A Unique Child: Nutrition - Buried treasure

The wonderful thing about seasonal eating is the excitement of rediscovering flavours that haven’t been around for a while and making friends again with some of those recipes we have left on the shelf.

As the fresh bright greens and reds of summer salads give way to the darker, richer hues of autumn and winter crops, it is time to welcome back some heartier flavours and, in particular, get back to our roots.

The gloriously rich purples, reds and golds that are so redolent of autumn leaves are echoed in the array of jewel-coloured root vegetables which are at their very best right now.

The sweet and earthy flavours lend themselves perfectly to warming casseroles and make delicious accompaniments to meat, beans and lentils as well as standing up well on their own in soups and dips. And that is not all, because roots are packed with vitamins, minerals and energy-giving carbohydrates.

FRESH IS BEST

As with all food, fresh is best and when vegetables are in season it makes sense to buy them locally if possible or, even better, grow your own. At Snapdragons Keynsham, we have had great success with carrots and beetroot in our kitchen garden.

There is nothing more exciting for the children than digging down into the soil to find the buried treasure of a succulent beetroot that they have helped to grow.

Our chef, Raquel, did experiment with sweet potato but with less impressive results. Ideally, these need to be grown in a greenhouse because they come from warmer climates than ours, but our vegetable patch is sheltered in a walled garden and gets full sun, so it was worth a try.

NEW BEGINNINGS

Root vegetables of all sorts make the perfect weaning food: their sweetness and creamy consistency when pureed seem to have universal appeal for babies. Annabel Karmel has a weaning recipe for a trio of root vegetables – sweet potato, carrot and parsnip – which goes down very well, but really any combination works and research indicates that as far as flavours go, the more the merrier.

A recent trial at UCL showed that UK babies introduced to five different vegetables in rotation over the first 15 days of weaning were more likely to accept new varieties later on. Interestingly, the results were not replicated in Portugal and Greece where the trial was also held, because the control groups were more likely to be eating a range of vegetables anyway.

As babies progress with weaning, root vegetables continue to be useful in the form of finger foods, softly steamed and cut into batons or lightly crushed.

LET’S GET CREATIVE

There is nothing wrong with simplicity and a pile of mashed swede with a knob of butter and a grating of black pepper or a smooth celeriac puree served with roast pork or crumbles of crispy bacon need no extra embellishment. Having said that, it would be a shame not to get more inventive, and root vegetables lend themselves to all sorts of dishes, whether cold, hot, sweet or savoury.

Grate expectations

We all know about coleslaw, but we don’t have to stick to the carrot and cabbage combination – try using beetroot and apple and change the mayonnaise to natural yoghurt for a healthier version. Or go French and make celeriac remoulade, which is really coleslaw by another name, using coarsely grated celeriac and some Dijon mustard added to the dressing.

There is a whole host of recipes for cakes and biscuits, both sweet and savoury, with beetroot, carrot or parsnip grated into the mix, making those treat foods a whole lot healthier.

At Snapdragons we add grated vegetables into stews, curries, sausage rolls and even homemade bread. Have some fun and play with different combinations of roots and herbs or spices.

Full steam ahead

If you are going for a mash, puree or dip, steaming is better than boiling, especially for celeriac and sweet potato, which can collapse and become too mushy when boiled. If you don’t have a steamer, a metal colander does the job just as well. As with all vegetables, cooking in too much water allows the nutrients to escape, so if you can’t steam, use just enough water to cover the cubed vegetables.

After buying a wonderful vegetarian cookery book from Tierra Kitchen, a restaurant in Lyme Regis (www.tierrakitchen.co.uk), I love cooking roots laid on top of some star anise, cumin, peppercorns and bay leaves and tightly sealed in a parcel of foil in the oven. The vegetables steam in the fragrant aroma of the spices and anything you do with them afterwards will be a hundred times tastier, whether that is a dip, a vegetarian burger or serving them just as they are.

The perfect roast

Perhaps the easiest way to cook roots is to roast them. If the skin is not too tough, scrub it well and leave it on, otherwise peel the vegetables, then cut them into chunks of the same size, toss with a little rapeseed oil and maybe some sweet paprika or thyme leaves and roast at 180-200°C until tender. Cooked like this, roots can be used to accompany almost anything. Delicious with any meat, as part of a warm lentil salad with halloumi or feta cheese, to top your pizza, or just by themselves.

A very easy and popular dish at nursery is roasted root vegetables with sausages from our local farm, popped into one big baking dish with a drizzle of oil and plenty of thyme and bay leaves, sealed with foil and left in the oven to look after itself until tender, succulent and delicious. If you are having a fireworks party, this could be the perfect, warming, outdoor supper to eat with your fingers out of a paper cone with tomato ketchup (homemade optional!). No fuss, just fun. n

Mary Llewellin is operations manager for Snapdragons. Snapdragons Keynsham has the Food For Life Partnership Gold Catering Mark, a Children’s Food Trust Award, is accredited by the Vegetarian Society and was winner of the Nursery World Nursery Food Award in 2012 and 2014. See www.snapdragonsnursery.com

MORE INFORMATION

‘An exploratory trial of parental advice for increasing vegetable acceptance in infancy’, British Journal of Nutrition, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9887379&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0007114515001695

Annabel Karmel root vegetable puree recipe, www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/weaning-baby-trio-root-vegetables

Tierra Kitchen, www.tierrakitchen.co.uk

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