Dealing with the veg box

 

We’ve recently been getting quite a lot of food deliveries from a lovely local company called Foodari (highly recommended if you happen to live in Kent). They used to solely supply restaurants, but like many others, started doing direct to customer home deliveries back during the first lockdown. Most of their produce comes in boxes, which I mostly like, but it does throw up the odd problem. This time around, it was what the hell to do with a swede, a vegetable about which I am not enthusiastic. But, having already by common consent simply binned the broccoli that was also in the box, we felt we should use the swede. The swede sat there for a little while, while the other more popular veg (squash, carrots, leeks, beetroot, etc) got used. Finally, the swede’s time came. The chosen recipe was Gill Mellor’s pureed swede with Portobello mushrooms, sage, garlic and hazelnuts (husband having rejected a suggested Ottolenghi recipe, on the grounds that ‘all his recipes are too much faff’).

So. The swede.  First, peel and chop (or ask a passing husband to do it for you, since this recipe was his idea), then simmer in salted water for 40 minutes. If you have an extractor fan, turn it up, if not, open a window, as the smell of boiling swede is not pleasant.  When your swede is (finally) tender, blend it in a food processor with quite a lot of butter, some sage, and a bit of cooking water to loosen it. As I don’t have an actual food processor, I did it in batches in my mini-chopper. Four batches. After that, you’re still not finished. But the puree in a clean pan, add some grated cheese (supposed to be cheddar, I used parmesan) and (in my case) a bit more butter. Keep warm while you cook the mushrooms.

Blending the swede. I think this was the third batch.

This bit, fortunately, is easy. Slice mushrooms. Fry mushrooms. When almost done, add garlic, sage and hazelnuts, and fry for a few minutes. Serve the mushrooms on top of the swede puree, or in my case on the side, in case you really don’t like the swede. 

Swede puree, plus mushrooms frying in background

We also had some spicy fried cabbage, from one of my husband’s old faithful Madhur Jaffrey cook books, because the cabbage (yes, also from veg box) needed using, and I felt what this meal was lacking was spice. The cabbage was excellent. The mushrooms were good. The swede was… inoffensive. It didn’t taste of very much. The consistency was very light and fluffy, but in a slightly odd way. It was not unpleasant combined with the cabbage. That said, it is a lot of effort just to render something edible.

The finished meal

Husband loved it, and would like to have it again. But I say,  if we ever end up with a swede again, we’re going with the Ottolenghi recipe.