A secret family recipe ‘Carrot Souffle’ took out the crown for top dish at New Zealand’s first ever carrot cook-off and shared community lunch held in carrot capital Ohakune on Wednesday
Kiwi foodie Nadia Lim joined enthusiastic locals for the community event, created to celebrate Bargain Box’s most popular ingredient, the humble carrot, with more than 4 million delivered to kiwi families in the last year.
“The carrot is an affordable and healthy staple of our Bargain Boxes,” says Lim. “So we wanted to celebrate the hard working community around Ohakune who produce the bulk of NZ’s carrots and help keep so many kiwis well fed.
Creator of the winning dish, Ashlee Gordon says it was a fun event to be part of and a privilege to be chosen by Lim and the Bargain Box Senior Chefs, Amber as the top dish.
“It’s an old family recipe my mum used to make so it’s awesome to win and obviously pretty amazing to get a whole year’s free Bargain Box, especially as we are a family of 5 with 3 kids,” says Ashlee. “But actually the best reminder was just how important it is to stop the rush of our lives, sit down and enjoy food together.”
There was an incredible array of carrot themed dishes on offer including sweet, savoury, curried, pickled, baked, and mashed. Other top dishes in the top 5 as voted by locals included a ‘Sticky Carrot Pudding’ from Emma Rowe, a ‘Carrot Salad’ from Steph Rollinson, ‘Nana’s Carrot Cake’ from Liz Brooker and a ‘Thai Carrot Fritter’ from Bangorn Phooued.
The winning dish also has the honour of being featured in an upcoming Bargain Box.
“We wanted to celebrate the locals who help us deliver tasty, convenient and affordable dinner solutions to families across Aotearoa and where better to feast the carrot than in our very own carrot capital, Ohakune,” says My Food Bag CEO, Mark Winter.
“We’re on a mission to help New Zealanders eat better on a budget,” says Winter. We’re proud of Bargain Box’s position as NZ’s most affordable meal kit. We’re a proudly kiwi owned company and we do all we can to make tasty and nutritious sourced meals accessible. We also work hard to support our communities with locally sourced produce and supplies.
“We hope today went a small way to making our community feel as important as they are.”
Article created in partnership with Bargain Box
