As promised the recipe for the bulgur wheat salad that was part of my Turkish lunch.
Makes 4 generous portions
150 grams bulgur wheat
80 ml boiling water
200 grams grated soft tomato flesh
1 tomato – cut into small cubes
1/2 cucumber – peeled and cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
fresh green chilli – finely chopped – to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh basil roughly chopped
black olives to garnish
Start to prepare the salad a couple of hours before you plan to eat.
Put the wheat in a large bowl and pour over the boiling water. Stir to mix well and leave to soak for five minutes.
Next grate in the tomato. I had a nice big beef tomato that had gone soft and watery. Cut the tomato in half across its equator and the grate the flesh side on a coarse grater, seeds included, until you are left with just the skin in your hand. Bin the skin.
Mix the tomato into the wheat and leave to steep for 20 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the olives and basil and mix well.
Leave to steep until you are ready to serve.
Put the salad in your serving dish and decorate with olives and basil. Enjoy 😊
In this summer heat, lunch for your friends wants to be a light and fresh affair, Watermelon Gazpacho followed by three salads served with freshly homemade bread. To finish a small pot each of intense dark chocolate sorbet and crispy ginger biscuits.
BEETROOT & RADICCIO SALAD WITH PURPLE BASIL
The beetroot was roasted for an hour with whole cloves of garlic, a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, sprigs of fresh oregano and olive oil, season well with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Let the beetroot cool before mixing with shredded chicory and purple basil leaves.
LENTIL & POMEGRANATE SALAD WITH FRESH CORIANDER
His salad is cooked green lentils, a good amount of the little pomegranate jewels that I have plenty of in the garden this year, then finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes and celery. Add a generous amount of roughly chopped coriander leaves and dress lightly with lime juice and olive oil.
I’m a fan of soaking dried grains so that when you come to cooking the grains are already re moistened in the centre, and so require less cooking. Pour boiling water over the lentils and leave an hour or so to steep before cooking until just tender. Drain the lentils and let them cool before adding them to the salad.
SALAD OF FRESH FIGS, ROASTED RED ONIONS AND HAZELNUTS
This is a Yotam Ottolengi recipe which has a lovely contrast of flavours with the sweet roasted red onions and figs, and the peppery watercress and rocket. His recipe uses radiccio rather than rocket, but as I have both I decided that the more peppery rocket suited this recipe better. I was surprised to find that what I thought was weeds in my vegetable patch is actually rocket, and it hasn’t become overly peppery in the strong Spanish heat. I haven’t used roasted red onions in a salad before, and I have to say, I’m a total convert. I shall be roasting a tray full regularly so that I have them at the ready in the fridge.
This amount serves 4
2 small red onions – peel them and cut each into 6 wedges
50 grams hazelnuts with skin / or ready dry roasted unseasoned hazelnuts
1/2 small head of radicchio / or a similar amount of rocket
good bunch of fresh basil – either the green or purple
bunch of watercress with the stems removed
6 ripe fresh figs, cut into quarters
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Roast the onions drizzled with olive oil at 180 C for 30 minutes. Leave to cool.
If you are roasting hazelnuts, turn the oven down to 140, and once it has reached this temperature, spread the hazelnuts in a shallow pan and roast for 20 minutes. Leave to cool then break up into pieces with a pestle and mortar. If you are using the ready roasted hazelnuts break these up as above.
To put the salad together, start with the leaves, rip them into pieces and put in a large bowl, add the onions and figs.
Dress with the oil and vinegar and gently toss. I like to do this with my hands as it’s more gentle than using implements.
I was inspired by the tomato pasta of my last post to cook something similarly fresh tasting. So this quick to prepare dish is the result, using ingredients that I already had in the store cupboard. I give you the recipe exactly as I did it, but of course if you don’t have Aliolli and/or Chilli Jam in your cupboard, change for fresh garlic and chilli to taste.
A perfect lunch for one or a light colourful starter if you halve the amounts per person.
LINGUINI WITH FRESH & SUNDRIED TOMATOES, GREEN OLIVES & BASIL
Per person –
30 gms linguini
10 ml olive oil
1 large tomato
3 sundried tomatoes
6 green olives
1.25 ml aliolli
2,5 ml chilli jam
Fresh basil leaves
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Get a pan of water heating up for the pasta. Add to it 5 ml of the olive oil and half a teaspoon of salt.
When the water is boiling, add the sundried tomatoes to the water and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Scoop out and leave to cool.
Add the linguini to the water and leave to cook at a medium simmer.
Put the other 5ml of olive oil in a shallow pan. Add the aliolli and chilli jam.
Slice the sundried tomatoes and add to the pan.
Remove stones from the olives and cut each olive in half. Add to the pan.
Halve the tomato across its equator and using a fine grater grate the pulp into a bowl until you are left with just the skin in your hand. If the grater is fine enough it should sift out the majority of the seeds. If the odd seed makes it into the sauce, it is not the end of the world.
Add the fresh tomato pulp to the shallow pan.
Roughly chop the basil leaves.
When the pasta is two or three minutes from the al dente stage of crookedness, slowly heat the sauce stirring to mix all the ingredients.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the sauce. Mix well to coat the pasta with the sauce. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and two thirds of the basil leaves. Turn again to mix in.
Turn into a pasta bowl and garnish with the rest of the basil leaves.
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