pill to swallow, there are a slew of gorgeous food writers to help you on the journey. The message is clear – buy their cookbook, cut the gluten and you too could look like them.

Yeah, so you might have guessed – I don’t buy in to the whole “carbs are bad” thing. I think it’s a dangerous generalisation that lumps heavily refined, low nutrient carbs like white bread in with nutrient-rich, unprocessed, vitamin-replete carbs like potatoes.

It’s a blunt instrument that fails to differentiate between the joys of a good quality sourdough bread and a processed sliced pan that takes a month to go off. It’s undeniably true to say that our diets contain too much wheat and we should eat more wholefoods, but we should also mistrust any diet that relegates an entire food group to pariah status.

Making fruit and veg more interesting

That said, there’s plenty to like in new books from the likes of Lily Simpson, Ella Woodward and the Hemsley sisters Melissa & Jasmine, particularly if you’re a fan of putting veg centre stage and want to eat less refined foods.

So instead of spaghetti with your bolognese why not try courgetti (spiralised courgettes) instead? Or swap out noodles for spiralised cucumbers, or even (whisper it) blitz a head of cauliflower to use instead of rice.

Shutterstock / koss13 Shutterstock / koss13 / koss13

Yep, it’s time to add one more piece of kitchen equipment to your arsenal – a spiraliser. It’s a nifty and relatively inexpensive little machine that turns fruit and vegetables in to noodle/pasta shaped lengths.

Mrs Kelly and I have recently taken delivery of a spiraliser but not because we feel particularly guilty about eating pasta, or because we’ve gone gluten free (we haven’t). Instead, it’s because the spiraliser is a brilliant way to eat veg raw, make it look prettier or just a little more interesting.

It also helps us make light work of two of the most glut-prone vegetables that can be a struggle to keep up with at this time of the year – courgettes and cucumbers.

We’ve tried all the recipes you could imagine to deal with courgettes – throwing them in to stews, soups, breads, cakes and more – hell even throwing them at the neighbours. None of these are as quick or delicious as converting them in to courgetti.

If you have trouble getting your kids to eat vegetables, they might well be more inclined to eat them if they’ve been involved in the fun of spiralising them.

Incidentally, I don’t think one would ever necessarily confuse courgetti with actual spaghetti but that’s hardly the point. It’s delicious in its own right.

Things to do this week – pepper plants

Shutterstock / Denis and Yulia Pogostins Shutterstock / Denis and Yulia Pogostins / Denis and Yulia Pogostins

Pepper plants may need support if they are becoming top heavy – either support the whole plant with bamboo canes or support individual fruit-bearing branches. Water heavily once fruit sets and mulch plants to conserve moisture.

Feed every 10 days with tomato or comfrey feed if fruit development is poor but not otherwise. Pick fruit young to encourage cropping.

Peppers will go from green to red eventually as part of the natural ripening process, but you have a balancing act to do: do you want lots of green peppers or a small number of red ones – the plant probably wont have energy to do both.

If there is still unripe fruit at end of season lift the plants whole and hang upside down in greenhouse or porch – they will continue to ripen this way (this works for tom plants too).

Recipe of the week – panzanella

Shutterstock / Brent Hofacker Shutterstock / Brent Hofacker / Brent Hofacker

This is my version of the classic Italian peasant’s lunch of stale bread and tomatoes. Though purists might sniff at the presence of courgettes, I think it works well if sliced very finely.

Because the tomato crop is slow this year, I used 300ml of passata to soak the bread instead of fresh tomatoes, but if you have a glut of tomatoes you could of course use them instead (rubbed through a sieve). All in all, it’s not too shabby being a peasant.

Ingredients:

• 300ml organic passata
• 300g slightly stale sourdough bread
• Small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped
• Small yellow courgette, thinly sliced
• Small red onion, halfed and thinly sliced
• 200g red or green pepper, de-seeded and sliced
• 20 black olives
• Handful basil leaves, chopped roughly
• 10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• Four tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbs capers

Directions:

Tear the bread in to large chunks and put it in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix the passata, olive oil, vinegar and season well. Add it to the bread bowl, stirring well to mix it all together.

Add the olives, capers, courgette, cucumber, onion, tomatoes and basil.

Toss it all together again. Leave it to stand for half an hour to let all the flavours mingle.

Tip of the week – shelling peas

Shutterstock / Edward Fielding Shutterstock / Edward Fielding / Edward Fielding

I wrote here some weeks back about how time-consuming shelling peas can be, and how the Kelly family had spent up to four hour shelling peas one night to yield just 2kg of peas.

A great friend of GIY, Joy Larkcom, got in touch with the following great tip: “Try steaming for a few minutes (or just putting in boiling water for a minute or two) then running under cold water so you can handle them. It loosens the pods and makes shelling FAR easier.”

Michael Kelly is a freelance journalist, author of GROW COOK EAT and founder of Grow It Yourself (GIY).

GIY’s vision is for a healthier, more connected and more sustainable world where people grow some of their own food. Each year, it supports over 65,000 people and 1,500 community food-growing groups and projects around Ireland, and runs food-growing campaigns, events and publications. www.giyireland.com