Food & recipes

Turn Over a New Leaf

Versatile, varied and packed full of nutrients, liven up your weekday meals with these leaf-based dishes

Wild garlic potato cakes

Serves 8

• 600g potatoes, peeled and diced

• 50ml milk

• 25g butter

• 50g fresh wild garlic leaves, finely shredded

• 50g fermented wild garlic, finely shredded

• 100g good melting cheese

• 50g plain flour

• 1 egg, beaten

• 75g fine breadcrumbs

• Olive oil, for frying

• Sea salt and ground black pepper

For the salsa:

• 300g tomatoes, cored and finely diced

• A small bunch of tarragon, finely chopped

• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or tarragon vinegar, if you have it)

• Zest of ½ lemon

• 2 tbsp olive oil

To serve:

• A few baby spinach or other salad leaves

• A few basil microleaves

• 4 eggs, poached (optional)

1. Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Add salt, then bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Drain, add the milk and butter, then mash. Stir in the fresh and fermented garlic leaves, along with the cheese and season.

2. Put the flour, egg and breadcrumbs on separate plates or shallow bowls. Divide the potato mixture into eight flattish cakes. Toss each one in the flour. Dust off any excess, dip in the egg and then coat in the breadcrumbs. Chill.

3. Make the salsa by mixing all the ingredients together and season.

4. Pour a thin layer of olive oil into a frying pan and set over a medium high heat. Fry the potato cakes for 3-4 minutes until crisp and brown. Fry in two batches if necessary.

5. Arrange the cakes over the leaves and sprinkle with the basil. Serve with the salsa and a poached egg.

Caramelised endive gratin

Serves 4

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 6 white or red endives (chicory)

• 1 tbsp butter

• 50ml orange juice (optional)

• 2 tsp thyme leaves

• 100g cheese, such as Gruyère

• Sea salt and ground black pepper

For the béchamel sauce:

• 600ml whole milk

• 1 onion

• 3 cloves

• 1 mace blade

• A few peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• 2½ tbsp butter

• 40g plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/400˚F/ Gas 6. To start the béchamel, pour the milk into a saucepan. Stud the onion with the cloves and add this to the milk, along with all the other aromatics Heat until almost boiling, then remove. Leave to cool and infuse.

2. Next, caramelise the endives. You may have to do this in two batches. Add the olive oil to your pan, and when it is hot, add the endives, cutside down. Cook for several minutes, then turn over and cook for a few more minutes. Repeat with the second batch. Put it all together. Add the butter and the orange juice and continue to cook until it looks syrupy. Season and set aside.

3. To finish the béchamel, strain the milk into a jug. Melt the butter over a medium-low heat and add the flour. Stir for 3-4 minutes to cook out the flour, then begin adding the milk, a little at a time. You will end with a sauce the consistency of double cream.

4. Arrange the endives in an ovenproof dish that will fit them snugly and sprinkle over the thyme leaves. Cover with the béchamel and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the béchamel is bubbling under the cheese.

Yoghurt cake with lemon verbena and lemon thyme

Serves 8

• 15g fresh lemon verbena leaves

• 5g fresh lemon thyme leaves

• 160g granulated sugar

• 250g plain flour

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 250g Greek yoghurt

• 5 tbsp butter, melted

• Juice of ½ lemon

• 2 eggs

For the cream:

• 250ml double cream

• 2 tbsp lemon verbena leaves

• 1 tbsp icing sugar

To serve:

• Fresh strawberries, hulled

For the leaves:

• Leaves (mint, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon thyme, fennel, basil or rosemary)

• 1 egg white, well beaten

• Sprinkle of caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C/375˚F/ Gas 4. Butter a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin, then line the base with baking paper.

2. Make sure your leaves are completely clean and dry. Brush each one with egg white – for larger sprigs for example, rosemary, dipping is more effective than brushing.

3. Sprinkle sugar over a plate and dip each leaf into it, coating both sides, then shake off the excess. Arrange on baking paper and leave for a few hours to dry. Store them in an airtight tin – they should be fine for a week.

4. Put the lemon verbena and lemon thyme leaves into a food processor with the sugar, and blitz until the leaves have broken down. The sugar will have turned the colour of mint ice cream and will look like powder.

5. Mix the flour and raising agents together.

6. Beat the sugar with the yoghurt, butter, lemon juice and eggs, then fold in the flour. Scrape into the tin and bake for 30 minutes, until the cake is well risen, springy to touch and slightly shrunken away from the sides of the tin.

7. Leave it in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

8. Put the cream in a saucepan with the lemon verbena leaves. Heat gently, until almost on the point of boiling, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse until cooled. Chill.

9. Just before you want to whip it, remove the leaves. Add the sugar to the cream then beat until it reaches the soft peak stage. Pile into the centre of the cake then tumble the strawberries and crystallised leaves together over the top of the cream.