Protected: 7 Vegetables for spring: Seasonal eating

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    As the spring arrives, its time to shake off the heavy cold-weather food and spring clean our eating with fresh-tasting sweet vegetables. Here's a selection of vegetables to enjoy this season and some ideas about how to cook them.

    Carrots
    With baby carrots and fresh new season carrots, its fantastic to eat them raw in a salad or turn them into a homemade coleslaw.
    Roasted carrots are a wonderful topping for a risotto. Make the risotto as usual. Meanwhile, roast the sliced carrots in a hot oven with a little olive oil and seasoning. Use the carrot tops to make a carrot top pesto. Serve each bowl of risotto with the roasted carrots and carrot top pesto.
    A carrot mash, seasoned with coriander is divine, as is carrot sticks sautéed with a honey mustard dressing.

    Carrot and sweet potato soup is definitely a favourite especially when paired with a tin of coconut milk.
    Make carrot dahl, by adding grated carrots to lentils in equal quantities and cooking as usual. A fab recipe for this by Anna Jones is found here .

    Carrot cake is all the sweeter with new season carrots, try them as cupcakes too!

    Celeriac
    Celeriac is almost finished in the spring. Just time for one more remoulade, or add the last of your celeriac to stews, the trick to celeriac is to peel it thickly (as awkward as this may be!)

    Try a simple celeriac soup on a cold day: roughly chop 1 thickly peeled celeriac, 2 medium potatoes, a diced onion. Sautee for 5 mins, then add 1 litre of vegetable stock and simmer gently with the lid on for 15 mins – until vegetables are soft. Season and blend before serving.

    Boiled, blended celeriac, with a spoon of mustard and a splash of apple cider vinegar is a surprisingly good vegan alternative to a white sauce.

    Kale
    To prepare kale, wash and dry the kale and then tear off the tough stalks in the middle and use the leaves. You can use kale in place of spinach but remember it needs to be cooked for longer and has a stronger flavour. Try half kale, half spinach for best results.

    A fantastic recipe for Kale is kale crisps. Spread on a baking tray, add a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt, bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven, turning once during cooking until the crisps are starting to turn crunchy.
    Another easy kale recipe is to bake it in the oven in a covered casserole dish with a knob of butter and some herbs (parsley and mint go well). Roast for about 20 min. Turn once during cooking.

    Substitute half of the spinach for kale in baked recipes, such as spanakopita.
    Torn kale leaves make an excellent accompaniment to soup. Add it shredded, 10 minutes before the end of cooking. It works best in chunky bean/vegetable soups – it's not the colour for blending!

    As a topping for baked vegetable macaroni, or a garnish to dishes, sauté shredded kale for a few minutes, and season well

    Kale also makes a great quick pasta topping. Sautee and mix with extra virgin olive oil, black and green olives and a sprinkling of parmesan.

    Leeks
    To prepare leeks, remove any damaged outside leaves and the stalk. Score the leek all the way to the middle along the whole length. Now, wash between each layer to ensure that all grit is removed.

    Leek and sweet potato pie is an easy crowd-pleaser. For 6 people, peel and roughly chop 2-3 large sweet potatoes and fry in a large frying pan. Wash 2-3 leeks and slice into thick rounds. Add to the pan and gently cook for 10-15 mins, until softening. Meanwhile, make a cheesy pastry by rubbing 75g butter into 150g plain flour, with a generous grinding of black pepper. When the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, add in 25g grated parmesan. Mix with 1 tablespoon of cold water until the pastry comes together (you may need more water – if the pastry becomes sticky, add a tablespoon more flour until the stickiness is gone). Leave the pastry to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

    When the leeks and potatoes are ready, add 100ml of vegetable stock and allow to simmer for 10 minutes covered. Then turn down the heat, season and add 100ml of crème Fraiche. Cook for 4 minutes until well mixed and creamy – the liquid will be reduced. Tip into a casserole, dot over squares of 100g strong cheddar. Roll out the chilled pastry and cover the casserole. Bake for 25 minutes, until the pastry is fully cooked.

    For leek and potato soup, chop 2 leeks and 2 potatoes. Sautee in a large pan with a teaspoon of oil for 5 minutes to release the flavours. Add in 1 litre of full-strength vegetable stock and simmer gently with the lid on, for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Blend with 100ml of milk or cream and season well before serving.

    Leeks make a great addition to baked potato topping with cheese. They work well in omelettes diced small and can be used in place of onion in sauces.

    Parsnips
    Parsnips make amazing rosti. Mix equal quantities of potato and parsnip grated for your usual rosti recipe.

    Parsnips also make a nice change to cauliflower cheese. Quarter them and roast them for 20 minutes in a hot oven before pouring over a white sauce, adding cheese and baking for 10 minutes.

    For parsnip crisps, use a mandolin or vegetable peeler to turn them into chips, Toss with a little olive oil and season. Tip on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes each side in a hot oven.

    Make the most of stews by cooking 4 chopped parsnips with an onion and carrot for 5 minutes. Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, a tin of water, a tin of chickpeas, stir, cover and simmer for 20 mins until soft. Add 200g of fresh green beans and cook for a further 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make potato mash with 6 medium potatoes. Pour the parsnips into a casserole, top with mash, grate over 50-100g cheddar and bake for 40 minutes, until the potato is crisping at the edges.

    Swede
    Make some easy Swede chips by thinly slicing swede into crisp like pieces.
    To make enough for 4 people, peel and cut half a swede into chip shapes. Parboil for 8 minutes. Drain and put back in the pot with the lid on and the heat off for a few minutes to steam dry. Meanwhile, place 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of smoked paprika and a generous pinch of salt into a large baking tray. Heat gently in the oven, preheating to high. When the swedes have steamed, tip them onto the baking tray. Gently turn with a spoon. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until cooked through and serve as chips.

    Rhubarb
    Use this wonderful tart ingredient in savoury dishes with sweet veg to add interest. For example, Anna Jones’ Potato, Beetroot and Rhubarb Gratin, found in the Guardian .

    Make a crumble or tart with rhubarb or add it to bread and butter pudding in layers – find Darina Allens’s recipe here.

    Rhubarb Porridge Topper: Make a simple rhubarb compote by washing and chopping 2 large stalks of rhubarb, adding a spoon of water and a sprinkle of sugar, honey, agave or maple syrup, in a small pot. Add a drop of vanilla and the zest of half an orange, cover and simmer gently until the rhubarb is soft. Taste and add sweetener if necessary.

     

     

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