Spiced Chickpea, Butternut Squash and Yoghurt Salad

I'm visiting Aotearoa New Zealand at the moment. One of the nicest things is getting to cook for my family again. Last weekend, I puzzled over what to make out of chickpeas and silken tofu. I remembered eating some Dahi Puri that were filled with chickpea curry, vegan yoghurt and a generous amount of spices and chutney.

This chickpea salad is that memory realised in the available ingredients. It's chickpeas and butternut squash smothered in creamy vegan sour cream, with a hint of cumin and chili. The vegan sour cream from Gormandize makes a great stand-in for plain yoghurt. I've never been able to find a vegan yoghurt that isn't sweet. Do they exist?

 

 Spiced Chickpea, Butternut Squash and Yoghurt Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

710 g butternut squash (900 ml chopped)

1/4 red onion

a handful of parsley (optional)

2 400 g cans of chickpeas (750 ml drained)

1 recipe vegan sour cream

1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp chili powder

Method

1. Chop the butternut squash into 3x3 cm squares. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 200 C for 40 minutes, or until tender.

2. Finely chop the onion and parsley. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Make the sour cream. Gently combine all ingredients except the parsley and add salt to taste. Sprinkle the parsley on top.

Best Dinner Recipes

I really enjoy trying out recipes from other blogs, so I thought I'd write a best-of. These are the best dinners I've cooked and managed to take a photo of in the last few weeks. First up: Better-than-Tuna salad on The Fig Tree, originally from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. This salad is great on sandwiches, in pitas or on its own. It's also a great way to get your veggies - it's full of celery, capsicum and carrots.

I also recently made this Sambar from Hungry Desi, a food blog full of delicious-looking and mostly vegan recipes. You can put nearly any vegetable you like in your sambar. I used onions this time and it was very good.

And because the recipes on Hungry Desi are just that appealing, I made another one, Kadai Tofu. It was wonderfully spicy and flavourful. I replaced the milk with soy milk. I expect a little coconut milk would also work great.

That's all for this week, hope you enjoyed the recipes! Let me know if you try any of them out.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

It was always a treat for us kids to go on holiday to our grandparents'. One of the reasons was that my grandmother was a wonderful cook. She and my grandfather had a big garden in which they grew most of their vegetables, and she put them to great use. One of her dishes that I remember particularly well is this very simple but delicious bean salad. It goes perfectly with quiche.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 400 g cans mixed beans or kidney beans (ca. 750 ml)

400 g green beans (ca. 1 litre)

1/2 onion

4 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Method

1. Top and tail the green beans. Steam them until tender, drain, and rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Slice the onion finely.

2. Mix the beans and onion with all the remaining ingredients. Leave to marinate for at least half an hour.

The Best Panzanella

This panzanella recipe came about a few summers ago, when I tried five or six different versions. None of them were quite right. So I combined the best parts of all of them... Ripe tomatoes, slices of crunchy cucumber, smoky roasted capsicum, salty capers, and chunks of good bread with a dressing of vinegar, olive oil and tomato juice. It's a great way to get your veggies - fresh, flavourful and delicious. We don't really eat anything special for Easter, apart from chocolate, but this would make a good addition to an Easter meal.

The Best Panzanella

Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side

Ingredients

6 large ripe tomatoes
2 large capsicums (or some roasted capsicum in a jar)
1 cucumber
200 ml olives
3 tbsp capers
a bunch of basil
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 loaf stale good-quality white bread (ca. 250 g)

Method

1. Put the tomatoes in a bowl. Cover with boiling water. Let sit for a few minutes, until the skins have loosened. Drain, peel, and core the tomatoes. Cut each tomato into quarters and squeeze the seeds and juice into a bowl. Put the seeds aside.

2. Roast the capsicums at high heat in the oven until blackened. Put in a bowl with a lid. Peel the cucumber. Quarter it and remove the seeds. Cut into slices. Peel the capsicums, remove the seeds, and tear into long strips.

3. Rinse the olives and capers. Slice the basil and mince the garlic. Mix the tomato seeds with the garlic, capers, olive oil, vinegar and salt. Cut the bread into chunks and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Let rest for at least half an hour.

Do you eat anything special for Easter?

Olivier Salad

This yummy salad originated in Russia. It consists of chopped potatoes, carrots and peas in a mayonnaise dressing with tangy pickles and onion. It's a great winter dish, but also perfect for summer picnics and barbecues, or the first month of spring while you're waiting for the new produce to appear.

Olivier Salad

Serves 4 as a main or 6 as a side

Ingredients

8 potatoes
2 carrots
1 400 g can or 375 ml frozen peas, cooked
vegan ham (optional)
6 medium pickles
1/4 onion or 3 stalks spring onion
400 ml vegan mayonnaise made with silken tofu
salt and pepper

Method

1. Wash the potatoes and carrots, and simmer them together until done. Let them cool for a while. Peel them and dice them finely. Drain and rinse the peas.

2. Mince the onion and finely chop the pickles. Slice the spring onions and ham, if using. Mix everything together and season well with salt and pepper.

New Zealand Roasted Vegetable Salad

This is my conception of the kind of salad you're likely to find in the cabinet of a New Zealand cafe - solid, satisfying and easy to throw together. It's a good option when you're tired and want dinner without a fuss.

New Zealand Roasted Vegetable Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 capsicum
2 zucchini
2 carrots
olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp cumin
a pinch of pepper
1/8 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cans kidney beans (about 750 ml drained)

Method

1. Chop the capsicum, zucchini and carrots roughly. Toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast at 200 C for 50 minutes or until soft.

2. Mince the garlic and add to a large bowl with the cumin, pepper, chili flakes, cider vinegar and olive oil. Beat with a fork until emulsified.

3. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the bowl. Add the vegetables and mix well. Enjoy!

Kisir (Turkish Bulgur Salad)

Kisir is a Turkish salad that's very popular in Berlin bakeries. It's easy to make and is a great picnic or barbecue food. An important ingredient is ajvar, a paste made of roasted capsicums and sometimes eggplant. If you have a choice, use the kind of ajvar that's deep red, not orange - it has a more intense flavour. You can change up this recipe quite a lot if you want, for example by adding some minced tomatoes or leaving out some of the herbs.

Kisir (Turkish Bulgur Salad)

Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as a side

Ingredients

400 ml bulgur
1 tsp salt
400 ml boiling water
1/4 red or white onion
3 cloves garlic
a bunch spring onions
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley and a bunch of mint OR a few handfuls of rocket
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp ajvar
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 pinches chili flakes
a good glug of olive oil

Method

1. Put the bulgur, salt and boiling water in a large bowl.

2. Mince the onion, garlic, mint and parsley. Chop the spring onions. Add to the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients except the rocket. Mix very well with your hands. Toss with the rocket before serving.