The cooking clouds have lifted, as trees blossom and bluebells carpet the woods, now, surely, is the time to leave roasting behind for a bit, along with woolly hats and winter coats. But something in me doesn’t feel ready for salads and steamers just yet ...
This week, lush, technicolor veg fills my fridge: the very first asparagus, fine leeks as thin as my little finger, candy-coloured beetroots no bigger than a 50-pence piece, dinky, pencil-thin carrots, fuzzy podded broad beans, dip-dyed breakfast radishes and jersey royals so fresh the skin comes off with the gentlest of strokes from a peeler.
Then a friend turned up at our door with bag full of long, green peppers and a bunch of loot from his local Turkish shop for lunch. He told me to blast the peppers in the hottest oven I dared. I did, I loved them, and it got me thinking about spring roasting ...
Two types of roasting happened this week: one fast and full-on, the other slow, mellow and sweet. For the fast roast, peppers, broad beans (pod-and-all) and radishes were sent to a searing hot oven to burnish and char, bringing smokiness and with it a big, brash boost of flavour. The slow roast teases the sweetness from a line-up of picture- perfect baby vegetables, a fresher spring-suited tray of roots.
Both roasts are simply spiced while they cook to allow the character of all the vegetables to shine bright. They are then carefully coated in herby spring dressings chopped in piles on my chopping board, heady and fresh, like mounds of just-mown grass. It’s this dressing of cooked veg – especially roasted ones – that is so important to me.
Both of these trays of roast vegetables look very beautiful, they shout with colour: verdant greens and shocking pink on one tray and a spectrum of brightness on the other. I bring them right to the middle of the table, resting on a thick tea cloth or board, with a little space made on one corner for the bowl of herby dressing.
Roast spring roots with turnip and carrot-top pesto (pictured above)
This roast is a riotous flash of colour, slowly roasted baby roots come out of the oven looking like little jewels. If you can’t get baby roots then the big ones will work too, just be sure to peel them and halve or quarter them, depending on their size. I love using up the bright green turnip and carrot tops, but if you can’t get your hands on veg with tops then a bunch of watercress and parsley will work in their place.
Serves 4
200g new potatoes (jersey royals), scrubbed clean
200g baby beetroots, tops saved, scrubbed clean
200g baby turnips, tops saved, scrubbed clean
200g baby carrots, tops saved, scrubbed clean
6 baby onions, peeled and halved
Juice of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 orange
1 head of garlic, cloves separated, but unpeeled
For the pesto
A bunch of mint, leaves picked from the stalks
A bunch of thyme
Saved turnip tops or a big bunch of watercress
Saved carrot tops or a big bunch of parsley
4 cornichons or little gherkins
100g hazelnuts or almonds, roasted
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp baby capers
Salt and black pepper
A small bunch of radishes
1 Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Take all your scrubbed vegetables, keeping the tops for later, and cut any larger vegetables in half – you want everything to roast in about the same length of time. Divide the vegetables between two baking trays. Squeeze the juice of the lemon and the orange over the veg, then put the squeezed halves on the tray. Scatter the unpeeled garlic cloves over the top and put both trays in to roast for 45 minutes, or until everything is soft throughout and brown round the edges.
2 Meanwhile, wash, dry and finely chop your herbs and vegetable tops, keeping the beetroot tops for later. Finely chop the cornichons too.
3 Put the nuts in a pestle and mortar, then bash well until you have a rough, crumby texture. Mix with the chopped herbs and tops, the olive oil, cornichons, capers and a good pinch each of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4 Once the vegetables are ready, scatter over the beetroot tops for the last few minutes. Once everything is ready, the vegetables are nicely golden and the beetroot tops have wilted and begun to crisp a little at the edges, take the tray out of the oven. Carefully squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins into a little bowl, then mash them well and add to the herb mixture.
5 Use tongs to squeeze the juice out of the (still hot) roasted citrus – even the ones you originally squeezed will have become juicy again after roasting.
6 Serve the veg on a big platter with the garlic, herb and almond dressing for spooning over.
7 Serve with some bread or brown rice if you are particularly hungry; a spoonful of tart yoghurt can work well here too.
Flash-roast green veg
It may seem a bit unusual to roast the broad beans in their pods, but do give it a try. The pods sweeten, soften and char all at once, keeping the sweet little beans nestled safely inside. I like to use jarred chickpeas as I find them to be more carefully cooked and hence more tender than tinned. The pulses tend to be bigger than those in the 400g tins, so use about 300g of drained jarred chickpeas, if you can get your hands on them.
Serves 4
8 thin green Turkish peppers
4 red onions, peeled and cut into thin wedges
8 broad beans in their pods
4 little gem lettuces, washed and cut into wedges
A bunch of long radishes, washed
A bunch of spring onions
Salt and black pepper
2 good pinches of Turkish chilli powder (pul biber)
Extra virgin olive oil
200g feta
A small bunch of thyme
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, or 300g jarred chickpeas, drained (optional)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
For the dressing
A splash of white wine vinegar
A small bunch of mint
A small bunch of dill
A small bunch of parsley
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 First, preheat your oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Put all the vegetables on to a tray, season liberally with salt, pepper and chilli, then douse with olive oil and put into the very hot oven to roast for 25 minutes. You want the oven to be quite fiercely hot, so that everything will catch and char.
2 On another tray, lay the whole block of feta on one side and the chickpeas on the other. Top the feta with a little more chilli, half the lemon zest and the thyme tips. Sprinkle the chickpeas with about 2 tbsp vinegar. Put this into the oven underneath the veg for the final 20 minutes.
3 Meanwhile, make the dressing. Chop all the herbs and put them into a bowl with the remaining lemon zest and half the juice, plus 4 tbsp of olive oil.
4 When the veg is nearly done, squeeze the last of the lemon juice over the top, scatter with garlic and return the tray to the oven for a couple of minutes.
5 Pull both trays out of the oven. Pile each plate with greens, then top with chickpeas, chunks of feta and a good amount of the herb dressing. Serve with Turkish bread, if you like.
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook. (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food
