Kale and hearty: Warming winter vegetable recipes

You can get quite bored with cauliflower and leeks all the time – and that's what makes us experiment," says Jane Baxter, head chef at the Field Café in south Devon, aka the restaurant of organic vegetable box delivery pioneers Riverford Farm.

If you have a vegetable box delivery or an allotment, you'll understand the issues: just what do you do week in, week out with the same seasonal vegetables (which currently include cauliflower and leeks, kale, celeriac, swede, squash and carrots)?

Baxter's experience – she is a former chef at London's River Café, has worked with the Middle East-inspired Moro team, and has also run a kitchen on the South Pacific island of Samoa – provides a fruitful backdrop for experimentation.

It can, though, be challenging. "Cauliflower is a hard one," she admits. "My best invention ever is probably the recipe included here, where it is blanched and fried with paprika." Kale is another tricky ingredient which, says Baxter, is wonderful in soups. "It's traditionally used in ribilisi – Italian winter minestrone – which is how we used it at the River Café. We'd also put it through wet polenta, which was delicious, and we've been doing that here but using mash – you just braise it in olive oil and garlic, blitz it a little, then stir it in with some mustard. Lovely."

With Christmas coming up, "the next challenge has got to be sprouts," she says stoically. "Time to get creative again."

The Riverford Farm Cook Book (4th Estate), written by Jane Baxter and Guy Watson, came out earlier this year and the dishes here are adapted from it

Winter salad with spiced pecans, pears and Devon Blue

The secret to winter salads is having a good selection of leaves. We're using all sorts here at moment – from pak choi and raddiccio to mustard leaf and dandelion – but because a lot of these leaves are bitter you need a reasonably sweet dressing; here the pears do the trick. The spiced pecans are so delicious you could serve them on their own, with drinks.

Serves 4-6

300g mixed winter salad leaves
75g pecan nuts
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1tsp Worcestershire sauce
A dash of Tabasco
1tsp salt
3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced
3tbsp vinaigrette (see below)
75g Devon Blue cheese (or gorgonzola or dolcelatte), crumbled

For the vinaigrette

240ml sunflower oil
4tbsp good-quality balsamic or red-wine vinegar
Garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a little salt
1tbsp Dijon mustard
Sea salt and black pepper

Wash and dry the leaves and set aside. In a small bowl, mix the pecans with the cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and salt. Scatter them over a baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 5-6 minutes, until lightly toasted. Remove and leave to cool.

For the vinaigrette, combine the ingredients vigorously (makes about 300ml). Put the pears and salad leaves in a bowl and toss with the dressing. Divide between 4 plates, scatter over the blue cheese and pecan nuts and serve.

Leek and Roquefort pizza bread

I can't take credit for this one as I first had it in a fantastic restaurant in Queensland, Australia, called Harvest. It's important to roll the dough as thinly as possible for a good, crisp base.

Serves 4

40ml olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 bird's eye chilli, halved
25g butter
2 small leeks, halved lengthwise and then thinly sliced across
30g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
100g mozzarella cheese, grated
1tbsp finely chopped oregano
1tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
60g Roquefort or other blue cheese, crumbled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dough

300g strong white flour

7g sachet of dried yeast
1tsp salt
180ml lukewarm water
1tbsp olive oil

Put the olive oil, garlic and chilli in a bowl and set aside to infuse the oil. To make the dough, combine the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, then stir in the water and oil. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and put in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a frying pan, add the leeks and cook over a low to medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft but not coloured. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Place two heavy-based baking sheets or terracotta tiles in the oven and preheat the oven to 250C/475F/gas mark 10. Combine the Parmesan, mozzarella and herbs in a small bowl.

Cut four sheets of baking parchment, each large enough to hold a 22cm pizza. Divide the dough into four. Dust the pieces of baking parchment with a little flour and roll out each piece of dough on to them. Brush with the flavoured oil and scatter with the cheese mixture, followed by the leeks, then the Roquefort. Slide one pizza, still on the paper, on to each hot baking sheet or tile and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden. Serve at once. '

Spanish crisp cauliflower

I was staying with [Moro co-founder] Jake Hodges at his mum's house in Spain and going through her old cookery books. In one was the idea of blanching then frying cauliflower. If you can't find gram (chickpea) flour, use plain white – though it won't have quite the same nutty flavour.

Serves 4 (as a starter or a side dish)

1 cauliflower, broken into small florets
2tbsp gram flour
1tsp paprika
Sunflower oil for deep frying
1tbsp capers, soaked in cold water for 20 minutes, then squeezed dry and chopped
1 dessertspoon good-quality red-wine vinegar
1tbsp chopped parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the cauliflower florets in boiling salted water for a few minutes, until just tender. Drain well and, while still hot, mix in a bowl with the flour, paprika and some salt and pepper until well-coated.

Heat the sunflower oil to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 in a deep-fat fryer or a deep, heavy-based saucepan. Fry the cauliflower florets in batches until crisp and golden, then remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with vinegar, chopped capers and parsley and serve. It goes well served with some grilled fish – but we also serve with lamb and pork or just as a snack, on its own.

Spiced celeriac with lemon

Celeriac is often drenched in cream and butter, but here the delicate spices give it a Middle Eastern flavour. This goes well with chicken, lamb-leg steaks or fish – especially if using North African spices.

Serves 5

1 large or 2 small celeriac
3tbsp olive oil
A pinch of smoked paprika
A pinch of cayenne pepper
A pinch of ground cinnamon
Grated zest of one lemon
Juice of 1 lemons
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel the celeriac, cut into slices 5mm-1cm thick, then cut the slices into long, thin sticks. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the celeriac sticks and fry for about 15 minutes, until slightly browned. At this point sprinkle with the spices, lemon zest and juice and 100ml water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the celeriac is just tender. Season to taste, adding more lemon juice if necessary.