Sophie Grigson - Vegetables

For this soup I use small, round, sweet-sharp pickled red peppers with a bit of a kick to them, to throw a shot of excitement into a comforting carrot soup. If you can’t find any good red pickled peppers, then you could replace them with pickled jalapeño peppers – but go gently, as the heat can be more intense and the colour is less attractive.

Serves 4–6

1 onion, chopped

500g (1 lb 2 oz) carrots, sliced

1 bouquet garni (3 sprigs lemon thyme, 1 sprig tarragon, 2 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf), tied together with string

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons pudding rice

4 hot or 6 mild pickled red peppers, roughly chopped

1.5 litres (23/4 pints) light chicken or vegetable stock

lemon juice

salt and pepper

To serve

a little soured cream (optional, but good)

roughly torn coriander or parsley leaves

4–6 pickled red peppers, sliced

Sweat the onion and carrots with the bouquet garni and oil for 10 minutes in a covered saucepan over a gentle heat. Now add the pudding rice and the peppers and stir until the rice is glistening with the oily juices. Add the stock, salt and pepper and bring up to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes, until the rice and carrots are tender. Draw off the heat and cool slightly, then liquidise in several batches. Add a little more stock or water if the soup is too thick for your taste, and stir in a couple of squeezes of lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasoning. Reheat when required.

To serve, ladle into soup bowls, add a few small dollops of soured cream and then top with the coriander or parsley and sliced peppers.

The best falafel I’ve eaten over the decades have almost invariably been bought from street stalls and eaten on the hoof, jostling for space with tomato, cucumber and lettuce in the cavity of a warm pitta bread.

Back at home, lacking the ambience of the bustling street, I resort to making my own falafel, lightened with the natural sweetness of grated carrot, and served as a first course with a fresh and invigorating salad. They’ve not got the street–stall shimmer, but the taste is terrific, nonetheless.

In terms of culinary notes, the most important is that you should never ever even think of using tinned chickpeas for making falafel. They have to be made with dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, to get the right texture and firmness. No debate on this one. The second, a follow-on from the first, is that you mustn’t rush the cooking. If the temperature of the oil is too high, the falafel will never cook through to the centre.

Serves 4–6

125 g (41/2 oz) dried chickpeas, soaked overnight

6 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 large clove garlic, chopped

2 carrots, grated (about 200g/7 oz)

30g (1oz) parsley leaves, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

sunflower and olive oil for frying

salt and pepper

To serve

leaves from a small bunch of coriander

18 mini plum tomatoes, halved

1 shallot, halved and thinly sliced

1 carrot, coarsely grated

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3–4 tablespoons thick Greek-style yoghurt

To make the falafel, drain the chickpeas and place in the bowl of a food processor with the spring onions, garlic, carrots, parsley, cumin, baking powder, salt and pepper. Process to a smooth paste. You should be able to roll it into balls that hold together nicely – not too soft and soggy, nor irritatingly crumbly.

Take a little of the mixture and fry in a little oil. Bite into it and consider whether the seasoning needs to be beefed up. Act upon your thoughts immediately. Now, scoop out dessertspoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls, then flatten gently to a thickness of around 1.5 cm ( 5/ 8in). Cover and set aside until needed.

Shortly before serving, heat up a 1cm ( 1/ 2in) depth of sunflower oil, or mixed sunflower and olive oils, in a saucepan. When good and hot, add a few of the falafel and fry for some 3 minutes on each side, until crustily browned and cooked through. You may have to try one to check that you’re getting the timing just right. What a pity – just don’t try too many.

While they are in the pan, mix the salad ingredients – coriander, tomatoes, shallot, carrot, lemon juice and oil – and divide among plates (or pile into one big bowl). Serve the hot falafel with the salad and a dollop of thick yoghurt on the side.

This is, in essence, a smart pot-roast, with the carrots and Riesling flavouring the natural cooking juices of the birds. If you have a brace of pheasants, there should be enough to feed six comfortably, but a guinea fowl will probably not satisfy more than four. Either way, the finished result is smart enough to grace a dinner party, but easy enough to serve as a good supper dish when you need something of a boost.

Serve the birds and their sauce with steamed or boiled new potatoes and some sort of green vegetable, to counterpoint the tender sweetness of the carrots.

Serves 4–6

15g (1/2 oz) butter

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

2 pheasants or 1 plump guinea fowl

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, sliced

500g (1lb 2oz) carrots, cut into batons

4 sprigs tarragon

150 ml (5 floz) dry Riesling

100 ml (3 1/2 floz) double cream

salt and pepper

Heat the butter with the oil in a flameproof casserole large enough to take the birds and all the carrots. Brown the pheasants or guinea fowl in the fat, then remove from the casserole. Reduce the heat, then stir the onion and garlic into the fat and fry gently until tender. Add the carrots and tarragon and stir around for a few minutes, then return the pheasants or guinea fowl to the pot, nestling them breast-side down in amongst the carrots. Pour over the Riesling and season with salt and pepper. Bring up to the boil, then cover with a close-fitting lid. Turn the heat down low and leave to cook gently for 1 hour, or a little longer if necessary, turning the pheasants or guinea fowl over after about half an hour.

Once the birds and carrots are tender, lift the birds out on to a serving plate and keep warm. Stir the cream into the carrots and juices and simmer for 2 minutes or so, then taste and adjust seasoning. Spoon around the birds and serve immediately.

Everyone knows that carrot cake is a very good thing, indeed. What a cheery thought it is that you can have your cake and eat vegetables at the same time.

This is the recipe I return to regularly, after playing away with less successful variations. I’m not usually a big fan of baking cakes or pastry with wholemeal flour, but for once it makes absolute sense, absorbing some of the moisture that the carrot provides, and giving the substance the cake needs.

Serves 8–12

250g (9oz) light muscovado sugar