Humble roots

We had a bit of a glut this week, Carrots, that most humble of root vegetables, they seemed to be everywhere. We hadn’t even started on the bunch that came in last weeks veg box when another bunch turned up all fresh and perky in this weeks offering. There were a few still left over from the week before and in a major failing of my faculties I actually bought yet more whilst out food shopping; just because they were the right shape, you know those delicious little baby Chantenay carrots, I wanted them for a version of Coq-Au-Vin I was cooking mid week and thought they’d look good in the dish. So due to this slight over run of the gloriously humble Daucus carota I found myself searching around for a few recipes to appease, not only my shopping guilt but the excess.

There are of course many ways to cook a carrot and nothing better than to boil until just tender, drain and then glaze with butter, a little sugar and serve sprinkled with fresh chopped Parsley. We call these ‘naughty carrots’ at home and in a stroke of genius and by employing a degree of psychological warfare the kids were wooed into eating them by simply designating them as ‘naughty’ (due to the sugar & butter content), all kids like something naughty and this system worked a treat and we still refer to this dish by the same name today. In an aside to this: we once convinced my son, probably aged two (poor lad had no idea) that sparkling mineral water was ‘white coca-cola’, another battle won by simple psychological techniques, worked until he went to nursery school and started mixing with other better informed children who were already indoctrinated in the delights of ‘the real thing’!

There is always a soup I suppose, a classic way to relieve oneself of an overflowing supply of vegetables, but today I fancied something a little more tantalising and something to accompany some slow roasted lamb shoulder that was oozing and spitting in the oven. I was thinking of a Greek flavour or an exotic North African spicing that would go perfectly with the lamb. Once again Ottoleghi’s Plenty came to the rescue with a very simple Moroccan spiced carrot recipe that I instantly suspected could be adapted in several ways. The basic idea was simple, we like that, par-cook the carrots, fry some onion and spice these with cumin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chilli and garlic, return the carrots, stir together and eventually serve with some fresh coriander and an indulgent dollop of Greek yoghurt drizzled with your best olive oil.

Moroccan spiced carrot salad

Serves: 4

• 1 kg carrots 
• 100 ml olive oil 
• 1 onion finely chopped 
• 3 cloves of garlic 
• 2 green chillies 
• 1 pinch of ground cloves 
• 1 pinch of ground ginger 
• 1 pinch of ground coriander 
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon 
• 1 tsp sweet paprika 
• 1 tsp ground cumin 
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 1 tbsp of chopped preserved lemon skin (if you have it or the grated zest of a lemon 
• Juice of 1 lemon 
• 1 handful of fresh chopped coriander 
• Greek yoghurt to serve 
• Salt & pepper 

Wash, peel and cut the carrots into 1cm thick batons about 3 cm in length. Cook in slowly boiling salted water until just tender but retaining some degree of crunch. Drain and allow to cool.


In a frying pan soften the onion in olive oil until just starting to colour, sprinkle in all the ground herbs, the chopped garlic, finely chopped chillies, white wine vinegar and lemon zest and continue cooking for a few minutes until all the flavours are combined and the onion is browned and golden.

Return the carrots to the onion mixture and mix thoroughly so all the carrots are coated in the onions and spices. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Just before serving stir through the chopped coriander and serve in individual bowls with a spoon of Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of olive oil.


I was cooking at a music festival the other week and used this basic recipe to create a couscous dish that could be pre-prepared and taste good all day. It turned out to be a real hit and I have prepared it a few times since. It follows the same basic principles as the Ottolenghi dish above but combines couscous, mint & raisins to make a sweet and spicy warm (or cold) salad that is great as an accompaniment to meats or is an ideal lunch box recipe.

Moroccan spiced carrot couscous

Serves: 4

• 1 kg carrots
• 150g couscous
• 100ml olive oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 green chillies
• 1 pinch of ground coriander
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 handful of fresh chopped coriander
• 1 handful of fresh chopped mint
• 1 handful of the best raisins you can afford
• Salt & pepper

Wash, peel and cut the carrots into 1cm thick batons about 3 cm in length. Cook in slowly boiling salted water until just tender but retaining some degree of crunch. Drain and allow to cool.

In a frying pan soften the onion in olive oil until just starting to colour, sprinkle with all the ground herbs, the chopped garlic, finely chopped chillies and continue cooking for a few minutes until all the flavours are combined and the onion is browned and golden.

Return the carrots to the onion mixture and mix thoroughly so all the carrots are coated in the onions and spices. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Put the couscous in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and cover with boiling water. Put a lid on the bowl or cover the bowl with cling film and leave to stand for 10 minutes. After ten minutes ‘fluff’ the couscous up with a plastic fork and drizzle in a little olive oil and lemon juice just to help the grains separate. Stir in the chopped mint and coriander, season to taste with salt & pepper and add more lemon juice if required. Now add the carrots and onion mixture and the raisins and stir all the ingredients together. Adjust the seasoning to taste, add more chopped herbs and lemon if required then place in into a large serving dish.  

Get with the Beet !

Second helpings are always a good thing and there is no exception in the case of the deeply delicious beetroot. Normally and probably quite rightly one associates the deep earthy flavours of this particular purple bulb with the autumn, but in fact these roots are available pretty much all year: bar a brief holiday from April till June. It therefore comes as a complete delight to find what appears to be a second crop available just now, but this is really the beginning of the season that began in late June and will now continue through till next February or even March. The beets available now are smaller, sweeter and cook more easily than those larger ones available in the winter month’s, which can sometimes have a tough woody core.

There are many ways to prepare and eat beetroot but I find the best place to start no matter what recipe I am intending to follow is to roast the beets in the oven until tender and from there I can do what ever I so desire with ease. I have noticed that many cook books instruct a roasting of around 45 minutes, this in my opinion is a complete fallacy, I can’t remember ever being able to roast a beet from raw to tender in this time, an hour and a half maybe, but never much less than an hour, so bear this in mind before starting any recipe involving beetroot.

My preferred method is quite simple, produces a deep rich colour, flavour and velvety texture, let alone a delicious aroma that will fill your kitchen making you instantly and ridiculously hungry. Simply remove most of the roots and stalks from the beets, scatter a good handful or two of sea salt on the bottom of a large sheet of foil, place the washed and dried beets onto the bed of salt, wrap the foil up tightly and place on a tray in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. As I said you can expect this process to take around 90 to 120 minutes depending on the size and age of your beets. You can always test them with a skewer after an hour and see how they’re doing. When completely tender, allow them to cool and then rub off the skins with your fingers ( wear some rubber gloves if you don’t want stained fingers) and trim off the stalks and roots.

Now you have a delicious cooked beet that can be added to salads, pan-fried with carrots and balsamic vinegar, made into deep velvety soup that can be eaten hot or cold and even used to make a surprisingly good, moist cake.

I am a huge fan of the beet and find it a complete joy to cook with. I love the way it partners so well with fruit and in these two recipes I do exactly that. The soup is a delicious alternative to Borscht, the apple lightens and sweetens and this version is equally good hot or cold. The salad is simply wondrous, tangy, salty (from the olives) and sweet from both the beets and the fruit. It looks quite stunning too and is super simple to make.

Beetroot , orange and olive salad

Serves: 2

• 400g beetroot 
• 2 sweet blood or blush oranges 
• 50g black dried pitted olives 
• ½ a small red onion very finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 
• 3 tbsp olive oil 
• Flat leaf parsley chopped 
• Salt & pepper 

Prepare the beetroot by washing, trimming off the long stalks and sitting them on a bed of sea salt wrapped up inside a piece of foil. Place them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees and roast for at least 90 minutes or until completely tender when pierced with a skewer or sharp knife. Allow to cool for a while, and then remove the stalks and skins, slice into wedge shape pieces and place in a large mixing bowl.

Cut the skins from the oranges by slicing off the ends and cutting down the sides of the fruit to reveal the flesh, thus removing any pith, cut out the segments of orange from in-between the membranes and put the segments and the juice in the same bowl as the beetroot.

Add all the other ingredients: olives, onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar and chopped parsley to the bowl, mix the salad together, season with salt & pepper to taste and serve on a large platter. 

Beetroot, apple & celery soup

Serves: 4

• 1kg Beetroot (roasted)
• 500g Apples
• 1 large onion
• 1 Celery stalk
• 200ml white wine
• 1 tbsp Demerara sugar
• 1.5ltr vegetable or chicken stock
• 2tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Crème fraiche
• Chives

Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour or until tender, peel the skins off the beets and slice. Sweat the onion and celery in a large pan in a little olive oil. Peel, core and slice the apples add these to the pan and cook down for a while. Add the sugar, white wine and cook for a few minutes more until all the ingredients are combined. Pour over the stock, season and simmer gently until everything is thoroughly tender and cooked through: about 30 mins. Allow to cool for a little while and then place in a food processor and blitz into a smooth soup. Return to a pan, heat gently and then serve with a swirl of crème fraiche or sour cream and a scattering of finely chopped chives or dill if preferred. This soup is excellent served chilled.