MID TO LATE SUMMER // Recipe for four

Sorrel and fennel sorbet, blueberries and garden lavender

This sweetened dish of plants and berries is full of antioxidants and promotes good iron levels, plus it’s refreshing and bloody tasty. Work fast when you’re using plant materials such as the sorrel, spinach and kale: the nutrients are brought out of the plants when they are heated up, but as soon as they start to oxidise they lose some of their wonderful attributes.

SORREL AND FENNEL SORBET

290 g (10¼ oz) sorrel leaves

60 g (2¼ oz) fennel stems

135 ml (4½ fl oz) sugar syrup

5 g (¹/₈ oz) xanthan gum

Juice the sorrel and fennel. Strain the liquid into a bowl, stir in the sugar syrup and xanthan gum and then whisk well. Transfer to an ice-cream machine and churn until frozen. If you don’t have an ice-cream machine, pour into a shallow freezer container. Freeze until semi-frozen, then whisk very thoroughly. Freeze and whisk again, twice more.

STEEPED BLUEBERRIES

100 g (3½ oz) sugar cane

40 g (1½ oz) lavender buds

300 g (10½ oz) blueberries

Put 100 ml (3½ fl oz) water into a saucepan and add the sugar cane and lavender buds. Stir off the heat until dissolved and then heat gently to 65°C (149°F). Add the blueberries and steep for 3 hours at that temperature. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

SWEETENED CREME

100 g (3½ oz) honey

2 teaspoons salt

300 g (10½ oz) sour cream

Fold the honey and salt through the sour cream. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

CHLOROPHYLL

600 g (1 lb 5 oz) green garden plants, such as sorrel, English spinach or kale

Juice the green plants and bring to the boil in a saucepan. Turn off the heat and the chlorophyll will split away and come to the top. Use a ladle to skim off the chlorophyll into a fine strainer lined with muslin (cheesecloth). Serve immediately.

PLANTS TO FINISH

Lavender flowers

Bronze fennel fronds