Fridge raid dinner: Carrot steak

When you think you have nothing in, look again — there is always something beautiful to be made out of the ordinary

I started my fridge raid dinner with some carrots, an onion, a courgette, some beautiful swiss chard, half a butternut squash, a sweet potato and an insatiable hunger.

The very first thing I decided on was a carrot steak, which I’d seen on Masterchef.

I sliced it in half and par boiled the orangey monster in a shallow pan.

The sweet potato and butternut squash was diced and boiled until tender.

Once they orange veggies were bubbling away I turned my attention to the onion.

I wanted to make a pretty onion flower, so I de-skinned a red onion and cut off the top making sure that the base was left in tact. Then I sliced it down the middle — not all the way through — then into quarters, then eighths.

I placed it in a muffin tray with a little water, so it would steam. Sage and thyme were also added along with a pinch of onion powder — which actually seems kinda sadistic. I placed it in the oven for 40 minutes at 180c.

After 20 minutes I cut the courgette into a nice thick slice and topped it with miso paste, putting that in the oven for the remaining 20 minutes.

At this point you can drain the excess water from the carrot steaks and add a good knob of vegan butter and four sage leaves to the pan. Fry the carrot in the butter until caramelised.

Now, to the swiss chard.

I washed the leaves and removed the stems, slicing them very thinly, making a medley of gem-like chunks—just look at the pretty colours!

I sautéed them in vegan butter for five minutes.

I then added the julienned leaves, allowing them to wilt in the heat.

Make sure you add salt and a very good grind of pepper here.

Purée the sweet potato and butternut squash together with half a teaspoon of marjoram, one teaspoon of onion powder and two sage leaves.

Now that all of the components of this fridge raided dinner are cooked, you can assemble to your liking — of course it is perfectly acceptable to dump a huge spoon of the purée in a bowl along with the swiss chard and the other veggies, but I wanted to do something a little different.

I placed the carrot steak jauntily — I’m fun — on the slate (which is absolutely a legitimate serving plate) and then added the rather pretentiously piped purée.

I topped that with sliced radish and very finely chopped pickled beetroot — I’m going to call it beetroot caviar. Don’t be tempted skip this as the dish really does benefit from the beetroots acidic earthiness.

I also added a few black sesame seeds to the carrot.

After that I piled the swiss chard on the side and enveloped it in the courgette — veggies are sexy — before topping with slices of gloriously ripe avocado.

I then pulled the onion petals out slightly and slapped that on the board too.

This dinner is six of your supposed five a day and mostly made up of ingredients we often have lying in our fridge or cupboards.

So, here’s to experimenting with veggies. Enjoy.

Ingredients

Carrot ∙ onion ∙ swiss chard ∙ courgette ∙ butternut squash ∙ sweet potato ∙ black sesame seeds ∙ vegan butter ∙ miso paste ∙ sage ∙ onion powder ∙ thyme ∙ marjoram ∙ radish ∙ pickled beetroot

Nutrition

This is based on half the recipe, which is actually more than is displayed in the pictures — lucky us!

• Calories: 453
• Carbohydrates: 69g
• Fat: 19g
• Fiber: 15g
• Sodium: 1g
• Protein: 8g
• Sugar: 17g

There’s also lots of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, some Calcium, Potassium and Iron.