Tabbouleh

• 1 cup bulgur
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow or white onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup lemon juice (use fresh lemons, not bottled lemon juice)
• salt and pepper to taste
• tomatoes and lettuce (iceberg or butter work best) leaves to serve and garnish

Boil several cups of water and allow to cool slightly. Soften the bulgar by soaking it for one hour in the hot water. Drain the bulgar and press out the water using a sieve.

Mix the bulgar, onions, salt and pepper together, crushing the onion juice into the bulgar with your fingers. Add parsley, mint, olive oil and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Check seasoning and adjust if more is required. 

Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves, garnished with wedges of tomato.

Daal (lentil curry)

• 2 cups lentils (red, orange or yellow lentils will go mushy; green or brown hold their shape)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 9 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2" piece fresh root ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 green chile (e.g. jalapeno), quartered, with seeds
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin/coriander mix
• 3/4 tsp garam masala
• 5 - 6 sprigs cilantro including stems, chopped
• 2 - 3 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil

Begin by cooking the lentils in 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer uncovered for 20 - 30 minutes until tender. Add more water if necessary during cooking to keep the lentils covered. Stir in the 1/2 tsp salt right at the end, taste and add more if needs be.

While the lentils are cooking heat the ghee then add the mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to pop add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilies. Cook over medium-high heat until softened and taking on a little color. Add paprika, chili powder, cumin/coriander powder and fry together a minute or two. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, stir well and fry several minutes until most of the water in the tomatoes has boiled off. Keep warm until the lentils are ready.

Add lentils, lemon juice, cilantro and cook on low for at least half an hour. Taste and adjust salt if needed. Finally stir in garam masala and cook a few more minutes.

Spinach and Anaheim pepper curry

Anaheim or New Mexico chiles fused with Indian cooking.

Although not essential, you can plan ahead for this by leaving half a 32oz tub of full fat plain yoghurt to reach its "best before date" (or even up to a week beyond) -- this lends a little extra sour quality to it. If you don't do this, add the juice of a lemon to the yoghurt as a souring agent.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
• 4 - 6 Anaheim or New Mexico chile peppers chopped into ~1.5" pieces with seeds left in
• a half full 32 oz tub of full fat plain yoghurt (i.e. 16oz of yoghurt)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• gram flour as needed
• salt to taste (1 tsp is usually about right)
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 4 - 6 springs cilantro, including stems, chopped
• large bunch spinach
• 2 jalapeno or serrano chilies, roughly chopped (with or without seeds per your preference)
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp garam masala

Begin by topping up the yoghurt in its tub to about an inch from the top. Add salt, turmeric and gradually stir in gram flour until a thin batter is achieved.

Heat ghee and when hot add mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to pop add the Anaheim (or New Mexico) peppers along with the chiles. Saute until they soften up, 10 minutes or so.

Add chili powder, garam masala and cilantro. Stir well and cook a few minutes. Add spinach and continue cooking until it has wilted. Finally add the yoghurt / gram flour batter. Cook on low heat, stirring until everything thickens up.

Bhajjis

Labor intensive but insanely delicious.

• 2 medium sized potatoes, grated
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1/4 cabbage, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 5 tbsp cooked basmati rice
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger root, finely chopped
• 2 green chilies (e.g. jalapeno) finely chopped
• small handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups gram flour
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• water as needed
• vegetable oil for deep frying

Mix water into gram flour until you achieve a consistency like thin pancake batter then stir in the baking soda. Combine all the vegetables and spices with the batter in a large bowl.

Heat oil in pan until hot but not smoking. You can test for correctness of temperature but dropping in a little batter and seeing if it cooks to a nice golden brown easily.

Using a large spoon place 3 or 4 bite sized blobs of vegetable and batter into the oil and allow to cook until light brown, turning as necessary to achieve even coloring.

Chickpea curry

• 3 tbsp ghee or oil
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 1 green chili (e.g. jalapeno), halved or quartered with seeds left in
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 inch fresh ginger root, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp salt 
• 3 tins chickpeas
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp mixed cumin/coriander powder
• 2 cups water
• 6 sprigs cilantro (fresh coriander) chopped roughly including stems

Heat ghee and when hot add mustard and cumin seeds -- these should sizzle and soon the mustard seeds will start to pop. The popping is your cue to add the onion. Saute for a few minutes then add ginger and garlic and cook a few more minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, chili powder, salt, garam masala, turmeric, cumin/coriander and finally the chickpeas. Add water and cilantro.

Bring to boil then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes. Use an old school potato masher to mash up some (but not all) of the chickpeas. Stir and repeat until you have a good mix of thick sauce and intact chickpeas.

Saag (spinach) curry

The basic saag sauce can have chicken, potato, chickpeas, paneer etc. added as liked.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ghee (or vegetable oil)
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh root ginger, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 lb fresh spinach, stems removed and leaves chopped
• 1 cup water
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 cup full fat plain yoghurt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Saute onions in ghee until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and spices and saute another 3 minutes or so. Add the spinach, water and salt and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer and cook covered for 10 - 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and after cooling a while puree in blender. Return the puree to the pot and add the yoghurt and cream. 

At this point if you want to add chicken do so and cook until done -- perhaps 20 minutes. If keeping it vegetarian add the chickpeas/paneer/potato or whatever and cook just 5 - 10 minutes. Chickpeas or potatoes should be cooked before adding.

Potato gratin

• 2-3lbs potatoes peeled and sliced ~1/8th inch thick using a mandolin
• 6oz good quality Gruyère cheese
• ~1-1.5 cups creme fraiche
• 1 clove garlic
• salt and black pepper
• butter for greasing baking dish

You need a good size rectangular baking dish...I've lost track of exactly what size we use but it's probably something like 8"x10" and it's important it have some depth to it too.

Take the garlic clove and cut in half, then using the cut sides rub all over the inside of the baking dish then follow up by greasing it with some butter.

Briefly blanch the potatoes in boiling water and then arrange in rows as many potato slices as reasonably fit on the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping each row slightly. Season generously with salt and black pepper then distribute half the gruyère and half the creme fraiche over the potatoes. Put down the remaining potatoes then season and cover with remaining cheese and creme fraiche.

Bake for 30 minutes, uncovered in an oven preheated to 400F. Reduce temperature to 350F and bake a further 45 minutes. You may need to cover with foil at some point if the gratin has got sufficiently browned on top.

Allow to stand 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Spanokopita

• 2lbs frozen spinach
• 1lb file (aka phyllo) dough
• 1/2lb feta cheese
• 7 eggs
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 4oz butter, melted

Dice and saute onion in olive oil until golden brown. Minimally cook the spinach -- directions are probably on packaging but generally can be done by adding a few tablespoons of water to the frozen spinach and microwaving on high for a few minutes. This is really more about defrosting than cooking it so be careful not to nuke it too much. You'll probably have to do 1lb of spinach at a time to make this manageable. The spinach will likely end up quite wet and to avoid a soggy spanokopita you will want to drain it. The best way seems to be to dump it into some kind of sieve and squeeze out excess liquid with a spoon.

In a large bowl beat the eggs. Crumble and add the feta cheese, the onions, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir well. Finally add the spinach and stir well to get everything well distributed.

Butter a 9"x13" baking dish. Lay down the sheets of filo dough one or two at a time, brushing each layer with butter. The dough sheets will be much larger than the dish so you will need to encourage them to fit its shape and leave the remainder hanging over. Butter can help with this :) It's best to turn each layer a few degrees one way or the other rather than stacking them all exactly on top of each other. Keep adding layers until you have only about 6 sheets left. At this point pour the filling into the dish and spread evenly. Now fold the filo dough that is overhanging the edges of the dish back over to cover the filling. Brush with more butter then finish of the top but adding the remaining 6 sheets one at a time with more butter in between each.

The last 6 sheets will need trimming before you can transfer the dish to an oven that has been preheated to 375F. Bake for ~50 minutes.

Gazpacho soup

I really like this soup, the flavors are amazing. Truly one of those things where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Also, the fact that everything in it is raw (besides the bread) still strikes me as some kind of magic.

• About 2lbs very ripe tomatoes
• 1 large English-style cucumber, peeled and diced
• Half a baguette - a little stale is considered better
• 1 green bell pepper, de-seeded and and chopped reasonably small
• 1 cup (a little under half a UK pint) extra virgin olive oil
• 6 scallions (spring onions) roughly chopped
• 1 - 4 gloves garlic (how much do you like garlic?), roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper to taste (probably 1/2 - 1 tsp salt is what you want)
• 1 pint or less water

Tear the bread into small pieces and leave to soak in 1 cup of water. Immerse the tomatoes in just-boiled water briefly and then "encourage" the skins to split after a few seconds with a sharp knife. Pull them out of the water and remove skins. Chop tomatoes, removing seeds first.

Place chopped tomatoes into a large bowl along with the pepper, cucumber, scallions, garlic, bread and olive oil; stir to combine. Add the white wine vinegar, paprika, salt and pepper. Lastly add remaining water (1 cup). Stir again to fully combine.

Now transfer the contents of the bowl to a blender - you may need to do this in two or three batches due to the volume. Puree the mixture.

Obviously you can use more or less water depending on the consistency you prefer.

Once blended the soup should be chilled in the fridge for at least an hour. This also allows the flavors to really develop too.

To serve you can add a garnish of avocado cubes, diced red peppers, sprinkle of paprika etc.

Vegan stuffed tomatoes

This recipe does not involve stuffing vegans into tomatoes. Rather, this is a recipe my wife and I discovered when toying with veganism (which was ultimately a failure - although we did pick up some good additional food.) Anyway, it was nice enough that it's been kept around and we still make it from time to time. The original recipe has you bake it in the oven, which is good...but to take it to a whole new level I highly recommend doing this over charcoal with some hickory wood chips for extra flavor. If you take the BBQ approach you don't want terribly hot coals, so either cook something else first or don't place the tomatoes over direct heat.

• 1/2 cup of orzo pasta (the small stuff that looks like rice)
• 4 large ripe tomatoes (such as beefsteak)
• 1/3 cup of pine nuts, briefly toasted in hot skillet
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped basil leaves

Cook the orzo according to instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water till chilled so it will keep without sticking together.

Whilst the orzo is cooking, slice the top off each of the tomatoes and then scoop out the insides using a spoon. Chop the tomato pulp and place it in a mixing bowl. Add the pine nuts, orzo, garlic, parsley and basil. Season with some salt and black pepper then mix well.

Stuff each of the tomatoes with the mixture, top with previously removed slice and drizzle with some olive oil.

If cooking in an oven, have it preheated to 375 degrees F, place on a foil covered baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. If cooking on the BBQ, use your skill and judgment... :-)

Once cooked, serve with a generous amount of yellow pepper coulis which can be made as follows: fry one chopped onion and 3 chopped yellow bell peppers in a little olive oil. After 5 minutes add half a cup of water and some salt and pepper. Simmer until very soft, perhaps 15 - 20 minutes. Add more water if necessary. It's better to err on the side of caution and cook for longer than undercook and end up with lumpy coulis. When done puree in a blender.