Roast Pumpkin and Mixed Grain Broth

Nothing beats a beautiful, clean broth. But to call this a broth feels like it misses the mark. Imagine it more like a savoury lemon and ginger tea with shallots, smoked grain, roasted pumpkin and fresh tomato and you’ll be a little closer. Using a tea-like infusion is one of my favourite ways to make a broth as you can allow whole ingredients to steep for as long as you like, for example, extracting oils from lemon rind, a whole new lemony flavour we miss out on when we use lemon juice only.

This broth reflects the season beautifully, with fresh tomatoes from the tail end of our late summer harvests and pumpkin or squash, roasted, sticky and sweet. Served with chunky dipping croutons, baked into deep, nutty umami that balances beautifully with the clean lemony acidity, this broth is an absolute favourite of mine with either grains or noodles.

The Recipe - Serves 2 - 40 minutes

• 1 Shallot or small white/brown onion

• 50g Wild rice

• 30g Pearl barley

• 30g Smoked quinoa

• 2 Carrots

• 900g Pumpkin / squash (a small one)

• 8 Tomatoes (small varieties)

• 1 Spring onion / chives

• 1/4 wedge of lemon

• Thumb-sized piece of ginger

• 1 tsp Wholegrain mustard

• A drizzle of cooking oil (olive, sunflower or vegetable)

• Salt

• Any stale chunk of bread you have (fresh also works)

Step 1.

Cut the wedge of lemon and roughly chop up the ginger root into 1cm thick chunks. Add them to a medium sized saucepan with 600ml of water and a pinch of salt. Bring them to a simmer whilst you cut the shallot into long thin pieces (2-3cm long). Add them to the broth along with a pinch of salt and tsp of wholegrain mustard, then leave the whole lot to simmer for an hour.

Step 2.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350f). Peel and cut the pumpkin into 1cm thick chunks (reserve the seeds for toasting with salt, cumin and cracked black pepper another day) and roughly chop up the carrot to the same thickness. Place them on a roasting tray with a drizzle of oil and salt, then place them in the oven for 30 minutes, tossing them around after 15.

Step 3.

Whilst the rest of the ingredients cook, rinse the wild rice once to wash it, then add it into a pan with 200ml of cold water. Bring it to the boil and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. At the same time, add the barley to the lemon and ginger broth. After 20 minutes, add the quinoa to the rice pan and continue to simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and cover with a lid for another 10 minutes. During the final 10 minutes, hack up the stale bread and bake it for 10 minutes until golden brown all over.

Drain any excess water from the wild rice and plate up half at the bottom of each bowl. Place the pumpkin and carrots on top and half any larger tomatoes. Pour the broth over the top, holding back the ginger and lemon. Plop the tomatoes on top and finish with any fresh herbs from the garden and thinly sliced spring onion. Serve with the bread as dipping croutons.