This warming, spicy soup is a great antidote to rich, Christmas food. It’s an adaptation of a couple of classic recipes, using the squash or pumpkin as well as chillies, carrots, onions, garlic and parsley from this week’s Christmas vegetable boxes.
Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Ingredients
750g squash or pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and diced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 fresh red or green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1.25 litres vegetable or chicken stock
Lemon juice
Flat-leaf parsley or chopped chives
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°c/gas 4.
Peel the squash or pumpkin, remove the stringy bits and seeds and discard them. Chop it into cubes and put in a roasting tray mixed with 1 tbsp of the olive oil, the garlic and the spices. Cook in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until soft and brown at the edges.
Place a pan on a medium heat with the remaining olive oil. Add the carrot, onion, celery and chilli and sweat until softened but not coloured. Then mix in the roasted squash or pumpkin and the stock.
Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes until all the vegetables are soft and cooked through.
Blitz with a hand blender or in a food processor until smooth. Taste and season with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, then sprinkle with some chopped parsley or chives.
Serve with a swirl of creme fraiche and a scattering of toasted pumpkin seeds or crispy bacon pieces.
With a selection of roots in our boxes this week – and with the weather getting colder – it seems a good idea to try this ‘comfort food’ recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day. He says that while it’s not exactly ‘light’, it’s certainly less rich than a creamy dauphinoise-style gratin.
You could also substitute other seasonal roots such as Jerusalem artichokes, carrots or swede which would all work well. Good served with some big flat field mushrooms simply baked with some butter, garlic and cheese, and some good bread.
Serves 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: about an hour
Ingredients
30g butter
2 onions, halved and sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 small celeriac
2 large potatoes
3 large parsnips
a couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only, chopped
3 sage leaves, finely chopped
about 1.2 litres vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven the 180C/gas 4. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and use some of it to grease a large gratin dish. Add the onions to the pan and sauté over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until soft, then add the garlic and cook gently for a further minute or two.
Meanwhile, peel the celeriac, potatoes and parsnips and cut into slices the thickness of a 10p piece, slicing the parsnips lengthways. Spread out the celeriac in the gratin dish, season generously with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with half the onions and half the herbs. Layer the parsnips on top, then scatter the remaining onions and herbs on top and finish with a layer of potatoes.
Bring the stock to a simmer and add some salt and pepper, then pour over the vegetables to barely cover them (you may not need all of it). Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or so until the vegetables are cooked.
At this point, if there is still liquid covering the potatoes, spoon off a little and return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes or so, to brown the potatoes on the top. Serve piping hot.
From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new River Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook. ‘The contrast of sweet, caramelised carrots and zesty gremolata is brilliant – and it looks good too,’ he says. Good with young, small carrots but fine with bigger ones if you cut them into long, thin batons.
Serves 4
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: about an hour
Ingredients
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
30g butter
500g young carrots, larger ones halved lengthways
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the gremolata:
½ garlic clove
small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Put the oil and butter in a large roasting dish and place in the oven until the butter melts. Add the carrots, season generously with salt and pepper and toss well. Cover with foil and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the carrots are tender.
Take the dish out of the oven, remove the foil and give the carrots a stir. Roast, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, until they start to brown and caramelise.
While the carrots are in the oven, make the gremolata. Roughly chop the garlic on a large board, then add the parsley and lemon zest. Use a large, sharp knife to chop and mix the three ingredients together until very fine and well mixed.
As soon as the carrots are ready, toss them with the gremolata and serve straight away.
Another simple, late summer recipe from Nigel Slater in the Observer. It’s a fresher, more up-to-date version of the traditional dish of carrots in parsley sauce.
Nigel says: “A bunch of young carrots doesn’t last long in this house. Munched like sweets, they often go before I even have time to rinse them. The usual cooking method is to steam them and toss them in butter and chopped parsley. Nothing wrong with that, but this way is much more interesting.”
Serves 4 as a side dish
Preparation / cooking: 20 minutes
Ingredients
slim, young carrots 2 bunches
shallot 1, medium-sized
basil 1 small bunch
parsley 6 bushy sprigs
dill 8 sprigs
crème fraîche 200ml
lemon juice a good squeeze
Wipe or rinse the carrots, but don’t peel them, then place them in a steamer basket or colander set over a pan of boiling water. Steam for 7-10 minutes till tender, but not soft. If you prefer to boil them in lightly salted water, do so, then drain them.
Peel and very finely chop the shallot. Remove the leaves from the basil and parsley and discard the stems, then chop them, quite finely, together with the dill fronds. You should have a couple of good handfuls of chopped herbs. Put the crème fraîche into a saucepan large enough to take the carrots in a single layer, add the shallot, herbs and the lemon juice and bring to the boil. Season with black pepper and a little salt, then add the drained, whole carrots. Leave to simmer for a couple of minutes with the occasional stir, taking care not to break the carrots up. Serve immediately.
From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who says: “Of course, you don’t have to stick to three roots: you could use two, four or as many as suits you. Do always include potatoes, however, to give the mash body and to stop it getting too sweet.”
Swede or celeriac could also be used as a mash with potatoes.
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
500g carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
500g parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
500g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
50g unsalted butter or 50ml rapeseed oil
100ml milk (or half milk and half double cream)
freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Cook the carrots and parsnips in a pan of boiling salted water until tender. Cook the potatoes in a separate pan. Drain the vegetables and let them steam dry for a minute or two.
Put the carrots and pasnips in a food processor (or mash with a potato masher), with half the butter or oil, and blend to a creamy puree. Heat the milk and the remaining butter or oil in the pan in which the potatoes were cooked, then add the potatoes and mash until smooth.
Combine the mashed vegetables, adding plenty of seasoning, including nutmeg if you like, to make a creamy, golden mash. Serve steaming hot, with sausages or roast lamb or venison.
This makes an ideal children’s rainy day activity if the bank holiday weekend in the UK turns damp and miserable. (No… please no!) Otherwise it’s a delicious, moist and easy cake to enjoy any time.
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 lemon or orange 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
A simply delicious way of cooking new-season carrots from Henrietta Danvers, one of Camel CSA’s picking and packing volunteers.
Serves 6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Ingredients
750g baby carrots, tops off
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped finely
Juice of half a lemon
25g butter
500ml vegetable stock
Method
Scrub the carrots and leave them whole. Bring the stock to the boil in a heavy-bottomed pan, then add the butter and lemon juice. When the butter has melted, add the whole carrots and cook for five minutes. Take out the carrots with a slotted spoon and pour some of the liquid into another container (keep for soup). Retain about 1ml of stock in the bottom of the pan and reduce it over a high heat. Pop the carrots back into the pan to coat them with the remaining liquid. Sprinkle on the chopped thyme leaves and serve.
Update
Glad we agree on this one: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s cookery column in the Guardian this weekend features – guess what – new-season carrot recipes. “There’s not much that heralds the onset of summer as much as a new-season carrot – so get grating, chopping, roasting, even baking now,” he says.
We will, Hugh, we will…
A warming soup with a bit of a kick that makes use of the seasonal carrots in our veg boxes – from the Riverford website.
Preparation: 15 Mins
Cooking: 50 Mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 level tsp mustard powder
2.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
natural yoghurt to serve
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion and garlic with the mustard powder, ginger, pepper and salt, adding 2 or 3 tbsp stock after a minute or so. After another 2 -3 minutes, add the carrots, stirring well. Pour in the rest of the stock, bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for 40 minutes. When it is ready, whiz the soup until smooth in a blender, or using a hand-held stick blender in the pan. Stir in the chopped parsley, saving a little for garnish and reheat the soup gently if you need to. When serving, swirl a spoonful of yoghurt through each portion. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.
Henrietta says this is good ‘as a lunch snack with cheese or cold meats, also with winter casseroles.’ She warns that it’s best to dress the salad just before use otherwise it will become soggy.
Serves 8
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients
100g pumpkin seeds
2 large carrots coarsely grated
200g spinach leaves, washed and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ red cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
For the dressing:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tbsp runny honey
salt, freshly ground pepper
Method
Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry fry-pan. Put all the above ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix together.
Whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to salad when ready to serve.
A good way of bringing out the flavour of winter carrots.
Serves 6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 30 minutes
Ingredients
1kg carrots
50g butter
pinch of salt and black pepper
1 tsp sugar
plenty of chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon
Method
Peel the carrots and slice them. Put them in a saucepan with the butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Just cover with cold water and let them boil until the water has evaporated and they are tender and glazed.
Stir in masses of chopped parsley and the lemon juice to taste.
