Unless you’ve been hiding inside all winter (and frankly, we wouldn’t blame you), you’ll have heard of London-based food phenomenon Anna Jones’s recipes. The vegetarian chef and author of three books including A Modern Way To Eat has a sixth sense for explosive flavour combinations. Crucially, vegetables aren’t a side: they’re the main event. Bland, limp salads these recipes are not. Anna Jones knows how to take an otherwise overlooked ingredient, ideally one that’s in season, and give it a leading role in any meal.
To celebrate the first hints of spring, Vogue asked Jones to create three exclusive recipes using Liberté Greek style yoghurt, making the most of seasonal produce. The yoghurt's creamy texture makes it the ideal partner for spring cooking when you might want to move away from heavy winter dishes. Made with 100 per cent natural ingredients, completely fat free and with only 3.6g of sugar per 100g, Liberté Greek style yoghurt is a healthy, yet still indulgent ingredient. As Anna’s recipes prove, its versatility and balanced taste brings fresh tanginess to savoury dishes and a rich creaminess to desserts.
Combined, all three make for a perfect dinner party menu, but each dish eaten separately is equally as special. First up is a warm roasted beetroot salad with dukkah spices and olive oil-laced Liberté yoghurt: the perfect balance of rich flavours for a cold day, but with a lightness that feels spring-like. The best part? There’s no waste: the beetroot leaves are delicious when roasted with the beets, too. For the main course, Jones’s Indian spiced cauliflower steak is a kitchen repertoire game changer. Seriously visually impressive, and with a flavour punch to match, it's a centrepiece everyone will covet. And to finish, an impressive pavlova – topped with whipped yoghurt and seasonal blood orange, it’s a healthier, lighter (but no less delectable) take on the classic.
Find all three recipes from Anna Jones below, watch the video to sample her spot-on cooking techniques, and follow her awe-inspiring Instagram at @we_are_food.
Warm roast beetroot with Dukkah spices and olive oil-spiked yoghurt
If you have beetroots with leaves, these can be washed and roasted with the beetroots for the last five minutes and tossed through the with spices at the end. Alternatively, you can cook them like greens with another meal – smaller tops are good in salads, too. Either way, they’re delicious – don’t waste them.
Serves 4
500g raw beetroots1 head of garlic50g blanched hazelnuts2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds1 tsp cumin seeds1 tsp coriander seeds1 tsp nigella seeds2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil2 tbsp red wine vinegarZest of 1 orange150g Liberté Greek yoghurt
- Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. If the beetroots still have their leafy tops, cut them off close to the top of the beet, leaving yourself enough to grip.
Wash and scrub the beetroots and wrap them in a large foil parcel along with the with whole head of garlic, making sure it is tightly sealed. Place on a baking tray and into the hot oven. Cook the beetroots until they are soft all the way through. How long this takes will depend on their size – anywhere between 50 and 80 minutes. Check every 20 minutes or so – if they are starting to look dry or are scorching on the bottoms, dribble a tablespoon of water over them before rewrapping tightly. The garlic will be cooked after about 40 minutes, so if your beets are taking longer, be sure to take it out. The beets are done when a knife slides easily to the centre.
Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, toast the spices until they smell fragrant and put to one side.
Remove the beets from the oven and leave them to cool a little before peeling. To peel, hold one beetroot in a paper towel and use the edges of the paper to rub the skin away. This should happen easily; if it doesn’t, the beets likely need to cook for a little longer. When you have peeled them all, cut into chunks.
Toss the beets with half of the spices, 1 tablespoon of the oil, the red wine vinegar, the orange zest and more salt and pepper if needed.
In a bowl, squeeze the roasted middles out of the garlic cloves and roughly mash with a fork, stirring in the yoghurt and the rest of the olive oil along with some salt, pepper and orange zest. processor.
Serve the warm beetroot on top of the cold yoghurt with the bright purple juice from the beetroots and the remaining spices spooned over the top.
Yoghurt and south Indian spiced cauliflower steaks with lemony potatoes
Serve these spiced cauliflower steaks with the green chutney (next recipe). They are equally good with lime or mango chutney.
Serves 4
1 large cauliflower600g potatoes4 tbsp coconut oilthumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped4 green chillies, roughly chopped4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped1 tbsp black mustard seeds2 tsp ground turmeric400ml Liberté Greek yoghurt1 unwaxed lemon, cut in half
*To serve: *toasted almonds, skin on, roughly choppeda small bunch of coriander, leaves pickedlemon sautéed greenswarm rotis or chapatis
Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Fill and boil the kettle.
Cut the root off the bottom of the cauliflower so it sits flat on the board. Cut the cauliflower into 2cm-thick steaks (how many steaks you get depends on the size and shape of your cauliflowers). The ends may fall apart a little, but that's OK – they can still cook in the oven and be sprinkled over the dish at the end.
Put a frying pan over a medium heat and add the coconut oil, then the ginger, chilli and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the mustard seeds and continue cooking until the garlic has softened, then add the turmeric, tip into a large mixing bowl and stir in the yoghurt and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower steaks one by one, moving them around in the yoghurt until they are coated. Leave to marinate for a minimum of 15 minutes.
Put the potatoes and lemon halves on a roasting tray, pour over any excess yoghurt and toss it all together. Roast them in the hot oven for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, put an empty baking tray into the oven to heat up for the cauliflower steaks (you may need two if your tray is small); this is to allow the bottoms of the steaks to brown nicely.
After the potatoes have cooked for 10 minutes, season each side of the yoghurt-covered cauliflower steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle with the oil. Put them on to the hot baking tray(s) and place in the oven for about 20 minutes, until golden on both sides.
Once the potatoes and cauliflower steaks are ready, take them out of the oven and serve with the green chutney (recipe below), some greens sautéed with a little lemon and rotis or chapatis.
Green chutney
Makes a small jarful (about 150ml)
Medium bunch of coriander2 green chilliesfew sprigs of mintjuice of 1 lime50g coconut cream1/2 tsp runny honey1 tbsp groundnut or mild olive oil
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until grassy green and smooth, adding a little water as you go if it looks too dry. You are looking for a spoonable consistency, a little thinner than a pesto.
Citrus caramel pavlova with vanilla yoghurt
Serves 8
For the meringues:50g soft light brown sugar150g golden caster sugar4 medium organic egg whites
For the whipped yoghurt:400g of Liberté Greek yoghurt2 tsp set honeythe seeds from one vanilla pod or a teaspoon of vanilla paste
For the topping:100g caster sugar8 mandarins, clementines or blood orangesthe zest of 2 limes
Optional: edible flowers to serve
Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/gas 2 and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
First make your meringues. Put the brown sugar into a bowl, break up any lumps, then add the golden caster sugar and mix them together.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. This is best done in a stand-up mixer or with an electric hand whisk. Gradually add the sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon, while mixing on a high speed until the mixture is thick and glossy. It’s ready when you can pinch it and not feel any grains of sugar.
Dot a tiny bit of the meringue mixture on each corner of the tray under the greaseproof paper to hold it down. Then spoon the meringue mixture into a large 20-25cm circle on the paper, building the edge up a little higher to hold the filling in. Bake for 1 to 2 hours (depending on how chewy you like your meringues – less time means chewier middles). The meringues are ready when they are set and feel light when you pick them up. Put them to one side to cool.
Cut the citrus into segments or slices using a serrated knife. Catch any juice in a bowl and reserve.
Whip the yoghurt with the honey and vanilla seeds and put it into the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
When you are ready to serve, pile the meringues with the whipped yoghurt and fruit. Make your caramel at the last minute. Heat the sugar in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Shake the pan so the sugar levels. Allow the heat to gently melt the sugar and, gently swirling, but not stirring it, turn the heat up and cook the sugar until it turns a deep golden colour. Remove from the heat and add a little tangerine zest, then drizzle over the meringue and top with the lime zest and edible flowers.
Liberté is made with 100% naturally sourced ingredients and comes in a range of flavours.
