White asparagus with Turkish beetroot sauce

Spargel and Turkish sauce

This is a simple and slightly quirky way to enjoy your asparagus. White asparagus is superior, here in Berlin, to its green brothers and can take a little more time to prepare as the stalks are very woody. Take the time to trim them so you do not end up with a tough spear but the clean, silky texture of this much beloved vegetable.

I have teamed them with this vibrant and garlicky Turkish dip which works perfectly as a side dish or starter.

Enjoy!

Serves 2.

Shopping list:

2 medium beetroots

2 cloves of garlic

soy yogurt

juice of half a lemon

olive oil

cumin powder

500g white asparagus, trimmed

black sesame seeds to garnish (optional)

First heat the oven to 180C and rub your beetroot with a little olive oil and salt and roast until soft and easily pierced with a knife. This should be about an hour or so. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel off the tough skins and discard. Roughly chop the beetroot and set aside.

Fill a saucepan with water, put on to boil and steam your asparagus until tender.

While they are steaming pop the beetroot, garlic, lemon juice and cumin into a blender and blitz. While the motor is running pour in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Next spoon in roughly 3 tbsp of soy yogurt, salt and pepper and blitz until everything is well blended and you have a gloriously vibrant magenta.

Taste for seasoning, perhaps you need more salt, cumin or lemon and adjust accordingly.

Once the asparagus is cooked, serve drizzled generously with the Turkish sauce and the black sesame to garnish.

Basil and tahini sauce with aubergine, basil orzo risotto

I love basil and I love tahini and this sauce is the perfect marriage of the two.

Tahini is most commonly used in Middle Eastern cuisine but also Greek and Turkish, so I decided to bridge the gap between Arabia and the Italian Med that bit closer and combine basil with tahini and an orzo ‘risotto’.

This creamy, fragrant sauce works as a delicious accompaniment to the roasted aubergine and basil risotto. Add some bite with toasted walnuts and zing with quickly pickled radish and this is an impressive meal for 2.

Enjoy!

Shopping list:

large bunch basil (2x supermarket packs)

100g toasted walnuts

1 lemon

1 clove garlic

olive oil

200g orzo pasta

tahini, 100ml
1 medium/ large aubergine

2 spring onions, cut in half length ways

vine cherry tomatoes

radishes

good quality vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

basil and tahini sauce

Set your oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Thinly slice your radishes, pop into a bowl and douse with vinegar until fully covered. Set aside for later.

First to make the basil sauce, pop into a blender the tahini, roughly chopped garlic, lemon juice, 2/3 of your basil (reserve a handful of the stalks and roughly chop them), salt and about 2 tbsp of water and blitz until you have a smooth, green sauce. The consistency should be creamily pourable but not too runny. Set this aside for later.

Now chop your aubergine into bite size cubes and add to a roasting tray with the spring onions and a liberal amount of olive oil. Toss until all is evenly coated. Pop in the oven and roast until golden, roughly 20-25 minutes.

About ten minutes before your aubergine is ready, remove the roasting tray and stir in the chopped basil stalks. Now place your tomatoes, still on the vine, on top of the aubergine. Drizzle over a little more olive oil and place back into the oven to cook.

While this is happening its time to prepare the orzo pasta. Get some water in a pan up to a boil and cook according to the packet instructions.

Drain and drizzle over some olive oil to prevent sticking.

Once your vegetables are nicely golden and soft, set the vine tomatoes aside and add the orzo pasta to the roasting tray over the hob you used to boil the pasta, and stir into the aubergine and onions. Now add the remainder of your basil leaves, roughly chopped, and tumble over the toasted walnuts and stir well.

Drain the vinegar from the radishes.

Serve the risotto with the basil sauce, vine tomatoes on the side and a few of the pickled turnips.

Raw chocolate brownies

  

For some, the notion of a raw brownie may seem absurd but I promise you these are magic! Just as delicious as the baked version, soft and gooey thanks to the dates and on top of that you know it’s healthy! A super quick dessert. 

Enjoy!

Shopping list:

2 cups of walnuts

2.5 cups of soft dates, pitted

60g cacoa powder or if unavailable, unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbsp cacoa nibs plus more for sprinkling on top

Pinch of sea salt

 

In a food processor, process your walnuts until finely ground.

Now add your cacoa powder, salt and pulse to combine evenly.

Remove this mixture and set aside.

To the food processor, add your dates and process until you have finely chopped pieces. Now pour the walnuts/ cacoa mix back into the food processor and process until nicely blended with the dates. You want a soft almost dough like texture. If the mix is not holding together well then pop in some more dates and pulse.

Line a bread tin with baking paper and sprinkle some cacoa nibs over the base.

Press your brownie mixture evenly into the tin with a spatula. Sprinkle over some more nibs and some leftover walnuts.

Lift the baking paper out from the tin and cut your brownie and enjoy!

Even better if you have another five minutes spare to chill in the fridge.

Asparagus and Devil’s Pesto Penne

Devil’s food

This is a fantastic way to celebrate two ingredients which are now in season, asparagus and wild garlic. Simple and delicious, this pasta dish makes for a perfect quick mid-week supper. Avocado lends its silky unctuousness that is a welcome addition to almost any dish. Wild garlic is also known as ‘devils garlic’ giving the dish a rather funky name.

Enjoy!

Serves 2

Large bunch of wild garlic (around 500g)
Large bunch of asparagus (around 200g)
small packet of pine nuts
juice of 1 lemon
olive oil
nutritional yeast
Penne pasta (around 200g for 2 people)
1 avocado, peeled, de-stoned and sliced

First make your Devil’s pesto. Begin by toasting your pine nuts in a small frying pan and set aside.
In a food processor add your roughly chopped wild garlic, juice of 1/2 the lemon, toasted pine nuts, nutritional yeast, seasoning and blitz while pouring in gradually the olive oil until you have a nice, creamy paste. Check for seasoning, you may need a little more salt/ lemon etc.
Now prepare your asparagus by trimming away the tough, woody ends and then chopping into 1 inch pieces leaving the attractive tips a little longer.
Get some water boiling on the stove in a large saucepan and steam your asparagus until cooked and tender but retaining some bite. Set aside.
Now cook your penne pasta according to cooking instructions, drain and remember to keep a little of the cooking water.
Slice your avocado and squeeze over the rest of the lemon to stop from discolouring.
Now its time to put it all together!
To your drained pasta add the pesto, asparagus and a little of the pasta cooking water and stir well so everything is deliciously coated with the pesto.
Add the avocado and serve.

Spring has sprung- beetroot, corn and butter bean fritters with pea and tahini dip

fritters and dip

This is a great recipe for using any leftover hummus you may have, super quick and easy, these fritters are a fantastic mid-week supper. Full of fresh, healthy ingredients, they are also gluten-free. Paired with the creamy pea and tahini dip, the vibrant colours please both the eye and the tummy! Delicious served like this, they would also make for some killer vegan burgers with a good bun, pickles and the works.

Enjoy.

1 large beetroot, peeled

1 medium courgette

1x 400g can of butterbeans, drained

1 bunch of coriander, stalks and leaves roughly chopped

3 spring onions, roughly chopped

cumin, 1 tsp

1 small can of sweet corn

chickpea flour, 3 tblsp

hummus, 3tblsp or another can of butter beans blended until smooth

500g of peas, blanched

juice of 1 lemon

good quality vinegar, 1tblsp i.e. herb or white wine

tahini, 3 tblsp

1 garlic clove

a good handful of mint

digging in

Pop the beetroot and courgette in a food processor using the grater function or use regular box grater. Remove and place in a large bowl.

Back to the food processor, assemble the regular blade function and add the butter beans, coriander, corn, spring onions and pulse until smooth but retaining bite.

Pour mixture into the bowl with beetroot and courgette and mix well with your hands.

Add the hummus or blended butter beans, cumin, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Add the chickpea flour and make sure it is well blended once more. The texture should be moist but hold well, you may want to adjust the amount of hummus/ flour you added.

Set aside in the fridge while you whizz up the pea dip simply by adding to your food processor/ hand blender the peas, lemon, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, mint, salt and tahini and blend until smooth.

Add a little olive oil to a pan and heat. When quite hot, with floured hands form your fritters into 4 patties (or 8 smaller ones) and carefully place them in the pan. Fry that side until golden and crisp and then delicately turn the fritters over to fry the other side. Roughly 3 minutes on each side if the pan is good and hot.

Serve either with a baby leaf salad and the pea and tahini dip, or as awesome vegan burgers such as my kimchi burger with slaw and Sriracha ‘mayo’.

kimchi burger with slaw

Rhubarb season is here! Rhubarb and Sumac Hummus

rhubarb hummus and crudites

The idea for this slightly unusual hummus popped into my head one day on considering the similarities between rhubarb and the vibrant spice Sumac. Both flavours are tart with citrus notes, and since I love to add a little sumac to my regular hummus and rhubarb season is finally here again, I decided to give a rhubarb version a try. And you know what?
it’s great! The addition of roasted rhubarb gives the humble, earthy chickpea dish a tangy undertone that is delicious. I served it simply with fresh vegetable crudites but it would work equally well with flat bread or perhaps as a side with some taboulleh.Enjoy!

3 sticks of rhubarb

Large can of chickpeas (800g or 2x 400g)

Rapeseed oil 1 tbsp

paprika 1/2 tsp

sumac 1/2 tsp

cumin 1tsp

coriander 1 tsp

salt to taste

lemon to taste

1/2 orange or satsuma

tahini

olive oil

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

rhubarb is here again!

To start, chop and trim your rhubarb into 1 inch pieces, removing any stringy fibre as you go.

Throw the rhubarb into a baking tray and drizzle over the rapeseed oil, spices, a little salt and squeeze over the juice of the orange half. Mix with a wooden spoon so that the rhubarb is evenly coated.

Pop in the oven at about 200 degrees Celsius and roast until soft, this will take roughly 15/20 minutes.

While this is happening pour your chickpeas into a saucepan, liquid and all, along with the garlic cloves. Bring to a boil and then a low simmer until the garlic has softened. (I find this makes the garlic mellower).

Drain most of the chickpea liquid away into a small bowl as you may wont re-incorporate some liquid when you get blending later.

Once your rhubarb is softened remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes, reserving a couple of pieces to garnish. Now tumble the rhubarb into the pan with the drained chickpeas and garlic. Drizzle in about 1/2 tbsp of tahini, (you can adjust this to your preference, adjusting my hummus can become almost obsessive!), add your lemon, a little sprinkle of cumin, sumac and also the juices from the pan the rhubarb was cooked in.

With a hand blender/ processor etc blend until you have the consistency that pleases you. I prefer something creamy but with still a little body to it.

Adjust the flavours to your liking- perhaps more salt or lemon or even some more of the spices.

To finish, spoon the hummus into a serving bowl and drizzle with a little more of the cooking juices, reserved roasted rhubarb, some olive oil, sumac and serve with crudites.

White bean Minestrone

Springtime in a bowl

This is Spring in a bowl! Beautiful and fragrant, everything about this sweet and fresh broth makes you feel nourished. Simply grab any vegetable you find at the market- or if you’re lucky, in in your garden, and use them to make this soup.
The white beans are dreaming of being a Minestrone (Minestrone would typically ask for pasta) and they help make what is a delicious, hearty and seasonal dish.

Enjoy!

Shopping list:

for the pesto:
bunch of basil
1 garlic clove
lemon juice (1/2 the lemon)
olive oil
pine nuts, toasted
nutritional yeast, 1 tsp (vegan option)

for the soup:
1 courgette, quartered and sliced
1 fennel bulb, halved, sliced and finely chopped
3 carrots, sliced
6 spring onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, sliced
dried oregano, around 1/2 tsp
6 runner beans, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
6 asparagus spears, rough stalks finely chopped and the the more delicate ends cut into 1 inch pieces.
8 medium tomatoes, blanched, skin and seeds removed and then roughly chopped.
1 medium red chili
1x 800g can of white beans
good vegetable stock (I used 2 organic veggie stock cubes in about 1 litre water)
zest of 1/2 lemon

First make the pesto by blitzing all the ingredients in a food processor, steadily adding olive oil until you have a smooth creamy paste. Set aside to garnish your soup later.

Heat rapeseed oil in a wide based casserole dish on high.

Add your spring onions, garlic, fennel, carrot and chili and stir so the oil coats all the veg. Sprinkle in a liberal amount of oregano and fry everything for about 10-15 minutes.

Get your vegetable stock on a high heat and bring to a boil.

Add your courgette and asparagus stalks and stir fry for about a minute or so and then add enough stock to cover comfortably- its a soup so liquid is good!

Now throw in your runner beans and asparagus heads and cook the soup a further 5 minutes or until these are tender.
The key with this soup is to: chop small and cook quick, we want to retain a nice crunch in our veggies.

Now stir in your lemon zest to help that Springtime burst of flavours.

Serve in large bowls topped with a healthy dollop of pesto and a sprinkle of the fennel’s delicate fronds.
Enjoy!

Roasted vegetable cauliflower pizza

healthy pizza

I love this dish as it is a pure celebration of vegetables rather than attempting to mimic meat, which I feel many veggie options try to do. Let the vegetables do the talking!

The creamy cashew cheese and basil pesto teamed with roasted vegetables invoke authentic pizza vibes but with none of the guilt.

The cauliflower base is a revelation, as you could easily believe it is a bread dough.

Feel free to mix up your veggie choices, add a tomato base in place of pesto- play with the flavours.

I served the pizza with a dressed rocket salad and a chunky guacamole.

Nourishing, gluten free and delicious, enjoy!

Shopping list:

1 head of cauliflower

almond milk

linseeds

nutritional yeast

corn meal

½ aubergine

½ sweet potato

dried oregano

cherry tomatoes

½ courgette

6 medium chestnut mushrooms

large handful of basil

small bag of pine nuts, toasted

garlic

olive oil

lemon

1 cup cashews, soaked in water for as long as you have time or manage to remember in advance!

First, prepare your veggies. Chop the sweet potato and aubergine into 1 inch cubes and put into a large roasting tray and toss with olive oil, salt and dried oregano. Put into the oven at around 200 Celsius to roast until soft.

Next move onto the cashew cheese and pesto so you’re all ready to go later once your ‘dough’ is done. To make the cashew cheese, drain the nuts and blitz in a food processor until smooth with 1 garlic clove, ½ lemon juice and a heaped tblsp of nutritional yeast.

For the pesto, first add your basil, pine nuts, lemon and garlic to your processor once you’ve removed the cashew ‘cheese’ and blitz. No need to clean it out first, it won’t matter if these flavours mix a little. Pour in olive oil while blitzing until you have a nice creamy pesto. Set aside for later.

Next free your cauliflower from the leaves and chop into small florets. Put this into a food processor and pulse until you achieve a fine crumb. You may need to do this in batches as I did, my processor couldn’t handle the whole head!

If you have a microwave, nuke the cauliflower crumb for roughly 4 minutes or steam for about 10 minutes until softened.

While this is happening, mix a cup of linseeds with enough almond milk to cover, this concoction acts a binder for the cauliflower ‘dough’.

Pan fry sliced mushrooms and courgette with garlic.

Once the cauliflower is cool enough to touch, or if like me you are impatient, put on rubber gloves and combine with the linseed mix, salt, pepper, roughly 1 cup of corn meal, ½ cup of nutritional yeast (this adds a cheesy flavour) and combine until evenly amalgamated. If it seems too dry, add a little more almond milk, if too wet then a little more corn meal until you achieve what seems like a good dough.

With a spatula carefully spread evenly onto a large baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 200 Celsius until darker in colour and a little crispy at the edges.

(Your roasted veggies should be finished so you can exchange them for the dough.)

Once your base looks ready, spread over evenly your cashew cheese, dollop on the pesto and spread, then tumble over all your veggies. Roast for another 10 or so minutes until everything looks roasted and delicious!

leftover pizza, broccoli mash and garlicky beans

Caponata with raisins- a celebration of vinegar!

Caponata

I love vinegar.

It is an essential ingredient in my kitchen and alongside salt, lemon and olive oil, is my culinary must have.

My take on the Italian classic, Caponata, is a wonderful way to celebrate the sharp richness vinegar can add to a dish. Teamed with creamy aubergine, olive oil and ripe tomatoes, it helps create a deliciously healthy stew and allows the vegetables to sing.

With the addition of sultanas for little bursts of sweetness and pine nuts for that extra bite, this is one of my favourite dishes to make.

I have used a good herb vinegar here but have also in the past used balsamic and red wine which are both great too.

I like to serve this with raw courgette ribbons dressed in a fresh vinegarette and chili and perhaps some orzo pasta.

2 aubergines, cut into 1 inch cubes

6 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 medium red onions, sliced thinly

herb vinegar, 4 tbsp

parsley, chopped stalks and leaves for garnish

pine nuts

olive oil

dried oregano

capers

green olives

sultanas

Start off with chopping your aubergine into cubes and getting a large pan onto heat with a few healthy glugs of olive oil.

In a separate, smaller pan, toast your pine nuts so you have them ready for later.

Fry off your aubergine in the large pan with a liberal sprinkle of dried oregano until golden brown on all sides. I find I have to do this in batches.

Now add the onions, garlic and parsley stalks and cook for about 5 mins until the onions are a little translucent.

Throw in your drained capers and olives and sultanas. Next goes in the vinegar, I like to be generous with this- I really love vinegar, but 3/4 tbsp is a good place to start.

Continue to cook until the vinegar has mostly evaporated away and then add all your chopped tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are tender.

To finish sprinkle in your toasted pine nuts and parsley leaves and perhaps another drizzle of olive oil and serve with a courgette salad.

Creamy Polenta with Tomato, Caper and Olive sauce- a day of cravings

Polenta with Tomato, Caper and Olive sauce

 

The beginning of this week I was plagued with an insatiable hunger and non stop cravings for sinful foods. Nachos, mountains of pasta and pizza were all I could think of.

On Tuesday, I kept putting off cooking dinner as I simply couldn’t decide if I was going to succumb to the dark side or not. Until at about 9:30, I found myself at the supermarket, resisting.

Somehow, I managed to fight these naughty urges and came up with a compromise in the guise of this polenta and tomato sauce dish.

It was perfect.

Luscious and creamy polenta enhanced by the addition of a good Spanish olive oil and a healthy glug of tahini, paired with a rich tomato sauce bursting with flavour from the generous amount of capers and olives. This perfectly curbed the more unhealthy Italian foods I was envisaging.

It was actually my first time cooking with polenta, but it was a doddle, simply add hot water and stir! Just be careful you don’t add too little as it would become extremely thick and difficult to manage.

Quick. easy, delicious and healthy- the perfect Vegan supper. Makes a gorgeous next day lunch.

(note: I am not a super health freak, I just try to be careful during the week…so I can eat EVERYTHING at the weekend. Joke. Kinda.)

Enjoy!

polenta

 

Shopping list:

2 400g cans of chopped tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped/grated

1 jar of green olives, from which about 15 olives, drained  (i would have preferred black, but they were a no show)

1 jar of capers, a good handful, drained

1 green pepper (any colour would be fine)

2x medium red onion

1 red chili pepper

polenta

olive oil

tahini

parsley, to garnish (optional)

balsamic vinegar, soy sauce (optional)

 

more polenta

So, first things first, this is a quick and speedy meal considering I only started it at 10 in the evening, so get your food processor ready. (If you do not have one, then of course, finely chopping by hand is fine).

Peel your red onions and chop into 1/4s, core your pepper and also chop into 1/4s, throw into the food processor.

Blitz!

Finely chop your chili pepper and garlic.

Put a large frying pan on a medium-high heat and pour in a healthy glug of olive oil.

Add your pepper/onion mix, stir and warm through for a few minutes.

Add the chili and garlic.

Warm through for about 30 secs to 1 minute. You do not want to burn the garlic.

Pour in the cans of tomato, swill each can about half way with water and also pour into the pan. Stir and on a medium heat bring to a simmer.

You want the sauce to reduce by roughly a 1/3.

I like to season my sauce now with a little salt, balsamic vinegar and a dash of soy sauce.

Once the sauce has begun to thicken, add the drained capers and olives.

Stir and continue to cook until it has reached the desired consistency. You may want to add some water if it becomes too thick.

When the sauce is almost ready, it is time to make the polenta.

Into a large sauce pan, add 3 cups of water and bring to the boil.

Once the water is gently boiling, I slowly added 1.5 cups of polenta, whisking into the water. It should become thick, somewhat pliable, yet still creamy.

Next add a healthy glug of olive oil and tahini (roughly 2tbsp each) and stir.

Season.

Serve the polenta on a plate/ large bowl, as you would a mash, and top with a generous spoonful of the tomato sauce. Parsley garnish.

Dig in.