My cauliflower and chickpea heaven…

This is one of my all time favourite dishes of mine, the flavours are phenomenal and the textures are perfect, the crunchy bits on the cauliflower, and the sticky cloves of garlic and the pop of the chickpeas…I can wax lyrical about this one for hours….!

The marinade/sauce is sharp and spicy. If you need to take the edge of the sourness, or to add some sweet stickiness, add a spoonful or two of honey to the mix.

I love it freshly cooked, cold the next day, reheated, or whizzed up into a dip if there’s any left (it’s a rarity!). If you try it, I hope you love it too…

Ingredients

1 whole head of a medium cauliflower

1 can/jar chickpeas, drained

3-5 lemons, squeezed for the juice

16 cloves garlic, peeled

150ml olive oil

3 tsp mayonnaise/natural yoghurt

1 tsp Harissa paste/spice mix

1 tbsp tomato purée

Salt and pepper

Method

Separate the cauliflower florets and cut them into similar small/medium sized pieces.

Mix all of the ingredients except the cauliflower and chickpeas together in a large dish to marinate in (I sometimes use a large oven proof dish that I can then put straight into the oven, but not always) then add the cauliflower florets and chickpeas and mix it all together well.

Put a lid on it and put it in the fridge for 24 hours.

The next day, preheat the oven to 200C/390F fan/convection.

EDIT: if you read this post previously, after making this again I have amended the way to cook it for greater ease and simplicity:

Either remove the cover and cook it all in the dish you marinated the ingredients in, or tip it all out onto an oven tray/cookie sheet/open wide baking vessel, using a spatula to scrape out every last fabulous drop of the marinade, all onto the tray.

Cook, uncovered for 45-60 minutes until the cauliflower is roasted, with some crunchy edges and cooked through. Give it all a stir or move it all around halfway through to mix the flavours up again and get the cauliflower pieces evenly roasted.

Leave it for as long as it takes for the cauliflower to get charred crunchy edges, and the chickpeas to darken and get crunchy too, and the garlic to get really sticky!

Eat on it’s own straight from the pan like I end up doing, or serve on its own, or with salad leaves or as a side dish with whatever you’re eating.

Try it with a drizzle of tahini too! So so good!

Cracked siyez, courgettes, herb and dukkah salad…

This was another big bowl of salad, made with whatever I found in my fridge and cupboards. I ate it warm once it was made, then finished it off cold the next day.

As always with my salads, the bowl is full of layers of flavours and textures, this one is made up of the following, listed in the layers as I added them to the bowl. No exact measurements I’m afraid but hopefully it provides some inspiration for a lovely salad:

Cracked siyez, cooked my way (if you don’t have siyez, use any grain of your choice)

Roasted sliced courgettes and garlic

Chopped fresh parsley and coriander

Dukkah (see below)

Toasted pine nuts

Dried barberries

My dukkah was made up of the following, nothing was measured, but I’ve listed the ingredients from the biggest amount to the smallest:

Roasted hazelnuts

Toasted sesame seeds

Roasted ground cumin and coriander seeds

Salt

Add all to a blender and whizz to a crunchy crumb

My simple fast meals…

The following photos show the step by step way that I often make myself meals, keeping it simple, fast, healthy and always tasty! I took these photos as I was cooking it, so they may not be beautiful photos, but I promise the process creates a tasty dish…

The tomatoes and peanut powder + water create a sauce, and the peanut powder works as a perfect thickener, and adds protein to this vegetarian dish.

You can use the vegetables and spices of your choice. I often use a Cajun spice mix and add cacoa powder as well as the peanut powder for a chilli feel. You could add chickpeas, beans, grains, whatever you fancy!

Happy eating!

New! Join me in my kitchen…

I’ve been asked so often to run courses to share how I make my various vegetarian creations, so I’ve finally done it!

I now have a diary of vegetarian food courses and sourdough making courses laid out for the next few months so if you fancy checking either out here’s the details of both:

foodbod ‘make it and eat it lunches’

foodbod Sourdough courses

There’s going to be lots of fun in my kitchen and lots and lots of eating great food!

Aubergine and marmite peanut butter dip…

Yes, you heard me! This bowl of unassuming looking food is packed with flavour having been made with roasted aubergine flesh mashed with marmite peanut butter. And yes, it tastes amazing!

In the UK marmite peanut butter is an actual product on the shelves, and it is so good I have to limit myself from buying it! I choose the crunchy option and often eat it just with a spoon.

I always love making mutabal – that heavenly mix of aubergine, garlic, lemon juice and tahini – and this was inspired from that love. I had some already roasted aubergine flesh, a jar of marmite peanut butter, and the two made a great marriage.

I served it with some roasted seeds and some of my homemade sourdough rolls.

Mmmmmmm…..

Mixed salad with za’atar and tahini…

In this big bowl of joy you’ll find:

Lots of chopped lettuce

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped cucumber

Roasted and cooled cubes of potatoes

Topped with za’atar and drizzles of tahini

Vegetables + spices + tahini = heavenly!

This is one of those posts that probably can’t be called a ‘recipe’ but it’s worth blogging as much so that I can refer back to it and remember how good it was!

In the pan:

A plethora of chopped and sliced vegetables that I had previously roasted; I used courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers. I cooked them through again then added a spice mix that I made up of ground roasted cumin, coriander & caraways seed, smoked paprika and Aleppo chilli flakes.

Cooked briefly to cook and spread the flavour of the spices, then served with a sprinkle of roasted pumpkin seeds and a SEA of fabulous tahini!!

Enjoy!!

Butternut squash oat ‘risotto’…

This is one of this dishes that looks like mush but tastes great!

I added some oats to some leftover butternut squash soup, the sprinkled it liberally with my newly made ‘peri peri salt mix’.

Truly packed with flavour and a nice chewiness from the oats.

My version of a peri peri salt mix…

I love seeing these layers of spices prior to shaking it up

I wanted to make a version of a well known peri peri salt/shaker/mix without the sugar and salt (I know that sounds odd, but I want the flavour but not the salt) that’s in the original. I did some research and playing and this is what I came up with, and it works really well!

Mixed and ready to test

I made a big jar full, hence the large quantities. Swap the tablespoons for teaspoons if you want to make a smaller amount.

Recipe:

• 4 tbsp onion granules

• 4 tbsp garlic powder/granules

• 2 tbsp brewers yeast granules

• 2 tbsp black pepper

• 4 tbsp sweet paprika

• 4 tbsp smoked paprika

• 2 tbsp dried parsley

• 4 tbsp ground coriander

• 2 tbsp oregano

• 6 tbsp Aleppo chilli flakes

• 2 tbsp ground roasted cumin

• 2 tbsp cinnamon

Shake it all up!

Notes: The brewers yeast replaces salt, the cinnamon and sweet paprika replace the sugar. You can add more heat, or use cayenne powder instead of the Aleppo chilli flakes I used (I wouldn’t swap them 1:1 though!)

Perfect as a condiment to sprinkle over a meal or as a spice mix to add as you cook a dish. I’ve added it to pretty much everything and I love it, I now need to make more 😁😁

Isabelle’s review…

Many many years ago, Isabelle and I met here, in blog world, and we have remained in touch ever since…this is what she wrote about my book…

‘Pragmatic no knead, no mess, one bowl sourdough recipes with a 100% success rate. Cannot recommend highly enough.

How much do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I have been baking and cooking for many years. I had a food blog. I collect cookbooks, I read recipes to relax, in bed, at breakfast, for inspiration, for fun.

I have followed Elaine’s meteoric rise from blog writer, to Instagram sourdough goddess, to now published author. Over this period we have had discussions on following recipes. She would say, you have to follow the recipe and I would say, I always wing it. After this exchange I started paying more attention to the recipes in my books. Often crucial information is missing, the writers assume the reader doesn’t need additional information, or else they didn’t think of everything. The difference here is Elaine thought of everything. She is in the kitchen with you the whole time. Her clear instructions, her calm presence and her love of all things sourdough shine through on the page. There is nothing she has not thought of. She is a perfectionist, a pragmatist and a brilliant teacher and her desire for you to succeed is clear as you read. Her creativity is astonishing. Her enthusiasm infectious.

The relevance of this book for the home baker can be summed up by the fact that it includes this FAQ:.

I have mixed my dough, but I suddenly need to go out, what do I do?

This tells you the author is a home baker, she understands that there is sourdough and there is your life. She integrates the two. So you can bake sourdough every day for your family, with little effort and no fuss.

What you need to know:

The recipes – you will find

• How to make your own sourdough starter, how to maintain it, and why it is easy to do
• One bowl, no knead, no mess master recipe
• Breads and biscuits, rolls, crackers, sweet and savoury, some examples:  
  • Crusted pumpkin seed sourdough
  • Einkorn, cinnamon and cranberry biscuits
  • Focaccia
  • Almond and raisin spelt bread

There are breads with chilies and breads with cheese…and crackers, with buttermilk, with beer. A generous book that could easily have been split into two works.

What makes this book extra special is the level of detail provided to ensure your results are perfect

• An introduction to the different types of flour and how they will influence the way your dough behaves
• When to expect your dough to be wet, how to use a scraper, what to do if your kitchen is cold, hot, humid, dry. Ingredient substitutes and alternatives.
• Stopping your recipe in the middle, flexing it to your schedule.
• Making your loaf crusty, making doughs more sour, less sour, softening the crust, scoring the bread, issues with scoring, using a lame, stickiness and gumminess, overproofed doughs
• What I especially love is the level of detail, in the focaccia recipe the author specifies a pan size, she then writes “if you want a thinner,  crunchy focaccia use a bigger baking sheet”

Beyond the book check out Elaine’s website, where I first came across her, or her instagram pages and her youtube videos for a taste of what the book will contain.’