Serves 4
Preparation: 60 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation, 1 hour chilling

Ingredients
4-6 cooked beetroot
1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves stripped and thinly shredded
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper

Method
Slice the beetroot and cut into dice, put in a bowl and add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Combine. Add half the thinly shredded fresh mint to the salad and chill in the fridge for an hour. Serve garnished with the remaining shredded mint leaves.

It went down a treat with children and adults at one of Camel CSA’s volunteer growing sessions in May. We were sowing the carrots we’ve just harvested for this week’s veg boxes.

The recipe is aimed at 7-11 year olds and is on the Kids First for Health Great Ormond Street Hospital website.

It comes from Jeanette Orrey, the school dinner lady who revealed all to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver about the state of British school dinners. She told him about the terrible Turkey Twizzlers and showed him how she’d really improved the eating habits of the kids at her school.

She says: “I like carrot cake because it contains vegetables and fruit. If the grated carrot is soggy, pat it dry with kitchen paper before adding.”

Personally, I’d go easy on the icing. A light lemony or orangey glaze does the trick.

Serves: at least 8

Preparation / cooking: 60-70 minutes (depending on age of cook)

Ingredients
140g (5oz) butter or margarine
140g (5oz) soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 orange
175g (6oz) grated carrot
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
55g (2 oz) sultanas

Ten steps to scrumptious carrot cake
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5

2. Lightly grease a square tin (18cm/7in)

3. Line the base of the tin

4. In a bowl mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

5. Beat in the eggs

6. Add and fold in the flour, baking powder, orange zest and juice, grated carrot, vanilla and sultanas

7. Scoop the carefully mixed mixture into the tin

8. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until deliciously golden brown

9. When it’s ready, remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the tin before you take it out

10. Carefully take it out of the tin and when it is cold add an orange icing

More carrot recipe ideas from Camel CSA members

Is there such a thing as a year without a runner bean glut? We’ve never known one. We adore this chutney with almost any kind of hard Devon cheese (Devon Oke, Curworthy) either in slabs or cheese on toast.

Obviously it goes just as well with Cornish cheese and Sue Pugh’s bread from St Kew Harvest Farm Shop!

Preparation/cooking: just over an hour

Makes 8 x 500ml jars

Ingredients
8 medium onions
500ml malt vinegar
2kg runner beans
2 heaped tbsp English mustard powder
2 heaped tbsp ground turmeric
50g cornflour
500ml white wine vinegar
500g granulated sugar
4 heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard
4 tsp flaked sea salt

Method
Dice the onion and put in pan with malt vinegar, simmer for 15 mins. Trim runner beans and slice thinly, put in a pan of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, drain and refresh.

Mix the mustard powder, turmeric, cornflour, salt and wholegrain mustard with 4tbsp white wine vinegar.

Stir sugar and remaining white wine vinegar into onion/malt vinegar mix, boil and cook for 2 minutes. Add beans and cook gently for 10 mins, giving it a bit of a stir. Pour mustardy mix into the mixture stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.

Simmer for 20 mins, stirring regularly. Put into hot jars and seal. Store for at least a month before eating, but it’s better if left for 3 or 4 months, or 12!

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes + 10 minutes resting time

Ingredients
½ large red cabbage, finely sliced
1 red onion, halved and finely sliced
3 tbsp dried sour cherries or cranberries
2 tbsp black treacle
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper

Method
Place the cabbage, onion and dried fruit in a mixing bolw. Measure the treacle and vinegar into a small mixing bowl and stir until the treacle has dissolved. Pour over the salad, mix thoroughly and season to taste. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: This can also be made into a warm red cabbage salad by lightly frying the cabbage with finely sliced spring onions, a little garlic and the dried fruit before tipping in the dressing.

Serves 4

Preparation/cooking: 20 minutes

Ingredients
450g runner beans
salt and black pepper
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp chopped summer savory or thyme, plus more to serve
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Method
String and slice the beans and cook them uncovered in rapidly boiling salted water for 3 minutes until they are just tender. Plunge into cold water and drain.

Put the cream, garlic clove and savory or thyme in a saucepan. Add salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave for 10 minutes for the flavours to merge. Take out the garlic.

Add the beans, put back on the heat and stir to heat them through. Scatter more savory or thyme and plenty of parmesan over the top.

Apologies to CSA members with small veg boxes who had perpetual spinach rather than Swiss chard this week! Still good for you, though.

Apparently, the Swiss prefix came about in the 19th-century to distinguish it from French chard, which we now call cardoon.

Serves 2

Preparation/Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
150g brown rice
250g Swiss chard (big whole leaf spinach will do)
1 lemon
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
2 free-range chicken breasts
150g ball of mozzarella
1 ripe tomato
big pinch dried oregano
salt and pepper

Method
Rinse the rice in cold water, then tip into a saucepan with twice the volume of cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until cooked – about half an hour.

Meanwhile, put a second pan on with salted water for blanching the chard.

Trim and chuck away the very ends of the chard stalks, then cut the stalks away from the leaves. Slice the stalks into 2cm-thick pieces and leave the leaves whole. Blanch the stalks first for about three minutes, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, cool under running water and set aside. Now blanch the leaves for three minutes, rinse under cold water and set aside separately from the stalks.

Zest the lemon and put it with the chard stalks.

In a bowl, mix the garlic with the juice of half the lemon, a couple of tbsp of the olive oil and some seasoning. Squeeze the water out of the chard leaves and coat them thoroughly in the flavoured oil.

Oil a baking tray and pre-heat under a very hot grill. Make a cut down the length of the chicken breasts, but not all the way through so that they open up like a book (this is called butterflying for obvious reasons).

Season the meat, then lay on the dressed chard leaves. Top with slices of mozzarella and tomato, and finish with a little salt and the oregano.

Grill for 10-12 minutes. When the rice is cooked, stir in the chard stalks, some salt and a good splosh of olive oil and serve with the chicken on top.

Broad beans are best eaten when they’re small and succulent. If you’re faced with some mealy monsters, boil or steam them as normal then “double pod” them by slipping the skins off the cooked beans. Fiddly but worth it.

My favourite ways with broad beans are short and simple. Cookery writer Nigel Slater offers a number of unfussy suggestions suitable for both meat-eaters and vegetarians. These come from his books The 30-Minute Cook and Real Fast Food.

1.  Broad beans with bacon

Serves 2 as a main dish 

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

450g shelled broad beans
1 tbsp olive oil
100g bacon, diced
freshly ground black pepper

A dish to eat with a bottle of beer. Drop the beans into a pan of boiling salted water and blanch for no more than 10 minutes. Warm the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the diced bacon until it starts to crisp at the edges. Drain the broad beans and add them to the bacon with a light grinding of pepper. Stir well and then cover with a lid. Cook for 5 minutes until the beans are absolutely tender.

2.  Broad bean, bacon and Feta salad

The saltiness of the bacon and Feta cheese is toned down by the mealy broad beans. Cook the shelled beans in salted water till tender, about 10 minutes, and then drain and toss them with hot, crisp grilled bacon and roughly chopped and crumbled Feta cheese. Good with a beer.

3.  Broad beans and goat’s cheese

Broad beans and goat’s cheese are an extraordinarily good combination. It was Claudia Roden who first brought them to my attention in her book, The Food of Italy. Ms Roden adds the shelled beans to chopped onion fried in olive oil, then simmers the two with water until very tender, drains them and serves them with cheese warmed under the grill.

I have also cooked the beans in boiling water till tender, drained and placed them in a shallow gratin dish. Then I covered them thoroughly with slices of cheese cut from a goat’s log and popped them under the grill until the cheese had just melted. Eaten with crisp French bread it made a delightful lunch.

This time Nigel suggests a bottle of cold, dry white wine. I’m with him on that one.

More broad bean recipes recommended by Camel CSA

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients
250g broad beans, shelled weight
350g tagliolini or fine spaghetti
75g fried pancetta or prosciutto
2 tbsp finely chopped summer savory or thyme, to serve
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

For the beurre blanc:
4 tbsp white wine
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tbsp finely chopped shallots
salt and black pepper
175g unsalted butter, cold and diced

Method
To make the beurre blanc, reduce the wine, vinegar, shallots, salt and pepper in a small saucepan until you have only a tablespoon of liquid left. Whisk in the cold butter bit by bit over a very low heat or using a bain-marie, until thick and creamy. Season. Keep it warm in a vacuum flask or bain marie.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Cook the beans in the water for 4 minutes. Remove them, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and cool them quickly in a sieve under cold running water.

Pop some of the bright green beans out of their skin by pinching them with your thumb and forefinger; this adds a wonderful colour. Discard the skins and puree half the beans with a tablespoon of the cooking water.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente, leaving a tablespoon or two of cooking liquid in the pan. Add the bean puree, pancetta or prosciutto and the beurre blanc, and stir. Season carefully.

Lastly throw in the remaining beans and stir. Serve with summer savory or thyme and grated parmesan.

More broad bean recipes recommended by Camel CSA

Serves 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients
450g beetroot greens
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 fresh green chilli, cut into long thin slivers
3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into long slivers
½ tsp salt

Method
Strip the beetroot greens from the stalks and cut them into fine ribbons.
Put the oil in a large pan and warm over a high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the chilli and ginger. Stir them around for a minute and then add the greens.

Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook until the leaves have wilted. Add the salt and stir, then add 4 tbsp water and bring to a simmer.

Cover again and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the greens are tender.

More beetroot recipes recommended by Camel CSA

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients
1 large cooked beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large raw beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large eating apple, cored and cut into thin matchsticks
juice of half a lemon
5ml (1 tsp) grated lemon peel
25ml vegetable oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Reserve a little of both types of beetroot and mix the remainder with the apple.  Add the lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper to taste and toss the salad. Mix the lemon peel with the reserved beetroot and use it to garnish the salad.

Variation
Those people who don’t care for the taste of raw beetroot could try it with just par-boiled beetroot.  Cook raw beetroot in plenty of water until the outer skin will just rub off. Now drain them and cool under running water until they are quite cold. The centres remain bright red and crisp while the outer areas are softer and a darker ruby red. Grate the beetroot and continue as directed in the recipe.

Try these other beetroot dishes from Camel CSA’s recommended recipes.