Creamy Veg Crumble Recipe

Charlotte says: "I've made this multiple times for family and friends and it's always a hit! It's a little longer in terms of prep, but makes a fairly big amount, so you can easily have leftovers the next day or freeze for when you need them."

Serves:

Family of 4 plus plenty of leftovers

Prep time:

40 minutes

Cook time:

1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

1.25kg mixed veg (I used carrots, leek and parsnips), peeled and cut into 2–3cm chunks (keep them all roughly the same size)
Drizzle of olive oil
175g plain flour
50g porridge oats
125g unsalted butter
50g ground or roughly chopped nuts (I use hazelnuts or walnuts – grind if offering to young babies)
50g cheddar cheese, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
600ml milk of choice
3 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Steamed greens or green salad, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan. Spread the veg out over a baking tray, drizzle with the oil and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, turning the veg halfway through, until lightly golden and tender.

2. Meanwhile, put 125g of the flour in a bowl with the porridge oats, then put this on the scales. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then pour 75g of it into the flour mixture.

3. Add the ground or chopped nuts and the grated cheese and stir until you have a sandy, slightly biscuity crumble mixture. Set aside.

4. To make the white sauce, put the remaining flour into the pan of the remaining melted butter and place over a medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes, until the mixture has become drier and smells biscuity, then stir in the garlic and the nutmeg and cook for 2 minutes more. Gradually whisk in the milk, stirring constantly and keeping it over the heat – it will seize and thicken at first, then gradually thin out into a sauce that easily coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the thyme leaves and set aside.

5. Once the vegetables are cooked, transfer them to a large baking dish and pour over the white sauce. Stir gently to coat everything thoroughly, then scatter over the crumble, patting it down to pack it in slightly.

6. Bake for 40 minutes, until the crumble is light golden and the sauce is bubbling up around the edges. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then serve with steamed greens or a green salad. To batch cook you can use two smaller pie dishes instead of one large one, and freeze one of them before baking.

Extracted from How to Feed Your Family by Charlotte Stirling-Reed (£18.99, Ebury Press)

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