Vegetable garden
Ingredients
Soil
- 150 gr mushrooms
- 200 gr dark rye bread
- 150 gr cooked beetroot
- 20 gr Worcestershire sauce
- 75 gr cooked lentils
Hummus:
- 280 gr tinned chickpeas
- 100 gr yoghurt
- 40 gr tahini sesame paste
- 8 gr lemon juice
- ½ tbspn paprika powder
- ½ tbspn ground cumin
- ½ tbspn ground coriander
Pickled carrots
- 8 carrots
- 500 gr water
- 320 gr vinegar
- 50 gr sugar
- 10 gr mustard seed
- 3 bay leaves
Vegetables
- carrots with leaves
- radishes
- sugar snap
- broccoli
- green peas
- green asparagus
- cherry tomatoes
Instructions
Soil
- Finely chop the beetroot and mushrooms and sweat them off in some oil until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Blitz up the dark bread and mix with the beetroot, mushroom, cooked lentils and some Worcestershire sauce until the mixture looks like a dark soil.
- Season to taste and store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.
Hummus
- For the humus, drain and rinse the chickpeas. Using a stick blender, puree them with the yoghurt, tahini sesame paste, lemon juice, paprika powder, ground cumin, and ground coriander to a smooth puree, adding some water if needed.
- Season to taste and store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.
Pickled carrots
- For the pickled carrots, bring to the boil the vinegar and water with the sugar, mustard seeds and bay leaves. Cut the leaves of the carrots but do not cut the tops of the carrots. The bottom of the carrots won’t be used.
- Boil the carrot tops in the pickle until cooked. Remove from the heat, let the pan cool to room temperature and store the carrot tops in the pickle in an airtight container in the fridge ideally for 24 hours to mature.
Vegetables
- Cut the base of the radishes.
- Grill the asparagus.
- Blanch the sugar snap and broccoli florets separately in salted boiling water, refresh in ice cold water, drain and store until needed.
Finish
- Spread the humus on the slate and cover with the soil. Decorate the garden with the pickled carrots, radishes, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green peas and asparagus.
- Garnish with some mixed salad leaves and edible flowers like thyme or oregano.
Stuff to know
This quantity will yield 4 portions.
It is possible to prepare the soil, humus, and vegetables a day ahead. But only assemble the garden when needed.
For a quicker version, use store-bought humus and do not pickle the carrots.
For a deeper flavour in the soil, add a drop of truffle oil.
Use different vegetables for the garden, like tender stem broccoli, mini sweet corn, etc.
It is possible to prepare the soil, humus, and vegetables a day ahead. But only assemble the garden when needed.
For a quicker version, use store-bought humus and do not pickle the carrots.
For a deeper flavour in the soil, add a drop of truffle oil.
Use different vegetables for the garden, like tender stem broccoli, mini sweet corn, etc.
