‘Super Roots’ cookbook: Recipes from turmeric corn fritters to probiotic kimchi grains

(Patricia Niven )

Sweet potato chaat

Chaat is a street food snack from Delhi, India, and chaat masala is a very popular spice blend from northern India that you can find in most Asian supermarkets. It’s a wonderfully spicy, sour and salty blend that complements the sweetness of the energising potatoes, chickpeas and quick-pickled onion deliciously. Instead of the usual potato, I’ve used sweet potatoes. Yams work just as well.

Serves 4

3 large sweet potatoes or yams, peeled
2 tbsp tamarind water or 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate
Juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tsp dried chilli (hot pepper) flakes
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
1 tsp chaat masala​
1 red onion, thinly sliced
400g tin of chickpeas, rinsed
1 tomato, chopped
Handful of coriander, roughly chopped
Handful of mint leaves
Olive oil, for drizzling
Black salt or sea salt, to taste

To make this vegan, substitute the honey with maple syrup

Cook the sweet potatoes or yams in a saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, then drain. Combine the tamarind water, lime juice, honey or maple syrup, chilli flakes, cumin seeds and chaat masala in a large salad bowl. Mix well and stir in the sliced onion. Leave it to pickle.

Once your sweet potatoes or yams have cooled slightly, chop them into bite-sized chunks and add them to the onion and zingy dressing.

Peel off the outer skin of each chickpea by rolling each of them between the fingers – it should come off really easily. This is vital for helping the digestion of these legumes as the skins are hard to digest and are what cause bloating. Add the chickpeas to the salad bowl along with the chopped tomato and fresh coriander, mint and salt to taste. Drizzle with a fair glug of olive oil (don’t be shy!).

(Patricia Niven)

Turmeric corn fritters

Textured, spicy, moist and absolutely delicious, these fritters are great served with ginger and tomato sambal or kecap manis dressing diluted with a bit of water and sprinkled with chillies and shallots. Be good to yourself.

Serves 4

Fritters

200g fresh corn kernels or tinned corn, drained
1 egg
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp ground turmeric or 2 cm piece of fresh turmeric
2cm piece of fresh ginger root
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Pinch of sea salt
2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
½ celery stalk, grated
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 small carrot, grated
20–30g rice flour or cornflour
1 long red chilli, finely chopped
10 tbsp coconut oil, for deep-frying

Dressing

4 tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
1 tbsp water
4 Thai chillies, thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced

Put half the corn kernels in a blender or food processor, along with the egg, garlic, turmeric, ginger, spices and a pinch of salt, and blitz until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a jug or bowl and add the rest of the fritter ingredients: the spring onions, celery, coriander, carrot, the remaining corn kernels, the rice flour or cornflour and chilli. Stir to combine.

Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil in a deep frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat until it reaches 160-180C (if it’s any hotter, the fritters will burn before they are fully cooked through). If you don’t have a thermometer, put a wooden spoon in the oil – as soon as bubbles start to come to the surface, the oil is ready. Add 1 heaped tablespoon per fritter to the hot oil, cooking in batches of four at a time, and fry for about 5 minutes on each side, turning them halfway, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels and repeat with the rest of the batter. Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together. Serve the warm fritters with the sauce.

(Patricia Niven)

Probiotic kimchi fried grains

Serves 2

Kimchi bokkeumbap (Korean fried rice) is ridiculously easy to make, delicious and packed with gut-healing ingredients like probiotic kimchi and ginger. You can use any leftover grains, such as rice, barley and quinoa. I like a 50-50 combination of rice and barley.

100g smoked bacon lardons (optional)
1 tbsp coconut oil or butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cm piece of fresh ginger root, finely chopped
150g easy probiotic kimchi (below), chopped
300g cooked grains of choice, preferably a day old
1 tbsp gochujang (below)

To serve

2 eggs, fried
2 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

Saute the lardons (if using) in the coconut oil or butter in a large wok or frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat, just before they become crispy (if you’re not using lardons simply heat the oil or butter). Add the onion, garlic and ginger, then saute over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until they become aromatic and the lardons are crisp. Add the chopped kimchi, grains and gochujang, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until everything is mixed through evenly and is piping hot.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, flatten the rice in the pan with a spatula and cook for a further 2 minutes. The bottom of the rice will take on a nice crispy consistency. The longer you leave it, the more crispy the bottom will become. Serve the rice with a fried egg, sprinkled with the sliced spring onion.

Gochujang

Makes about 50g

2 tbsp white miso paste
2 tbsp Korean chilli (hot pepper) flakes (essential)
2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce, tamari or vegan liquid aminos​
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup 
Nori, cut into strips (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together and store in a sealed container in the fridge. It will keep for several weeks.

Easy probiotic kimchi

Makes 2kg

‘Kimchi anything’ paste

5 garlic cloves
4cm piece of fresh ginger root, peeled
80g Korean chilli (hot pepper) flakes
50ml fish sauce
5 anchovy fillets (tinned in oil)
2 tbsp unrefined sugar of choice

Vegetables

2kg any vegetable of choice, sliced
1 litre filtered water
100g sea salt

Put the sliced vegetables in a large bowl, add the water and the salt and toss well to mix them all up. The salt won’t fully dissolve but it will still brine the vegetables. Leave at room temperature (uncovered) for about 2 hours. Meanwhile, blitz all the ‘kimchi anything’ paste ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add a bit of water to loosen if necessary.

After you’re done brining, drain the vegetables, rinse off all the salty water and gently squeeze the vegetables to remove excess water. Once thoroughly drained, put the vegetables in a bowl, add the paste and evenly massage the paste into the vegetables. Transfer the mixture to a 2 litre plastic or glass container, seal and store in the fridge for up to a month, or longer if you like it fizzy.

The longer you leave it to ferment, the more ‘alive’ the kimchi will become. The kimchi creates C02 gasses and will therefore start to fizz a little bit, but don’t be alarmed – it’s all just part of the fun.

Extracted from ‘Super Roots’ by Tanita de Ruijt (Hardie Grant, £16.99) Photography © Patricia Niven