Fatteh

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This is my version of Fatteh, a traditional Middle Eastern dish usually made with crispy baked flatbread, yogurt and chickpeas. My version has slightly more spice, and while usually eaten for breakfast, this is a dish that also makes for a super quick and easy dinner!

Don’t eat this with utensils – the mess is half the fun!

Ingredients (for 2):

  • 1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained
  • 1.5 cups plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Ras El Hanout
  • 1/4 cup almonds, flaked or crushed
  • Lebanese or Turkish bread (as much as you feel like really)
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200*C. Cut up the bread into pieces, spray with olive oil and bake until golden and crispy.
  2. In a fry pan on medium heat, toast the almonds until crispy. Set aside.
  3. In the same pan, cook the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant. Add the chickpeas, honey and Ras El Hanout and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  4. To serve, place the Greek yogurt in a bowl and top with the chickpea mix and almonds. Serve alongside the toasty bread.

3 ingredient no-churn Biscoff icecream

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The easiest 3 ingredient ice cream ever for Father’s Day – because even though my dad isn’t the biggest dessert fan, turns out he loooooves Biscoff!

Whip 600ml of thickened cream, then add a 395g can of sweetened condensed milk and stir until well combined. Layer with Biscoff spread and freeze until firm.

No churn, no icy bits – just creamy, biscuity, damn good ice cream!

Vegan Chickpea Stew

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I was at a loss as to what to name this. It’s technically not a curry. It is more like a tagine in texture, just not cooked in a clay tagine pot. Whatever you call it, it’s delicious, earthy, and packed full of veggies!

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 300g passata
  • 3/4 cup vegetable stock
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp crushed garlic
  • 1 small potato
  • 1/4 medium sized butternut pumpkin
  • 1/2 large eggplant
  • 1 can chickpeas, drained
  • 1.5 tsp Ras el Hanout (or Moroccan spice mix)
  • 125g baby capsicums
  • 3 large carrots
  • Handful fresh flat leaf parsley
  • 1 tsp fresh garlic chives
  • Spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes and brown rice to serve

Method

  1. Dice the potato, pumpkin, eggplant, capsicums and carrots into large chunks of similar size.
  2. In a large fry pan over medium heat, briefly sauté the garlic in olive oil until fragrant.
  3. Add the potato, pumpkin, carrots, 1/2 cup chicken stock and passata with the spice mix and bring to a simmer until soft (about 15 minutes).
  4. Add the eggplant, capsicums and fresh herbs, and continue to simmer until soft (about 5-10 minutes).
  5. Remove from the heat and stir in the chickpeas. Serve with fresh baby spinach and brown rice, with cherry tomatoes to garnish.

Vegan Pumpkin Soup

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Warms the soul as well as the belly!

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

  • 200g butternut pumpkin
  • 4 large carrots
  • 125g can coconut cream
  • 4 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • Chives to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200*C and roast the pumpkin and carrots until soft and golden. Allow to cool slightly.
  2. Place the roasted pumpkin and carrot, sage, rosemary, stock and coconut cream in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Alternatively, place the mixture in a large bowl or saucepan and blend with a stick blender until smooth.
  3. Serve hot with chives on top.

Lemon quince Pterodactyl wings

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Now, I know this is not my normal kind of recipe, but if these make dinner easy and delicious for anyone else who’s busy like me then I’ll be happy!

These enormous turkey wings were cooked in my brand new oven, and what can I say, I’m impressed!

Ingredients

    Turkey wings (about 800g which was 5)
    2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil
    2 tablespoons quince paste

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 170*C.
  2. In a bowl, mix the lemon olive oil and quince paste together. Spread the mixture on top of the turkey wings.
  3. Wrap the turkey wings all together in a parcel of baking paper (so that the quince doesn’t burn) and bake until cooked through (about an hour). Allow to rest before serving with your favourite greens!

One Tray Mediterranean Chicken Bake

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This is one for those ‘cooking when you can’t be bothered cooking’ kind of days!

Ingredients 

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 2 medium zucchinis
  • 500g mushrooms
  • 2 red capsicums
  • I head of broccoli
  • Herbs of your choosing – I used my favourite garlic lovers mix from Gewurtzhaus but a clove of garlic and a generous sprinkle of mixed herbs or parsely + oregano will work just fine!

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. Line a baking dish with paper or grease with olive oil.
  2. Chop the zucchinis, broccoli and capsicum into roughly even sized chunks.
  3. Place the vegetables on the bottom of the dish, then place the chicken on top, covered with a little olive oil and the herbs of your choosing.
  4. Cover with alfoil and bake until cooked through (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven when chicken is just cooked (as the veggies will be cooked underneath). Serve hot or use as meal prep to fill the freezer!

Hazelnut Cherry Cheesecake

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This is not healthy in the slightest really BUT it is deceptively easy to make! To ease up on the calories (because every little bit counts), I use fat-reduced cream cheese and ricotta, and I don’t add any more sugar. It does produce a slightly more tart cheesecake though, so if you’re after something sweet, add 1/2 cup of caster sugar to the filling.

Ingredients 

  • 250g block of cream cheese
  • 125g smooth ricotta
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp flour (can use gluten free plain flour if required)
  • 1/2 cup hazelnut spread
  • 200g chocolate biscuits (I used chocolate ripple, but substitute for whatever suits your diet)
  • 70g butter, melted
  • To decorate – cherries, chocolate lindt balls (+/- 200g chocolate with 2 tbsp cream for ganache).

Method 

  1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. To create the layered look, I used three different sized cake tins but in reality, a single 24cm springform tin will suffice! Line the base and sides of the tins with baking paper.
  2. Crush the biscuits until fine crumbs, and mix with the butter until starting to form clumps. Spread onto the base of the lined tin/s and bake until starting to firm (about 10 minutes).
  3. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs, hazelnut spread and flour until well combined. Pour into the lined cake tins and bake until firm (about 20 minutes but keep and eye on them!). Return to the fridge to cool as the mixture will reduce down and become much more firm.
  4. If using ganache as part of the decoration, melt the 200g chocolate and cream in a pot over a saucepan of boiling water until melted. Allow to cool slightly. Once the cake is firm, assemble the layers with toothpicks if you’ve used different tins. Then pipe or drizzle the ganache around the edges, then decorate with cherries and lindt balls (again, use tooth picks to hold them on!).

Best-Ever Potato Salad (with Saffron Garlic Aioli)

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This is an extra-ordinarily big call to make but believe me when I say this is one potato salad you won’t forget in a long time! I made both the non-vegan and vegan version for Christmas and can confirm that both are rather sensational.

Ingredients 

  • 1 medium sweet potato, washed well (+/- peeled, up to you!)
  • 4 Kippfler potatoes, washed well (+/- peeled, up to you!)
  • 1 leek, green portion removed and finely chopped
  • 3/4 cup garlic aioli (or vegan mayonnaise with 1 clove garlic)
  • Small pinch of saffron threads
  • 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Method

  1. Prick the Kippfler potatoes. Chop the sweet potato into chunks.
  2. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and boil the Kippfler potatoes until soft. Remove and do the same with the sweet potato.
  3. Heat a frypan over medium heat. Add a small amount of olive oil and fry the leeks until soft.
  4. Allow the saffron threads to steep in 1 tbsp water until yellow in colour.
  5. Mix the aioli with the saffron mixture and chives until well combined, then toss through the leek and potatoes. Return to the fridge to chill until serving.

Honey I Stuffed the Pumpkin

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While we’re all getting into the full swing of our New Year resolutions, I thought I’d share a few of my recipes from the festive season – starting with this stuffed pumpkin.

I’ve seen many variations of this concept over the past few weeks, and mine is nothing fancy. But it was super easy and vegan / gluten friendly too!

Ingredients

  • 1 large butternut pumpkin, halved
  • 1 cup black rice
  • 200g vegan cheese (I used a vegan version of Persian fetta)
  • 1 tbsp each of sunflower seeds, cranberries, pepitas
  • 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp lemon infused olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200*C.
  2. Place the pumpkin halves cut side up on a baking tray. Remove the seeds and bake until soft enough to scoop out a portion of the flesh in the middle (about 30 minutes).
  3. Cook the rice as per the instructions (or you can cheat by using a supermarket microwave version). Mix the rice with the seeds and olive oil until well combined.
  4. Scoop out a small portion of the pumpkin flesh. Fill the hole with the rice mixture, then top with the vegan cheese and bake until the pumpkin is soft (another 15 minutes should do).
  5. Serve hot, or portions can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for 1 month. Enjoy!