May 2025
Our New Kitchen + Recipe For You
In April we opened our long awaited Material Institute Kitchen onsite at our home in Kutalayna/Bridgewater. This has been many years in the making and with the support of the Tasmanian Community Fund we now have a purpose built commercial learning kitchen! This kitchen will enable us to cook everything on site for our Material Institute community events and school workshops we host every term. Our chef Vlad is grinning ear to ear to say the least!
Amelia Clifford, Material Institute Relationships Manager says: ‘Having a dedicated teaching kitchen for our chef will allow us to expand and elevate our hands-on food education opportunities. An immersive approach in a professional kitchen will be more impactful through first hand participant experience of the seed-to-plate journey, harvesting food from the gardens only metres away. This ultimately promotes food security and well-being while coming together in a beautiful space.’
Inside it's an inspirational space for culinary learning - Photography by Jesse Hunniford
Kym Goodes, Chair, Tasmanian Community Fund adds: ‘The Tas Community Fund is proud to support a project that brings children and young people together around something so fundamental—growing food, cooking it, and sharing it. It’s in these simple acts that families build stronger bonds and communities grow healthier and more connected.’
The vision for the future is that the kitchen will open to the public to provide a space for community to connect, have a yarn and share food, with a focus on seasonal produce from the garden a few metres away.
Speaking of cooking, we have a delicious recipe Chef Vlad has been cooking with the schools this term in the shiny new kitchen —and we thought we would share it with you!
This recipe is French onion soup inspired, and adapted for the kiddies to be vegan, using the abundance of autumn garden goodies such as pumpkin and kale, mixed with caramelised onion and some yummy cheesy garlic toast on the side. Enjoy!
Vlad's Caramelised Onion Soup with Kale, Pumpkin and Cheesy Garlic Toast
Recipe: Caramelised Onion Soup with Kale, Pumpkin and Cheesy Garlic Toast
Ingredients
Soup:
- 3 large brown onions, thinly sliced
- 3 large red onions, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2L water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
- 1 small pumpkin, peeled and diced into small cubes
- 3 handfuls kale or other brassica greens, chopped (stems removed)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Cheesy Garlic Toast:
- Slices of bread (1 per person)
- garlic
- 1 cup grated cheese
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Method
Soup:
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add sliced onions with a pinch of salt and sugar.
- Cook slowly, stirring often, for 15–20 minutes until soft and beginning to turn golden.
- Stir in the chopped rosemary, balsamic vinegar and tomato paste.
- Cook for another 2–3 minutes.
- Add diced pumpkin and pour in vegetable stock.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
- Stir in chopped kale and simmer for 5 minutes until wilted.
- Adjust seasoning.
Cheesy Garlic Toast:
- Brush one side lightly with olive oil, bake in 180c oven until lightly toasted- 10 minutes
- Remove from oven and rub oiled side with garlic and top with cheese
- Bake until melted- 5 minutes
Enjoy!