Terri's Recipe - Roast Baby Root Vegetables

There is nothing like the sweetness and visual appeal of young baby vegetables. Buying them with the tops attached and the dirt clinging to them it is even more satisfying. 

The best part about them is that they grow well on the mountain and just west of here in the beautifully named Fassifern Valley market gardens, so the food miles are minimal.

It is so much better than buying vegetables on plastic bags that have been in cold storage. To see bunches of Dutch carrots and tiny beetroot and baby turnips makes the senses go into overdrive. They are in season now and available at the green shed, or ask at Josephs.

Carrots and beetroot freshly pulled from the garden

Carrots don’t normally have an exciting image, but they are cheap, would be in every ones fridge and can be eaten as part of every meal.

Bunches of carrots are called Dutch Carrots. This is not referring to their size it is that is because they are orange, carrots used to be purple until they came to Holland.

I am lucky enough to be growing them in my garden I planted them at the beginning of winter and have been enjoying the harvest.

The sweetness of baby carrots goes well with spices, salty feta cheese and fresh herbs to make a Moroccan Roast Carrot Salad. Slow Food encourages the growing of your own food.

We can then fully enjoy the aromas and fresher fuller flavours of just picked produce.

It makes good sense, to minimise food miles and have your own salad bowl at your back door, for a small amount of effort even on a balcony in pots or recycled Styrofoam boxes.

It is spring so start planting salad vegetables. 

Try rocket, any mixture of lettuce you like, Chinese vegetables -they grow quickly and are best used young as salad leaves, radishes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, Lebanese cucumbers, mint, parsley and coriander.

Water daily and feed weekly with an organic liquid fertiliser.

Give your home grown salads the respect and taste they deserve and only use the best olive oil in the dressing. Every meal is enhanced with the addition of chopped herbs and every BBQ lifted to a new level with a bowl proudly of home grown salad.

To have crisp salads to go with your crisp chardonay in the warmer months start planting NOW!!!