Minted Spring Vegetables

From 101 Veggie Dishes, BBC Worldwide, 2003.

It was not spring but winter, however the vegetables for this dish were readily available—except for baby onions. To make up for this I bought a jar of pickled onions. I rather fancied the idea of using them.

To begin, I heated some butter and olive oil in a pan and when it was ready I added some pickled onions and let them warm through for a couple of minutes. Then I poured in a little white wine and also added a leek finely sliced, brought it all to the boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

A cup of frozen peas was now added and let simmer for a few minutes more. Then a baby cos lettuce was cut into slices and added, stirring until it had wilted. It was let cook for 2 more minutes after which 2 heaped tablespoons crème fraîche were stirred in with a tablespoon each of chopped fresh mint and parsley. When it had all heated through it was served over some soaked and warmed bulghar wheat.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The flavour of the vegetables came through, the sweetness of the peas popped through the bitter lettuce leaves and the pickled onions worked really well to give a spicy crunchy contrast. The bulghar wheat was wrong though. Indeed, I think it would have worked much better as just a plate of creamy mixed green vegetables.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Celeriac and Blue Cheese Soup

From 101 Veggie Dishes, BBC Worldwide, 2003.

This was a particularly easy soup to make. Into a large pot I placed a knob of butter and when it was melted I added a cut up onion, celeriac and potato. There was no need to worry about chopping them small—just rough pieces was fine. They were sautéed for a few minutes and then 500ml stock was added. I used a stock cube and plain water.

After about 15 minutes, when the vegetables were cooked, the mixture was pureed with a stick blender. It was very thick so I added more water. The recipe called for cream to be added to about half the quantity of the stock. For me, I just added about ¼ cup. Already I felt the mixture was thick and creamy enough. The soup was now put aside until serving time.

The soup was now gently reheated, but not to boiling point. A 250g block of blue veined cheese was cut into pieces and most of them added to the soup that was stirred until they had dissolved. When the soup was dished up a few of the remaining pieces of cheese were added to the bowl.

An enjoyable soup. It was rich and creamy with a gentle celery flavour under the tang of the blue vein cheese. The recipe was from a small-sized book that came from Good Food magazine. Each double page spread has a new recipe on one side with a full-page photograph opposite that certainly entices you to try and make the dish. There’s a wide variety in the 200+ pages.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔