When it comes to dinner, we Brits have always been very much in favour of ‘meat and two veg’. The veg part was usually potatoes and something green – cabbage or sprouts in winter, peas or runner beans in summer – with carrots, cauliflower, parsnips, swedes or turnips to vary the colour. Rice only accompanied curries or, in later years, a Chinese takeaway, and pasta was used for either macaroni cheese or spaghetti with tomato sauce, and that often came out of a tin.
That’s how it used to be, but it’s all changed now, with a huge variety of other ‘sides’ taking over. Rice isn’t just plain rice anymore; it’s long-grain, short-grain, sushi, jasmine, basmati, bomba, Arborio, or Camargue – just take your pick.
And, with a bewildering array of noodles and pastas to choose from, the humble spud has been well and truly consigned to the back burner. But I do have to say we Brits would never give up our Sunday ‘roasties’!
As for the greens, I bet everyone’s mum has used the mantra ‘eat your vegetables, they’re good for you’ at some time in their life. Well, so they are, and that’s the direction my recipes are taking today, with some different vegetable sides.
It’s a strange thing, but although I like cooked celery, I cannot eat it raw. I like it in soup and stews, and I especially like it braised.
With its creamy sauce and a sprinkling of crispy crumbled pancetta, it’s very good with pretty much anything that doesn’t have its own gravy or sauce.
My baked Mediterranean vegetable dish is a tasty mixture that’s perfect with barbecued food, and is surprisingly good with roast lamb. It can be easily doubled or trebled to feed a crowd – just use a bigger dish – and it’s nice served either warm or at room (or beach or backyard) temperature.
The recipe for sautéed carrots and zucchini was one of the collection the French Embassy gave me when I wrote about their dining event last month.
You can vary the spices according to taste, but I think too much heat overpowers the vegetables, so I chose to use gentle ones like cumin and coriander. I also used dark green imported courgettes, because that’s what the original recipe included, but Maltese marrows would be equally as good.
I like stuffed vegetables, either aubergines, peppers or, in this case, marrows. I’m very partial to tabbouleh too, and I think the lemony, minty flavour of the bulgur wheat goes well with marrows. You can use quinoa instead, which is very trendy in food magazines at the moment, but I’ll stick with old-fashioned bulgur.
Served either hot or cold, these are another good barbecue veg or, alternatively, they can be served as a starter.
Braised celery
(Serves 4)
1 head of celery
20g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
150ml cream
150ml vegetable stock
6 sage leaves, chopped, or ½ tsp dried sage
Salt and pepper
6 slices Italian pancetta
1 heaped tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Divide the celery into sticks. Cut off and chop about a tablespoon of the leaves, discard the rest, then cut each stick into four or five pieces. Melt the butter in a large pan and fry the celery, stirring and turning for about five minutes, then transfer it to a shallow baking dish.
Add the onion to the pan and fry until it starts to soften. Add the garlic and fry for a minute more. Stir in the cream and vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Add the sage and chopped celery leaves and season well with salt and pepper, then pour the mixture over the celery. Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes or until the celery is tender when tested with the point of a sharp knife.
Dry-fry the pancetta in a pan until it is crisp and drain on kitchen paper. Using a draining spoon, transfer the celery to a serving dish, cover and keep warm and strain the juices into a pan. Bring to the boil and let it bubble until reduced by about a third, then stir in enough of the cornflour to thicken it slightly.
Simmer for one or two minutes more, then pour the sauce over the celery and sprinkle with the crumbled pancetta.
Baked Mediterranean veggies
(Serves 4 to 6)
1 large aubergine
Salt
Olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsps shredded basil leaves
Ground black pepper
1 yellow and 1 red pepper, cored, skinned and sliced
4 or 5 large tomatoes, sliced
5 or 6 small zucchini, trimmed and sliced
A few extra basil leaves
Cut the stalk off the aubergine, then cut it in half lengthways, then cut the halves across into one-centimetre slices. Put them into a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for 30 minutes. Rinse the slices and drop them into boiling water, blanch for two minutes, then drain well.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, add the onion and fennel and fry until they start to soften, then tip them into a baking dish.
Sprinkle with half the garlic and basil and season with some salt and black pepper.
Spread the aubergines on top of the onion and fennel and scatter over the peppers and the rest of the garlic and basil. Season again, then arrange the tomatoes and zucchini in alternate rows on top and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for about 30 minutes, sprinkle with a few basil leaves and serve either hot or at room temperature.
Spicy sautéed carrots and zucchini
(Serves 4)
4 thick carrots
1 tbsp sunflower oil
30g butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
2 tsps mild curry powder
4 zucchini, about 18cm long, trimmed and sliced
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and ground black pepper
Peel the carrots, slice them about half a centimetre thick and cook them in boiling salted water until just tender, then drain well.
Heat the oil and butter in a large non-stick frying pan and when the butter is foaming, add the onion and fry until it starts to soften.
Add the garlic and spices and fry for a minute more, then stir in the zucchini and parsley and some salt and pepper.
Cook over fairly high heat until the zucchini are just tender and lightly browned, then lower the heat add the carrots and gently toss it all together.
Cook for two or three more minutes, turn into a warm dish and serve.
Zucchini with tabbouleh stuffing
(Serves 4)
100g medium bulgur wheat
Grated rind and juice 1 small lemon
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ tsp salt and ground black pepper
4 zucchini, about 18cm to 20 cm long
½ small onion, very finely chopped
2 tbsps chopped mint
2 tbsps chopped parsley
2 tbsps sultanas
2 tbsps toasted pine nuts
Mint or parsley sprigs to decorate
Put the bulgur wheat into a bowl, pour on cold water to cover by about five centimetres and leave to stand for at least and hour. Drain and squeeze it as dry as possible. Return to the rinsed and dried bowl, stir in the lemon rind and juice, olive oil, garlic, the salt and a good grind of pepper and leave it to absorb the dressing while preparing the zucchini.
Wash the zucchini and slice off the top third of each one, leaving the stalk intact, then carefully scoop out the flesh using a teaspoon or melon baller, leaving about a half-centimetre thick shell. Put the shells, cut sides up, into a large pan with a good pinch of salt and pour over boiling water to cover. Cook until the shells are just tender, then drain them and cut side down on kitchen paper.
When serving hot, keep the shells warm, tip the bulgur into a pan and heat it through, then stir in the onion, mint, parsley and sultanas and stuff the zucchini with the mixture.
When serving cold, let the shells cool, stir the flavourings into the bulgur and spoon it in to the zucchini.
Sprinkle the tops with pine nuts, decorate with sprigs of mint or parsley and serve.