From my experience working in homes, schools, and kitchens, with kids, adults, parents, and lunch ladies, I know for a fact that sitting down to a nourishing home-cooked meal every day can have a massive impact on our minds, bodies, and overall happiness. It shouldn’t just be something we do for a Sunday lunch or once in a blue moon. Cooking a homemade meal is the single most important thing we can do for our well-being, because then we know exactly what is going into our bodies. It allows us to honor the people we are cooking it for and it means that we also get a chance to sit round a table, eat, drink, and really spend time with one another.
The more I cook simply—easy pastas, quick hearty salads, and all-in-one gratins—the more I realize that food doesn’t need to be posh, complicated, or made from exotic ingredients to do us good. It’s the quick-to-make, everyday, and weeknight meals that we eat on, say, Tuesdays and Wednesdays that make a real difference in our lives. These meals are the “bread and butter” of our eating week and the most important ones to focus on.
At the same time that we are busier than ever, there is also a movement toward balancing things out. There’s a desire to treat our bodies well and to look after ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. And an awful lot of this centers around the food we eat.
There has been a real shift in the way we look at food. More people are conscious of what they’re putting into their shopping baskets, more people are buying seasonally, and more people are cooking at home. For the first time in two generations, home cooking is firmly back in fashion, and an ever-increasing number of people are actively choosing to eat a diet centered around vegetables on at least a few days of the week.
Making vegetables the focus of our diet is widely considered to be the single most important thing we can do for our own health and for the health of the planet. Over the last couple of years, eating a plant-based diet has moved from the domain of brightly painted vegetarian cafés to proud center stage.
I hope this book will show you how to do this in your home without too much fuss. It’s packed full of the food I like to eat and the food I like to cook. To my mind, it’s this straight-up everyday food that is so important for us to get right and get enthused about. And it’s the recipes in this book that I hope will help you cook amazing, achievable meals every night of the week.
PARSNIP AND POTATO PANCAKE
SERVES 4 TO 6
There is something clean and Alpine about a
rösti (potato pancake), while at the same time it is super-satisfying. Using parsnips in a
rösti adds a sweetness and savoriness that a potato
rösti doesn’t have. Here the
rösti is served with grilled leeks and lemony greens, with the option to add a little ricotta.
FOR THE RÖSTI
2 free-range or organic eggs
1⅓ pounds/600 g parsnips (4 to 6)
2 large potatoes
leaves from a small bunch of thyme
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil
FOR THE TOPPING
5 ounces/150 g baby leeks
7 ounces/200 g spinach
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 unwaxed lemon
TO SERVE (OPTIONAL)
6 free-range or organic eggs
ghee
3½ ounces/100 g ricotta cheese
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C (convection 400°F/200°C) and get all your ingredients together. Heat a grill pan over high heat.
Beat two eggs together. Peel the parsnips and potatoes and coarsely grate them into a mixing bowl.
Squeeze the grated vegetables in your hands or in a clean kitchen towel to get rid of most of the moisture, then put back into the bowl and add the beaten eggs and the thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Heat an ovenproof shallow casserole or frying pan, then add a good drizzle of oil and the parsnip mixture. Pat out to form a thick rösti and cook over high heat for a couple of minutes, then put into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
Grill the leeks until charred on all sides, and then put into the oven to keep warm with the rösti. Wilt the spinach in a frying pan with a little olive oil, then take off the heat, season well with sea salt and pepper, and grate over the zest of the lemon.
A couple of minutes before your rösti is ready, fry the eggs in a little ghee. Once the rösti has had its time, take out the leeks and mix them with the spinach. Pile this and the ricotta, if using, on top of the rösti.
Copyright © 2016 by Anna Jones. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
