Happy Friday!
If you’re new here, WELCOME…This is first and foremost a place for recipes, but also where I can dish out expertise on the only thing I truly know about- how to feed your friends. I hope that You Bring The Wine either remains, or becomes, your ultimate tool kit.
Let’s start with a quick word about beetroots.
I’ll be honest, being lazy in the kitchen is cool with me. It’s nice to be able to whip up an amazing dinner using a lot of shortcuts, I’m all about it.
Unfortunately enough, the pay off of a shortcut in time/effort can be a bit of shortcut on flavour. With that in mind, you’ve got two choices this week… you can buy raw beets, wrap them in some foil and whack them in the over for an hour or so, or you can buy precooked beets and use them instead. There is no right or wrong way, and certainly no preaching over here, I use both methods depending on how short of time I am. The pre-cooked beets are a speedy route to a tasty dinner, the roasting of the raw beets take a little longer, but taste a little (okay, quite a lot), better.
You’re a free agent, use that free choice.
If you ARE roasting your beets…
Heat your oven to 180C fan. Cut off the tops (you can make pesto with these and many other things if you do a bit of googling), wrap them in foil (I go individually) then roast for an hour or, until a knife slides right through. Remove the foil, allow to cool enough to handle, then peel of the skin- a v satisfying task.
You might get red hands but who cares because everyone will know that you didn’t use a packet- you roasted your own darn beets.
SERVES 4
INGREDIENTS
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
8 medium roasted beets (peeled), or 300g packet cooked beetroots- NOT IN VINEGAR!!
2 jars or tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 lemon
150g feta
200g THICK Greek yogurt
Parsley and mint, to serve
Handful(s) spiced nut sprinkle, to serve (recipe below)
METHOD
Heat the oven to 180C fan. Tip the oil into the base of a large roasting tray add the spices and whisk to combine. Cut the beets into wedges and add to the pan along with the chickpeas. Season well and toss so everything is coated. Cook for 15 mins, until the chickpeas are crispy.
Blitz the feta in a mini chopper, then stir into the yogurt, add the juice of half of the lemon, season real well. Spread onto a large platter or two plates.
Tip the beets and chickpeas on top. Scatter with herbs and the nutty sprinkle. Maybe drizzle a little more olive oil on top. ENJOY.
I decided to keep this recipe separate because maybe you don’t like beets or maybe you don’t like my salad, but you can’t not like this. The nutty/spicy sprinkle is based on an Egyptian dukkah, a perfect mix of nuts, spices and dried herbs. I’ve made a mix here with chilli flakes - it’s a combo that you can jar up and put on everything you consume. So yeh, the recipe is all about the beets, but let’s be honest, once this is made, everything else just become a vessel.
INGREDIENTS
100g toasted nuts, (I like using hazelnuts or smoked almonds here)
1 tbsp each coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds (you could also try also adding mustard seeds, fenugreek or caraway seeds and create something new)
2 tsp chilli flakes
50g toasted sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
METHOD
Toast the spice seeds for a couple of mins in a dry pan, until they smell super fragrant and start to make a popping sound, tip into a mini chopper and blitz. Add the nuts and pulse v lightly- you want to keep them kinda chunky. Add the chilli flakes, sesame seeds and salt and pepper. Tip into a jar and use on repeat
Come back next week for more delicious recipes and chat.
Els x