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Chef Rob Howell’s veg recipes are put to test


By Features Reporter

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Rob Howell. Picture: Alexander J Collins/PA
Rob Howell. Picture: Alexander J Collins/PA

Keen to put some fruit and veg through their paces? We put chef Rob Howell’s new cookbook to the test.

Bristol-based chef Rob Howell’s new cookbook, named after his restaurant Root, is all about “small vegetable plates, a little meat on the side”.

And he does veg beautifully.

In the book, Howell bakes courgette ragu inside a marrow, turns swede into tagliatelle, chars hispi cabbage, creates tomato water, fills chicory leaves with apple, liberally applies burnt onion powder, gives parsnips the hasselback treatment, and amplifies pears and strawberries like you wouldn’t believe (he even stuffs doughnuts with carrot jam).

Meat and fish do occasionally sidle into view, but in Root, if it’s been picked or dug up, it reigns supreme.

Ella Walker tested roasted carrots with spiced pumpkin seeds, peaches and crème fraîche

Roast carrots are already a thing of beauty. For some reason, one veg, cooked two ways – in this case, roasted and pickled – just sounds super fancy.

The carrots are doused in garlic, honey and spiked with thyme, rosemary and bay.

Quick pickling ribbons of carrot makes you feel sophisticated, as does blitzing toasted pumpkin seeds to a crumb. And that crumb is delicious.

As a finished salad, it’s quite sweet and makes a great accompaniment to a summery roast.

Claire Spreadbury tested salt-baked beetroot with turnips, smoked yoghurt and savoury walnut granola.

This recipe requires lots of prep, but none of it is especially difficult.

Making the salt dough is super easy and making the savoury granola is a doddle. Do allow plenty of time for the veggies to cool before serving though.

Salt-baking is definitely worthwhile. The savoury granola is particularly delicious, but the strong smoky flavour of the yoghurt is quite challenging (especially for younger palates), so go easy on it, and the pickled walnuts might be best left on the supermarket shelf.

Lisa Salmon tested rice pudding with apple compote and milk jam.

Milk jam is a caramel-type sauce made from milk, sugar and bicarbonate of soda, boiled until it’s brown and sticky. It looks pretty grim, but is really easy to make and tastes lovely.

The apple compote was pretty straightforward too – just cooking apples and sugar boiled then pureed, with the addition of diced cooked eating apples.

The rice pudding itself was also surprisingly simple and vanilla extract was a much easier option.

The finished dish didn’t exactly look fantastic, but the creamy, aniseediness was a step up from the tinned stuff.

Root by Rob Howell (Bloomsbury Absolute, £26). Picture: Alexander J Collins/PA
Root by Rob Howell (Bloomsbury Absolute, £26). Picture: Alexander J Collins/PA

Root by Rob Howell, photography by Alexander J Collins, is published by Bloomsbury Absolute, priced £26. Available now.


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