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Recipes from your veg box: beetroot and goat's cheese bake

In our new series with Better Food Traders, we'll be meeting the people behind the veg supplies in London, and they'll be sharing how best to serve some of their seasonal veg. First off, how to use that beetroot in your veg box this month.

Seasonal Beetroot

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In 2013 Rachel founded Crop Drop – a local organic veg box scheme. She ditched a 10-year career as a youth arts producer and built one of the first-ever accredited Better Food Traders.

Crop Drop is a not-for-profit local veg scheme based at the Wolves Lane Centre, a community food growing hub in Wood Green, North London. They grow some of their own produce onsite and source the rest from organic farms via the Better Food Shed.

When you sign up to a veg box you receive beetroot in plenty, along with lots of other new produce you may never have used before. Below is a simple, delicious recipe that uses up beetroot. It’s a great recipe to nail before moving onto more exotic ways of utilising this wonderful vegetable.

Beetroot, dill, wholegrain rice and goat's cheese bake

Serves 4

2 eggs

150ml crème fraiche

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp Maldon salt (less if using fine salt)

Black pepper

2.5 tbsp tightly packed chopped fresh dill

1 clove garlic, grated

5 spring onions, finely sliced

20g Parmesan (Italian hard cheese if you need a vegetarian cheese), grated

250g peeled and grated beetroot – I used purple but you could use any colour

250g cooked, cold wholegrain rice (you could use brown, red, wild etc – I used a shop bought packet of cooked rice for ease)

100g goat’s cheese, cut into small dice

15g butter (for greasing the baking dish)

Preheat your oven to 170°C and butter a 16cm x 26cm (or similar) oven proof dish.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the crème fraiche and then mix in the mustards, salt, a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, chopped dill, garlic, sliced spring onions and Parmesan.

Now mix through the beetroot and rice followed by half the chopped goat’s cheese.

Pour the mixture into the buttered dish and then dot the remaining goat’s cheese on top.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until golden on top.

This recipe was developed for Crop Drop by local chef, food writer, caterer and teacher, Alan Rosenthal. Find out more about him and his recipes.

All the Better Food Traders sell organic, fresh, delicious veg. They put their farmers, communities and the planet first. Fair pay, less pollution, seasonal, healthy food for everyone.

Small, ethical food retailers can’t always do delivery slots, nor offer huge amounts of choice at low prices. But by committing to these ethical food providers you are doing the planet and your local community a massive favour, all whilst prioritising healthy food for you and your family. Find your local Better Food Trader here.

Read our article about the Better Food Traders changing the way we shop.

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Published Wednesday 17 February 2021

London Food Link: London Food Link brings together community food enterprises and projects that are working to make good food accessible to everyone in London to help create a healthy, sustainable and ethical food system for all.

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