Last Updated on January 4, 2026
Eat Fresh – Fight Food Waste is the Oddbox slogan and it’s very much in line with what this site is about. Like me, you may well have seen Oddbox advertising on the internet or on posters and wondered quite what you’d be getting if you ordered one. I’m generally quite cautious about ordering food boxes of any sort because I live by myself – and although I cook for friends quite regularly I tend to buy fresh food as and when I need it to try and avoid waste. When Oddbox asked me to review a box I was apprehensive but really pleased to get the chance to see what I could do. What I didn’t realise was that they would send a family fruit and vegetable box. While it’s not expensive (just over £21) wasting any of the content would have been very much against the ethos of the box. My delicious selection comprised: mooli, spinach, peppers, spring greens, carrots, potato, cauliflower, fennel, rhubarb, apples and clementines. It all came in a cardboard box with a handy guide on how to store what was inside and where everything was sourced from. Mostly UK produce, there was a melon from Honduras, some clementines from Spain and the fennel, mooli and spinach came from Italy. Those items which needed eating up first were listed – and there was a recipe there too for spring greens with mustard seeds which I completely forgot to make!
Now, never one to turn down a challenge, I had to think quite hard about how to handle the food because, with the best will in the world, I’d never have been able to eat everything I was sent while it was still fresh. But, actually finding a way to preserve most fruit and vegetables isn’t that hard. It just takes a bit of organisation
Here’s my plan!
- Freeze raw – peppers
- Make into soup to eat and freeze in portions – half the cauliflower, leeks, carrots
- Preserve for posh gifts or dessert – clementines
- Cook, enjoy with yoghurt and freeze as compote – rhubarb
- Cook with pasta and leftover ham for supper – fennel
- Vietnamese pickles – mooli and carrots
- Eat as veggies – spring greens, spinach and potatoes.
- Eat uncooked for snacks etc. apples and melon.
Peppers are one of the few vegetables that home freeze easily without blanching and they are very useful to keep on hand. All you have to do is seed and slice your peppers into the shapes you use regularly (for me that meant dicing half and slicing the other half into fingers). Then pack into zip bags and freeze.
Cauliflower makes a lovely creamy base for soup. So, if you want to make a soup without too many calories but that has all the richness of double cream, then try using gently steamed cauliflower pureed into a cream.
I have to confess to being particularly pleased with the preserved clementines which I’ll have to practise a few more times in the lead up to Christmas so I can make my own gifts. The jars are recycled from Opies fruits in alcohol (a great option if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own).
The supper dish I made, ham with fennel, is particularly easy and delicious. It’s also useful if you have leftover bits of ham or bacon – any sort works really well, though of course, you need to cook the bacon if it’s still raw.
I had a couple of slices of ham left over from a charcuterie board. I keep Parmigiano on hand for pasta and the double cream was in the fridge already, the remains of a dinner party. This recipe works just as well with creme fraiche though and results in a lighter version. It’s the fennel which is important, finely shaved and cooked slowly in butter
It’s one of those recipes that is deceptively simple – it just needs a little patience not to try and rush cooking the fennel which will result in burnt chewy bits.
Start by cooking the fennel in melted butter over a very low heat for 20 minutes or so.
It will become beautifully soft and sweet. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the packet directions, drain and keep warm till the fennel is cooked. Stir the ham through the fennel and warm it through. Then, add the cream and finely grated parmesan, and season with salt and pepper. Finally, add the drained pasta to the pan and stir through to mix
You can serve this garnished with sprigs of fennel or if you prefer with finely chopped parsley.
Here’s a printable version of the recipe so you can make it at home yourself.
Pasta with fennel and ham
Ingredients
- 50 grams Parmesan finely grated
- 1 bulb fennel trimmed and finely shredded, any fronds reserved for garnish
- 80 grams ham or cooked bacon
- 15 grams butter
- 10 grams dried pasta of your choice (I used conchiglie)
- 50 millilitres cream or creme fraiche
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large heavy-based skillet
- Add the fennel and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes or so, stirring regularly
- Meanwhile bring a pan of water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook according to the packet instructions, then drain, cover and keep to one side
- Shred the ham or bacon and, once the fennel is soft (about 20-25 minutes) add the ham and warm through
- Stir in the cream and heat gently
- Stir through the grated Parmesan and heat until the cheese is mixed into the sauce.
- Season with salt and pepper
- Stir through the pasta and warm through if necessary
- Serve garnished with the sprigs of fennel fronds
Nutrition
Finally, I made a carrot and cumin soup to use up some of those lovely carrots. I will share some more of the recipes over the next few months – they are all old favourites.
So, with a little creativity and planning, it’s perfectly possible for a single household to use up a veg box from Oddbox – even a full-sized family box. And, in keeping with the ethos of Oddbox, easy to avoid food waste.
I hope you agree that my creations are really quite good to look at -belying their origin. Fruit and vegetable that isn’t always pretty on the outside can usually be presented so that no one will notice. And, what really impressed me about my Oddbox fruit and veg was that it all tasted ultra-fresh and everything did keep well.
If you’d like to find out more, do check out the Oddbox website where there’s more information about the options they have together with a whole host of useful tips to help you make the most of fresh fruit and vegetables
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