How chefs make veg the hero

When produce is this fresh, this abundant, who wouldn’t want to get stuck into cooking recipes where veg are the star of the show – especially if cooking is what you do for a living. Five of our favourite cooks share their best recipes celebrating vegetables in all their glory – and reveal which they could live without

RECIPES MATT TEBBUTT, ANDI OLIVER, DHRUV BAKER, RAVINDER BHOGAL, SOPHIE MICHELL, PHOTOGRAPHS ALEX LUCK FOOD STYLING JEN BEDLOE STYLING MORAG FARQUHAR

Matt has worked in top restaurants and owned The Foxhunter in south Wales for 13 years. He regularly presents Saturday Kitchen and has appeared on Great British Menu and Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped

“Vegetables bring life to a plate…A vibrancy that no piece of meat or fish, however good, could ever bring” MATT TEBBUTT, CHEF AND TV PRESENTER

“There’s such an exciting range of vegetables and pulses from all over the world available to us these days that it seems daft not to take advantage of it all.

Vegetables bring life to a plate – a vibrancy that no piece of meat or fish, however good, could ever bring. But the main reason I love them is because you can gorge on them happily, feeling better and slightly more virtuous for it. Unlike when you overindulge in protein, they are terribly forgiving and never answer you back – except perhaps if you overdo the garlic; there’s no getting around that one!”

If you had to eat one vegetable every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Asian water spinach (also known as morning glory), sautéed with a little garlic and soy sauce. Tender leaves, crunchy stems and an intense iron flavour – fantastic. I never get tired of it.

Your Room 101 vegetable?

Probably boiled potatoes. Not that I detest them – I just don’t like the restaurant industry’s over-reliance on them. Don’t get me wrong – small, new season Pembrokeshire potatoes or decent jersey royals are wonderful things. I’m talking the boring, thick-skinned ubiquitous type that are available all year round. They’re purely a filler, nothing else.

Artichoke, melted onion and brie tart with meat juice vinaigrette

SERVES 6-8. HANDS-ON TIME 1 HOUR, SIMMERING TIME 1 HOUR, OVEN TIME 25 MIN

Artichokes seem daunting to some, but they shouldn’t be. After a bit of prep, you have a springtime delicacy at your fingertips.

KNOW HOW

For the acidulated water, fill a large bowl with cold water and squeeze in 1-2 lemons, then throw in the squeezed halves.

FOOD TEAM’S TIP

If you can’t find any baby globe artichokes, use a total of 6 regular globe artichokes.

• 40g butter

• 6 onions, thickly sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 12 fresh thyme sprigs

• 1 globe artichoke (see tip)

• 8 baby globe artichokes (see tip)

• 375g block all-butter puff pastry

• Plain flour for dusting

• 1 medium free-range egg, beaten

• 150g good quality brie

FOR THE MEAT JUICE VINAIGRETTE

• 3 tbsp meat juices from a roast, preferably beef (or use readymade beef gravy)

• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 tsp dijon mustard

• Splash red wine vinegar to taste

1 Heat the butter in a large, lidded heavy-based frying pan over a low-medium heat and fry the onions, garlic and most of the thyme with a pinch of salt and pepper. Put the lid on and cook for 1 hour (check now and then). Drain in a colander and remove any woody thyme sprigs.