This is from Jamie Oliver’s second book, the Return of the Naked Chef.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients
255 g couscous
285 ml cold water
3 red peppers
1 handful asparagus, trimmed and peeled if need be
2 or 3 small firm courgettes, sliced
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
2-4 fresh chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
3 good handfuls mixed fresh herbs (basil, coriander, mint, flat leaf parsley)
4 Tbs lemon juice
10 Tbs olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
red wine vinegar

Method
Place the couscous in a bowl with the cold water.  This will start to soften the couscous and you will see the water disappear as it soaks in.  While the couscous is softening, blacken the peppers.  Either place the peppers directly on to the naked flame of a gas hob or blacken under the grill.  Both ways you need to blacken the peppers on all sides, so turn when need be.  When fully blackened cover in a bowl for 5 minutes until cool.  This will steam the skins and make peeling and deseeding easier.  Remove the skins and seeds and roughly chop.  On a very hot ridged grill pan, lightly char the asparagus and courgettes on both sides then toss them into the bowl with the couscous with the peppers, spring onions, chillies and ripped up herbs.  Mix well.  Make a dressing with the olive oil and lemon juice, add and toss well.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and a couple of dribbles of red wine vinegar for a slight twang.

This recipe comes from Community Harvest Whetstone – a veg growing coop in Leicestershire.

Serves 2

Preparation and cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
For the base:
1 large cauliflower
1 free range egg
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated mature cheddar cheese
For the tomato pizza sauce:
100-150g tomato passata
1 Tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt to taste
Topping:
grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6, line and grease a large pizza tray.  In a food processor blitz the head of the cauliflower into a grainy paste.  Transfer into a large bowl and microwave on high for 6-8 minutes.  Wait for the softened and cooked cauliflower to cool a little.  Mix in the egg, season with salt and pepper, add the cheese and mix well.  Tip out the cauliflower mixture onto the greased pizza tray and press down firmly to make a large pizza base about 1 cm in thickness.  Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the base is golden brown.  While the base is cooking combine the pizza sauce ingredients and spread over the pizza base, top with the grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese and bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.  Gently slice up the pizza and leave to cool a little.  Slowly transfer the slices onto a plate as the base is very soft and crumbly.

This is a simple, time-honoured way of serving radishes, taken from Veg every day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  You need to use very fresh, little roots as they quickly lose their crunch and peppery flavour.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
About 400g radishes
A pat of unsalted butter, at room temperature but not too soft
A little dish of best quality flaky sea salt

Method
Clean the radishes.  Arrange everything on the table and make sure each diner has a knife.  To eat, just smear a little bit of butter on the end of a radish then sprinkle with the tiniest pinch of salt before popping into your mouth.

This recipe is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book Veg Every Day.  These can be done on a barbie outdoors, on a ridged cast-iron griddle pan in the kitchen, or even, at a pinch, under a grill.  When barbecuing, threading the asparagus spears onto skewers makes it easier to turn and cook them without losing them through the bars of the grill.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes

Ingredients
20-30 asparagus spears, trimmed
4 Tbs olive or rapeseed oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
6-10 mint leaves, finely shredded
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan, pecorino or hard goat’s cheese, to serve

Method
Light the barbecue well in advance if you are cooking outside.
Soak 8 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.  If the asparagus spears are pretty thick – more than 5mm across the middle of the stem – or perhaps not so freshly cut, it’s best to blanch them first.  Add to a pan of boiling water, blanch for 1 minute, then drain and refresh in cold water.  Drain well and pat dry.

Thread the asparagus on to the skewers, about 5-6 per skewer, pushing it through the middle of the spears.  Brush the asparagus with some of the oil and season with salt and pepper.

If cooking indoors, heat the griddle or grill until hot, then place the asparagus skewers on the griddle or under the grill about 10cm from the heat.  If cooking on a barbecue, you want it medium-hot, rather than super-fierce – you should be able to hold your palm about 15cm above the coals for a few seconds.  Grill the asparagus spears for about 3 minutes on each side, depending on thickness, until tender in the centre and lightly charred on the outside.

Whisk about 2 tablespoons oil with the lemon juice, some pepper and the mint to make a dressing.  Remove the asparagus from the skewers, arrange on a plate and trickle the dressing over them.  Sprinkle with flaky salt and shave some cheese over the top if you like.

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s book Ministry of Food.  It comes recommended by Charlotte, one of the founder members of Camel CSA.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
800g cauliflower
olive oil
200g Cheddar cheese, grated
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
salt and black pepper
1 teaspoon English mustard

Method
Dice the carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Cut the cauliflower into florets.  Into a large pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and put over a medium heat, add the diced vegetables and cauliflower. Cook for 10 minutes with a lid partially placed over the pan or until the carrots have softened and the onion is lightly golden.

Grate the cheese. Put the stock cubes into a jug and pour in 1.8 litres of boiling water from a kettle. Add to the vegetables in the pan. Stir and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or so until the vegetables are cooked.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the cheese and mustard, season with salt and pepper. Use a hand blender and pulse until silky smooth – if using a liquidiser let the soup cool down, never put hot liquid into a liquidiser.  Top with more grated cheese. You could also top with some crispy bacon.

This is quite a rich dish and makes a lovely accompaniment to spicy grilled chicken or fish.  It can be found in the Riverford Organic Farms cookbook.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 bunch of spring greens, thinly sliced
1 dessertspoon sunflower oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with a pinch of salt
2 dried chillies, chopped
400 ml coconut milk
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method
Blanch the spring greens in boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain, refresh in cold water and squeeze out the excess.  Set aside.  Heat the sunflower oil in a pan, add the garlic and chillies and fry over a low heat for a minute or so.  Add the coconut milk and simmer over a high heat for 10 minutes, until reduced by about half.  Stir in the spring greens and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the coconut milk is just coating the greens.  Finish with the lemon juice.

An extremely versatile vegetarian dish that uses up the last of the winter season’s swede in this week’s veg boxes. You can use turnips or swede or a mixture of both. The same goes for spinach and chard.

As Nigel says: “This gently fragrant dish works well with potatoes and parsnips, too. You could use another leaf, perhaps chard or kale.” It comes from his Mid-week dinner feature in The Guardian.

Serves: 6
Preparation/cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1kg mixed turnips and/or swede
1 onion, finely chopped
knob of butter
1 tsp oil
1 tsp each of cumin seeds, ground turmeric and garam masala
200g spinach or chard
yogurt and coriander leaves, to serve

Peel turnips and swede and cut them into large pieces. Cook the turnip and swede either in boiling, lightly salted water, or in a steamer, until tender.

In a shallow pan, fry a peeled and roughly chopped onion in a little butter and oil until soft and golden, then add the cumin seeds, ground turmeric and garam masala. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes at a moderate heat until all is fragrant.

Wash and remove any tough stalks from 200g of spinach or chard. Place a nonstick, shallow pan over a moderate heat, add the wet spinach and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Let the spinach cook in its own steam for about three minutes, until wilted, then drain and gently press the water from it.

Add the drained turnips and swedes to the onions and continue cooking until they are lightly golden and have soaked up some of the flavour for the spices. Season with a little salt. Fold the spinach into the spiced turnips and swede and serve, if you wish, with a trickle of yogurt and a few coriander leaves. Serves 4.

Nigel’s trick: “Steam your spinach rather than boiling it. The best way I have found is to wash the leaves and, while they are still very wet, put them in a shallow pan to which you have a tight-fitting lid. Place over a moderately high heat, cover and let the spinach cook for a minute or two in its own steam. Lift the lid, turn the leaves with a pair of tongs or a draining spoon, then cook them for a minute more. I find this gives a better result than boiling.”

The weather is about to turn cooler so I have a good opportunity to serve this winter warmer for one last time before the summer.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients
4 large baking potatoes
40g butter
180ml soured cream or crème fraiche
120g mature Cheddar, grated
2-3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced, or chives
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.  Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for about an hour, until tender when pierced with a knife.  Remove from the oven but leave the oven on.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, carefully halve them lengthways – you might want to wrap them in a tea towel when you do this – and scoop out most of the insides into a bowl, leaving a shell about 5 mm thick.  Return these shells to the oven to the oven to crisp up while you make the filling (don’t let them cook for more than 10 minutes).

Mash the scooped-out potato with the butter, then stir in the soured cream or crème fraiche, Cheddar and spring onions.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Spoon the mixture back into the shells and bake until heated through, about 10-15 minutes.

I can’t remember where I got the original recipe for wild garlic risotto but I have been making it for a few years when I remember to forage wild garlic.

Serves 3

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
30 g butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
250 g Arborio rice
splash white wine
1 l chicken or vegetable stock
large handful wild garlic leaves, roughly chopped
50 g Parmesan cheese, grated

Method
Heat the half the butter and the oil in a heavy saucepan and cook the onion and garlic slowly for about 10 minutes.  Add the rice and stir to coat the rice in the garlic and onion mixture.  Add the wine, turn up the heat and stir until the wine has been absorbed.  Add stock until the rice is just covered and turn down the heat so that the rice is at a simmer.  Keep adding stock as it is absorbed.  After about 10 minutes add the wild garlic leaves and stir into the rice.  Once the rice is just cooked but still has some bite, add the rest of the butter and the cheese.  Season to taste and serve.

Cauliflower rice or couscous is in vogue at the moment as a low carb alternative.  Charlotte, the CSA publicity officer, was planning to have this with a chilli last night.  Recipe from BBC Good Food.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 3 minutes
Cooking time: 7 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower
Good handful coriander leaves, chopped
Cumin seeds, toasted (optional)

Method
Cut the hard core and stalks from the cauliflower and pulse the rest in a food processor to make grains the size of rice.  Tip into a heatproof bowl, cover with clingfilm, then pierce and microwave for 7 minutes on high – there is no need to add any water.  Stir in the coriander.  For spicier rice, add some toasted cumin seeds.

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