Morels!

Morels (Morchella esculenta)

Morels were starting to seem like a mythical beast. I had heard tell of their wondrous beauty and tastiness, but had spoken to no one who had actually seen them in New England: even the author of our mushroom book writes that he has never found them round here.

With no idea where to look, it seemed like there was slim chance of finding any. The book suggested old apple orchards, so last weekend we hiked up to an old orchard in Concord, NH to look for morels. We found soooooo many dog ticks (or rather they found us), and thus failed to really do much of a hunt, let alone score any shrooms.

This weekend we were not even thinking of looking for morels. We'd had an epic weekend adventure, with lady's slipper orchids and snakes and a surfer on a standing wave and dinosaur footprints and alpacas and so so much. Seb and I just took a little walk at the place we were hanging out by a lake with our friends' family, and all of a sudden we spotted morels! Big, beautiful, yellow-light brown ones: about 6 inches tall. The first few we saw were a little decrepit, but we found a couple more in good condition.

I was excited to get them home! The three morels were not much, just enough for a snack. I decided just to saute them with a tiny bit of garlic, some parsley and mirin, and eat them on little toasts.

(serves two, as snack or starter sized portions)

1 tbsp olive oil (plus a little more for drizzling)
3 morels, carefully washed, cleaned and chopped
1/4 of a small clove of garlic, finely chopped (optional)
1/4 tbsp curly parsley, chopped (plus a pinch more to finish)
1/2 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp fake butter
salt+pepper
2 slices of baguette

Make sure the morels are well cleaned: I washed them under the tap and then patted them dry with paper towels, then chopped off any substandard looking bits and checked them carefully / removed any dirt.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add garlic (make sure to use just a smidge: the morel taste is quite subtle), and fry for a minute or so, until just starting to brown. Add the chopped morels and fry for a few minutes more, until they have released their juices and reabsorbed them. Meanwhile, heat a dry frying pan and toast the baguette slices, a couple of minutes on each side, until crisp and slightly browned. When the morels start to look lightly browned around the edges add the mirin and fake butter and fry for a minute more. Finally, add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. To serve, drizzle the toasts with a little olive oil, spoon the mushrooms over and sprinkle with a little more chopped parsley.


Gentle washing seemed to be fine: these guys are not very porous and were quite tricky to clean so the washing helped. This was a tasty little plate, although I wondered if the garlic, small amount though it was, might have been too much: the morel taste was quite subtle. They had a good, firm texture, and tasted slightly sweet and gently mushroomy. They were good. Wish we had more now, my how greedy I am.

Granola (coconut, pecan, pumpkin seed, banana)

I'd never even considered making granola before, because I prefer muesli and it's so much quicker to make. But S has been buying granola quite regularly of late, and he likes it, so I wanted to try making it for him...

There are lots of granola recipes out there. It seems to be one of those things where you can just chuck a bunch of stuff together and it will work out. I looked at a lot of recipes: here, here, here, here... And then got a little overwhelmed, decided all I needed was some oats and seeds, a little fat, stickiness and sweetness, and some time in the oven, and made something up from there.

3 cups oats (old-fashioned)
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/8 cup sesame seeds
1/8 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1/3 cup pecan pieces
good pinch (1/4 tsp) desert (or sea) salt
1-2 tsp mahlab
1-2 tbsp ground linseed
1 1/4 large, ripe bananas
3 tbsp coconut oil (liquid state)
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp carob molasses
1 tbsp date molasses

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the oats, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, pecans, salt, mahlab and ground linseed in a medium bowl. Put the bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, carob molasses and date molasses in a blender and blend until smooth. Add this liquidy mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until well combined. Spread onto two baking sheets (with edges) and put in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, taking out every 10 minutes or so to move the granola around with a wooden spoon and check it is not burning. When it is well browned it is done. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container to store.


Notes:
This makes a delicious, toasty granola. But I always love the big, stuck-together lumps in granola the best. So ever since first making this I have been trying to figure out how to make a lumpier version - I tried dehydrating, which kind-of worked. My latest experiment involved chucking in a bit of psyllium seed husk and using a lower temperature (300F), which maybe helped a little bit but not that much.
This recipe allows for endless variations. I made a pumpkin granola by subbing pumpkin puree for the banana and using pumpkin spice, which came out delicious. Pretty much everything can be varied. But I do love this combination - toasted pecans, pumpkin seeds, coconut, sesame, banana and maple make a wonderful granola. I cannot express how much I love oats.

Spring freekeh

It doesn't feel much like Spring today, although it should be nearly Summer already - this is Memorial Day weekend, it'll be June in a week. The air is thick with drizzle, and it's chilly although still very humid. Yum. Anyway, it's supposed to clear up by tomorrow lunchtime. And a little bit of mizzle wasn't going to stop me biking a crate full of tomato plants around town this morning, or making food that tastes of Spring.

I have really warmed to freekeh. It's like a more green-coloured version of bulghur wheat, and it tastes green: a little like the grass I used to chew on as a kid. So, I have decided it is much more interesting than bulghur. I have also decided it goes brilliantly with other green-looking and green-tasting things: peas, broad beans, courgette, pumpkin seeds, mint, chives... I thought my chives were dead after the winter but they resurrected, and are looking wonderfully green and healthy. The mint isn't doing too badly either.

I'm not sure what this is: sort of a salad, sort of a pilaf. Makes enough for 2-4, depending how hungry you are and how much else you've got going on.

1 cup freekeh (or bulghur, or wheatberries)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 small courgette, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen broad beans
1-2 tbsp chopped mint
1-2 tbsp chopped chives
1-2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 tbsp dandelion leek miso
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice)
salt+pepper (maybe)

Put the freekeh in a small pan with ~ 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp olive oil. Boil until freekeh is tender and the liquid has almost all evaporated. Add the sliced courgette, peas and broad beans (may need to add these a little earlier if they are big) and cook for a few minutes more, just until everything is tender and the liquid is gone.

In the bottom of a serving bowl, mix the miso, EVOO and white balsamic vinegar. Add the freekeh-veg mixture and mix well together. Set aside and allow to cool until at least warm, ideally cool (so that the herbs stay bright green when you add them). Add the chives, mint and pumpkin seeds and mix it up. Taste to check if it needs any salt and pepper.

Mushrooms and sesame tofu

We tried sesame tofu for the first time at Journeyman (our new favourite fancy Greater Boston restaurant). I am not sure if their sesame tofu is quite the same stuff, but I found three different types of gomadofu (Japanese sesame 'tofu') at Ebisuya. The Japanese sesame tofu turns out to be tofu in name and consistency only: it is not made by coagulation of 'milk'; rather by making sesame paste set into a tofu-like block using kudzu starch. So it is basically jellified tahini. I really like it: it has that earthy, tahini taste in a smooth, refreshing, tofu-like texture. We tried black and beige versions.

First we ate some simply: in small cubes with a smear of wasabi on top / in a puddle of good-quality soy sauce, as a side with sushi. And it was good.

Last night I was making spätzle (with the last two wonderful eggs from S's chickens in Roslindale), and decided it would go well with mushrooms and sesame tofu. It did, it went great.

(serves two, in combination with one quantity of spätzle)

1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~12 mushrooms, cleaned and chopped into ~7mm dice
1 tbsp chanterelle powder
1 tsp mediterranean herb mix (mostly thyme+oregano)
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp mushroom soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
salt+pepper
1 small block of beige sesame tofu, coarsely grated
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry for a few minutes until softened. Add the diced mushrooms, chanterelle powder, nutmeg and herb mix and fry until the mushrooms have released their liquid and then reabsorbed most of it. Add the soy sauce and mirin and fry for a minute or so longer until everything melds. Taste for seasoning and add salt+pepper to taste. To serve, put some spätzle into an individual bowl, add mushrooms, and then sprinkle with grated sesame tofu and sesame seeds (if using).


This would also work with fresh pasta or gnocchi (although I do like the egginess of spätzle with the mushrooms and sesame tofu).

Biscuits (or cookies?): chocolate-pecan vs brazil nut

I was bemoaning the lack of biscuits while I took a teabreak with my labmates yesterday. Last night, on reflection, I decided I should stop moaning and take action: just make some! The obvious place to find effective biscuit recipes was ppk, so there I looked and there I found - happily without margarine, I dislike that stuff (palm oil) - decided to try two, slightly different methods - choc-pecan with ground linseed, and brazil nut with tapioca. I guess these may be cookies really, but I still want to call them biscuits...

Chocolate-pecan
(makes ~ 20)

1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp ground linseed
1/2 cup pecan pieces
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Add the oil, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined, going in with your hands to make sure it's all together. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.

Brazil nut-brown sugar
(makes ~24)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil (liquid state)
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brazil nuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl with a fork: beat for about 2 min,until it resembles smooth caramel. Mix in the vanilla. Add 1 cup of flour, bicarb and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the brazil nuts. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 (+less if they are small) – until they are just a little browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.


The chocolate pecan ones were super simple and came out really, really good: rich and intensely chocolatey, masses of pecans and chocolate pieces, sweet and slightly salty. I followed the recipe to the word.

The brazil nut ones didn't go so well. The batter was really oily and sticky so I added a little more flour (total ~2 cups instead of 1 1/2), so then I could shape them, but they didn't really spread or brown in the oven. They taste OK but the texture is kinda cakey instead of biscuity, and they don't look so nice as they are really pale all over. Perhaps this is all because I used coconut oil instead of canola? Dunno, but if looking for a quick, effective biscuit recipe the choc-pecan assembly is the way to go... Edit: although... I took the first half of each batch to woodturning clean-up and the boys pounded the brazil nut ones and left almost all the choc-pecan ones. Different tastes? Also I ate a brazil nut one about 6 days later and thought they had really improved with age.

Vegan 'Brazilian' 'cheese' bread

Brazil is pretty high on my list of places I want to visit. But I'd never even heard of Brazilian 'Pão de Queijo' (cheese bread) until I went to our friends' (C+J who we made spaetzle with) place for brunch on Sunday and found another friend, B, who frequently travels to Brazil for work, putting these in the oven. They are little, golden, savoury bread-buns, made using tapioca (cassava) flour - so they are accidentally gluten-free and have a wonderful sticky-gooey, almost mochi-like crumb inside a crusty exterior.

Obviously the real thing is full of cheese, and also eggs. But I felt like a vegan version should be attainable, and was even more convinced when I did an internet search and found that the breads are sometimes made with potato as well as the tapioca flour - I have had a recent run of success with putting mashed potato in baked goods - Kartoffelbrot in particular is a firm household favourite. I found a vegan recipe already in existence here, and it looked good, pleasingly simple and similar to what I had in mind, so I pretty much followed it... although obviously I couldn't resist throwing a few extra things in the mix (and yes, I did just happen to have potatoes, tapioca flour and nutritional yeast lying around at home: our pantry is getting a little out of control but I kinda love it).

(makes approx 17 small bread-buns)

(total time approx 1 hour, halved if you have mashed potatoes made already and you do small buns)

2 1/2 cups tapioca flour (glutinous rice flour also works)
2 cups mashed potato (or yucca)
~1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup veg oil
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the tapioca, salt and nutritional yeast / chilli / sesame seeds (if using) together in a medium bowl. Heat the water and oil in a small pan. When the water has boiled, add it to the bowl, stirring rapidly. It's OK if it doesn't all come together. Add the mashed potato and mix/knead until a smooth dough forms. Add the baking powder and continue mixing until it is well incorporated. Oil your hands and shape the dough into small balls. Place them on a baking sheet and bake until golden: 30-40 min (depending on size). Delicious warm, still good the next day, freezing possible if they are not all eaten straight away (unlikely).


The vegan ones are just as good as the non-veg variety: really savoury and crusty and I absolutely love the salty, gooey interior. These did come out quite gooey - I like it, but perhaps adding a little xanthan gum would give a more defined crumb? Or maybe a little less water? Or more mash?

Note: I made this a second time, and used ~1 3/4 cups of tapioca flour (all I had left) plus ~3/4 cup glutinous rice flour. I also used more like 2 1/4 cups of mashed potato. They came out even better than the first time - less gluey in the middle, more of a consistent crumb. Obviously I changed a couple of things so not a well controlled experiment, but my suspicion is that the extra potato did it.

Another note: I tried the real deal from a Brazilian bakery at the weekend; these are really, really close. I would never be able to guess which were the veg ones and which were nonveg.

Okara

Okara is the other solids left behind when soymilk (and/or tofu) is made from soybeans. In Japanese grocery stores that make their own tofu, apparently it is traditional to give away balls of okara. We visited an awesome Japanese grocery store in Medford yesterday (recommended by a Japanese friend): Ebisuya. They make their own tofu, and there was one, unlabelled, cling-wrapped ball of white stuff in the fridge above the tray of fresh tofu. I was pretty sure it would be okara. More so when I checked the receipt and saw they didn't charge us for it. I was excited to have tracked it down!

I wasn't sure what to do with the okara, having gotten my hands on it. I tasted it, and it is subtle, similar in taste to tofu but totally different in texture: firm but kinda dry, quite fibrous - some heft to it. I decided to fry it up with some sesame and veggies, much like my current favourite tempeh prep or a tofu scramble.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 an onion, peeled and sliced
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
4-5 mushrooms,cleaned and sliced
1 small courgette, sliced
1 ball of okara
~2 tbsp mirin
~2 tbsp chickpea tamari

Heat the oils and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook for a few minutes. Add the sesame seeds and cook a minute or so more until just starting to brown. Add the mushrooms and courgette and stir-fry for a few minutes more, until they soften. Add the okara and stir-fry for a few more minutes. Finally add the mirin and tamari (add more if you prefer) and mix it all up. Eat as it is, or with a little brown rice.


It's good. Interesting. All about the texture; I kind of like it.

Turkish delight

I'd got it into my head I wanted to make Turkish delight a while ago, which spurred a quest to find cream of tartar (which was quite difficult, in the end I bought it online). Then I had the cream of tartar, but it took me a long time to get around to making the Turkish delight. This weekend seemed to be the time: perhaps because it is a surprisingly vegan food (happy days, I always liked it and hoped it wasn't made with gelatine) and we were invited to a vegan party on Saturday evening... But we ended up taking pretzels there and I took the Turkish delight to a non vegan brunch on Sunday morning instead. It didn't really seem like conventional brunch food but I figured anything goes for brunch... right?

I followed this recipe, almost exactly, with the addition of some red food colouring to make it pink.

2 cups granulated sugar
5/8 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/8 cups water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tbsp rosewater
2-3 drops red food colouring
1/2 cup icing sugar
Vegetable oil

Grease the inside of an approx 8 in square / 2 in deep baking pan (or similar) with vegetable oil. Line with baking paper and grease the paper.

In a saucepan, combine the lemon juice, granulated sugar and 3/4 cup water on medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves. Allow mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the mixture reaches 240F, or firm ball stage (when tested by dropping a tsp into water). Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine cream of tartar, 1/2 cup cornstarch and remaining 1 3/8 cups water in a second saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all lumps are gone and the mixture begins to boil. Stop stirring when the mixture has a glue like consistency. Stir in the lemon juice, water and sugar mixture. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, and allow to simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has become a golden colour, stir in rosewater and food colouring. Pour mixture into paper-lined pan. Spread evenly and allow to cool overnight.

The following day, lift the Turkish delight out of the pan onto a clean surface using the edges of the paper. Cut with a sharp, oiled knife into approx 1 inch squares. Mix the icing sugar and remaining 1/8 cup cornstarch in a bowl. Roll the Turkish delight pieces in the icing sugar mixture until they are well covered. Eat right away, or keep in an airtight container in layers separated with baking paper.


This worked surprisingly well, although not perfectly. The end result was a very pleasant, pink Turkish delight with a subtle rose flavour. It was tricky but not impossible judging the sugar stage (I don't have a sugar thermometer). The finished result was slightly wet: after the sugar coating it wetted most of the covering sugar so I had to re-coat it before taking it out. Not really a problem, but it looks much prettier when freshly dusted. Not sure why it happened: perhaps the initial sugar solution should have been boiled for longer? or perhaps I should have let it sit longer before coating it with icing sugar? or perhaps it was just to do with the humid weather? Could have increased the rosewater to 1 tbsp: it was maybe a little too subtle. And the colour was slightly pinker than I wanted: two drops of colouring would probably be enough.

Note: an idea from the original recipe's comments to help with the sweating: cut it into pieces and let air dry while turning frequently for another 2 days before sugar coating - perhaps leave in the switched-off oven overnight?

Bowlful of fiddleheads

Yesterday, via Alvin's CSA, I came by a little bag of beautiful fiddleheads. These things are perhaps the cutest food ever: little dark-green scrolls, each one a developing fern leaf, wild harvested. This variety is, I believe, a Northeastern speciality: they only grow in the region (think they are these). So we are lucky.

I'd eaten these only a couple of times before. The first time we just boiled them (in Keane, NH). This time I decided to blanch them with steam and then fry them with garlic. When I tasted them I immediately thought of peas, so decided to eat them in a sort of Spring-filled rice bowl, with peas, mint and dandelion-ramp miso (ramps aka wild leeks being another Northeastern Spring speciality).

(this quantity about right for 2 people)

For the fiddleheads:
1 small bag of fiddleheads (about 2 cups)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
salt+pepper
lemon juice

The rest of the bowl:
1 cup brown rice, black barley and radish seed mix, cooked
1 cup frozen peas, cooked
2-3 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
1-3 tsp dandelion-ramp miso (to taste)

Clean the brown stuff off the fiddleheads and trim off any brown patches. Put them in a steamer and steam for 10-12 minutes, until any bitterness has gone (but they are still green and have some bite). Remove from the steamer and plunge into cold water, then drain / dry out as best you can.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, then add the garlic and fry for a few minutes, until just starting to brown. Add the fiddleheads and fry on medium-high until any wetness has evaporated and the garlic and fiddleheads are starting to brown around the edges. Turn off the heat and add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

For each serving, assemble a mixture of fiddleheads, rice mix, peas, toasted seeds, mint and miso in a bowl, in whatever proportions you like, mix and then eat.


The fiddleheads have a fairly subtle, green taste: they are very nice. And they look so pretty and interesting. I like how the flavours go together but remain distinguished in this mixture. And I like being able to assemble it to taste per bowl: you can use as little or as much of the other stuff and mix it up as much or as little as you like, so that you can always have some mouthfuls where you have nothing but fiddlehead and others where you have the whole interesting lot.

The fiddlehead cooking method worked well. Think you could use asparagus chopped into 2 inch pieces instead of the fiddleheads, if fiddleheads are not available. And use any kind of miso (preferably aged).

Spinach and tempeh

All of a sudden, I have fallen in love with tempeh. Perhaps a natural progression from my ongoing love affair with miso - bring on the fermented foods?! Next thing I know I will find a passion for stinky tofu and natto (as of now, natto remains the only vegan food I cannot stomach - just the smell is enough to make me put distance between me and it fast)... So anyway, tempeh is awesome. I think the other thing that helped was that I now know more about how it is made (ie those greyish, mycelial-looking bits are OK - just part of the fungal fun). This is a simple way of cooking and eating it, and the taste of the tempeh really comes through.

1 tbsp sunflower oil or similar
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 in piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2/3 of a piece of tempeh
1 bag spinach, washed and picked over
1-2 tbsp chickpea tamari

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes. Add the sesame seeds and crumble the tempeh into the pan. Stir and fry for several minutes, until the seeds and tempeh are lightly browned and there is no wetness in the pan. Add the spinach and cook until it is wilted. Cook on high for a minute or so to try and evaporate excess liquid (but not long enough for the spinach to become discoloured). Finally, mix in the tamari and taste to make sure it is good.


This is very simple, but came out exactly as I wanted and amazingly tasty: the soft, irony leaves and robust, hearty tempeh are brought together by the salty, tangy tamari, and it adds up to something really good.

Stewed rhubarb with custard and crunch

I found rhubarb at the weekend. It must be Spring. Every time I buy rhubarb I consider doing something different with it, but I just love it stewed, simply, with ginger, so find it hard to stray from that. Rhubarb does need sugar - it is so tart - but it is a balancing act to sweeten it sufficiently without losing its edge. Rhubarb crumble is wonderful, but I mainly always just want to eat the rhubarb part, so rhubarb and custard wins it for me. You can't beat Bird's custard, in my eyes. Real custard just doesn't hack it. I wanted a little crunch on top. I seem to eat oats with everything. Here we go. Awfully simple, tastes of Spring - the sunshine in the rhubarb, but still the need for some underlying warmth and comfort in the ginger and custard.

1 lb rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into 1 in pieces
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1-2 oz turbinado sugar

250ml Bird's custard (made with soy milk)

2 tbsp rolled oats, toasted
2 tbsp flakes almonds, toasted

Put the rhubarb, ginger and sugar in a small saucepan, cover and simmer gently until the rhubarb is just soft. Taste to check sweetness. Toast and mix the almonds and oats. Make up the custard (thickness and sweetness to taste). Put some rhubarb and custard in a bowl and sprinkle with the toasted oats+almonds.

Warm lentil and onion salad

My stepmother S makes a simple lentil salad that I love. I think it is Indian-influenced (she is half Indian). It is Puy lentils, with crispy fried onions and dollops of thick yoghurt on top.

This recipe reminded me of S's lentil salad. I didn't feel like making exactly either of those, but something closely related, simple, but with enough complication to be exciting.

To cook the lentils:
1 cup green or brown lentils
1 large clove garlic, peeled and sliced into three
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
water

To toast in a dry pan:
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
2-3 tbsp sesame or sunflower seeds

For the onions:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

For the dressing:
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp salt

Also:
zest of 1/2 a lemon
2-3 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
1 cup cooked, defrosted chickpeas
fresh tomatoes, chopped

First, put the lentils on: put lentils, garlic, bay leaves and olive oil in a small pan with enough water to cover the lentils by about 1cm. Cover the pan and simmer until lentils are done (20-30 min / will vary depending what kind of lentils).

As soon as the lentils are on start the other preparations. Dry fry the cumin and coriander until fragrant, then tip them out into a bowl and set aside. Do the same with the sesame/sunflower seeds, transferring them to a different bowl. Then heat the olive oil in the same frying pan, add the onions and garlic, cover and cook gently until the onions first soften then start to go sweet, brown and crispy/melty.

To make the dressing, grind the toasted coriander and cumin and tip it into a serving bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, salt, balsamic vinegar and water and mix to a good consistency. When the lentils and onions are done, add them to the serving bowl along with the chickpeas and lemon zest, and mix everything together thoroughly. Finally, add the mint and seeds, toss, and serve with fresh tomato and more balsamic to taste, on brown rice.


It is an ugly brown mess, but it is delicious. Good balance of fresh (lemon, mint) with deep and earthy (lentils, tahini), sweet (balsamic, onions), and toasty spices (coriander+cumin). Nice textures too - the crunch of seeds alongside the robust squish of cooked pulses. Best warm, fine cold the next day.