Signature Dish: Leafy Greens

I had a father who loved growing things – he haphazardly propagated potatoes, beans, gem squash, herbs, tomatoes…even tried his hand at asparagus (rather unsuccessfully). Digging and picking were precursors to every lunch and dinner - an exercise that always exuded a childlike giddiness from my brother and I. Fond memories that seem distant now; that wonderfully muddled garden is long-gone and, come to think of it, I can’t actually remember the last time I dug for my roast potatoes...

The farm-to-table restaurant ethos is, I’m pleased to say, no longer a novel or unfamiliar concept. Chefs across the country have been growing their own in a bid to promote seasonality, sustainability and food-consciousness, but it’s still not as common as one would like.

Antonia De Luca wasn’t a follower of this movement, she lived it, on the farm that’s now home to her café, Leafy Greens, “I grew up here, the farm was passed down to my father by his father as a living will and he’s been farming the land ever since - he planted seedlings and fig trees before he could even afford to fix the roof.”

Her entire family turned vegetarian early on, “My dad was struggling with an ulcer and my mom wanted to lose weight; we were told that a vegetarian diet could help. We found the transition easy because we’d always eaten seasonally and from our garden.”

Middle image: Schantel van der Merwe; Stylist: Chantel Rouhotas

Whilst abroad completing her MBA she realised just how passionate she was about healthy eating and sustainability, so took the opportunity to educate herself on the subjects. “Thereafter I spent 6 months in the States visiting healing centres, taking courses, going to talks and reading books, and on returning to South Africa I opened Leafy Greens”. She landed on June 2nd 2010 and opened the restaurant 23 days later. She adapted one of the farm houses, filled it with tables and chairs from local auctions and based the menu on what was growing in the garden, “I was 23, I had no expectations - I just knew it would work. I was lucky that there was very little risk involved and I was blessed in that my parents helped me.”

And whilst it looks like a laidback setup, there’s a lot that goes into it: “We follow permaculture principles, utilise companion-planting, earthworm farming, make sure we regenerate the soil with compost and rotate the crops…”

Walking through the gardens my giddy inner child was reawakened; I wanted to venture inside the patches, to look under leaves, to smell, to touch, to explore. In a world where ‘window shopping’ is an actual activity, we’ve spent our lives being warned against these compulsions and how magical it is to find an oasis that celebrates them.

I was pleased to learn that Antonia is in involved in a program called Adventure Clubs. “It’s an app that allows parents to book events for their kids, such as visiting us for walking tours through the gardens where we teach them about all the plants. They then get to pick things and use those vegetables to make a dish at the café. They love going to see the chickens, collecting eggs and getting an understanding of where their food comes from.”

Leafy Greens is renowned for their weekend buffets comprising an incredible assortment of scrumptious vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free delights. The variety of dishes changes depending on what’s in season from the garden and what the chefs choose to invent, “When I initially opened, I knew there were some things I wanted to do differently. When you’re in a restaurant and you order one plate of food – there’s a chance it might not be to your taste, but when you have a buffet you can have six to twelve different things. It also creates so much more space for creativity; the only rule is that we need to try to make sure that the main ingredient of each dish comes from the garden.”

But there are two signatures that you’ll always find in both the buffet and the weekly menus: the kale salad and the vegan pizza.

"The dressing we use for the salad is umami: packed full of tamari, cashew nuts, maple syrup and red pepper and that’s what lifts the whole dish.”

“Gluten-free pizza” often has the knack of garnering the same reaction as kale, but theirs is crisp and light with toppings from the garden that burst with a totally diverse scope of flavours, “We make the bases ourselves with a gluten-free flour mix and top that with a homemade Napoli sauce, pesto and all the different veggies from the garden: aubergine, spinach, peppers, tomatoes…When you have good ingredients it makes such a difference. It’s all topped with a ‘cashew cheese’ (cashews blended with garlic, olive oil, rock salt and lemon juice) which adds the richness needed to balance the dish.”

I ask Antonia about the evolution of vegetarianism in South Africa, “Instagram and Pinterest have made healthy sexy. It’s made eating well trendy and that’s so exciting."

Visiting Leafy Greens is like entering a home brimming with goodness, where there’s a shared philosophy of nurturing and sense of calm in the air. It’s a sanctuary - one that I would recommend frequenting.