I sometimes say “This dish is going on the Cafe Menu” – which means that if I were ever to start a cafe, this dish would be on the menu. I’ve gathered together three of Yotam Ottolenghi’s ideas and added a bit.
Serves 2 people.
Whipped Hummus
I’m not even sure if Ottolenghi uses this term, but others do. The idea is that the hummus is smooth and creamy.
The simplest thing is to follow Ottolenghi’s advice here. The secret is to use dried chickpeas and use the bicarb of soda to help get rid of the hulls.
NOTE: Save 2/3 cup of the whole, cooked chickpeas (see below).
Carrot and Cauliflower
Divide 1/4 of a small to medium cauliflower into florets. Mix with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt.
The carrots are part of a recipe from his book Plenty More. Just buy it. The book is fantastic.
For two people, use 8-12 carrots, depending on size. If medium, halve them longways. If larger, quarter them.
1 tbsp olive oil
30g honey
2 tsp coriander seeds, toasted
3/4 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
2 sprigs of thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
Crush the seeds in a moretar and pestle. Whisk the honey and olive oil together well. Add the other ingredients and mix well.
Mix this through the carrots. Bake the cauliflower and carrots on baking paper on separate trays at 220C for 20-30 mins depending on the carrot size.
Curried Chickpeas an Walnuts
Toast 1/2 cup of walnut pieces in a dry frypan on medium heat, stirring often, until they brown up. Then chop coarsley.
The chickpeas come from a rice recipe in Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem.
2-3 tsp olive oil
3/4 cup chickpeas
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2-3/4 tsp curry powder
Pinch of salt
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds and curry powder and stir very briefly. Then add the chickpeas and salt and stir for a minute. Don’t let the spices burn. Drain off the oil.
Other ingredients
Seeds from 1/4 pomegranate
A handful of chopped coriander or parsley, depending on your taste
Lemon slices
Harissa or Ajvar (The latter is an amazing Middle Easter condiment made from roast peppers and eggplant)
Plating
Place the hummus in a disc on the plate and top with the carrot and then the cauliflower.
To the side, sprinke the curried chickpeas, pomegranate seeds, walnuts and coriander / parsley.
Add the harissa / ajvar and a slice of lemon.
Served with fried pita bread. Our local Coles supermarket has a massive flatbreat makling machine. It produces amazing frsh flatbread every day. Although I often make my own, for this purpose theirs is better – fresh and light.
This is a winner.
This recipe looks awesome, but I was taught not to add bicarb to vegetables because it destroys some of the nutrients. This was a long time ago, when I was studying nutrition and dietetics, so I checked and discovered “cooking food with baking soda (a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate) can indeed damage a number of nutrients, such as vitamin C, vitamin D, riboflavin, thiamin, and one essential amino acid. Yet it doesn’t hurt others, including vitamin A, vitamin B12, niacin, and folic acid.” (https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/09/28/does-baking-soda-destroy-nutrients-vegetables/CIrZPOc5Fyxc5JEzs04wdM/story.html) If home-made hummus is a sometimes food, then it’s not going to suddenly make anyone nutritionally deficient, but if hummus is a major part of your vegetarian diet, then possibly switching to using bicarb to get rid of the chickpea skins is not a great idea. 🙂
Thanks Judy. So Ottolenghi soaks the chickpeas in the bicarb. He doesn’t cook them in it (I presume). Would that make a difference? Before knowing this I have spent a lot of time dehulling chickpeas. It’s extremely tedious. I try to treat it as a spiritual exercise without much success. It’s asometime food for us. Our twins are allergic to them.