A veg-packed winter menu
Blood orange salad, roasted carrots with tahini yoghurt + fried olives with ricotta
After an unplanned hiatus (hello, seven millionth nursery sickness bug), I’m in the mood for food that’s cheerful enough to get me through the last, unrelenting gasp of winter. So this week there are three technicolour dishes –that could be eaten together or separately – which celebrate what’s in season right now.
Blood oranges arrive at a time when you really need them, a burst of shocking pink that cuts through the greyest of days. I love them in this bracing salad, with citrus-spiked fennel and avocado.
Then roasted rainbow carrots, craggly and charred from the oven, on top of tahini and preserved lemon yoghurt and creamy white beans. On the side, a ridiculously simple dish of ricotta with fried garlicky olives on top – an as seen on Tik Tok recipe worth embracing.
I hope that if you, too, are finding the endless winter illnesses (and all of the stop-start disruption they bring) pretty relentless, that these three recipes will act as a reminder that spring – and with it, surely a bit of respite from the bugs – is on the way.
Blood orange and avocado salad
Juice of 1 lemon
1 head fennel
½ pink grapefruit
2 blood oranges
1 avocado
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Finely slice the fennel, removing the root, and reserving the herby fronds. Combine the sliced fennel and lemon juice in a bowl with a sprinkling of sea salt, crunching it with your hands, and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
Cut the pink grapefruit and blood oranges into segments and add to the bowl with the fennel. When you’re ready to serve, slice the avocado and toss this in too. Combine the white wine vinegar, olive oil and honey and pour over the salad, tossing before serving.
Roasted carrots and white beans with lemony, garlicky yoghurt
750g rainbow carrots, larger ones cut in half length-wise
2 tsp za’atar
6 tbsp Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp tahini1 clove garlic, grated
1 preserved lemon, very finely chopped
1 tin butter beans, drained
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Arrange the carrots on a parchment-lined baking tray and sprinkle with the za’atar. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil, coating with your hands. Roast for 25 minutes, turning halfway, until cooked through and golden.
Meanwhile, combine the yoghurt, tahini, garlic and preserved lemon in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste, adding more tahini or lemon to get the flavour you like.
Spoon the yoghurt onto a big platter, spreading it with the back of a spoon. Spoon over the beans then top with the roasted carrots, parsley and a drizzle of olive oil before serving.
Fried olives and ricotta
1 jar pitted green olives with chilli and garlic, drained
1 tub ricotta
A pinch of chilli flakes
1. Heat a splash of oil in a small frying pan. Add the olives and fry for 3-4 minutes over a medium-high heat, until slightly blistered. Spoon the ricotta into a small bowl.
Toss the olives with the chilli flakes before spooning on top of the ricotta. Serve with bread for mopping.
The baby step
Mash some of the roasted carrots and beans through cooked cous cous or rice. Serve with blood orange slices on the side (and, if you’re in my house, frozen peas, which are a non-negotiable at every meal).