Recipes

Well, kinda Turkish style anyway. Relatively quick, nice to present, and can suit a crowd that includes vegetarian and lactose-free (sub out the meatballs and yoghurt dip as required).

Serves ~ 6, main prep takes about 2 hours (+ dough resting time of 8 hours) and, alongside timing suggestions includes:

1. 1. Turkish pide x2 – prep dough -8 hours, -3 hours, bake -1 hour
   2. Hummus – prep -1.5 hours
   3. Yoghurt dip (or sub e.g. for beetroot dip) – prep – 1.5 hours
   4. Tabbouleh – prep – 1 hour
   5. Chickpea salad – prep -1 hour
   6. Carrot salad – prep -1 hour
   7. Meatballs (or sub e.g. for felafel) – prep mix -3 hours, cook -0.5 hour
   8. Roast eggplant  – prep and cook -0.5 hour
   9. Rice – cook -0.5 hour
   10. Garnishes – lemon, roast peppers – prep -0.5 hour

Turkish pide

Adapted from lazycatkitchen – because no-knead bread is the best, especially when you haven’t got fancy flour. Note resting times will depend on your yeast and temperatures. Can prove in oven if needed (turn oven on until warm, then off).

Timing: start dough 8 hours, turn out 3 hours, start baking 1 hour prior to serve.

Ingredients

• Per bread:
  • 2.5 c all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp dry yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • warm water
  • oil and toppings, e.g. sesame and nigella seeds, or Zaatar/Manouche/Manakish (thyme and/or oregano based herb mix)

Mix all dry ingredients together, then add enough water to make a no-knead style dough (quite a wet bread dough, search no-knead breads for pics). Cover and rest until doubled (~ 5 hours).

2 hours prior to baking, use wet or floured hands to turn out dough onto a large baking sheet (covered with parchment, sprinkled with semolina). Turn it under on itself to create a smooth surface when doing this, but don’t knead and try and preserve as many bubbles as possible. Stretch out to shape, aiming for something about 1″ thick, can be somewhat uneven. Smooth over with wet hands to wet surface, and leave to rest.

Turn very hot oven on 250C, will take ~15 mins to heat up. Brush oil across the top of the bread, then sprinkle with toppings. Bake for 10 mins on very high, then drop temperature slightly to 230C for another 10 mins or so until golden brown on top. If cooking 2, may need to shuffle the trays in the oven to get even cooking on top and bottom.

Once cooked, remove from the oven, place on top of each other on a wire rack and cover with a tea towel (to soften crust).

Salads + sides

Hummus

• 1 c or can chickpeas
• tahini
• olive oil
• water
• lemon juice
• garlic
• salt + pepper
• garnish with olive oil, sumac, fresh herb (cilantro or parsley)

Blend everything, taste, taste some more, dump into a bowl and garnish. Cover if a long time before serving.

Yoghurt dip

• Plain yoghurt
• salt
• ground cumin
• fresh mint, chopped

Mix everything, dump into a bowl.

Tabbouleh

• Approximately equal parts of
  • chopped fresh tomato
  • soaked bulgar wheat
  • chopped parsley
• Lemon juice
• oil
• chopped fresh mint (or dry if no fresh available)
• salt + pepper
• chopped cucumber (optional)

Mix everything, taste, dump into a bowl.

Chickpea salad

• 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 yellow pepper, diced
• 1 large kale leaf or other greens, shredded
• 1/4 medium red onion, finely chopped
• oil, balsamic vinegar, salt+pepper

Mix everything, taste, dump into a bowl.

Carrot salad

• 2 carrots, shredded
• simple vinaigrette
  • • 1 tsp mustard (I like seedy, or dijon)
    • 1 tsp honey (or other sweetener if you have vegans)
    • 1 tbs oil
    • lemon juice and/or light coloured vinegar

 

• a sprig or two of parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2-1 tsp ground cumin
• some sultanas and (optional) chopped nuts e.g. almonds

Make the vinaigrette first: In a small bowl, with a spoon, mix honey and mustard, until well blended, then add oil a little at a time, until you get a thick emulsion. Then add vinegar/juice a little at a time, stirring well at each addition. Then once you grate the carrot you can immediately add this vinaigrette so the carrot doesn’t brown. Mix in all the other ingredients, taste. Dump into a bowl.

Meatballs

Adapted from this recipe which would possibly make nicer ones, but these do.

• ~1 lb mince (more fat = better)
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 c breadcrumbs
• 1 heaped tsp cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder or flake
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt

About 3 hours before cooking, mix everything really well. Kneading it for a bit helps the proteins become a little more like sausage meat (i.e. stick together better). Rest until time to cook. Cook in a cast iron pan, with oil, initially on med-high to brown, then lower heat to cook through. Keep warm until serving.

Grilled eggplant

Slice one large eggplant lengthways, coat slices with oil and grill both sides. Can drizzle with more oil to serve, and optionally sprinkle spices on before grilling. Once cooked, put into a bowl and cover before serving for a bit to help soften them.

Rice

A simple rice is fine, or add some cinnamon and butter to slightly flavour. Keep warm to serve.

Garnishes

Some lemon wedges and roasted peppers and pickles never go astray.