glazed spring vegetables
a simple and comforting dish
Welcome to mamaeats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, whole food meals with a focus on plants. This newsletter is my labor of love, and it means so much that you are here. If you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here. This gives you access to all the archives and recipes (find the recipe index here), as well as cook-along videos which go along with most recipes.
Hello everyone, thank you for your patience while I have been recovering. I caught a bad case of the flu last week and was in bed most of the week, in fact this is my first fever free day today. It’s felt like an eternity.
All this meant no Saturday newsletter this week—I don’t write, or really plan, the newsletters more than a day or two ahead of time because it’s just not my style. I prefer them to be natural reflections of life at the moment, whatever I’m cooking and inspired by and fired up about right now, or what readers have asked me to write about. So, when things go awry I don’t have a backup log ready to go, which is inconvenient but much more human, I think. I hope you don’t mind too much.
Anyways, after being sick and subsisting mainly on sparkling water and rice and lozenges, I was in the mood today for something fresh but very simple. With baby spring vegetables in abundance here, I started thinking of a very simple side dish that I used to make a lot when Vincent was little.
We would grow peas and tiny carrots and turnips in the garden together, and this was a simple way to combine them all, with the added bonus that sprinkling in the bit of sugar that makes a glaze absolutely delighted him. He’s always been my pickiest eater and sometimes it took little tricks like this for him to branch out with new textures.
I hope it might become a spring favorite in your house, too. It certainly is a pleasant way to eat spring vegetables, and it’s a nice one to use up odds and ends of veg from the market or CSA box. Sometimes I’ll have a handful of sad, wobbly radishes and carrots from the very back of the veg drawer, and a 1/3 of a bag of frozen peas on hand, and I’ll find a few wrinkly potatoes, and then make this dish with it, which feels like such a pleasant transformation.
jardinière de légumes (mixed spring vegetables)
notes: The butter and sugar give the vegetables a little glaze, making them taste extra delicious, but feel free to reduce or leave out the sugar if you prefer, especially if your vegetables are very fresh and sweet. You can also use a bit of bouillon instead of the sugar, for an extra savoury version. Feel free to swap in whatever spring vegetables you’ve got to hand—for example, in the photos, I used radishes in lieu of turnips, and chopped sugar snap peas in lieu of shelled English peas. If you cannot find pearl onions, try a small leek cut into rounds, or a shallot.
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar8 small carrots, peeled and diced (or 3 medium)
8 tiny turnips, peeled (or 2 medium, peeled and quartered)
15 small new potatoes, peeled
2 handfuls fresh (or frozen) peas
6 pearl onions, peeled but whole
2 garlic cloves, peeled but whole
a few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed from stems
salt + pepper
In a large saucepan (one that has a lid), melt the butter over medium heat. Sprinkle the sugar over the melted butter and stir for a moment or two until the sugar melts.
Add in the carrots, turnips, potatoes, pearl onions, garlic, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and let cook about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add 1/4 cup/60 ml water, reduce heat to low, and cover. Let it cook until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
Remove lid and add the peas, along with a little more (up to an additional 1/4 cup) water if needed, and let cook uncovered until the water is almost evaporated and vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes—there should still be a little glaze left clinging to the vegetables. Serve warm.
Oh no. I was wondering why I didn’t see the Saturday post. Good you are mending Amanda. 💚
Glad you are feeling better!