I'm a terrible stickybeak at the supermarket. I love looking at what others are buying and find myself glancing into trolleys, checking out the range of foods, the brands chosen, the type of fruit and vegetables and whether the owner has succumbed to a chocolate bar while waiting in the checkout queue. It's a professional curiosity, a mini straw-poll on what people are eating every time I go to the supermarket.

Aside from the food, one thing which always strikes me is the quantity and variety of packaging in each persons' trolley. There are bags and boxes, cartons, cans, tetra-packs, and in some shopping trolleys every single item is packaged in some way.

Some packaging is obviously necessary, after all you can't hold milk in your fingers, while with other foods we don't have a choice about the packaging, that's how they're sold. However when it comes to fruit and vegetables I'm often flummoxed by the amount of packaging.

 

While the trend is changing, much of the fresh produce is in the supermarket is sold loose and yet I see many people who put each different type of fruit and vegetable they buy into its own, separate plastic bag. I can understand why you would put small, soft fruit like cherries or grapes into a plastic bag, you don't want them rolling around your trolley, falling between the bars or getting squished by a tin of tomatoes. I can even understand why you would want messy vegetables, like potatoes, to go in a bag, but what about the rest? 

 

 

I love using fresh herbs in cooking. They add flavour, together with a freshness you don't get from many other ingredients. However they often don't last and there is something depressing about seeing your beautiful fresh herbs wilting, drooping and turning gooey in the bottom of the fridge.

To prevent this I tend to think of fresh herbs as being another green vegetable. So if I'm cooking anything with spinach or silverbeet, or simply making a salad with leafy greens, then I'll add some of my leftover herbs into the mix. This works best with the 'soft' herbs like basil, parsley, coriander and mint, which tend to be the ones which go off more quickly. I've done this in the photo below, where my salad includes a handful of basil leaves.

 

 

 

My second strategy, I learnt from Ganga of A Life (Time) of Cooking and this is to dry out the more hardy herbs, like rosemary and thyme. I separate the sprigs out and then leave them on a clean tea towel for a few days. Once they are dried they can be smashed up in a mortar and pestle, food processor, or even chopped up with a knife. The exact proportions of different herbs doesn't really matter, so my mixture changes over time. I sprinkle the dried herbs into tomato based sauces, soups and salad dressings. They can also be mixed with a small amount of olive oil and rubbed into meat, chicken or slices of tofu.

 

 

 

Asparagus is sold when it's ready-to-eat. It can degrade quickly and is at its best fresh, so use your spears up as soon as possible.

For best results, store asparagus in your fridge. Wrap the spears in a damp tea towel, which keeps the asparagus moist and protects it from damage. Place this in a plastic bag, in the crisper compartment of your fridge. Then use your asparagus up in 2 - 3 days.  To check if your asparagus is still fresh, flex the end of the spear, near the base, it should snap cleanly, rather than bend.

 

 

 

Look for firm, brightly coloured spears with tightly closed, compact tips. If the stalks have started to wrinkle then the asparagus is not as fresh as it could be.

 

 

Like all vegetables asparagus is full of nutritional goodness. It contains B vitamins, including folate, potassium, vitamin C, carotenoid antioxidants and fibre.

Rich and melt-in-your-mouth, avocadoes are deliciously creamy and have a slightly sweet, almost buttery flavour. While many people worry about the fat content, they're low in saturated fat, containing mostly mono- and poly-unsaturated fats.

 

Avocadoes are also full of a surprising amount of other nutrients including vitamins C, E and K, folate, together with potassium and copper.  Which means avocadoes are beneficial to your health, as long as you don't eat too many. 

 

 

For more about choosing and storing an avocado click here.

 

Photograph by Amanda Govaert.