A comforting spring vegetable broth

This is a great way of eating spring veggies at their very best; cooking for the minimum time possible to retain their sweetness and gentle crunch. Tiny mint and basil leaves along with chopped fennel tops enhance the flavour, although dill could work equally well, (but mine hasn't grown yet). The white wine brings a lovely freshness. You could use chicken stock as well if you're not veggie.


I think a lot of people wouldn't try cooking lettuce, but actually it's a fantastic way to use little gem or other romaine lettuces, which can sometimes be a bit bitter, because the compact heart means it'll keep its shape well. Everything needs to be sliced up super small and cooked for very little time, as it'll carry on in the bowl when you're eating it.It'd also work with any other spring veg you've got - perhaps beans, baby carrots or asparagus. It's a nice way of cooking spring veg as a side dish too (although a shame to waste the tasty broth) - perhaps serve with fish if you're that way inclined?

This would work really well as a starter as it's wonderfully light, but works equally well as a tasty lunch with some day old bread to mop up the juice.

Onion, fennel and thyme pasty (with a bit of Jerusalem artichoke for good measure)

This was our Sunday tea this evening. It’s not actually a pasty at all but a tart really, however the cynics in my house couldn’t get past the poshness of a tart (my cooking is anything but posh) so we adopted pasty as a not-too-threatening name.

It’d be nice without the fennel too if you can’t get it, but when roasted it adds a real depth of flavour to the tart and is a little bit more interesting. I really liked the Jerusalem artichoke added – it’s got a lovely nuttiness to it. I roasted it then chopped it into smaller bits when it was really soft and caramelised.

You could also make individual tarts, use shortcrust pastry instead of puff (I’d like to try it with a wholemeal shortcrust), perhaps add some tapenade or sundried tomato paste, use a different kind of cheese (maybe try blue cheese – this would really work with the nuts and fennel, or perhaps feta if you want something a bit lighter and zingier) or even no cheese at all. This made 3 big portions (enough for two hungry people for dinner and some for lunch the next day).

Half a pack of puff pastry
2 onions (I used red, could use a combination of different kinds)
a bulb of fennel
about 3-4 knobs of jerusalem artichoke
olive oil
thyme (fresh or dried – I only had dried)
a handful of walnuts, broken into pieces
soft creamy goats cheese (or alternative as above) – as much as you like

Once you’ve roasted the veggies this is just an assembly job. I roasted the onions, fennel (both sliced fairly thickly) and artichoke (whole knobs, peeled) with some thyme, seasoning and olive oil for just under an hour at about 160 degrees.

Once that’s done, just roll out the pastry and draw a box around the outside with a knife (this is so the sides puff up nicely) and arrange the veggies (chop the artichoke into smaller pieces first, making sure you eat plenty of it while you’re doing so), nuts and cheese within the border. Then it just needs a little drizzle of olive oil and a twist of pepper and a hot oven for about 25-30 mins (my fan oven was about 185 degrees).