Roasted Carrots, Chickpea Salad with Tahini, Cumin & Yogurt Dressing

I've only realised today after writing this blog to you all where one gets one's inspirations from.  Firstly, I have to say, my passion for cooking and eating stems from my dad. He was a great cook who made the culinary experience just a wonderful game. When I was small, he'd take me out for lunch most Saturdays so I could experience different cuisines.  We'd have long discussions about what we had just eaten describing flavours, textures and how to combine ingredients. For me this has been the building blocks of cooking and feeling confident about just throwing things together. 

By the age of 12 (which is when we sadly lost him), he had taught me the basics in cooking, sewing, car maintenance, electrics & DIY, just to name a few things. I realise now, what in fact he was teaching me was how to be self-sufficient in life. 

He had travelled the world with work and was never shy in coming forward to ask someone how they cooked a particular dish. Subsequently, I was eating curries, mediterranean and all sorts of exotic foods when my head barely reached the top of the table. Apparently at the ripe old age of two, my three favourite things were caviar, smoked salmon and stuffed olives. Just goes to show, if you experiment with food with a small child they will eat unusual dishes.

Then of course there was my beautiful mum, who always made our home glow with love and joy and who had an incredible sense of style, colour and artistry.  She was the one who taught and influenced me with regards to presentation. With my dad normally on dinner duty and mama on lunches, I eagerly awaited her 1pm feasts.  With a radiant smile, she'd present me with a wonderful array of different healthy, colourful & yummy things. I guess that's why my favourite way of eating is a fabulous smorgasbord all served up on different dishes, bowls, plates and of course the whole array of colours & display is down to one person and one person only, my mum.

When I start writing my blog I'm never quite sure what's going to appear on the page in front of me. As per usual I have gone off on a tangent writing about two extraordinary people, my mum and dad. I'm now looking at the photo of my roasted carrot and chickpea salad feeling I really should've created something far more impressive and elaborate in honour of my parents. But then I started to think.  No, this is the right dish to put up there.  It's vibrant, exotic, full of zest & flavour, humble and honest and that's all so relevant and the perfect dish for the two people I was so blessed to have as parents.  Enjoy.

Ingredients
1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed drained and dried 
600 g carrots peeled and cut into large pieces
1 tablespoon runny honey
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
100 grams mixed salad leaves
6-8 fresh mint leaves, sliced carefully so as not to bruise
S&P

Dressing
2 tablespoons plain yoghurt, the runny kind
2 tablespoons tahini 
2 tablespoons olive oil
One garlic clove crushed
Juice of one lemon

Method
1. Toss carrots in the olive oil, paprika, ground coriander and season with S&P.  Roast in a pre heated oven at 200c for 30-40 mins.
2.  In a small frying, dry roast the cumin seeds for approx 2 mins shaking the pan round every now and then until they start to colour, tip onto a small plate until you are ready to use them as they will burn if you leave them in the pan.
3.  Stir the yogurt and tahini together into a smooth paste, mix in the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice & start adding water, a tbsp at a time until you have the consistency of pouring cream. Finally sprinkle in a 1/4 of the toasted cumin seeds.
4. Whilst the carrots are still warm, mix together with the chickpeas, arrange on a fabulous dish, pour on the dressing, sprinkle the remaining toasted cumin and mint, scatter around with salad leaves & serve immediately. 

Tuscany Style Ribollita

In the afternoon the skies darkened, the temperature dropped and the rain set in. It was time to cosy down with a bowl of something hot, healthy and rustic. Sometime ago one of my neighbours made this fabulous dish for me and I have been cooking it ever since for the Grumpy Greek and I.  I am a big fan of organic produce, this ensures the vegetables are seasonal allowing the flavours to speak for themselves.


So here goes - this is my version of that wonderful Tuscany dish 'Ribollita'.

For the Ribollita
200 ml olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 med courgettes, roughly chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tins cannellini beans
1 small packet cherry tomatoes of your choice, I used a mixed pack of red & yellow
1/4 size piece of a celeriac (optional)
1 med fennel bulb, quartered
1 med Cavolo Nero (black cabbage)
1/2 med Savoy cabbage
400 g  potatoes, I used Anya potatoes boil first then cut into large chucks
500 ml vegetable stock
1 level desert spoon sugar
salt & pepper to taste
freshly grated pecorino cheese or a mature cheddar will also do the trick
garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley (optional)

Garlic Bread
 1 french stick
1/3 packet of softened butter
dash of olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
Mix butter, olive oil & garlic together well with a fork.
Slice the French stick diagonally in approx. 6 cm pieces but leave the loaf intact by not cutting right to the bottom.  Wrap loaf in tin foil.

Preheat the oven to 200°, put your potatoes on to boil for 20 minutes.  

On a baking tray toss the fennel and celeriac in some olive oil and season with salt and pepper, roast for 10 minutes   Then add the courgettes and tomatoes to the baking tray and cook for a further 10 minutes remove to cool down. 

Whilst the courgettes and tomatoes are roasting.  Heat the olive oil in a large heavy based pan, add the onions and cook gently until they are soft. Add the celery, carrots, garlic and season. Cook these gently for 10 to 15 minutes over a low heat until it starts to turn golden, occasionally stirring.

Add the tin of tomatoes, vegetable stock, sugar and simmer gently for five minutes. In a bowl mash one tin of cannellini beans and add to the saucepan, also add potatoes, Savoy, Cavolo Nero cabbage and remaining tin of whole cannellini beans, give it a good stir 

Finally add all your roasted vegetables (including those fabulous juices) to the pot and stir in gently

Pop your garlic bread in the oven for roughly 10 to 12 minutes when you open the foil it should be golden and crispy to the touch, if not just lightly open the foil and return to the oven for a further five minutes. 

Serve in large bowls, topped with the coarsely grated cheese, parsley and two chunks of 
garlic bread.  ENJOY x

Dom's rustic bread

As my dear friend Dom of Belleau kitchen was with us on Saturday, there was no need to buy a French stick.  Whilst I was whipping up my Tuscany delight, Dom made this incredible bread which he laced with the garlic butter.

My Grumpy Greek is forever asking why I always make more food than is necessary? Well, the answer is my darling - It's always great to have Lazy Leftovers for lunch. Sunday was a lazy day and I had almost a portion of Ribolitta still in the pot, so I added 1/2 a kettle of boiling water, 1 vegetable stock cube, simmered it for 10 mins, blitzed it, served soup with a spoonful of creme fraiche. Dom was kind enough to make us an extra loaf, which I reheated and served with the soup . Yummy.

Lazy Leftovers