potatoes, preferably waxy ones, such as Desiree or Charlotte
500g cooked beetroot (the ones in vacuum packs or home-cooked), peeled
300ml weak vegetable stock (see note above)
300ml double cream
150ml sour cream
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons pink peppercorns or ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
200g forced rhubarb, thinly sliced
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6. Butter a large gratin dish.
Peel the potatoes and slice them very finely – a mandoline or the fine slicer attachment on a food processor is the best way to do this; just watch your fingers if you’re using a mandoline. Cut the beetroot into fine slices as well – they don’t have to quite be as thin, so you could cut them with a knife.
Put the stock and both the creams into a large saucepan, along with the bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of the peppercorns. Bring the liquid to just under the boil, then take off the heat and leave to sit for 30 minutes or so. Remove the bay leaves, leaving the peppercorns in, then bring the liquid to just below a simmer. Add the sliced potatoes and cook gently for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat, season really well with salt and pepper, and spoon half the potatoes into the gratin dish. Put half the beetroot and rhubarb on top, seasoning as you go, then top with the rest of the potatoes and their cream, followed by the rest of the beetroot.
Roughly bash the remaining pink peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle on the gratin. Bake for 1 hour, or until the vegetables are completely tender. Cover the top with foil after about 45 minutes if it looks like it is becoming too dark.
Butter bean stew with kale and sticky blood oranges
This is a seriously comforting bowl. Sweet spiced beans, burnished blood oranges and the bright green goodness of kale, all topped off with a hazelnut and sesame seed crunch; full of flavour and texture. It’s quick but nourishing, with the satisfying depth of a pot that’s been very slowly ticking away on the stove for hours.
SERVES 4
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
a small bunch of thyme (4 or 5 stalks)
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 x 400g jars or tins of butter beans, drained (or 250g home-cooked beans, see here)
2 blood oranges, or normal oranges, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
300g curly kale, leaves pulled away from the stalks and roughly torn
100g hazelnuts
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 tablespoon sumac
feta or goat’s cheese, to serve (optional)
Fill and boil the kettle. First put a little olive oil into a pan, add 2 cloves of the garlic and fry for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes, herbs and a good pinch of sea salt and simmer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a frying pan on a medium heat, add a little oil, then add the onion and the other garlic clove and cook for 10 minutes until soft and sweet. Add the butter beans to the tomatoes, then half fill the tomato can with hot water from the kettle, add this too and simmer for 10 minutes.
Once the onions are cooked, add the blood oranges, sherry vinegar and honey to the frying pan and cook for 3–4 minutes until the orange slices are starting to caramelise and catch around the edges. Add the kale, put a lid on the pan, turn the heat down and cook until wilted, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, roughly chop the hazelnuts and mix with the sesame seeds, the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Fry in a pan on a medium heat for 2–3 minutes until crisp and starting to toast brown.
By now the bean mixture should be nicely reduced. Remove the thyme and the bay leaves, season and add a good drizzle of olive oil.
Serve the beans topped with the kale and oranges and a good sprinkling of the hazelnuts, sumac and sesame seeds. Crumble a bit of feta or goat’s cheese over the top if you like too.
One-pan squash, caper and kale pasta
This may not be for traditionalists, but I think this way of cooking pasta is clever – the starch from the pasta water comes together to make a velvety, creamy sauce that you wouldn’t get if they were cooked separately. I’m not suggesting all pasta is cooked this way, but when a quick dinner is needed this is where I look.
You can swap in any pasta that cooks in about 8 minutes. I’ve gone for a wholewheat rigatoni here, but I’ve had success with normal, quinoa and corn pasta too. I use Delicata squash, but you could use butternut squash instead – the skin is tougher, so it’s best to peel it.
SERVES 4
1 small Delicata squash (about 400g)
250g curly kale
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
350g pasta (I use wholewheat rigatoni or penne)
the zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
½ x 400g tin of green lentils, drained
a pinch of dried chilli flakes
½ a vegetable stock cube or 1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder
2 tablespoons baby capers, drained
50g Parmesan (I use a vegetarian one)
Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds, then thinly slice the squash halves into half moons about 5mm thick. Strip the kale leaves from their stalks and roughly tear any big pieces. Finely slice the stalks, discarding any particularly sinewy ones.
Heat a tablespoon of the olive oil in a large shallow pan over a medium heat and add the squash with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt. Cook the squash in the pan for about 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, so that the pieces of squash start to catch and brown at the edges. Fill the kettle and put it on to boil.
Once the squash has had its 10 minutes, add the garlic and kale stalks and stir for a minute or so before adding the pasta, lemon zest, lentils, chilli, stock cube and a litre of water from the kettle. Cover with a lid and cook on a medium heat for 6 minutes.
Next, remove the lid and add the kale leaves and capers. Cover with the lid for a couple more minutes, until the kale is starting to wilt and
