Now that the snow is gone and spring has sprung, you can start foraging.* There are young nettles everywhere, so start picking. Wild garlic is in season as well, and if you can find any it combines magnificently with nettle to make a sumptuous, bright green soup whose vibrant colour alone will lift your spirits. Eat this with bread and some cheese for an easy dinner.
Wild Garlic & Nettle Soup
serves 4.
Ingredients
500g mixed nettles and wild garlic leaves
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil, plus extra for drizzling
25g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 leek, cleaned and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 large potato, chopped
salt, to taste
1.5 litres flavourful stock
3 tablespoons milk
Preparation
Wearing gloves, strip the nettle leaves from the stalks. Roughly chop the wild garlic and nettles and set aside.
Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion, leek, carrot, potato and a good pinch of salt, and stir until everything is well coated. Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring every so often to make sure that the vegetables don’t catch on the bottom of the pan.
Pour in the stock, and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft. At this point you can turn off the heat and leave the pan until you’re ready to eat.
When you are ready to eat add the nettles and wild garlic in several batches, stirring to blend everything together. Cook over low heat for about 2 minutes.
Turn off the heat and blend using a stick blender. Add the milk, and then warm over very low heat until it’s a pleasant temperature. Check to see if it needs any more salt.
Serve, drizzled with a little extra oil over the top, if you like.
Recipe adapted from Barney Desmazery, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/wild-garlic-nettle-soup
* Brandon Marsh Nature Centre is offering a foraging course on 27 May, in case you’d like to sign up. They promise wild garlic, among other delicacies. http://www.wildfooduk.com/events/warwickshire-coventry-brandon-marsh-spring-foraging-course-1/
This main-course salad is based on what I gather is a classic Vietnamese sauce called Nước chấm. It’s a combination of lime juice, a bit of sugar, and fish sauce. It’s sharp, salty and addictive. The recipe combines slices of lightly-cooked steak with a salad of shredded vegetables. You can also make it without the steak, in which case I’d recommend adding some toasted peanuts. You can also make this more hearty still by serving it alongside some cooked rice, or rice noodles.
Vietnamese Beef Salad with Nước chấm
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 red chilli peppers (or to taste)
½ cup fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime zest
⅓ cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
2 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
600g rump steak or ¾ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
½ cucumber
6 carrots, peeled and shredded
½ medium white cabbage, finely shredded
8 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 bunch coriander, coarsely chopped
roasted peanuts (if you’re not using steak)
an additional lime half, for garnish (optional)
Preparation
De-seed and finely chop one chilli pepper. In a small bowl, combine the chopped chilli, fish sauce, lime zest, lime juice, brown sugar, ginger and garlic.
If you’re using the steak, then pour 1/2 of the mixture into a sealable plastic bag and add the steak, if you’re using it. Seal, and leave to marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (or refrigerate for up to 24 hours). Let meat come to room temperature before cooking if necessary.
De-seed the second chilli pepper and slice it finely. Slice the cucumber into thin matchsticks. Toss the sliced chilli, sliced cucumber, shredded carrot and cabbage, spring onions and almost all the coriander together to mix. Keep a little coriander back to garnish the top of the salad.
If you’re not using the steak, simply add the peanuts, pour the dressing over the vegetables, toss, garnish with a little more coriander, and serve.
If you’re using the steak, toss the salad with the remaining dressing and then spread the salad out onto a serving platter and set aside.
When you are ready to eat heat a cast iron pan (or other sturdy frying pan) to very hot and add the steak. Cook for 75 seconds on each side, unless you don’t like your meat rare, in which case cook it for perhaps 2 minutes a side, or however long you favour cooking steak. I like steak very rare . . .
Remove the meat from the pan and let it sit for 3-5 minutes on a cutting board. Then slice the steak very thinly, and place the slices over the top of the salad. Scatter the sliced red chiles and reserved coriander over the top and serve with an additional sliced lime on the side, in case anyone wants more lime.
Recipe adapted from Melissa Clark, New York Times Cooking.
This is a great way to use up odds and ends of fresh veg, and leftovers too. You can use more or less whatever you fancy from the list, though I do think some kind of onion is essential. As the egg is poured straight into the roasting dish full of hot veg, you don’t need to fry this frittata at all, but it helps to have a heavy ceramic or cast-iron dish, which retains the heat well. And the eggs should be at room temperature, not cold from the fridge.
Oven-roasted roots frittata
Ingredients
About 600g mixed winter veg, such as onions, carrots, squash or pumpkin, parsnip, celeriac, beetroot, jerusalem artichokes, black spanish radish, potatoes
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
7 large or 8 medium eggs
A handful of mixed herbs, such as curly parsley, chives and thyme, finely chopped
About 20g Parmesan, hard goat’s cheese or other well-flavoured hard cheese, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. Meanwhile, prepare your chosen veg: peel shallots or onions and quarter or thickly slice; peel carrots and cut into 5mm slices; peel squash or pumpkin, deseed and cut into 2–3cm cubes; peel parsnip, celeriac and beetroot and cut into 1–2cm cubes; cut potatoes into 1–2cm cubes.
Put all the veg into an ovenproof dish, about 23cm square. Add the garlic, oil and plenty of salt and pepper and toss well. Roast for about 40 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the veg are all tender and starting to caramelise in places.
Beat the eggs together with the chopped herbs and some more salt and pepper. Take the dish from the oven, pour the egg evenly over the veg and scatter over the grated cheese. Return to the oven for 10–15 minutes until the egg is all set and the top is starting to colour. If your oven has a grill, you can use that to accelerate the browning of the top.
Leave to cool slightly, then slide the frittata out on to a plate or board. Serve warm or cold. Perfect lunchbox fare…
Thanks to River Cottage
Saffron gives a beautiful colour and a rich, aromatic flavour to this simple winter salad.
Carrot, Cabbage and Saffron Salad
Ingredients
0.5g saffron (on whole little packet)
50 ml rapeseed oil
1 medium cabbage, coarsely shredded
500g carrots, peeled and coarsely shredded
1 red onion, coarsely shredded
50 ml cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1½ teaspoons salt
black pepper to taste
Preparation
Combine the saffron and oil in a mortar and pestle, and leave to soak for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the cabbage, carrots and red onion in a bowl.
When the saffron has soaked for 15 minutes use the pestle to crush the saffron into the oil, to release its flavour. Tip the saffron-y oil into a small bowl and whisk in the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and, using your hands, vigorously scrunch and squeeze everything together to mix.
Place a plate over the top of the salad and weigh it down a bit by putting a couple of tins, or some kitchen weights, on top. The goal is to press the salad together to encourage the flavours to blend.
Leave it for at least an hour, and then serve.
(Recipe courtesy of Ulrika Andersson.)
Did you know that carrot cake originated in Sweden? At least that’s what Swedes say. The ground cardamom certainly gives a Nordic flavour. This is nice for breakfast.
This recipe is based, very loosely, on cake that is apparently served at Stockholm’s Rosendals Trädgård (http://www.rosendalstradgard.se/in-english/), a botanical garden promoting biodynamic gardening and sustainability.
Ingredients
I apologise for the peculiar mixture of mililiters, grams and the like. I’m currently without access to a kitchen scale.
For the Cake
300 ml plain flour—I used spelt
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 ml rapeseed oil, or other neutral vegetable oil
250 ml sugar—I used an equal mix of dark muscovado and white
3 eggs
zest of one orange
3 large carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
300 ml chopped walnuts and raisins—any proportion. A mixture of different types of raisin (ordinary, sultana, golden) is nice.
For the Icing
150g cream cheese
50 ml sugar—use vanilla sugar if you have any
½ teaspoon vanilla essence if you’re not using vanilla sugar
zest of half a lemon
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 200C or 180C fan-assisted. Grease a 20cm round cake tin.
Combine the dry ingredients (flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt) in a bowl and mix well.
Whisk the oil sugar together in a large mixing bowl, for about 5 minutes. Obviously, use an electric mixer if you have one.
One at a time, add the eggs, whisking well after each addition. Add the orange rind and whisk for another 5 minutes.
Gently fold in the grated carrot, and then fold in the dry ingredients, also gently.
Stir in the nuts and raisins.
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in its tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling, make the icing by beating together the ingredients until smooth. Once the cake is completely cool, you may ice it on the top.
Roasted vegetables dotted with cheerful, green pesto. Delicious for a mid-week dinner. It’s nice served with brown rice, or any other grain you might have lying about, but it’s good on its own as well. I suspect it would be tasty tossed onto pasta.
Roasted Anything with Anything Pesto
Serves 2
Ingredients
Roast Vegetables
A mixture of root vegetables and/or pumpkin. For two people one of those little Canalside squashes, 2 medium potatoes, and 4 large carrots would be fine, for instance.
shell of a squeezed-out lemon, if you happen to keep such things around.
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt and pepper to taste
Any twigs of thyme or rosemary that you happen to have to hand
1 whole head of garlic, unpeeled
Anything Pesto
1 handful of packaged pumpkin or melon seeds, or pine nuts, or almonds, or a mixture. I think you could add sunflower seeds, as well.
1 bunch of any fresh herbs. A mixture is fine and the quantity isn’t crucial. I used a blend of parsley and a little dill.
any feathery carrot tops
Olive oil
1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
Optional Toppings
Capers
hard cheese, grated or chopped into little cubes
Home-made roasted squash seeds (see below)
Yoghurt
Preparation
For the Roast Vegetables
Preheat the oven to 220C.
Scrub the root vegetables and peel them if you prefer them unpeeled. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. Ditto the squash or pumpkin, if you are using it. After you cut it open remove the seeds and set them aside for use in the pesto.
Place all the vegetables in a roasting tin and toss them together with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the lemon shell into thin shreds and add this to the tray. Scatter any thyme or rosemary over the top. Place the unpeeled whole head of garlic in the tray as well.
Put the tray in the oven and roast for 30-45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender when you poke them with a fork. Toss them periodically so that they roast evenly.
For the Squash or Pumpkin Seed Garnish (if used)
Once you’ve put the vegetables in the oven you can prepare the fresh pumpkin seeds. Wash them carefully and pick out the seeds from the tangle of pumpkin fibres. Place the cleaned seeds on a baking tray and put them in the oven as well. Roast them for 10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally. They should begin to turn golden. At that point take the tray out of the oven and toss the seeds with a little more olive oil and salt. Put them back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes. They should now be crisp and toasted. Set them aside to cool. Nibble a few while you prepare the pesto.
For the Nuts or Seeds for the Pesto
Place the nuts or packaged seeds on a baking tray and put them in the oven to toast. Check them after about 3 minutes as pine nuts in particular burn easily. Once they start to turn golden remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool.
For the Anything Pesto
Blend the herbs and carrot tops (should you have any) in a hand-held blender, or, if you are feeling energetic, pound them a bit at a time in a mortar and pestle.
Add about the toasted nuts/seeds, and blend/pound some more to make a thick, herby paste.
Find the roasted head of garlic and squeeze out the now-tender garlic from each clove. Add this to the pesto and blend. Thin the pesto with olive oil until it reaches the consistency you like.
Grate in the zest of the lemon. Juice the lemon and add some juice to the pesto, along with some salt and pepper. Add a pinch of pepper flakes if you like.
Now taste it: does it need more lemon juice? More salt? More oil? Adjust the flavours and consistency until you are pleased with the result.
To Serve
Arrange the roasted vegetables on a platter. Dot or pour the pesto over the top and garnish as desired with capers, cheese, or your home-made roasted pumpkin seeds. Serve, if you like, with a bowl of salted yoghurt on the side.
You can serve this together with rice or another grain if you like. Perhaps you have some leftover rice in the freezer?
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones, The Guardian.)
This is currently my favourite salad. It’s based on a recipe from Anna Jones, which I keep simplifying. The full Anna-Jones version is very good, too, of course. You can find it on the link below.
Carrot and Cashew Salad
Serves about 1 if that 1 person is me. It’s supposed to serve 4.
Ingredients
200g carrots
salt, to taste
some fresh coconut—the amount is very flexible and the coconut can be omitted altogether. Try a quarter of a whole coconut, or about half of one of those little pots of pre-chopped coconut you can get in the supermarket.
2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 inch of fresh ginger (optional), peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
1 big handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 big handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Preparation
Peel the carrots and shred them coarsely. Put them in a nice bowl and toss them with some salt. Try about a quarter teaspoon to begin with.
If you are using the coconut, you need to prepare it. Extract the coconut from the shell, if necessary, or open the small plastic packet you bought in the shop. Peel off the dark brown inner husk, and either grate the coconut into your bowl on the same coarse grater you used for the carrots, or peel it into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, or just chop it into little chunks. In any case, mix it in with the carrots.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. They will start to pop, and shoot out all over the top of your cooker. At that point add the grated ginger (if you’re using it) and stir for a minute. Then add the curry leaves, stir for a few seconds until the curry leaves frizzle up a little. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner. Add the cashews and stir them a little, so that the cashews start to colour a little in the still-warm pan. Pour the whole thing over the carrots and toss vigorously.
Mix in the chopped coriander. Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and toss it all together. See if you need more salt, or more lemon juice. This makes a very agreeable lunch.
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones – https://www.theguardian.com/…/raw-vegetable-salad-recipes-a…)
Carrot and Cashew Salad
Serves about 1 if that 1 person is me. It’s supposed to serve 4.
Ingredients
200g carrots
salt, to taste
some fresh coconut—the amount is very flexible and the coconut can be omitted altogether. Try a quarter of a whole coconut, or about half of one of those little pots of pre-chopped coconut you can get in the supermarket.
2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 inch of fresh ginger (optional), peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
1 big handful of cashew nuts, roughly chopped
1 big handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Preparation
Peel the carrots and shred them coarsely. Put them in a nice bowl and toss them with some salt. Try about a quarter teaspoon to begin with.
If you are using the coconut, you need to prepare it. Extract the coconut from the shell, if necessary, or open the small plastic packet you bought in the shop. Peel off the dark brown inner husk, and either grate the coconut into your bowl on the same coarse grater you used for the carrots, or peel it into thin strips using a vegetable peeler, or just chop it into little chunks. In any case, mix it in with the carrots.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When it is hot add the mustard seeds. They will start to pop, and shoot out all over the top of your cooker. At that point add the grated ginger (if you’re using it) and stir for a minute. Then add the curry leaves, stir for a few seconds until the curry leaves frizzle up a little. Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner. Add the cashews and stir them a little, so that the cashews start to colour a little in the still-warm pan. Pour the whole thing over the carrots and toss vigorously.
Mix in the chopped coriander. Squeeze the lemon juice over the salad, and toss it all together. See if you need more salt, or more lemon juice. This makes a very agreeable lunch.
(Recipe adapted from Anna Jones.)
This rich and buttery sauce is loosely based on a classic recipe from Marcella Hazen. The carrot adds a touch of sweetness. This is easy and flavoursome.
Buttery Tomato Sauce
Enough for 4 servings of pasta
Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
2 400g tins of tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Preparation
Peel the onion and cut it into 8 pieces. Peel the carrot and cut it into 1-inch lengths.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add all the other ingredients, including the liquid from the tomato tins. Add a pinch or two of salt.
Bring to a simmer and adjust heat so that the sauce is simmering very gently. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir it occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking at the bottom. The tomatoes should have dissolved into a smooth, thick sauce; you can mash them with the back of a spoon to encourage them. The onion and carrot should be soft and infused with a rich, tomato flavour. Taste it to see if you’d like more salt. Some recipes advise removing the onion and carrot, but I think they’re very tasty and make a nice addition to the meal. Of course, if you’d like a smooth sauce feel free to remove them.
To serve, cook as much pasta as you’d like, and drain it. Then add the pasta to the pan with the sauce and toss them together to blend. Let it cook over low heat for a minute or two to allow the flavours to meld, and then serve.
This week the recipe comes from Dom, head grower at Canalside:
We’ve reached that special time known amongst pro growers as the Beetroot Bonanza: the moment in late Spring when the new polytunnel beetroot crop is ready to pick whilst storage beetroot from the previous season is still clogging up the root store. In next week’s share there will be freshly harvested Chioggia beets (that’s right, the stripy one) but we will also be trying to shift the remaining blood-red Jannis beetroots from last year via the Extras table, so why not grab some while you still can to make this amazing novelty ketchup! (We also suspect that quite a few members may well have a backlog of shrivelly beetroots hiding away at the back of your veg cupboard…) It’s great with potato wedges, chips or anything crispy. Many thanks to Kate at www.thevegspace.co.uk for the recipe.
Ingredients
1kg beetroot (about 12 medium-sized beetroot)
2 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
175ml red wine vinegar
70g soft brown sugar
Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. Place the beetroot (whole and un-peeled) in a large piece of foil, drizzle with a little oil, wrap up to enclose them and place on a baking tray in the oven for an hour. After the hour is up, test each one with a sharp knife – if it passes through easily, the beetroot is cooked so remove it. Return any which aren’t cooked to the oven and keep testing every 10 minutes until they are all tender.
2. When they have cooled, peel the beetroots, trim the ends and chop into small-ish pieces.
3. In a large saucepan, heat the sunflower/rapeseed oil and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and cumin, and cook gently for 5 minutes until softened. Add the beetroot, chilli, salt and red wine vinegar, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, and leave to cool for a few minutes. Spoon the beetroot mixture into a blender or food processor, and blitz on the highest possible speed for 2-3 minutes until completely smooth.
5. Return the ketchup to the pan, then add the sugar, bring to the boil, and lower to a very gentle heat. Cook until the ketchup has reached a good consistency – mine took about 5 minutes, but it depends on the water content of your beetroot (and how thick or pourable you prefer your ketchup!).
6. When it has cooled slightly, pour into warm, sterilised bottles or jars. The ketchup will keep, (ideally in a cool, dark place), for 3 months, and once opened, in the fridge for 2 weeks.
(Rebecca will be back as soon as she escapes from the beetroot store)