My mother told me long ago that there were two things in life everyone should be able to do: cook and repair clothes.

That way, you’d never go hungry or naked. Cooking is still an essential skill, but one that is fast disappearing in homes all around the country.

Creating good food takes time and patience, but the best advice I can give is not to be intimidated and just get stuck in.

Cooking, I believe, is both a science and an art. As with the creation of other works of art, you can’t be too cautious in the kitchen.

Cooking has always come relatively easy to me, but I know that’s not the same for everyone.

So in my recipes I take different elements of my dishes and present the best and easiest way to create them, without losing the ethos of Thornton’s in the process. So go on, take the plunge!

Beetroot salad

Beetroot, with its magic burgundy colour and smell of summer, is perfect in salads at this time of year. When I was young, most beetroot was bought in a jar, because it took so long to cook, and there is a certain knack to capturing the rich colour – which can be lost when beetroot is boiled.

The best way to protect beetroot’s flavour and colour is to bake it in the oven, unpeeled. When working with beetroot be careful – the colour gets everywhere.

I use surgical gloves which you can get in the chemist and which protect my hands from staining.

Roasted beetroot summer salad, serves ten

Ingredients
2kg fresh beetroot
2 grapefruits
2 oranges
100g of rock salt

Method
1. Wash the beetroot, arrange the salt on a tray covered with tinfoil. Then wash the grapefruits and oranges and cut into small pieces. Place the beetroot into the centre of the tinfoil, squeeze the citrus fruit on top and drop it on top of the beetroot, fold the tinfoil into a parcel around the beetroot and close.

2. Place it into a warm oven at gas mark 3 or 130 C in a fan for about four hours. Then remove it from the oven, insert a knife into the beetroot and if it goes in easily, it’s cooked. Open the tinfoil and you will get a wonderful smell as the beetroot cools down. The citrus fruit helps the beetroot retain its colour without taking away from its flavour.

3. Remove the skin on the beetroot by rubbing it with your fingers (still wearing gloves). It should come off easily.

4. You can slice the beetroot thinly or dice it, but again be careful where you do it, as the colour gets everywhere.

5. Dress the beetroot with the following dressing and serve with salad leaves.

Salad dressing
Ingredients
4 oranges
1 lemon
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
100ml virgin olive oil
20ml of cider vinegar
1 egg yolk
Sea salt
Fresh milled white pepper to taste

Method
1. Peel the lemon and oranges and chop into fine pieces, place in a pot and barely cover with water. Then place on the stove and bring to the boil.

2. Remove and place in a blender and cool. Add the egg yolk and mustard, seasoning, cider vinegar and olive oil, mix for one minute, taste and season.

Salad leaves
With so much variety in salad leaves and herbs available in the supermarkets now, there is no reason why you can’t make an exciting salad with the best, fresh, young seasonal leaves.

Try lambs lettuce, sorrel – which gives a slight lemon taste – frizze, baby oak leaf, leaves from young broccoli, chives and chive flowers.

Experiment with other flavours, too. I picked a bunch of wild rocket recently when out walking, and it made a beautiful, simple salad with balsamic vinegar dressing and parmesan cheese.

All you have to do is wash the leaves, dry them on kitchen paper or in a salad spinner, and place them in a bowl and season. Slice the beetroot into thin slices, arrange them on the plate and make a little bouquet of salad leaves.

Mix a little dressing just before you sprinkle it around the salad. Serve with a few beetroot crisps.

Tags: beetroot, vegetarian