Recipe Friday: Irresistible Vegetables

With such a saturated market within food services, your dish can’t just taste great, it needs to look the part too. Diners demand food that is not only full of nutrition and nourishment, they want it to look aesthetically interesting–and vegetables might be the answer.

Vegetables allow cooking to become an artform, with chefs able to create vibrant and picturesque plates that excite diners and leave them feeling inspired. It can transform a dish from something lackluster and beige, to bright and brilliant. Vegetables have long been overlooked, it’s time for them to be front and center.

Check out the recipes below from Unilever Food Solutions' Future Menus 2024. 

Photo courtesy Unilever Food Solutions Future Menus report

Hot Honey Caramelized Butternut Squash Tostada

Is there a more autumnal sight than the sturdy and versatile butternut squash, waiting patiently for the right moment to make your plates golden and your heart warm? Fantastic stuffed full of cheese, stirred into a risotto, or blitzed into a seasonal soup, the wallet-friendly squash delivers on all counts: it’s pretty, versatile and chock-full of vitamins and minerals. 

This recipe shows how to keep vegetables trendy and exciting in flavor and appearance–caramelizing and frying of seasonal, inexpensive yet appealing ingredients, giving it a wow factor that you can charge a premium for. It provides a good serving of vegetables that deliver taste and essential nutrients, as well as protein to round out the dish.

Recipe courtesy Chef Dana Cohen for Unilever Food Solutions

Yield: 10

Ingredients for Caramelized Butternut Squash

Method

1. Toss the butternut squash with hot honey, then add the oil, thyme, Knorr Caldo de Vegetales, garlic, cinnamon, and smoked paprika.
2. Spread on a parchment-lined sheet pan and roast at 230°C until golden brown and caramelized (about 25 minutes) tossing occasionally.

Ingredients for Fried Sage and Kale

Method

1. Fry the sage and kale leaves. Remove from oil and season with salt.
2. In a medium bowl, toss together the sage, kale and pepitas then break up to a crumble texture. Add enough salsa macha to coat.

Ingredients for Whipped Feta

Method

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth and whipped. Refrigerate until needed.

Ingredients for Pitas

Assembly 

1. To assemble the tostadas, spread the whipped feta on the toasted pita.
2. Top each with butternut squash.
3. Sprinkle the sage crumble on top.
4. Garnish with brunoised apples.

Photo courtesy Unilever Food Solutions Future Menus report

Turkish Molasses-Glazed Cabbage

Thanks to a wave of ingenious chefs and a surge in demand for imaginative sides, cabbage is experiencing a renaissance. 

This recipe is a creative way of substituting meat with accessible and affordable vegetables, recreating the flavor profile of a classic grilled Turkish kebab by combining umami-rich and stable sauces with kebab spices.

Recipe courtesy Chef Pinar Balpinar for Unilever Food Solutions

Yield: 10

Ingredients for Molasses Glazed Cabbage

Method

1. For Molasses Glaze: In a blender mix Knorr Noodle & Wok Sauce, Hellmann’s BBQ Sauce, grape molasses, pomegranate molasses, vegetable oil, and onions together until the sauce is smooth.

Ingredients for Spice Mix

Method

1. Mix Knorr Vegetable Seasoning and all other spices together.
2. Slice the cabbage into wedges. Include the stalk to keep it intact and prevent waste. Secure the leaves with a wooden skewer.
3. Brush the cabbages with molasses sauce.
4. Sear the cabbage with butter in a pan. While searing, use a heavy meat hammer to press.
5. Once all sides are seared, cover the cabbage with spice mix and brush with more molasses glaze. Place the cabbage in a 250°C oven for four minutes.
6. Remove the cabbage from the oven. Brush with more molasses glaze.
7. Remove the skewers before serving.

Ingredients for Cabbage

Ingredients for Spicy Bulgur Rice with Pickled Cabbage

Method

1. Heat oil in a saucepan, add bell peppers and sauté for 30 seconds.
2. Add Knorr Arrabbiata Sauce and Knorr Vegetable Seasoning and stir.
3. Add water and bring to the boil.
4. Once the stock starts to simmer, add bulgur rice and pickled cabbage. Cover the pan.
5. When all the water has evaporated, the rice is ready.
6. Add some butter and mix it until the rice becomes sticky but pourable.

Ingredients for Walnut Mayonnaise

Method

1. Roast Walnuts at 180°C for eight minutes.
2. Blend roasted walnuts until smooth and create a walnut praline.
3. Blend walnut praline with water, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr Garlic Seasoning until smooth.
4. Strain it.

Ingredients for Creamy Baba Ganoush Puree

Method

1. Roast bell peppers and eggplants in the oven or grill. Place red bell peppers and eggplant on a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes or until peppers are charred.
2. Remove from the oven and place in a bowl. Cover and let it steam for about 15-20 minutess. Peel and deseed peppers. Peel eggplants.
3. Place the peppers and eggplant to a food processor, add tomato paste, Knorr Garlic Seasoning, olive oil, salt, and vinegar. Blend until smooth.
4. Transfer to a saucepan. Simmer over very low heat for 20-30 minutes, or until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
5. After the puree has cooled down, add Greek yogurt and continue blending until smooth.

Ingredients for Crispy Onion Strings

Method

1. In a bowl, mix wheat starch and Knorr Vegetable Seasoning.
2. Slice onions thinly with a peeler or mandolin. Take the excess juice from the onions with a kitchen towel.
3. Mix onions with the seasoned starch.
4. Heat the oil to 160°C and deep-fry the onions until golden brown and crisp.

Assembly

1. Plate all components. Drizzle over some walnut mayonnaise then top with watercress.

Photo courtesy Unilever Food Solutions Future Menus report

Sunflower with Chia Caviar

A dish comprising of the different parts of a sunflower using various techniques to create a unique combination of flavors and textures, with a low-cost yet healthy chia caviar.

Recipe courtesy Chef Stefan Furrer, for Unilever Food Solutions

Yield: 10

Ingredients for Sunflower Puree and Cubes

Meethod

1. Clean and prepare the sunflower heads then soak in lemon water.
2. Blanch in salted water.
3. Cook 400 g sunflower heads with milk and concentrated Knorr Vegetable Broth until soft, then puree.
4. Mix the puree with Knorr Stocki Flakes. Season to taste.
5. Cut the remaining sunflower heads into cubes and sauté in hot fat and season.
6. Put 200 g puree into a piping bag. Keep it warm.

Ingredients for Sunflower Flan

Method

1. Mix 500 g sunflower puree with the same amount of whole egg. Season to taste.
2. Cut the remaining sunflower heads into cubes.
3. Place half of the cubes in the serving dish and fill with the flan.
4. Cover with cling film.
5. Poach in the oven at 100% steam for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for Vegan Caviar

Method

1. Cut nori into pieces.
2. Soak leaves in water and soy sauce.
3. Blend finely.
4. Stir in the chia seeds and sunflower oil and chill for one hour.

Ingredients for Earth Potato

Method

1. Wash and dry the potatoes.
2. Beat the egg whites and carefully stir in the healing earth. Season to taste.
3. Roughly chop half of the sunflower seeds.
4. Mix the chopped seeds and hay with the egg white mixture.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Add the potatoes to the mixture.
7. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in the oven at 180°C for 50 minutes.

Ingredients for Assembly

Method

1. Cut the leaves into julienne and deep-fry together with the flowers.
2. Peel the stems and cut them into 4 cm long sticks, then cut in half, lengthwise.
3. Sauté the stalks in the sunflower oil and season.

To Serve

1. Arrange the garnishes on top of the flan.
2. Arrange the caviar in a tin, smoothly spread with a spoon, topped with crème fraîche.
3. Serve the baked potato with the remaining ingredients.