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 turn bright green. If your pasta is a little dry you can add a tiny bit more water, about 100ml. Remove the lid and simmer for another 2–3 minutes, until the water has been absorbed, then take the pan off the heat and stir through the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and half the Parmesan. Taste and add a little more salt if needed, then leave to sit for a minute or so before piling into bowls and topping with a good grating of the remaining Parmesan.
Turmeric and coconut baked aloo gobi
There is something grand and celebratory about roasting a vegetable whole. It becomes a centrepiece, which is something I think people look for in vegetable-centred cooking. The food I make most nights celebrates vegetables in some way, but cooking them whole like this takes a cauliflower one step further: golden and crackled, its colour intensified, in all its glory as nature intended.
Whole roasted cauliflower is something that has been finding its way on to restaurant menus the last couple of years, partly due to the cauliflower renaissance spearheaded by vegetable magician Yotam Ottolenghi. Burnished and browned, a whole cauliflower is such a pleasing thing to put in the middle of the table, with a sharp knife for everyone to cut brave wedges for themselves and uncover the buttery clean white inside, a sharp contrast to the crisp and highly flavoured outside.
This is my favourite way to eat cauliflower: the sweet note of coconut milk, the punch of ginger and green chilli, the earthiness of mustard seeds and the clean spiced note of turmeric are perfect sidekicks to the neutral-flavoured, buttery roasted cauliflower. I add some halved potatoes to the pan to absorb the coconut and lemon goodness. There are few things which are as friendly in the way they soak up flavour as a cauliflower.
SERVES 4
1 large cauliflower or 2 small ones
600g potatoes
4 tablespoons coconut oil
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
4 green chillies
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
1 unwaxed lemon, cut in half
TO SERVE
thick Greek or coconut yoghurt
almonds
a small bunch of coriander, leaves picked
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7. Fill and boil the kettle.
Using a pair of scissors cut the large leaves and stalks away from the cauliflower. You can leave the little leaves close to the florets – they will go nice and crispy when roasted. Turn the cauliflower upside down and, using a small paring knife, carefully cut a hollow in the middle of the stalk, so that it cooks evenly. Take a pan big enough to hold the cauliflower, half fill it with water from the kettle and bring it to the boil. Season the water with salt, then immerse the cauliflower and simmer for 6 minutes. Drain the water away, put the lid back on and leave the cauliflower to steam in the residual heat for a further 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 2cm pieces, leaving the skin on.
Take an ovenproof dish or pan (that can go on the hob as well) large enough to take the cauliflower. Spoon in the coconut oil, and grate the ginger into the oil. Finely chop the chillies, discarding the seeds if you wish, then add them to the pan. Add the garlic, then place over a medium heat and let the spices and aromatics cook for a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the mustard seeds and continue cooking until the garlic has softened, then add the turmeric and a big pinch of salt.
Pour the coconut milk into the spice mixture, stir well and season with a little black pepper. When the milk starts to bubble gently, turn off the heat, place the drained cauliflower in the dish, then baste it with the coconut-spice mixture. Throw the lemon halves into the side of the dish too, then scatter the potatoes around; they will sit in the coconut milk.
Bake the cauliflower, basting it occasionally with the spiced sauce in the dish, for 40–45 minutes. You want it to catch a little on top. To test if the cauliflower is cooked, insert a small sharp knife into the middle – it should be really tender and the potatoes and cauliflower should have soaked up most of the sauce. Once it’s perfect, take it out of the oven and transfer to a serving dish, then squeeze over the roasted lemons. Serve in the middle of the table, with little bowls of yoghurt, almonds and coriander for sprinkling on top.
Wholegrain spelt, date and molasses scones
These are