Up this week is a little segment about ways to cook your veg to make them more interesting as side dishes to your roast. As mentioned in an earlier article ‘How to Make Less Feed More’, making creative side dishes to your roast is an excellent way of keeping a meal cheap and tricking people into not realising how little meat they’ve got!
My favourite way to cook carrots has to be with honey and mustard, but Ian really enjoys my brussels with bacon! Have you got a favourite?
Brussel Sprouts:
With bacon- Boil for 5 minutes, then blanch in cold water. Fry chopped bacon in a pan, and add the brussels for the final 5mins of frying. Make sure they’re coated in the bacon grease and crispy on the outside!
Broccoli:
With cheese: Par-boil chunked broccoli until tender, then drain and place in casserole. For the cheese sauce- Fry a little butter in a saucepan, then add flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add milk little by little (whisking as you go) until you have enough to cover the broccoli. Turn up the heat and continue to stir, scraping the bottom, until it thickens to the consistency you want. Add salt, pepper, and grated cheese, and pour over broccoli. Grate more cheese over the top and bake for 30-40mins, or until cheese topping has turned brown.
Simply boiled- Boil for 5 minutes until tender (check with a knife) and drain and blanch in cold water. Serve with similarly treated carrots for a colourful side dish!
Carrots:
Honey and mustard carrots- Matchstick carrots and place in a frying pan. Cover with water, 2tbsp of honey and 1tbsp of wholegrain mustard. Simmer until carrots are tender and coated in sticky honey glaze!
Ginger carrots– Matchstick or slice and treat as above, this time adding a cube of ginger along with them for a Thai twist. These go really well with lemon-roasted chicken!
Roasted- Chop into large chunks and par-boil along with the potatoes for the final couple of minutes. Drain and put into roasting tin with plenty of oil. These are the easiest carrots to do as they require no extra work, but they don’t add much to the illusion that there are loads of plates on the table!
Cauliflower:
With cheese- Make as for broccoli cheese but replace broccoli with cauliflower and treat exactly the same!
Courgette:
Fried- Slice thinly lengthways and pan-fry in a little butter until almost see-through. Sprinkle with black pepper and serve.
Leeks:
With Cheese- Make as for broccoli with cheese sauce, but replace broccoli with leeks boiled for 1-2minutes to soften. Try using half cheddar and half blue cheese for a twist!
Parsnips:
Roasted– Chop into large chunks and add to the boiling potato water for the final 5mins of boiling. Then drain with potatoes and add to roasting dish along with potatoes, and cook for the same length of time. This is the easiest way to cook parsnips, because you don’t have to do anything more to them!
Puree– Boil until tender, and add to food processor along with a clove of garlic. Add a little cream or milk and process until soft and peaky.
Fried- Slice thinly lengthways and fry in butter for a slightly unusual parsnip dish. Try adding ginger for a more exotic flavouring.
With Parmesan- Par-boil parsnips for 5 minutes, drain, and roast for 30. Grate plenty of Parmesan over the top and bake for a further 30mins. Alternatively, Delia’s method is to shake them in a flour and Parmesan mixture whilst they are still hot from the par boil, then roast for 20mins, turn, and roast again.
Sweet Potatoes:
Roasted- As with other root veg, chunk, par-boil and treat as potatoes. Cook for an hour and a half to two hours in a 160-200 C oven.
Swede:
Roasted– As with other root veg, chunk, par-boil briefly, and treat as potatoes from then on.
Mash– Chunk and add to boiling water for 10mins to tenderise. Drain and add to food processor along with a clove of garlic. Puree, adding milk or cream if necessary. You can also add a little carrot to bulk out and remove the slight bitterness of the swede.
Living Frugal 