Saffron Spiced Bulgur Pilaf with Pomegranate

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Anti-oxidant Rich and Quick

So I have a quick hour to prepare some dinner after work before nipping off to rehearsal. I’d also like some food for my lunch tomorrow, so decide to make up a kind of fancy bulgur pilaf. Something full on flavour and light on time. You can substitute the bulgur for cous-cous, quinoa or rice if you have them handy.

Ingredients
2 as a main - 3 as a side
1 cup of bulgur wheat
5 strands of saffron
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small red onion - finely diced
2 small cloves of garlic crushed
2 teaspoons of poppy seeds
1 large handful of cashews
1 handful of raisins
1/2 pomegranate - seeds
big pinch of garam masala

In a pan - add one cupful of hot water to the saffron strands, crush the strands gently with a wooden spoon to release the colour. Leave to steep while you prepare the rest of your dinner.

Fry the onion, in a non-stick pan, for two minutes over a medium heat for a few minutes before adding in the garlic. Cook until the onion is translucent. Stir in the garam masala and cook for another minute. Stir in the bulgur wheat until coated with oil, then add in the saffron water, and then another cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes, add a little more water if this begins to stick.

Stir in the seeds, raisins and cashew nuts when you think it’s cooked. A big bunch of freshly chopped parsley would be great stirred in here, or some fresh coriander if you have some. Stir in the pomegranate seeds when off the heat, reserve a few more for garnish.

This makes a great side to serve alongside baked sweet potatoe falafel or hummus, or alongside some sticky ginger roast chicken legs. It would be a great little dish to bring along to a picnic or buffet lunch. The yellow from the saffron and the red little jewels of pomegranate seeds make it a very pretty side dish. I served it with some carrots that I parboiled and then glazed with honey and balsamic vinegar and popped under the grill to get rich and brown.

Baba Ganoush

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Along the lines of hummous but with Baked Aubergine instead of chickpeas! The name always reminds me of a baby elephant for some reason, so healthy though it won't turn you into an elephant

2 Aubergines
1 serving spoon of tahini
Lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
Olive Oil

Score the skins of the aubergine and bake in a a hot oven for 30 mins. When cooked, cut in half, scoop out the insides and discard the skins. Pop mixture into a bowl along with the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, ad a small drop of olive oil, mix well and season. Allow to cool before serving.

We served this with some freshly baked bread for dipping, some various cheese, meats and salad. We also served it alongside some hummous. As I said it was like hummous, not a replacement!!

And with this I bid you farewell for a few weeks, I'm off on my holidays to France in the van with the Mr Delo. Lola will keep you updated in Ireland. I promise to write some recipes up while I'm over there, and hopefully have some beautiful sun-drenched pictures to go with them. They'll be coming from this little kitchen in this little van....

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

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Eastern Feastern

This one is especially for Holly who called me at work to ask her to post some veggie recipes - here you go Holly!!

I,ve cut out sugar wheat and dairy for a few weeks in order to fit into last years summer dresses for the big trip to Venice. I'm actually finding it surprisingly pleasant and I'm no where near as hungry as I thought I would be. I think the secret is a nice breakfast (I make my own muesli) then you don't feel too short changed over not being allowed have lovely buttery toast and milky sweet coffee in the morning. Anyway, Lucy sent me a recipe for sweet potato falafel from
Allegra McEvedy's Leon restaurants today, perfect for my silly diet as it has no bad things in it at all. I have changed around the recipe a bit to include white beans and chopped fresh coriander to make it more authentically falafely. I think this might be the ultimate in gluten free, wheat free, sugar free, dairy free food, and best of all, they are baked, not fried. Normal falafel (made with just chickpeas) will be really dry and fall apart if you try to bake it, so this is definitely the ultimate in healthyness, and still most delicious dinner ever. It actually doesn't take that long to make either.

So here goes:


Baked Falafel
1 large sweet potato,
1/2 tin white beans such as butter beans or canellini
1 big handful fresh coriander
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
100g Gram Flour (a flour made from lentils available from all good middle eastern shops)
Juice of 1 lemon
glug of olive oil
sesame seeds for garnish

Bake the sweet potato in its skin in a hot oven for about an hour until it is totally soft throughout. mash the beans in a bowl with your fingers, take the cooked sweet potato out of its skin and add to the bowl. Add add the chopped coriander, followed by the rest of the ingredients mix well.


Use two spoons to shape each falafel piece, depositing each one onto a baking sheet covered with greased baking parchment. Sprinkle over some sesame seeds.

Bake in oven preheated to gas 7/220 degrees Celsius for 15 mins or until golden on the bottom and they feel solid to touch. This photo makes them look weird - I'm sorry


We served with:
*Hummus (see previous post) with added harrisa paste
*Natural yogurt with lemon juice, fresh parsley and coriander, salt & pepper
*Cyprus salad (see recipe)
*Chopped beetroot
*Ajvar (Turkish veggie spread made from red peppers great in sandwiches)
*Flat bread (although I didn't have any of this, how good am I?!)

wow! I just saw this video over on Icanhascook - it's brilliant.

1 minute Hummus

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1 minute is all it takes (if you have a hand-blender that is) and yes we did time it!

Hummus

1 can of chickpeas - retain some of the brine
2 cloves of garlic
Good quality olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Juice of one lemon
Dripping tablespoon of Tahini

Put all ingredients into blender - blend - viola - add in a little of the chickpea brine if it's too thick. Sprinkle with paprika and add more olive oil if desired to serve. I used to use a potato masher to do the blending, and produces a coarser hummus which has equal charms.

To serve - pittas, falafel, cous cous, bulgar and roasted veg, sandwiches, add to vinaigrette to make a tasty salad dressing, carrot sticks, celery salad.... any more suggestions welcome.

I made a very tasty variation a few months back - adding in some roasted red peppers and harissa (a North African hot red sauce or paste made from chili peppers & garlic) - possibly the best hummus ever, quite possibly. The variations are numerous and delicious - yum!