much more widely available, though a few heads of chicory would do fine in their place. Be careful not to use overripe pears; you need them to be a little on the firm side so they hold their shape as they cook.
SERVES 4
5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar
a generous pinch of flaky sea salt
4 just-ripe pears
400g celeriac or parsnip, peeled and cut into small 2cm pieces
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 tablespoon white miso paste
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
200g pearled spelt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 heads of bitter salad leaves (see note above)
50g blue cheese
Put 4 tablespoons of the vinegar, the black peppercorns, caster sugar and salt into a saucepan with 100ml of water and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, peel the pears, halve them and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon. Lower the pears into the pickling liquid, lower the heat and leave to cook until tender (about 10 minutes). Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave to rest.
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6. Roast the celeriac in the oven on a baking tray, with a little oil, for 20 minutes. Mix the honey with the miso and mustard. After 20 minutes take the tray out of the oven and add 1 tablespoon of the miso mixture, toss through the celeriac, then return to the oven for a further 5–10 minutes, until crispy and golden.
Meanwhile, cook the spelt. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, then add the spelt and cook for 20–25 minutes or until cooked through and tender. Mix the remaining miso mixture with the remaining tablespoon of vinegar and the olive oil, drain the spelt and toss in the dressing.
Once everything else is ready, tear all the leaves from your bitter lettuces and lay on plates. Top with the spelt, celeriac and the pickled pears and crumble over the cheese.
Quick carrot dhal
This dhal has its roots in South India. It comes together quickly but has rich layers of flavour which might lead you to think it had spent hours on the hob – pops of mustard seeds, warming cinnamon, everything I love in a dhal.
The turmeric and carrots make this a vibrant sunny-hued bowl, and on top lies a colour pop of sweet-shop pink radish pickle. I serve it with poppadoms scrunched into shards over the top for a welcome bit of crunch. We have dhal in some form or another at least once a week, and this is one I keep coming back to. If you really wanted to speed things up you could do all your grating in the food processor.
SERVES 4
2 cloves of garlic
1 green chilli
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 red onion, peeled
coconut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
200g red lentils
1 × 400ml tin of coconut milk
600ml vegetable stock
6 carrots, peeled
2 large handfuls of spinach
juice of 1 lemon
FOR THE PICKLE
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 green chilli
1 unwaxed lemon
2 handfuls of radishes
1 tablespoon nigella seeds
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
honey or agave nectar
a bunch of coriander, chopped
TO SERVE
plain yoghurt
cooked brown basmati rice
a few poppadoms
Finely grate the garlic, chilli and ginger (I use a sharp Microplane grater; if your grater isn’t quite up to the job, finely chop them), then coarsely grate the red onion. Put a large saucepan on a medium heat, add a little oil and everything you have grated and cook for 10 minutes until soft and sweet.
Pound the cumin and coriander seeds a bit in a pestle and mortar, then add to the pan with the other spices and cook for a couple of minutes to toast and release their oils. Add the lentils, coconut milk and stock to the pan and bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down and bubble for 25–30 minutes. Meanwhile, grate all the carrots and add those too.
While that is cooking make a little pickle to go on top. Finely grate the ginger, chilli and the zest of the lemon into a bowl, then use a coarser grater to grate the radishes into the bowl. Add the nigella seeds, vinegar, a squeeze of honey, half the coriander, a good pinch of salt and mix well.
To finish your dhal, take it off the heat, then stir in the spinach and allow it to wilt a little, stirring in the other half of the coriander and the juice of the lemon too. Pile into bowls and top with the radish pickle, spoonfuls of yoghurt and brown basmati rice. At the table, crumble over your poppadoms.
Beetroot, rhubarb and potato gratin
This might just get the all-time gratin crown. There’s gentle comfort from the potatoes and cream, with an unexpected pop of sweet acidity from the rhubarb, a foil for the unrepentant earthiness of the beetroot. The lively warmth of the pink peppercorns tops things off. It’s a pretty beautiful-looking dishful too; there are some amazing colours at play: whites, neon pinks, magenta and the dots of fluoro pink peppercorns – you’d struggle to find one pinker.
I tend not to cook with a lot of dairy but here I make an exception, using the best I can get my hands on. Vegans might try this with almond or oat milk, or even some vegetable stock in place of the creams. I make the stock for this with about half the powder or stock cubes that the packet suggests, so the flavour of the stock doesn’t overwhelm; if you have homemade stock (see here), all the better.
SERVES 4–6
butter, for greasing
1kg
