This salad was inspired by the Rusk Salad from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty More. His beautiful cookbook was given to me by a new friend, making this salad even more special. As I am lucky enough to live in London, I will definitely be making a stop at one of his restaurants in the near future. When I was younger my mum used to make this Greek inspired roast chicken, and she always paired it with a tomato, red onion salad. This salad is the love child of that simple salad my mum used to make and Ottolenghi's herby version. The pitas are my own addition, which I think work really well this combination of flavours. It is a really easy salad, but it looks vibrant and elegant. It makes the perfect light lunch or side to a heavier main. I hope you give my version a try!
Serves 2 or 3-4 as a starter
Ingredients
- 2 small pita breads
- 200g of small, sweet tomatoes (e.g. cherry tomatoes), halved
- 100g of feta
- a handful of fresh parsley, roughly chop.
- half a red onion, finely minced
- 1.5 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp of sumac
- salt and pepper to taste
Extra toppings: slices of olives, capers, toasted pine nuts
Preparation
- In a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, red onion, red wine vinegar, sumac and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Set aside.
- Cut the pita bread into bite-sized chunks.
- Heat a pan to medium-high, drizzle with a little bit of oil and toast until golden on both sides. Alternatively, toast in a toaster and then cut into pieces.
- Dress individual, or a large serving plate with the tomato, onion salad.
- Evenly scatter the feta in chunks. Do the same with the parsley.
- Just before serving, add the pita bread on top. Drizzle with some more olive oil and a dusting of sumac.
- Enjoy!
These falafel are the perfect combination of sweet and savoury. Plus, baking them makes them loads healthier than deep frying them. My dad is not a huge fan of falafel, but he said they were the best he had ever tried and even had seconds! So, I can definitely recommend these. I only had 3 and they were definitely filling. A perfect meal to make me feel less guilty about the peach pie I had for dessert! As a plus this meal is completely vegetarian and the falafel are 100% vegan and gluten free.
| Prep Time |
Cook Time |
Serves |
| 30-40 min |
26-30 min |
4-5 |
Baked Falafel Vegan
2 cans or 800g of canned chickpeas
1 small red onion or shallot
1 large handful of parsley
3-4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp of cornflour
1.75 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
20 dried apricots
1/3 tsp of cardamon
1/3 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/3 tsp of paprika
1/3 tsp of ginger
3 tbsp of olive oil
Tzatziki V
1.5 large cucumbers, deseeded
1-2 garlic cloves
570g or 2 cups of greek yoghurt
white pepper and salt, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 375F or 190C / 170C fan.
- Wash thoroughly and remove the skins of the chickpeas. You do not need to remove the skins but it makes the falafel much smoother.
- Add the chickpeas to a large bowl or food processor.
- Combine the chickpeas with all the spices (salt, pepper cumin, coriander, cardamon, cayenne, paprika, ginger) and cornflour.
- Finely chop the parsley, dried apricots and red onion and then also add these to the mixture. Combine.
- Finely add the olive oil and then whiz together in the food processor or using a hand processor.
- The final texture should be like damp sand, easily combined into a ball but not wet.
- Take anywhere between 1-2 tablespoons of falafel mix and roll into a ball.
- Place them on an oven proof pan or skillet. Using a fork press them down to about 2 cm thickness.
- Bake for 26-30 minutes, approximately 13 minutes per side or until lightly browned.
- Once the falafel is in the oven, you can prepare the tzatziki.
- Grate the deseeded cucumber on the medium/large hole-size.
- Then squeeze as much liquid as you can from the cucumber using your hands or a cheese cloth. Add to a medium sized bowl.
- Finely mince the garlic and add to the cucumber. Now combine with the yoghurt.
- Add salt and white pepper to taste.
- Serve the falafel with the tzatziki, pita and some vegetables of your choice.
- Enjoy :)
