The tinda masala is one of my favourite dishes at Tayyabs; certainly my favourite vegetarian dish and a no-brainer when it comes to ordering. The very first time I went there, I noticed it clinging on at the bottom of the menu and decided to try it as a sympathy order. When I put the first mouthful in my greedy gob however, there was no doubt that the dish was laughing in the face of my pity. I’ve only ever been served one disappointing tinda which, sadly, arrived after I’d been talking my mate’s ear off about it in the pub beforehand. It was watery, bland, lukewarm and all the worse for me bigging it up so much. Generally though those juicy little gourds are cooked on a fierce heat with a punchy, slightly sour sauce, the main ingredients of which Tayyabs insist are just garlic, ginger and chilli; I can’t blame them for not wanting to reveal their secrets.

I’ve seen fresh tinda around recently, but they always seem to look very tired. I cannot tell you the frustration this caused me until eventually, the canned ones stepped in to offer succour.  As soon as I opened that tin, I got a familiar waft of briny tinda – Tayyabs must use the canned version too.

I used this recipe from Mamta’s kitchen, although I omitted the potato and used mustard seeds where she suggests a choice between mustard and cumin. Overall I was pleased with the result: a perfect starting point for some experimentation, although I did think the tomato dominated and will reduce that considerably or just add some fresh at the end like Tayyabs do. A crispy onion garnish would also be most welcome. The tinda don’t really have much flavour of their own but are special for being so incredibly thirsty, soaking up the spiced juices which then burst into the mouth at the slightest pressure. Next time, I will tweak the spices and cook it faster at a higher heat, to avoid breaking up the tinda so much. Of course, I’ll need to make a trip to Tayyabs first for research purposes, just to make sure I get that spicing right. What a hardship.

I orginally intended to post these spiced pumpkin patties for Halloween but the first time I made them, the ratio of pumpkin to chickpea was off and they were too mushy. I wanted a bit more texture and nutty flavour from the chickpeas and so had to hold off until I made them again. This time I cracked it by upping the chickpea content and leaving some of them whole which gave the burgers a lot more bite.

Since making the switch from canned chickpeas to dried, I literally cannot get enough of them. The difference in flavour and texture is staggering. I always thought the humble chickpea was a bit bland and boring, having absolutely no idea what I was missing out on. And really, it’s not that much hassle. OK, so it is (mainly the cooking time), but I think the rewards are well worth it.

You could use any orange-fleshed squash for this recipe – you can see that I didn’t use a ‘traditional’ pumpkin this time around, basically because I couldn’t find one – and I have no idea whether the squash I used was even grown in this country to be quite honest – I know, I know, my bad. I was desperate, desperate I tell you!

I’ve subtly spiced the burgers with a touch of cumin, coriander and a scant teaspoon of smoked paprika, which is great with the sweet pumpkin flavour. Be careful though, not to overdo it with this spice, it’s very easy to sprinkle too far and end up with a smokyness that completely overwhelms everything. For herbage, I tried using coriander the first time around and then basil and parsley the second, both were delicious. Some onion and garlic and they’re good to go, couldn’t be simpler. Chuck everything in a blender then shape as desired. Healthy, easy (pumpin carving aside, I really need new knives) and so satisfying.

To serve, I topped them with tzatziki (yes, I categorised this post as ‘vegan’ so just skip this or use an alternative) and a quick salsa made from tomatoes, red onion and lime juice. A nice bit of tang and crunch to contrast the soft and sweet burger. One small bit of advice though – despite using a beautifully crafted and truly delicious baguette for the bun, I actually wanted something a bit more wholesome and, ideally, seeded – alas, I could not find anything. I recommend this option if it’s your thing as I think it would complement the burgers much better.

So, there we have it. A Halloween recipe that is 9 days late. Good job these burgers are far too good to eat just once a year anyway.

Pumpkin and Chickpea Burgers
(makes 6 burgers)

500g cooked chickpeas
300g roasted orange fleshed squash (I like it roasted, which you can do while getting the other ingredients ready. Just splash with oil, season with salt and pepper and stick in the oven until tender – mine only took about 20 minutes)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
A good handful herbs of your choice (basil, parsley and coriander all work well), roughly chopped
Salt and pepper

- Add everything to a blender, apart from 150g of the chickpeas. Blend everything together until well mixed, then stir in the whole chickpeas. Adjust the seasoning then shape into burgers.
- Fry the burgers in a non-stick pan in a small amount of oil until golden on both sides.

I haven’t cooked much since we’ve been back from Iceland, mostly due to the humidity. As the plane was landing we listened to the usual pleasantries from the pilot, ” welcome to London Stansted, local time is approximately 19.30, temperature 27C.” 27! At 7.30? Has the summer happened while we’ve been away? Of course, I’m not complaining or anything, us Brits should celebrate whatever we can get. It was a stark contrast though, leaving the cool, clear, crispness of Iceland and plunging into the sticky city. Straight off the express train and a run for the bus, which was packed, by the way. Squeeze our way on only for the driver to promptly get off and start an argument with a cabbie in the next lane. Welcome home.

So we are mostly eating raw foods at the moment, salads filled with refreshing ingredients and the odd piece of fish. Poppy seeds are my ‘new thing’ and they work really well in this perky little dressing. I love their little flecks against the orange and fennel. I threw in some purple radish shoots which added a nice peppery element but you could easily do without. A nice little twist on a classic Sicilian salad. We ate it with a piece of pan fried haddock, which I managed to coax Chris into cooking, such is my summer oven fear.

This dressing is my entry for this month’s ‘No Croutons Required‘ hosted by Lisa at Lisa’s Vegetarian Kitchen. The theme this month is, you’ve guessed it – dressings.

Fennel and Orange Salad with Raspberry Vinegar and Poppy Seed Dressing

4 small oranges
2 small fennel bulbs
Small handful purple radish shoots (optional)
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Salt and pepper

- Finely slice the fennel and segment the oranges. Combine in a bowl with half the radish shoots.
- To make the dressing, whisk together the raspberry vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl. Add salt, pepper and the poppy seeds and mix again. Add to the salad to taste. Sprinkle the remaining radish shoots on top.

Alfalfa sprouts used to be terribly unfashionable didn’t they? My how times have changed. Cast your minds back to when ‘health food shops’ were only frequented by people who modelled their lives on Neil from The Young Ones. Dried pulses, fruits, nuts, carob, tofu, gluten-free, lactose-free, spelt – all of these things are now widely available and celebrated.

So, let’s cleanse our virtual systems shall we? After all those potatoes and cheeses we’ve been cyber-munching the past few days (I ate the lot fo’ real don’t forget), it’s time to lighten up a little. The inspiration for this salad came from the most unlikely of places. A little while ago I found myself stranded late at night in a train station with a problem, I was hungry, really hungry. I can’t remember where I was going or why I ever considered buying food at that moment rather than waiting for the safety of my own kitchen but we’ll let it go.

The options were bad, real bad. No decent purveyor of grubbage in sight. Not even a Pret or an EAT for chrissakes. And that is when it happened. I was forced to buy a sandwich in Boots. Yes, Boots the chemist. After a quick soul destroying scan of the pre-packaged sarnies my eyes settled on a sandwich that looked slightly more edible than the rest (not made by Boots I hasten to add), containing carrot, alfalfa and houmous. So there, I nicked the idea and made it better. Ha. It’s crunchy, fresh, damn good for you and surprisingly filling. I like to make a batch and add a good pile to my plate for extra angel points. Don’t worry, there’s a zingy dressing to liven things up a bit and of course, you could add some cheese, if you were feeling naughty. Cheers bugs!

Carrot, Alfalfa and Chickpea Salad with Seeds

4 large carrots
1 large handful alfalfa sprouts
1 handful sunflower seeds
1 tin chickpeas (or soak you own, if you have the time)
1 dessert spoon wholegrain mustard
Juice of 1 large lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

- Grate or shred the carrots and mix with the alfalfa and chick peas.
- Mix the mustard , black pepper, a pinch of salt, lemon juice and oil. Adjust the quantities to your taste if necessary.
- Mix some (or all) of the dressing into the salad and sprinkle in the seeds.

Poor old celery, so rarely made the star of the show. It’s either chucked in as an afterthought or worse still, left to fester in the vegetable crisper until someone finds the heart to throw it out and end the misery. In recent years I’ve really grown to love this underrated vegetable – it’s crispy freshness and delicate flavour.

Far too little use is made of the leaves too – I always look for specimens proudly sporting a bush of yellow-green leaves – it even brings it’s own salad – how thoughtful. I’ve mixed the celery with some carrot strands for sweetness and finely sliced fennel for a surprising aniseed crunch every so often.

I used a mix of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp and linseeds for crunch and a super health boost, then coated everything in my favourite fruity orange-raspberry vinegar dressing. Don’t you feel healthy just looking at it?

Celery, Carrot and 5-Seed Salad

25g mixed seeds (I used sunflower, pumpkin, linseed, hemp and sesame – they came ready-mixed)
2 medium carrots, cut into julienne strips (I have a special peeler that does this but you could use a mandolin or a regular peeler or even chop by hand if you have skill and patience in equal measures)
1 small fennel bulb, finely shredded (add any fronds that look healthy too)
2 large sticks celery, sliced (use the yellow leaves too if you have any)

Find the dressing recipe here

- It couldn’t be simpler, mix everything together. You’re done.

I’ve got so many ideas for cooking with sea vegetables but I never seem to get around to making them. Now that they are readily available, it’s time to start incorporating more into our diet. Nori is most familiar as a wrapping for sushi (California rolls) and I love the flavour, especially toasted. Wakame I’ve actually never tried before – it is a thicker seaweed so I chopped it and added pieces to keep the delicate flavour and texture. I often start craving lighter food at this time of year, I think because I’m eagerly anticipating warmer weather and feeling like I need a bit of a cleanse. This is definitely the case after I munched my way through this bread over the past couple of days.

I used a mixture of yellow oyster, hon shimeji and shiro shimeji mushrooms in the soup. I’m a fan of the shimeji mushrooms and they are fairly easy to get hold of. There is a recipe here for using them with ostrich steak (not kidding!) but I think they really are better suited to these sorts of flavours. If you are not a veggie, this soup is absolutely begging to be tried with prawns or, even better, dumplings with pork, prawns and spring onions inside. Yum! Overall, I was really happy with the end result, it felt cleansing and invigorating just like I imagined it.

This is an entry for this month’s ‘No Croutons Required‘ hosted by Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen and Holler from Tinned Tomatoes. I felt honoured that my entry was chosen as the winning soup last month. See my Smoky, Sweet and Spicy Red Pepper Soup with Feta and Mint. I was originally set to make a salad for this months entry using the mushrooms and seaweed. I wanted to try coating halloumi cheese in crumbled nori but in my haste I accidentally picked up – SHOCK HORROR – low fat halloumi! It’s disgusting, just as I knew it would be. Cheese is supposed to be fatty! Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t because this soup worked really well. If you haven’t experimented further than miso soup, give it a try!

Mushroom, Nori and Wakame Soup

1 medium onion, diced finely
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 thumb of ginger, finely chopped
4 sheets of toasted nori, shredded (the size you would use for sushi)
120g mixed mushrooms (I used yellow oyster, hon shimeji and shiro shimeji)
100g buckwheat soba noodles (or alternative noodles like rice vermicelli)
1.5 litres veg stock
Soy sauce for seasoning
Spring onions, finely shredded
1 red chilli finely chopped and 1 finely sliced for garnish
Rice wine vinegar for seasoning
15g Wakame, chopped roughly

- Gently saute the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger in a little oil until soft.
- Add the seaweeds and mushrooms and stir, then add the stock.
- Bring it to the boil, add the noodles and then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Season with soy sauce and rice vinegar to taste.
- Ladle into bowls and garnish with the spring onions and chilli, adding more soy sauce and vinegar if you need it.

Other Soups

Jerusalem Artichoke and Hazelnut Soup with Crispy Bacon
Chorizo and Spring Greens Broth with Sherry
Smoky, Sweet and Spicy Red Pepper Soup with Feta and Mint
Celeriac Soup with Parsley Oil and Lancashire Cheese Toasts
French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons and Parsley Oil

I’ve been using this smoked Maldon sea salt in everything recently. The smoky flavour is just right, strong without being overpowering. I wanted to make some crackers but not fat laden ones. I also wanted a robust flavour and some nutritional benefit so I mixed half stone ground wholemeal flour and half white plain flour. The extra virgin olive oil (Greek) also gives the crackers a nice grassy flavour and the combination of fennel seeds and the smoky salt is actually really really good. We ate the crackers with some houmous as a healthy snack (we’ll forget about the salt content…). I think next time I will experiment with different flours such as spelt, my new favourite ingredient (except smoked sea salt of course). I have some spelt spaghetti which is really good and a colleague has promised me her spelt bread recipe.

The first time I made these, I brushed the tops with beaten egg white. It seemed a bit unnecessary, so the second batch I didn’t bother and they were actually better, more golden on top. It’s a shame then that I didn’t roll the second batch thin enough and they weren’t quite crispy enough in the middle.The possible spice combinations for the crackers are endless, cumin, ras el hanout, smoked paprika. I really like seeds on there rather than ground spices, it’s just a bit more interesting. They would be nice dipped into sour cream too or tzatziki, baba ganoush, guacamole……Moreish just doesn’t even cover it.

Smoked Sea Salt and Fennel Seed Crackers

(Makes approx 30 crackers)

4oz plain white flour
4oz wholemeal flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
35ml olive oil
Smoked salt (or regular)
Fennel seeds
Water

-Mix the flour, baking powder and fine salt in a bowl. Add the oil and then enough water for the dough to come together. It shouldn’t be too sticky.
-On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for around 5 minutes then cover and allow to rest (at room temp) for around 30 minutes.
-Roll out the dough as thin as you can manage without it tearing and cut into desired shapes.
-Sprinkle each cracker with smoked sea salt and fennel seeds to your taste.
-Transfer to a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake at 150C/300F/Gas2 for 20-30 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your crackers but they are ready when golden brown and crispy. Allow to cool on a rack or stuff them into your face right away like I did.

(Edit: Before you put the crackers in the oven, make indents in the top with a fork to prevent them puffing).

Eating seasonally and as locally as possible is something that is coming more naturally to us nowadays. At first, it was an effort to think of ideas for using up the weekly veg boxes but now they don’t seem big enough (I’ve already moved up one size) and it’s a case of choosing between many ideas, not just thinking of one. Kohlrabi gets such a bad rep and I can sort of understand why as it’s not familiar like a carrot or a potato.

I think the secret to enjoying the kohlrabi is finding your own personal favourite way of preparing it and for me, that means eating it raw. I think it’s good cooked too, but I also think it loses it’s best characteristic, the crisp freshness. This recipe is my new favourite way to eat it raw and grated with other seasonal friends (apples, beetroot, fennel) , all mixed together in a lemony dressing and sprinkled with sesame. This whole salad is uplifting and zingy which is exactly what I need while I wait for warmer weather. The sesame seeds add an interesting bite and the garlic is roasted for more of a mellow, background flavour. This might seem a bit over the top but I just chuck the garlic in if I’m roasting some veggies for lunch the next day, thus taking the hassle out of it. If I’m in the mood however, I’ll roast a load (a couple of heads) and eat it with some good bread, fruit and cheese, as a starter. Simply squeeze the mellowed cloves from their roasting jackets and spread onto bread. That’s another no, no Valentine’s recipe right there.

I’m submitting this as my entry for ‘waiter, there’s something in my…..‘ hosted by Spittoon Extra

Kohlrabi, Fennel and Beetroot Salad

1 medium kohlrabi
2 apples (crisp, juicy ones)
1 small fennel bulb
1 large beetroot
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley
A good sprinkling of sesame seeds

For the dressing

3-4 cloves garlic, roasted (The roasting mellows the flavour)
1 heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard
Juice of 1 lemon (maybe more)
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

- Peel the beetroot and kohlrabi and grate both into a bowl. Grate the apples into the bowl too (I didn’t peel)
- Peel any blemished outer leaves from the fennel, slice as thin as you can and add to the bowl
- To make the dressing, squeeze the roasted garlic from their skins and mix to a paste with some salt. Add the mustard and a good grind of black pepper and work into the garlic paste. Add the juice of one lemon and double the amount of extra virgin olive oil. You may need to adjust the quantities until you get a zingy dressing
- Pour over the salad then add some roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and a good sprinkling of sesame seeds.

I thought I would share one of my favourite salsa recipes with you. I make this salsa so often that I do not know where I first came across it but I know that I have adapted quantities and flavours to my own taste over the years. It goes with just about any grilled fish, but is outstandingly good with mackerel, particularly barbecued. I went down to the fishmonger yesterday evening to pick up 2 fat mackerels only to find it closed after the bank holiday weekend. What I do in the event that the fish monger is closed, is turn 180 degrees on my heels and cross to the other side of the road to the butcher, and vice versa if this is closed (if they are both closed I don’t know what I would do ok?). Last night I picked up 2 rib-eye steaks and we found the salsa and steak pairing to be a (at first thought unlikely) success! This salsa is also something that I make often when I am in one of my ‘healthy’ periods (as I am at the moment). It is so good for you that you can heap an enormous pile of it onto your plate with no trace of guilt whatsoever. I vaguely remember that the original recipe called for olive oil but I think it is completely unnecessary, and much fresher without it.

Avocado and Mango Salsa

2 Hass avocados, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
Handful coriander leaves, chopped
2 ripe mangoes, chopped
Salt and pepper

- Place the chopped avocado in a serving dish and squeeze over the lime juice
- Add all the other ingredients, season with (fine) salt and pepper and mix gently.
- Set aside for half an hour or so to let the flavours marry.

N.B: You can also make a nice variation using pineapple in place of the mango; be warned though,

Helen: ‘Don’t you remember I made a nice variation on this with pineapple?’
Chris: Yeah, it didn’t really work though did it because you didn’t cut the pineapple small enough – too chunky’
Helen: ‘Oh yeah’