Spring Recipe: Beetroot Baked Beans with Wild Garlic

This Springtime version of baked beans uses beetroot to add flavour, texture and a vibrant pop of colour, which is set against the green hues of the wild garlic. We love to eat this on toast as well as topping pasta or rice, it’s incredibly versatile. You can swap in the beans to use up what you have in your store cupboard, or use dried beans soaked overnight before cooking.

Recipe: Beetroot Baked Beans with Wild Garlic

Serves 6 - 8

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp rapeseed (or alternative) oil

• 1 onions, peeled and finely chopped

• 1 leek, washed and finely chopped, including leaves

• 1 carrot, washed and finely chopped

• 250g (approx 2) beetroot, washed

• 200ml reserved beetroot water after beets have cooked (or top up with boiled water if you don’t have 200ml left over)

• 1 vegetable stock cube

• Large handful wild garlic, washed

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

• 1 tbsp tamari (or soy) sauce

• 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika

• 3 cloves

• 1 tbsp local honey (or maple syrup for vegan version)

• 2 x 400g tins beans (I used a combination of black and cannelloni beans)

• Sea salt & cracked pepper

• (Optional) Bread to serve, I used toasted rye bread from Baker Tom’s

Method:

1. Finely chop the onion, leek and carrot.

2. Wash and remove the hard ends of the beetroot then chop into small bite-size pieces.

3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the chopped onion, leek and carrot and cook for approx 10 minutes until softening and turning golden in colour.

4. Place the beetroot pieces in a separate saucepan, cover generously with water, bring to the boil and simmer for approx 20 - 25 minutes until beginning to soften but still with some shape and bite to them. When finished cooking, drain into a bowl, reserving the liquid, then set aside.

5. When the onion, leek and carrot have finished sautéing, add the tinned tomatoes, 200ml of reserved beetroot water from cooking (top up to 200ml using boiled water if you don’t have enough), tamari , balsamic, bay leaves, paprika, honey and season with salt and pepper.

6. Roughly chop half of the wild garlic (reserve the rest for garnish) and add in, stir well to combine.

7. Bring the mixture in the saucepan to the boil then reduce heat and simmer without a lid on for approx 20 minutes until thickened and reduced down a little.

8. Take the pan off the heat, remove the bay leaves and use a stick blender to whizz up the mixture until it achieves a thick soupy texture.

9. Taste a little, and adjust seasoning if required.

10. Return the pan to a slow heat, drain the beans and add them in along with the beetroot pieces. Simmer for 10 minutes until everything is warm and well combined.

11. If serving on toast, pop the toast in just before the beans have finished cooking.

12. Serve topped with the remaining leaves of wild garlic along with a drizzle of olive oil and cracked pepper.

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Recipe: Wild Watercress Soup

Is anyone else feeling acutely aware of the value of our food right now, as we continue with ‘lockdown living’?

As we struggle to book slots for food deliveries with many items not currently available, and going shopping means queueing for hours (and is only an option for those who aren’t self-isolating), it somehow feels like there’s a more urgent need to connect with and appreciate each item of food and each part of each item of food that we are lucky enough to have access to right now, along with the people who sow, grow, harvest, package, supply, sell and deliver.

With this vulnerability we are living with comes opportunity, especially with the time that some of us are lucky enough to have on our hands right now. What changes can we start making - however small - with the way we eat whilst we have more time at home to cook, that might last beyond the lockdown? 

Whether using up leftovers (even if it means eating the same thing for three or four nights in a row, albeit in a slightly different guise), considering parts of a plant that we can cook rather than throw away, considering how we can support our local growers and farmers at this time?

Our lovely neighbours dropped a box of watercress on our doorstep that they had foraged from the woods. I made it into soup, then tonight the soup became a sauce with a Buddha Bowl supper that included chopped-up & baked Colwith Farm potatoes, leftover quinoa and seasonal veg that I re-fried & topped with roasted crunchy leek leaves from the veg patch - these have become a new favourite of the kids’! 

Note - I hadn’t cooked with wild watercress before. Tasting it raw it was pretty peppery so at first I didn’t add too much to the soup, knowing that the children wouldn’t eat it if it was too hot. However the watercress really wilt down and the flavour mellows a lot with cooking, so don’t hold back too much with the amount you use, if you have plenty.

I’ve popped the recipe below but feel free to add or replace items depending upon the vegetables that you have available that need to be used up.

Wild Watercress Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients

• Olive oil

• 2 onions, chopped

• 4 leeks, washed, the stalks chopped and the leaves chopped into approx 5cm lengths and set aside

• 6 potatoes, washed and chopped

• 2 handfuls wild garlic, washed and chopped

• 1.5 litres veg stock

• 6 large handfuls watercress, washed and chopped leaving a few pieces whole to decorate with.

• Dried herbs such as thyme (or use fresh herbs)

• Salt & pepper

• 1 chilli pepper (optional)

Method

• If you have access to the countryside for foraging in early spring, begin with a walk with the intention of picking watercress and wild garlic (and any other goodies you may find!) head out on a walk to bring back your foraged finds then wash them. Wild Food UK has a great online foraging guide.

• In a large pan gently cook the onions and chopped leeks for approx 10 mins until softened.

• Add the potatoes and cook for a further 10 mins.

• Add the wild garlic, herbs, salt and pepper along with the vegetable stock. Simmer for 15 mins.

• Add the watercress and cook for a further five minutes.

• If you like a smoother soup, whizz with a hand-held blender. Check seasoning again.

• Serve in warm bowls with a sprig of watercress, drizzle of olive oil and sprinkling of ground pepper on top. We added some chilli to ours but left it off the kids’ bowls.