Tag Archives: khorasan wheat

Tagliatelle & Cauliflower Sauce

19 Friday Jan 2024

Posted by in Main Courses, Starters, Techniques, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes, Vegetarian

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Some dishes that I eat regularly are so simple that I almost don’t think of them as recipes worth sharing, but these are most likely the easy dishes that you would want to hear about.

I made my own pasta for this dish, which is much easier than you think, have a look at my post, the beginners guide to making fresh pasta. If you are mostly vegan like me you can choose flour that has a high protein content. I used wholemeal Khorasan flour which has 14.5% protein and holds together very well for pasta, spelt flour is very good too. I’ll put at the end of this post the address of a website for buying organic flours and pulses.

Of course using readymade pasta is perfectly fine. This recipe came from friends Gianni and Cinzia who I visited in Matera in the south of Italy and they use dried pasta.

For the sauce this time I used cauliflower as I have beautiful ones ready to eat in my veg patch,

but you can use quite a few other vegetables, broccoli, aubergines, peppers, courgettes all cut into small pieces, fresh peas or broad beans, the basic idea of the recipe remains the same. The vegetable is braised in olive oil with garlic until just cooked but still with a bit of bite, about a third of it is removed and put to one side, the rest has a little stock added and is braised until soft. This is then puréed with a hand blender or mashed to make a sauce, adding seasoning as you go. The removed vegetables are put back in the sauce to warm through and then the sauce is mixed into the pasta.

I love that this sauce is so light and full of flavour. It’s so versatile too as pretty well any vegetable that is in season can be used, herbs and seasoning can be varied. This has got me thinking about the recipe on this blog for Apicius inspired onions, with their flavouring of lovage, honey and herbs, which if two thirds of the onions were puréed would make a great sauce for pasta. I’ll try that next. it’s great that ancient Rome is inspiring today’s cooking!

Almost forgot the address for organic flour, grains and pulses

https://www.rincondelsegura.es/

Tabouleh of Khorasan

28 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in Main Courses, Starters, Vegan

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Khorasan is a type of wheat that has large grains with a rich nutty flavour, which I love in a salad. It’s a relative of durum wheat which originated in the Middle East where it is still cultivated. I buy both the grains and flour from an ecological producer here in Spain. If anyone would like their details message me and I will pass them on.

This salad is based on Tabouleh where I have replaced the normal bulgur wheat with Khorasan wheat, and then added seeds and nuts for protein and extra texture.

For 2 portions

100 grams Khorasan wheat grains

1 large tomato – diced

2 tablespoons diced cucumber

2 tablespoons diced raw kohl rabi

1 spring onion – finely chopped

1 heaped tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

2 tablespoons crushed dry roasted hazelnuts

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

large bunch fresh flat leaved parsley, tarragon and mint – chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

The Khorasan needs to be soaked, either overnight in cold water, or a couple of hours before cooking pour boiling water over the grains.

Cook the Khorasan in salted water for 20-30 minutes until soft. Drain and let cool a little.

Put into a salad bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Check the balance of lemon and oil adding extra of either if needed. Check seasoning.

If you can manage to let the salad sit for an hour, I almost never can, the flavours will have blended and developed to a richer taste.