Ground breakers

Put vegetables centre stage with these flavour-packed seasonal recipes

Make humble veg the star of the show with these avour-packed recipes

Roast rainbow carrots with beans and salsa rustica

Salsa rustica is a flavour-packed herb salsa somewhere between salsa verde and pesto. I make the most of the left-over carrot tops to make it here, but if your carrots are without tops, then some parsley will stand in.

1 HOUR | SERVES 4 6 | EASY |

carrots 800g with leafy tops (a mixture of colours looks nice), scrubbed

olive oil for drizzling

rosemary a few sprigs

lemon ½

SALSA RUSTICA

shallot 1 long, finely chopped

red wine vinegar 2-3 tbsp

pistachios 50g, shelled

garlic 3 cloves, peeled

capers 3 tbsp

green olives 10, pitted

mint small bunch

flat-leaf parsley a small bunch

apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp runny honey or agave syrup ½ tsp

lemon 1, juiced

extra-virgin olive oil 120ml

WHITE BEANS

extra-virgin olive oil 2 tbsp

garlic 2 cloves, thinly sliced

butter beans 600g jar

bay leaves 2 lemon ½

1 Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Break off the carrot tops with your hands. Discard all but a handful of the tops. Halve the carrots lengthways, then toss them in a roasting tray with enough olive oil to coat, and add the rosemary and some salt and pepper. Add half a lemon to the tray and put in the oven for 40 minutes until the carrots are soft and catching at the edges. Remove from the oven.

2 Meanwhile, make the salsa rustica. Put the shallots into a small bowl and spoon over enough red wine vinegar to cover, then let them macerate for 20 minutes.

3 Tip the reserved carrot top leaves into a small heatproof bowl, then boil the kettle. Pour the just-boiled water over the tops, leave for 10 seconds, then drain and run under cold water to preserve the bright green colour.

4 Squeeze out as much moisture from the tops as you can, then put in a food processor with the pistachios, garlic, capers, olives, herbs, vinegar and honey, in that order.

5 Add half the juice from the lemon and pour in 60ml of the olive oil. Continue adding the remaining oil, a little at a time (you may not need it all), pulsing until you have a chunky pesto consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding a little more lemon juice if you like. Drain and stir in the shallots.

6 Once the carrots have roasted, transfer to a plate and put the roasting tray you used for the carrots on the hob. Heat the oil and fry the garlic until it’s soft and fragrant, moving it around to make sure it doesn’t catch and burn. Add the butter beans, with a couple of tablespoons of the liquid from the jar, the bay leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook for 15 minutes, pushing down regularly with a wooden spoon to break down the beans to a smooth and creamy consistency, adding a little more liquid from the jar if needed. Season with lots of black pepper (you shouldn’t need any salt as the jarred beans are salty enough) and a squeeze more lemon juice, if you like.

7 Spread the white bean dip on a platter, arrange the carrots over the top and spoon over a quarter of the salsa rustica, with the rest in a bowl on the side for spooning over.

PER SERVING (6) 463 kcals | fat 36.4G saturates 5.2G | carbs 21.3G | sugars 11.6G fibre 11.2G | protein 7G | salt 0.5G

"a riot of colour looks super impressive, so will undoubtedly result in sighs of adoration!"