Strawberry smoothie
Posted: May 26, 2012 Filed under: Fruit, Vegetarian | Tags: Milk, Strawberries, Sugar, Yoghurt Leave a comment »
It is only a smoothie… Not much art in putting it together, really. Just drop in the mixer 1 part of cut strawberries, 1 part of plain yoghurt and 1 part of milk. If you must, add crushed ice cubes. Buzz in a mixer, check for sugar, buzz again. Chill. Drink. It was definitely more complicated put the kitchen aid to work for the first time…
Like this:
Tzatziki
Posted: May 18, 2011 Filed under: Salad, Vegetarian | Tags: Cucumber, Yoghurt 1 Comment »
It was a very hot day, and all we feel like eating was something cool and fresh. A little couscous salad, roasted aubergines and of course that creamy cucumbery thing the Greeks call Tzatziki. It tastes much better by a big blue sea, but nevertheless it is always welcome in a bright Summer day. The recipe was adapted from Reference Answers.
Tzatziki
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain yogurt
- 1 unpeeled cucumber, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
Method
In a bowl, add the cucumber, garlic, olive oil, and salt to the yogurt.
Blend well with a fork and refrigerate.
Serve with toasted pieces of pita bread or fresh vegetables, such as carrots, celery, or peppers.
Spiced lentils with cucumber yogurt
Posted: April 4, 2011 Filed under: Pulses and lentils, Vegetarian | Tags: Cucumber, Lentils, Spices, Yoghurt, Yotam Ottolenghi Leave a comment »
Spiced lentils with cucumber yogurt
Ingredients
- 200g split red lentils
- 1 bunch fresh coriander
- 1 small onion, peeled
- 40g ginger, peeled
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 mild green chilli
- half teaspoon of black mustard seeds
- 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
- half teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- half teaspoon ground turmeric
- half teaspoon paprika
- 10 curry leaves
- 300g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 2 teaspoon caster sugar
- half teaspoon fenugreek (optional)
- 1 pinch asafoetida (optional)
- Salt
- 150g Greek yogurt (I used regular lactose free yogurt)
- 75g finely diced cucumber
- half tablespoon of olive oil
- 70g unsalted butter
- lime juice
Methods
Wash the lentils in plenty of water, drain and soak in 350ml of fresh water for 30 minutes. Cut the coriander bunch somewhere around its centre to get a leafy top half and a stem/root bottom half. Roughly chop the leaves. Put the stem half in the bowl of a food processor, add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli – all roughly broken – and pulse a few times to chop up without turning into a paste.
Put the mustard seeds in a heavy-based pot and place over medium heat. When they begin to pop, add the onion mix and sunflower oil, stir and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Add the spices and curry leaves, and continue cooking and stirring for five minutes longer. Now add the lentils and their soaking water, the tomatoes, sugar, fenugreek, asafoetida and a pinch of salt. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are fully cooked.
Before serving, whisk together the yogurt, cucumber, oil and some salt. Stir into the lentils the butter, lime juice and chopped coriander leaves, taste and season generously with salt. Divide into bowls, spoon yogurt on top and garnish with coriander.
Leek fritters.
Posted: March 27, 2011 Filed under: Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tags: Fritters, Leeks, Spices, Yoghurt, Yotam Ottolenghi Leave a comment »
A Yotam Ottolenghi‘s family dish, with its usual kilometric list of ingredients and a recommendation: do not skip any of them. If anything, spare yourself the bother of doing the sauce. Recipe was found on Plenty, his latest cookbook.
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 100g Greek yogurt
- 100g sour cream
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt to taste
- 20g finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
- 30g finely chopped coriander leaves
For the fritters
- 3 leeks (450g trimmed weight)
- 2 banana shallots, peeled and finely chopped (I used regular red onions)
- 140ml olive oil
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
- 25g parsley, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
- 1 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons sugar
- salt to taste
- 1 egg white
- 120g self-raising flour (or regular all purpose flour with 2 teaspoons of a raising agent, like Royal).
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 150ml milk
- 55g unsalted butter, melted
Method
Start by making the sauce. Put all the sauce ingredients into the bowl of a food processor, blitz together until a uniform green, then set to one side.
Cut the leeks into 2cm thick rounds, rinse and dry. Over medium heat, sauté the leeks and shallots in a pan with five tablespoons of oil until soft – about 15 minutes – then transfer to a bowl and add the chilli, parsley, spices, sugar and salt. Leave to cool.
Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold it into the vegetables. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, egg, milk and butter to form a batter. Gently mix this into the egg white and vegetable mixture.
Put two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Spoon the mixture into the pan to make four large fritters, and fry for two to three minutes a side, until golden and crisp. Transfer to kitchen towel and repeat, adding oil as needed, until the mixture is used up. Serve warm with the sauce on the side or drizzled over.
