From turnips to vinegar, eight top recipe writers share the ingredients that deserve more love – and how to use them in your everyday cooking.
Curb your enthusiasm, it’s turnip season! If you don’t eat turnips, fair enough – but you might’ve been missing out. According to the experts, they’re among the most under-appreciated ingredients going round.
We asked our recipe writers a simple question: What are your most underrated ingredients and how should we cook them? Pleasingly, many of the ingredients were affordable, all of them easy to find.
If they’re not on your shopping list already, add them and never be stuck for budget-friendly, midweek meal inspiration again.
Turnips
Adam Liaw, food writer and TV presenter
Adam Liaw grew up eating turnip cake, a yum cha classic combining steamed and fried turnip, Chinese sausage, shrimp and glutinous rice flour. “My favourite way to eat turnip is pickled, Japanese style, in a slightly sweetened vinegar,” says Liaw.
He loves the distinctive “slightly bitter” taste of turnip and always includes it in French pot au feu and brothy stews to offset the sweetness of long-stewed carrots.
Use it in: Potato and turnip roesti, pickle it, pack it in a veg pastie, or bulk-up a stew.
Anchovies
Sofia Levin, food writer and TV presenter
“Anchovies have absolutely gained popularity, but they’re still underrated as an everyday ingredient,” says MasterChef judge Sofia Levin. She credits the rise of the salty fish to wine bars serving them on toast and as gildas (a classic Spanish pintxo of skewered anchovy, guindilla pepper and olives).
“They’re brilliant in a butter,” says Levin, “which can be used on bread, steak or roast chicken for that bit extra.”
Use them in: Salad dressings, butter, pasta sauces, gildas (pictured above) or eat straight from the tin.
Chickpea flour
Julia Busuttil Nishimura, cookbook writer
This nutty and nutritious flour is made from white chickpeas and is gluten free. Good Food recipe writer Julia Busuttil Nishimura uses it to make cecina, an Italian flatbread. “It’s essentially a pancake made with chickpea flour, olive oil, water and salt,” says Nishimura.
She cooks it on a flat tray in the oven until “it gets a beautiful golden crust and has a custard interior”. Then she sometimes flavours it with rosemary or fennel seeds.
Use it in: Cecina, Indian snacks (including pakora and bhaji), and as a gluten-free flour substitute.
Mustard
Alice Zaslavsky, cookbook writer and TV presenter
“I have 80 dressings, and I’d say 50 of them have mustard,” says Zaslavsky, author of Salad for Days and a presenter of ABC TV’s A Bite To Eat with Alice. “Hot English, dijon, wholegrain, mustard powder – they add piquancy and kick.
Seeded mustard with tarragon, those two are such good friends, then you could drizzle that over char-grilled broccolini.”
Use it in: “Any kind of ‘aise’,” says Zaslavsky, such as dressings, rubs, marinades and creamy pasta sauces. Try the recipe for Neil Perry’s chicken breasts with Dijon mustard cream sauce (pictured above).
Cabbage
Katrina Meynink, cookbook writer and Good Food recipe writer
Good Food recipe writer Katrina Meynink reckons cabbage, the humble hero of the vegetable world, should be prized for its versatility and affordability. “And if you treat it right, it’s downright delicious,” she says. “Slaw aside, you can slice it thin and toss in a hot pan with butter and garlic, transforming it into this rich, caramelised goodness.”
Use it in: Stir-fries, stuffed vegetables, dumplings, braises and fermented as sauerkraut. Or cabbage and kale slaw (pictured above).
Lemons
Mika Chae, chef at Doju
WhenKorean chef Mika Chae scores lemons from his neighbour’s tree, he makes the traditional Korean syrup, lemon chung. He washes the lemons with salt and water, sterilises a jar, then adds sliced lemons and sugar (half and half). The jar is stored in a cool, dark place and flipped daily. “After about a week, the syrup is ready to use,” says Chae, who then brews an aromatic, immune-boosting tea: some syrup, a slice of lemon and ginger.
Use it in: Zest lemon rind into cakes and casseroles like Greek lemon and chicken casserole, pictured above; drink the juice and turn it into syrup.
Vinegar
Danielle Alvarez, chef and recipe writer
“Vinegar” isn’t an umbrella term for the chef and author Danielle Alvarez – it’s way more nuanced. “I love sherry vinegar in vinaigrettes and green sauces, and white wine or apple cider vinegar for pickles,” she says. “An aged, thick balsamic is so good over thinly shaved raw vegetables or fresh cheese with olive oil, and agrodolce-style vinegars are often sweetened a bit with sugar making them perfect to dress salads.”
Use it to: Brighten a pureed soup, deglaze a pan, add a tart punch to dressings.
Chilli paste
Justin Narayan, cookbook writer and former MasterChef winner
Author of Everything is Indian, Justin Narayan has three chilli pastes in his fridge: Bippi Italian Style Chilli, and two – one fresh, and one cooked – that he makes from a $5 bag of birds-eye chillies from Cabramatta Market. He likes the umami tang that chilli paste brings to the likes of curries and stir-fries.
“Instead of fresh chilli, I go straight in with chilli paste to be added at the start,” says Narayan, who also uses it for “loaded mayo” in a burger, compound butters or “in a cheese toasty”.
Use it in: Dressings, marinades, compound butters, curries and loaded mayo.
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