Eat Your Greens

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“Eat your greens” is something we hear rather a lot during our lifetime, if it isn’t our parents during childhood, Government guidelines (e.g. 5 a day project), it’s nutritionists/medics via the media telling us how good they are for us and how we need to eat more. 

Sadly despite all this advice many people still do not eat very many fruit or vegetables in their standard day to day diet, and a lot of what they do eat is overly processed and therefore lacking most the nutrient content. It’s essential to remember that different vitamins and minerals behave in various ways when heated, frozen or are eaten raw and that some need to be eaten in conjunction with others to obtain the benefit, e.g. eating a food high in vitamin C along with an iron rich food enables the iron to be better absorbed by the body. A great source of information regarding this can be found here.

The need to incorporate plenty of fruit and veg into our diet is partly the reason for my ordering of a weekly organic vegetable box from Riverford, the other reasons since I know you’d ask are that I am passionate about local, seasonal, organic food, from ethical sources – eliminating the supermarket from my weekly shop was the next port of call, but more about that later.

The great thing about the Riverford boxes is that they come in a variety of sizes to suit your families needs, you can see what will be included in the next weeks box by looking online and if you don’t want something you just ring and change it, the quality is superb, oh and did I mention it’s seasonal and organic! 

My most recent vegetable box contained a wonderful array of goodies, white onions, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, beetroot, sweetcorn, broccoli, salad leaves, marrow, tomatoes and garlic. 

So many vegetables, so many choices, oh what to make? I decided on a vegetable bake which I topped with lovely buffalo mozzarella which I buy from my local butcher as they have such a wonderful deli area as well as a terrific meat counter (A Johson & Son in Yoxall) before scattering with a little Parmesan cheese (brought from Italy) and a few basil leaves. 

I served the meal up to my family without telling them it was vegetarian fare, knowing that would probably impact on their initial opinion of the dish before they’d even tasted it, they didn’t miss the lack of meat one bit, saying it was filling but light and utterly delicious before asking how soon I could make it again A success then!

I had to agree with them though, the flavour combination was out of this world, so fresh and vibrant – not what you’d expect from some slightly overcooked vegetables. The mozzarella was unctuous, soft, oozy and a true taste sensation. 

The bake was a little time consuming to assemble but well worth the initial outlay of your effort, in fact I’d say it repays extremely well.

Although the bake would be filling enough to eat on it’s own and more than fulfilling enough flavour wise I decided to bake some bread to go alongside it (any excuse) and came up with a honey and olive oil spelt bread, another foray into creating bread recipes for me and that can’t be bad at all.

I used predominately white spelt flour but added a small percentage of brown malthouse flour (from Shipton Mill). Malthouse flour is a delicious blend of three malts and wheat flour carefully chosen to give texture, flavour and colour to the bread’ whole crisp golden malted wheat flakes provide a delicious texture; a malted barley gives a soft rich malty flavour; and the dark malted rye gives a nutty flavour and dark colour. As spelt flour is fairly nutty and rich in flavour only a small amount of malthouse is needed, mostly for texture. More about spelt bread can be read here.

Adding honey to bread sweetened it slightly but mostly just enhanced the nuttiness of the flours. I used a thyme scented honey too, to replicate the flavour used in the vegetable bake but use a honey of your choice.

Adding oil to bread gives a lovely softness and resilience, resulting in a bread with not only a wonderful flavour but a great texture too. This loaf has a tight crumb but a definite springy, light texture to it with a lovely crisp crust, making it perfect for serving along side a main meal for mopping up sauces, to dunk into soup, lovely filling sandwiches or even great toast – an all round good loaf.

As for the type of olive oil, again your bread = your olive oil preference, the only rule is that it must be a good quality extra virgin one as the flavour really does come through into the final bread. I used an Umbrian olive oil from Assisi which had a light grassy taste with peppery undertones.

The Recipes:

Vegetable Bake:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large white onion, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
• Chilli flakes, a pinch
• 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon thyme
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 2 heads of broccoli, broken into florets and the stalk roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 100g Swiss chard, stalk finely chopped and the leaves roughly torn
• 100g beetroot leaves, roughly chopped
• 50g rocket
• 50g spinach leaves
• 250g mascarpone
• 1 ball mozzarella (buffalo if possible)
• basil leaves for decoration

1. Add the broccoli and carrots to the boiling stock and cook until tender drain, reserving the cooking liquor and set aside,
2. Heat the olive oil in a large casserole pot and add the onion and garlic, fry until tender and starting to turn golden, add the chilli flakes and herbs, broccoli, carrots and additional vegetables and stir to coat.
3. Add a little (3 or 4 tablespoons) of the stock to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.  
4. Preheat the oven to 180C or the equivalent.
5. Mash roughly and continue to cook for 10 minutes (adding a little more stock if needed) or until all the vegetables are wilted and tender, taste and season as required.
6. Stir through the mascarpone cheese, top with the sliced mozzarella before baking for around 30 minutes, until the mozzarella begins to turn slightly golden.

Honey & Olive Oil Spelt Bread:

• 400g white spelt flour
• 100g malthouse flour
• 10g salt
• 1 sachet instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil
• 300ml lukewarm water

1. Combine the flours in a large bowl (or free-standing mixer) and add the yeast.
2. Add the honey, olive oil and 200ml of the water and mix until you get a firm but soft dough, gradually adding the extra 100ml of water as needed.
3. Cover the dish with a teatowel and allow to double in size. 
4. Turn onto a floured board and shape in to a smooth ball, allow to rise again for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C.
5. Using a pair of scissors snip a pattern into the top of the dough, brush with olive oil and place in the preheated oven, bake for 30 minutes or until golden and hollow sounding when the base is tapped.

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Filed under Bread, My Recipes, Pasta, Vegetarian