There’s nothing quite like the feeling of making a delicious meal using home-grown produce. The tastes are sweeter, the satisfaction that little bit greater, and the plates licked far cleaner! Here at Roots Plants, we teamed up with chef Jess Rose Young to come up with some amazing recipes, all using fresh vegetables that you can grow at home. Our mouths are watering just thinking about it, so let’s get straight into it! A word of warning: if you weren’t hungry before reading this, we guarantee you will be afterward…

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• Courgette, spinach and garden pea galette
• Cumin and chilli roasted carrots with whipped ricotta
• Panzanella salad with pink pickled onions
• Smacked cucumber salad
• Very bougie potato salad

Courgette, spinach and garden pea galette

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Pastry

• 150g plain flour
• 150g rye flour
• 150g butter, cold, diced
• Pinch of salt
• 60-70ml cold water
• 1 egg (for glaze)

Filling

• 3 banana shallots
• 1 large courgette
• 125g spinach
• 200g blanched peas (roughly 400-500g fresh peas in pods)

Method

Making the pastry

To make the pastry, mix the plain flour, rye flour, and salt. Work the cubed butter into the mix to make fine breadcrumbs (this can also be done in a food processor or blender).

Add the cold water and bring it together with a cutlery knife, or give it a few more pulses in the food processor.

Knead on the work surface for a minute to form a smooth dough. Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Chill for 30 minutes or overnight.

Note: shop-bought shortcrust pastry also works well for this recipe.

Making the filling

To make the filling, slice the shallots into half moons and sweat down in a saucepan with one tbsp oil and a generous pinch of salt. Cook down for 15 minutes or until super soft. Allow the shallots to cool.

Meanwhile, slice the spinach finely and mix it through the shallots once cool. Add the zest of half a lemon and season well with salt and pepper.

Slice the courgettes into thin rounds. Preheat the oven to 200°C – put a flat baking tray into the oven at this stage.

Assembling the galette

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it into a circle on top of some greaseproof paper. You’re looking for pound coin thickness.

Spread the shallot and spinach mix into the centre of the pastry, leaving a large border around the edge. Top with the sliced courgettes and drizzle them with oil and a little salt.

Fold the edges of the pastry to create a pie crust – it can overlap and look rustic. Finish with an egg glaze and a sprinkle of salt. Carefully slide the galette on the greaseproof paper onto the preheated baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Sprinkle the tart with freshly blanched peas and freshly picked basil, and there you have it! Bon appetit!

Cumin and chilli roasted carrots with whipped ricotta 

Serves 2 (or 4 as a side)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of carrots
• 1 tbsp toasted cumin
• 1-2 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 250g ricotta
• 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tsp sumac
• 3 sprigs of dill
• A few basil leaves
• A handful of rosemary and thyme

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Prep the carrots – clean them and trim the carrot tops off, leaving a little green top. Cut the carrots in half, lengthways, and then again into quarters, and toss with the olive oil, cumin, chilli flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Take the carrots, now coated in the oil and spice mix, and place them on a baking tray or within a deeper roasting tray. Cover the carrots with some rosemary and thyme, preferably fresh. Roast for 15-25 minutes (depending on how thick the carrots are) until soft and slightly charred.

Meanwhile, grate the garlic as finely as possible and zest the lemon. Mix the grated garlic and lemon zest into the ricotta and whip it for a minute or so to lighten it. Season with salt and pepper, then spread the risotto onto a serving plate. Top with the sumac, then place the roasted carrots onto the spread.

Add your dill and basil leaves, plus a final sprinkling of sumac, and you’re good to serve up!

Panzanella salad with pink pickled onions

Serves 2 (or 4 as a side)

Ingredients

Pink pickled onions

• 2 limes
• 1 large orange
• 1 small red chilli
• 2 large or 3 small red onions

Panzanella salad

• 800g heritage tomatoes
• 2 slices of sourdough (old/stale works best)
• 1 small can of perello olives (or 200g olives with no stone)
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 250ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small bunch basil
• 1 small bunch parsley

Method

Making the pickled onions

Juice the limes and the orange. Slice the red onion into half moons, making sure to cut them as thinly as possible. Deseed and dice the red chilli.

Mix everything in a bowl with a pinch of salt and scrunch the onions with your hands. Do this a couple of times over 2-3 hours or allow them to sit overnight. These will keep in the fridge for 5 days.

Assembling the Panzanella salad

Cut or tear the sourdough into cubes or bite-sized pieces. Make the dressing by mixing the oil and lemon and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the bread so that it soaks up all the juices.

Slice and quarter the heritage tomatoes so you have a mix of shapes and sizes for the salad. Add your tomatoes to the dressing-soaked bread, then slice the olives into rounds and do the same.

Roughly chop the herbs and then mix everything with a handful of the pink pickled onions. Leave to sit for 15 minutes before serving. Finish with a glug of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and a few fresh basil leaves.

Smacked cucumber salad

Ingredients

• 1 scotch bonnet chilli
• 2 cucumbers
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 spring onions
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
• Half a bunch of coriander
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove
• 300ml olive oil

Method

First, bash the cucumbers! Keep the cucumbers whole and use a rolling pin to smash them so they break down. Salt the cucumbers and leave them to sit while you make the rest of the dish.

Char the scotch bonnet in a hot, dry frying pan so it’s blackened on each side, allow to cook then deseed and dice the chilli – use half the chilli if you don’t want it too spicy.

Slice the spring onions, peel and grate the ginger and garlic, then place in a heatproof bowl along with the diced chilli.

Heat the oil to roughly 180°C then pour over the chilli mix. Be extra careful with the hot oil! Allow to infuse for half an hour then add the soy sauce. This keeps in the fridge for up to one month.

To serve, squeeze off the excess water from the cucumbers then chop roughly. Pour over the chilli oil, making sure to get some of those lovely spring onions over the cucumber, and garnish with freshly picked coriander leaves.

Very bougie potato salad

Serves 4 as a side

Ingredients

• 500g new potatoes
• 45g Greek or natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp sumac
• 200g radish
• Half a fennel bulb
• Half a bunch of dill

Method

Start by washing the potatoes, and cut any large ones so that they’re all roughly the same size. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15-20 minutes or until cooked. To make the dressing, mix the yoghurt, oil, one tsp sumac, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Slice the radish and fennel as thinly as possible, chop the dill then toss everything together in a large mixing bowl. Serve on a large platter and scatter over some picked dill fronds and the remaining sumac.