The Modern Cook’s Year. Anna Jones

2 lemons

      1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped

      1–2 green chillies (depending on how hot you like things), roughly chopped

      1 teaspoon cumin seeds

      ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (or the crushed seeds from 5 pods)

      a pinch of ground cloves

      2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

      Preheat your oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6.

      Roughly chop your broccoli and cauliflower into small florets, about 2–3cm, and the stalks and root into thin slices. You want to cut your cauliflower a little smaller than the broccoli as it cooks a little slower. Place the lot on a baking tray with the chilli, cumin seeds and a good pinch of salt. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast in the hot oven for 20–25 minutes.

      Next, cook the quinoa for a couple of minutes in a large dry saucepan over a medium heat, letting it crackle and toast. This will give it a deep nutty flavour. Once it is beginning to smell fragrant, cut the lemon in half, place both halves in the pan and quickly pour over 600ml of water. Crumble in the stock cube and bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed. Top up with more boiling water, if needed, as you go.

      To make the herb smash, put all the coriander, including the stalks, the juice of one of the lemons and the other ingredients into a food processor along with 2 tablespoons of cold water and blend on a high speed to make a smooth grassy-green sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary, adding more lemon, garlic or oil as you see fit. (Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to one week.)

      Once the brassicas are roasted and the quinoa is cooked, tumble them all into a bowl and pour over one third of the dressing. Scatter over half the almonds, mix well and finish with the rest of the almonds and a good squeeze more lemon.

      Little pea and white bean polpette

      This recipe is made out of stuff I always have on hand in the store cupboard, freezer and fridge. It’s at this time of year that I rely on these staples: frozen peas and preserved lemons add a flash of green and some freshness, an interruption from the roots and grains while we wait for the fresh green march of spring. I make a batch of these and turn them into a few meals: served with a grain and greens for dinner, in a wrap with some pickles or with spaghetti and a spiced tomato sauce (see here). I add a little Parmesan to balance the flavour here, but vegans can use nutritional yeast.

      SERVES 4

      FOR THE STORECUPBOARD SALSA VERDE

      a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley

      2 tablespoons capers, drained

      1 tablespoon cornichons, drained

      2 sun-dried tomatoes, drained

      the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

      10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

      FOR THE POLPETTE

      1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped

      2 cloves of garlic, peeled

      2 teaspoons coriander seeds

      a generous pinch of dried chilli flakes

      olive oil

      300g frozen peas

      1 x 400g tin of white beans (or 250g home-cooked, see here), drained

      50g breadcrumbs or roughly blitzed oats

      ½ a preserved lemon, flesh removed and discarded, peel finely chopped

      1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

      the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

      4 sun-dried tomatoes

      50g freshly grated Parmesan (I use a vegetarian one) or 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

      Preheat the oven to 200°C/180ºC fan/gas 6 (if you are baking your polpette).

      To make the salsa, roughly chop together all the ingredients except the oil. Put in to a bowl and add the oil little by little, stirring well. Taste as you go – you may not need all the oil.

      Put the onion into your food processor with the garlic, coriander seeds and chilli and pulse until the onion is finely chopped. Heat a frying pan, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and fry the onion mixture gently until it’s soft and fragrant. Next, add the rest of the polpette ingredients to the food processor with a good grind of black pepper and mix until the beans have been mashed and everything has come together.

      Shape the polpette. Wet your hands and roll into balls using roughly a tablespoon of mixture for each one (you should get about 18), then place on a baking sheet. If you are baking them, drizzle the balls with a little olive oil and bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes, or until golden. To cook them in a frying pan, chill them for at least 20 minutes, then simply fry them in a little olive oil on a medium heat for about 10–15 minutes, turning every few minutes. Serve with the salsa verde.

      If you are freezing the polpette, cook them for a few minutes less, then let them cool completely (they firm up as they cool down). Transfer to containers or bags and freeze.

      Spelt with pickled pears and pink leaves

      This warm winter salad has everything going for it. It’s the prettiest of salads, with gentle off-white celeriac and caramel-coloured spelt offset by the dusky rose of pink radicchio and the Expressionist pink and cream splatter of Castelfranco lettuce. If you haven’t guessed already, I love these bitter lettuces; they cheer up my January table and happily, they are now much more widely available, though a few heads of chicory would do fine in their place. Be careful not to use overripe pears; you need them to be a little on the firm side so they hold their shape as they cook.

      SERVES 4

      5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

      ½ teaspoon black peppercorns

      2 tablespoons golden caster sugar

      a generous pinch of flaky sea salt

      4 just-ripe pears

      400g celeriac or parsnip, peeled and cut into small 2cm pieces

      1 tablespoon runny honey

      1 tablespoon white miso paste

      2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

      200g pearled spelt

      1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

      2 heads of bitter salad leaves (see note above)

      50g blue cheese

      Put 4 tablespoons of the vinegar, the black peppercorns, caster sugar and salt into a saucepan with 100ml of water and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, peel the pears, halve them and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon. Lower the pears into the pickling liquid, lower the heat and leave to cook until tender (about 10 minutes). Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave to rest.

      Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan/gas 6. Roast the celeriac in the oven on a baking tray, with a little oil, for 20 minutes. Mix the honey with the miso and mustard. After 20 minutes take the tray out of the oven and add 1 tablespoon of the miso mixture, toss through the celeriac, then return to the oven for a further 5–10 minutes, until crispy and golden.

      Meanwhile, cook the spelt. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, then add the spelt and cook for 20–25 minutes or until cooked through and tender. Mix the remaining miso mixture with the remaining tablespoon of vinegar and the olive oil, drain the spelt and toss in the dressing.

      Once everything else is ready, tear all the leaves from your bitter lettuces and lay on plates. Top with the spelt, celeriac and the pickled pears and crumble over the cheese.

      Quick carrot dhal

      This dhal has its roots in South