A Collection of Vegetables

serves 6-8

Keep partially cooked vegetables covered in the cool until they are needed, then blast with heat in a hot oven until piping hot, but not re-cooked. Vary the vegetables as you wish. I have just included carrots, green beans and broccoli but you can reheat mashed or new potatoes, pureed vegetables – for example celeriac, carrot and swede. Leeks and red cabbage are delicious too. To save having too many pans of boiling water, just use one saucepan and remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and re-use some of the boiling water. Always start with the dense vegetables first, carrots and potatoes, and the more delicate ones last. How long you cook vegetables for is a very personal thing. We like our vegetables with a slight crunch and not too cooked, but if you prefer your vegetables slightly better cooked, leave them in another minute when you blanch them.

Ingredients:

225g young green beans, trimmed225g new whole baby carrots, trimmed or carrot batons225g broccoli sprigs Salt and freshly ground black pepper25g butter, meltedA large lasagne type dish

Method:

1 Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.

2 Add the carrots to the boiling water and cook as above for about 3 minutes depending on size, until just tender. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, straight into a bowl of cold water to refresh them, and to stop the cooking process. Once they are cool, drain them in a colander and stand to one side.

3 Then continue this process with the other vegetables, but only boiling the broccoli and beans for 2 minutes.

4 Toss each batch of vegetables, individually, in a little melted butter or olive oil and season well. Arrange in a large, flat ovenproof dish and cover tightly with buttered foil. Keep them in the fridge or a cool room.

5 When it comes to reheating the vegetables, preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

6 Place the dish on a hot baking tray in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until the vegetables are steaming and you can hear the butter sizzle. Make sure you calculate the 20 minutes from when you are going to eat them, don’t be tempted to keep them warm. Serve at once.