Woodfired Vegetable Salads

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – we love the variety of veggies around at the moment; we’re literally inundated with courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, beans, cauliflowers, peppers and so much more. In our never ending quest to show woodfired oven cooking is more than pizzas and big bits of meat, we’ve put together some fabulous ideas for using up these veggies, adding tonnes of flavour and making them into the main event as well as great sides.

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Ingredients

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Carrots with Cumin & Orange

3 large carrots

2tbsp olive oil

1 orange

1tsp cumin seeds

1/2 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Salt & pepper

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Peppers with Anchovies, Pinenuts and Parsley

2 peppers – we used 1 yellow and 1 orange but red ones work well too

2tbsp olive oil

4 anchovies

1tbsp pinenuts

1tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Salt & pepper

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Cauliflower with Saffron, Sultanas & Sunflower Seeds

1 cauliflower

2tbsp olive oil

50g sultanas, soaked in boiling water

A few strands saffron, soaked in 2tbsp boiling water

1tbsp sunflower seeds

1tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Padron Peppers

250g padron peppers

2tbsp olive oil

Good pinch of sea salt

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Equipment

Fire – 2 Mississippi

Door – ajar

Kiln dried wood chopped into kindling 

Heat deflector

Gauntlets

Selection of pans

We used our Morso Forno but any woodfired oven will work well

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Method

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Carrots with Cumin & Orange

Wash and peel the carrots if you think they need it; we usually leave the skin on. Cut off the tops and then slice the carrots into 1cm chunks along the diagonal.

Heat up a pan in the oven.

Toss the carrot chunks in the olive oil and add them to the pan. Cook in the oven with the door ajar until the carrots are tender and are slightly charred.

Toast the cumin seeds until fragrant in another smaller pan and put them in a large bowl with the red chilli, strips of orange zest and juice of half of the orange.

Add the carrot chunks to the bowl, season well and toss everything together.

Arrange on a serving plate and serve at room temperature.

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Peppers with Anchovies, Pinenuts and Parsley

Cut the peppers into quarters from the top down and take out the seeds and pith to create “boats”

Toss the pepper boats in the olive oil.

Heat a ridged grill pan in the oven and when it’s hot and the peppers, skin side down.

Toast the pinenuts in another small pan until golden.

When the peppers are starting to wilt but still holding their shape, take them out of the oven and arrange them on a serving dish.

Cut the anchovies in half lengthways and put one half on each pepper. Sprinkle over the parsley and the pinenuts and a little salt and pepper.

Serve at room temperature.

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Cauliflower with Saffron, Sultanas & Sunflower Seeds

Heat a frying pan in the oven.

Cut the cauliflower into florets and toss them in the olive oil.

Put the florets in the hot pan and cook in the oven with the door ajar until they are tender and charred.

Drain the sultanas and put them in a bowl with the saffron and its soaking water and the sunflower seeds.

Add the cooked cauliflower and a little seasoning and mix everything gently together.

Turn on to a serving plate and serve at room temperature.

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Padron Peppers

These are really simple but so delicious. Some of them will be quite “perky” especially at the end of the growing season but mainly they are mild.

Toss the padrons in the olive oil and heat a frying pan in the oven.

When the pan is hot, add the padrons and cook in the oven until they are blistered and starting to wilt, shaking the pan from time to time.

Turn the cooked padrons into a bowl and add a good pinch of coarse seasalt. Toss this altogether and serve at once.

Woodfired Vegetable Salads – Alternatives

All vegetables are great once they are cooked in the woodfired oven  – the flavours are really concentrated and sing out. Try –

• Roasting raw beetroot, cut into chunks and tossed in olive oil. Serve with fresh snipped chives and pumpkin seeds. So much better than pickled in vinegar
• Roast wedges of pumpkin or squash until tender. Great as a side or made into soups.
  

  Pumpkin and squash are great from the woodfired oven

• Stir fry shredded Savoy Cabbage with bacon lardons – fantastic served as a topping on baked potatoes.
• Slow cook finely sliced onions in olive oil. The sweetness of the onions really comes out and is consequently perfect on top of a pissaladiere, one of the flatbreads in our book if you want to check it out. 
• Roast halved tomatoes on a flat tray until reducing in size and liquid content. Cool and whizz them up to make a sauce for pizza toppings.
• Use any roast veggies as a topping for cocas, the flatbreads we made in woodfired weekly a couple of weeks ago.
  

  All veggies make great toppings for cocas

We hope that gives you lots of ideas of what to do with gluts of vegetables at this time of year. Do let us know what you’re doing with yours.

Happy cooking and see you next week

David and Holly

 

 

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