Pumpkin and tahini spread
Posted: December 5, 2013 Filed under: Tapas, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tags: Pumpkin, Spread, Tapas, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Yotam Ottolenghi Leave a comment
Smooth, creamy and with a warm spices note – Autumn doesn’t get any better than this. It was supposed to be eaten in small portions with savoury cookies, but soon spoons made an appearance. TEoU and I ended up having it as pumpkin purée for lunch…
Pumpkin and tahini spread (adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s column in The Guardian)
Ingredients
- About 1kg pumpkin (or butternut squash)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 70g tahini paste
- 120g Greek yoghurt
- 2 small garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- Olive oil to drizzle
Method
Heat the oven to 180C. Spread the pumpkin out on a medium-sized baking tray, pour over the olive oil and sprinkle on the cinnamon and salt. Mix well, cover the tray tightly with tinfoil and roast for 70 minutes, stirring once during the cooking. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Transfer the cooled pumpkin of the bowl of a food processor, along with the tahini, yoghurt and garlic. Roughly pulse so that everything is combined into a coarse paste
To serve, spread the butternut in a wavy pattern over a flat plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds, and a drizzle of syrup.
PS – Cookies (Taralli Caserecci Pugliesi) courtesy of Coop Fine Food
Beetroot and walnut hummus
Posted: July 11, 2013 Filed under: Snacks, Tapas, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tags: Beetroot, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nut, Spread, Tapas Leave a commentThis #beetrootgate episode is long overdue… It has been almost a month I posted a beetroot dish, a spread turned into a creamy soup. Truth to be said, actually never managed to get the right consistency. After trying a couple of times, I ended up doing this beetroot and walnut hummus instead. Well, technically this isn’t exactly a hummus, as there are no chickpeas in this dish, but its colour and flavour compensate for this culinary liberty. It is a brilliant recipe, almost foolproof, with the earthy sweet flavour of the beetroot combining to perfection to the crunchy nuts and slightly tangy tahini. I had to hide it in the fridge before I ate it all, one spoon at a time.
Beetroot and walnut hummus (adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s River Cottage Every Day)
Ingredients
- 50g walnuts
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 25g stale bread, crusts removed
- 200g cooked beetroot (not pickled), cut into cubes
- 1 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Toast the walnuts in a stove at 180 oC for 5-7 minutes, until fragrant. Leave to cool.
In a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and dry-fry them, shaking the pan almost constantly to avoid burning, until they start to sizzle. Crush the seeds with a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder.
Break the bread into small chunks, put in a food processor or blender with the walnuts and blitz until fine. Add the beetroot, tahini, most of the garlic, a good pinch of the cumin, half the lemon juice, a little salt and a good grind of pepper, then blend to a thick paste.
Adjust it by adding a little more cumin, garlic, lemon, salt and/or pepper, blending again until you are happy with it. Loosen with a dash of oil if you think it needs it.
Serve at room temperature
PS – Cookies (Taralli Caserecci Pugliesi) courtesy of Coop Fine Food
Roasted carrot hummus with orange
Posted: May 25, 2013 Filed under: Snacks, Tapas, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tags: carrot, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hummus, Orange, Spread, Vegetarian Leave a commentI know I am partial to all things carroty… I had to try this one, mobile calorie intake units or no mobile calorie intake units to entertain. While it might be a departure from the original carrot hummus recipe (no chickpeas in sight), it was certainly delicious. The kind of food I need to hide from myself to make sure I don’t eat it all in one go. Sweet and spicy, aromatic and smooth, shiny and happy…
PS – Lingue di suocera [mother in law’s tongue] courtesy of Coop Fine Food
Roasted carrot hummus with orange (adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s column in The Guardian)
Ingredients
- 500g carrots, peeled and cut into 4-5cm chunks
- 4 large garlic cloves, bashed
- 2 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
- 1 small orange, juiced, zest finely grated
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 3 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Heat the oven to 200 oC
Put the carrots, garlic and oil in a roasting tin, season and roast for 30-35 minutes, giving the carrots a good stir halfway through, until tender and starting to caramelise at the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly.
Tip the carrots into a food processor. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and put these in, too, along with any oil from the tin. Add the orange zest and juice, lemon juice, tahini and some salt and pepper, and process to a coarse purée. Add more lemon juice and seasoning as necessary. Serve the hummus warm or at room temperature.