Tag: vegetables
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Dauphinoise
What is it? Gratin dauphinoise is a traditional French dish made with sliced potatoes, baked in cream, seasoned with nutmeg and garlic. Other vegetables can be cooked in the same way. The celeriac dauphinoise pictured above has been made as an individual portion but it’s more usual to make a large dish and split it…
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Celeriac
What is it? Celeriac is a relative of celery, cultivated for its edible roots. It’s often described as being ugly and sometimes as the unsung hero of the vegetable world. It’s an oddly-shaped, knobbly, root vegetable which has a subtle, celery-like flavour, with nutty overtones. It’s available all year round but best in the colder…
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Brussels sprouts
What are they? Brussels sprouts are like miniature cabbages which grow in multiple rows on a thick central stalk. The sprout is obviously a brassica, but it’s anybody’s guess when somebody mutated it from its original cabbage. I believe sprouts originated in Belgium, where they were sold in markets as early as the 13th century…
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Broccoli
What is it? Broccoli is a brassica, part of the cabbage family, as is it’s close relative the cauliflower. There are three types of broccoli: Calabrese This is the one with the thick stem and big clustery heads (pictured above). Calabrese is named after the Italian region it originates from, Calabria. It’s the most commonly…
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Aubergine (Eggplant)
What is it? It’s a fruit which is used as a vegetable. It comes in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colours, ranging from the large, glossy, almost-black purple example above to the ‘pea aubergine’ which is popular in Thailand. The pea aubergine looks like a green pea, which in Britain is sometimes used…
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Watercress
Watercress is a close relative of the nasturtium and also related to mustard. It’s cultivated for its green, peppery-tasting leaves. It’s commonly used in salads or in soup. It makes a nice edible garnish too.
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Asparagus
Asparagus, a herbaceous perennial plant, is generally considered to be a luxury vegetable. Quite simply, it’s expensive to buy because it’s expensive to cultivate. A newly planted asparagus plant takes three years to produce spears that are good enough to sell. Then it will only produce spears for a further three years. Therefore, a typical asparagus…
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Water chestnut
The water chestnut (sometimes called Chinese chestnut) is not a nut at all. It’s an aquatic vegetable that grows, under water, in marshes. It’s native to Asia, and is grown in many countries for its edible corms (swollen underground plant stems, like tubers). Most of us in the West will only ever have seen the…
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Beetroot
What is it? Beetroot is the taproot portion of the beet plant, often known as simply the beet. The leaves are also edible, often called beet greens. British beetroot is usually available from July to January, but some may linger on until February or March. Choose firm beetroot with fresh (unwilted) stalks. What to…
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Pak choi and bok choi
Pak choi and bok choi are types of Chinese cabbage and sometimes referred to simply as ‘Chinese cabbage’. People often seem to be confused by whether to say “pak” or “bok”. Are they the same? In terms of texture and flavour, they are pretty much the same. But according to British celebrity greengrocer Gregg Wallace,…