How to bake with vegetables
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Version 0 of 1. Baking needn't be a monochrome affair. Here are a couple of recipes that go beyond the usual shades of beige – dough, chocolate, caramel, sugar, nuts – and bring vegetables back into the equation. I have to be honest: although these are vegetable-based, they're not likely to nudge you towards meeting your five a day (or is it seven now?). A cake with a carrot in it is healthier than the same cake without, but if you're on a mission to be healthy you're better off having just the carrot part. Once mixed with butter, sugar, eggs and flour, then baked, the salutary benefits of any vegetable are left compromised, if not completely lost. These recipes don't masquerade as healthy baking (if there even is such a thing) – they just use vegetables to give a better texture, boost of flavour or flash of colour to an otherwise quotidian dish. Cauliflower and walnut 'pizza' base I put pizza in inverted commas because there will be those who take issue with the suggestion that this – dough-free, wheat-free – could ever be called a pizza base. Clearly it's a world apart from the crisp-based pizzas we're used to, but for those who are trying to reduce their carb intake, it's a smart substitution. If your only experiences of cauliflower have been the sulphurous, smelly stuff boiled to a mush in grandma's kitchen or the school canteen, you could be forgiven for being appalled at the idea of it lurking in your pizza, but I beg you to give it a chance: when roasted, its flavour grows rounder and more nutty; helped along by a handful of ground walnuts and plenty of parmesan cheese, it's barely recognisable as cauliflower any more. Makes 2 x 20cm basesFlorets from 1 head cauliflower75g walnuts60g parmesan, finely gratedLeaves from 3 sprigs thyme1 large eggPizza toppings of your choice 1 Steam the cauliflower for 5-10 minutes. It needs to be tender enough to break apart between your fingers. Leave to cool completely, preheating the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 in the meantime. 2 Once cool, crumble the cauliflower until no lumps remain (it should be like vegetable breadcrumbs). Heap the crumbled cauliflower into the middle of a clean, dry teatowel or square of muslin. Gather the cloth around the cauliflower, twist the top around to seal and wring as much water out of the cauliflower as possible. Keep going until it's almost dry. You'll be left with a mealy mixture. Empty this into a mixing bowl. 3 Blitz the walnuts in a coffee grinder or food processor until coarsely ground. If you don't have either, finely chop them, then pound using a mortar and pestle. Toss the ground walnuts through the cauliflower, then stir in the parmesan, thyme and egg. The mixture should resemble a very thick paste. 4 Line two baking trays with baking parchment. Pat half the cauliflower mixture into a 20-25cm disc on one of the lined trays, then repeat with the other half on the remaining tray. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm. Now add the pizza toppings of your choice and bake for a further 10-15 minutes at 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Courgette, basil and poppy-seed tea loaf It's an unorthodox combination at first, but the flavours of this tea loaf sit just as well together as those of the usual currants-and-peel versions. Courgette does for this what carrot does for carrot cake, leaving it moist without imparting any discernible vegetable taste. Technically courgettes are fruits, but for culinary purposes I'm happy to class them as vegetables - they're far more commonly used cooked than raw, and in savoury dishes than sweet ones. Basil's pungency weakens in the oven, leaving the finished loaf with an aromatic, but not overpowering, herbal scent. Add in a handful of sultanas and some poppy seeds for crunch, and you're left with a gently sweet, flavourful loaf that even the traditionalists might reluctantly enjoy. Makes one family-sized tea loaf40g unsalted butter, melted200g courgette, coarsely grated20g fresh basil leaves, finely chopped150g sultanas125g full-fat natural yoghurt2 large eggs75g caster sugar30g poppy seeds75g wholemeal flour200g plain flour2 ½ tsp baking powder¼ tsp salt 1 Preheat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3-4. Line a 900g loaf tin (about 20x9cm at its base) with baking parchment. Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat, then set aside to cool slightly while you prepare the remaining ingredients. 2 Combine the courgette, basil, sultanas, yoghurt, eggs, caster sugar and poppy seeds in a mixing bowl. Stir in the melted butter. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stir lightly just until combined. 3 Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 60 minutes, or until a small knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool completely, then slice, toast if you like, and spread with plenty of butter. |