Super Natural Every Day (14 page)

Fine sea salt

255 g wholemeal orzo

310 g broccoli, cut into small florets and stems

2 garlic cloves

100 g pine nuts, toasted (see
Wholegrain Breadcrumbs
)

15 g freshly grated parmesan cheese

Juice of 1 lemon

60 ml extra-virgin olive oil

60 g
crème fraîche

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 small ripe avocado, peeled, stoned, and sliced

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Salt generously, add the orzo, and cook according to the package instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain well again.

In the meantime, cook the broccoli. Bring 180 ml water to the boil in a large pot. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for 1 minute, just long enough to take off the raw edge. Quickly drain the broccoli in a sieve and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and set aside.

To make the pesto, combine 200 g of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, most of the pine nuts, the parmesan, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and crème fraîche and pulse until smooth.

Just before serving, toss the orzo and remaining cooked broccoli florets with about two-thirds of the broccoli pesto and the lemon zest. Thin with a bit of warm water if you like, then taste and adjust if needed. You might want to add a bit more salt, or an added drizzle of lemon juice, or more pesto. Gently fold in the avocado. Turn out into a bowl or onto a platter and top with the remaining pine nuts.

SERVES 6

Rye Soda Bread

RYE FLOUR, BUTTERMILK

	I’m always looking for something to slather my favourite dill butter on, and this rye soda bread is just the thing. Soda breads are relatively quick to make; the dough comes together in a fraction of the time it takes to preheat your oven. No two loaves are quite the same, and they’re meant to be imperfect—with a few cracks and crags here and there. If you’ve ever thought you don’t have time to bake bread, I suggest starting here. I make a couple of loaves a week, pretty much whenever the fancy strikes.
I like lots of good, crunchy crust, so I slash the dough a few times just before placing the bread in the hot oven. As it rises and spreads, the bread develops nearly twice as much crust as it does without the extra cuts.
A loaf usually lasts a couple of days, and any left-over makes great breadcrumbs (see Wholegrain Breadcrumbs ) or spinach strata .

275 g rye flour

225 g unbleached plain flour, plus more for dusting and kneading

1 ¾ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt

475 ml buttermilk, plus more for brushing

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) with a rack in the middle of the oven.

Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until everything comes together into a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 30 seconds or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, slightly flattened ball without many cracks or fissures.

Lightly flour a baking tray and place the ball of dough on the tray. Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with flour, 2 tablespoons or so. Slice four deep slashes across the top of the dough, two-thirds of the way through the loaf, as if you were slicing a pie into eight wedges; just be careful not to slice all the way through.

Bake for about 30 minutes, then quickly (without letting all the hot air out of the oven), move the rack and the bread up a level, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a hard crust forms and the bread is baked through. It will feel very solid and sound hollow when you tap on its base.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy with a good slathering of
dill butter
.

MAKES 1 LOAF

Dill Butter

DILL, BUTTER, GOAT’S CHEESE, CHIVES, SHALLOTS

1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

1 ½ tablespoons snipped fresh chives

1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped shallots (eschalots)

115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

60 g soft goat’s cheese

In a small bowl, mash together the dill, chives, shallots, butter, and salt. Mix until the herbs are evenly distributed throughout the butter. Crumble the cheese on top of the butter and stir a few times, just long enough to work the cheese into the butter, but keep the cheese a bit chunky. The dill butter will keep, refrigerated, for up to a week, but bring it back to room temperature before using.

MAKES ABOUT 170 G

Avocados & Mustard Seeds

GREEN CHILLI, CURRY POWDER, LEMON JUICE

This recipe is loosely inspired by a spicy curried avocado preparation I came across in Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking. Its success really depends on buying ripe avocados. When your avocados are perfectly creamy in texture, they end up melding with the green chillies, garlic, onions, and mustard seeds beautifully.