Carrot, beetroot & rhubarb salad with homemade spread and Eton mess – Everyone’s kitchen

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Carrot, beetroot and rhubarb salad

Spread: beetroot hummus and courgette leaves hummus

Elton mess with berries from the garden

Harvest of the day

For the salad: lettuce, rhubarb
For he spread: courgette leaves
For the dessert: tayberries, red and black currant, gooseberries

Carrot, beetroot and rhubarb salad

Ingredients (serves 4)

300g bunched beetroots
300g bunched carrots
salt & pepper
175g rhubarb
1 orange
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
50g watercress/lettuce
small bunch of mint, finely chopped
olive oil
salt & pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 200˚C/Gas 6. Remove the leafy tops from the beets and give them a good wash and scrub to remove any dirt. Do the same with the carrots.

Place the beets in the saucepan, cover with cold water and season with salt. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until soft to the tip of a knife.

Meanwhile, cut the carrots into evenly sized angular pieces. Place them on the roasting tray, coat with oil and season well with salt and pepper. Mix well and roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender and starting to colour.

While the carrots and beets cook, cut the rhubarb into 3cm pieces. Split any wide pieces in half, lengthways, so that all the pieces are a roughly even size. Zest and juice the orange into a large saucepan, and add the sugar and rhubarb. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for 5-6 minutes, until the rhubarb is starting to soften but still holds its shape. Remove from the heat and leave it to cool with the lid on.

When the beets are ready, remove them from the water and thumb the skins away. Cut into even-sized wedges.

Let the carrots and beets cool a little while you make the dressing. Whisk 3 tablespoons of the rhubarb liquid with a pinch of salt, and slowly add 2 tablespoons of olive oil so that it comes together into a dressing.

Mix the beets, carrots and watercress together with the dressing. Transfer to a serving plate and then gently place the rhubarb pieces across the top. Scatter over the mint to finish.

Zucchini Leaf Spread

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add the zucchini leaves to the water and stir.

Boil the zucchini leaves for just about 1 minute — boiling the leaves too long gives them a mushy texture.

Pour the pot of water into a strainer, allowing the water to drain away from the zucchini leaves. Immediately rinse under cold water for 1 minute.

Squeeze the zucchini leaves to remove the excess water. Deposit the leaves into a bowl and add additional seasonings and ingredients as desired. You can use minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped onion, Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes.

Mix the ingredients with an electric mixer until a thick paste forms. You can also add chunky ingredients, such as chopped tomato or diced black olives, for texture.

Beetroot hummus

Ingredients

250-300g beetroot
400g tin cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp light tahini
1-2 lemons, depending on size
pinch ground paprika
1½ tsp ground cumin (use freshly ground cumin seeds if you can)
olive oil, about 2-3 tbsp, plus a little extra for drizzling
salt and pepper

Method

Roughly chop the beetroot and put in a food processor with the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, juice of 1 lemon, the paprika and cumin.
Blitz to a coarse paste, then gradually trickle in enough olive oil until you have a thick, smooth(ish) dip.
Taste and add salt, pepper and a little more lemon juice to taste, and the garnish.

Currant syrup