Green Beans with Tomatoes and Dill

Here's one of my favorite ways to fix green beans. This recipe is especially good with the broad, flat type of green bean.

This is a delicious "olive oil" dish. As part of a meze spread, it is served at room temperature, but in a Turkish home, it may be served hot as a side dish to accompany grilled, broiled or barbecued poultry and meat, or as a main course with a dollop of creamy yogurt. When runner beans are in season, it is a favourite family meal, served with yogurt and lots of warm, fresh crusty bread to mop up the sauce. The taste of fresh dill is an essential part of the dish. These olive oil dishes, which have survived from the Ottoman Empire, include leeks cooked in olive oil, celeriac, green beans, artichokes, and borlotti beans.

Ingredients:

1-2 onions, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
30-45 ml / 2-3 tbsp olive oil
500 g / 1 1/4 lb stringless runner (green) beans, trimmed and each cut into 3-4 pieces
15 ml / 1 tbsp honey or a sprinkle of stevia
2 x 400 g / 14 oz cans chopped tomatoes
a handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped
sea salt and ground pepper


Directions:

1) Put the onions, garlic and oil in a wide heavy pan and stir over a low heat until they soften. Toss in the beans, coating them in the onions and oil, then stir in the sugar and lemon juice.

2) Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and add the dill. Cook gently for 35-40 minutes, or until the beans are tender and the tomato sauce is fairly thick.

3) Season with sea salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Serves 4 (as a main dish)

From Turkish Cooking: Classic traditions, Fresh ingredients, Authentic flavours, Aromatic recipes by Ghillie Basan.

Grated Beetroot and Yogurt Salad

I've devloped a real love-affair with beets since discovering Sally Fallon's Beet Kvass recipe and learning how nutritious and delicious beets can be. Here's a great recipe for an unusual salad using two fabulously healthy foods: beets and yogurt. Recipe is from Turkish Cooking: Classic traditions, Fresh ingredients, Authentic flavours, Aromatic recipes by Ghillie Başan.

With its beneficial nutritional properties, yogurt is used frequently in meze dishes. It makes a tasty dip combined with mashed or grated ingredients, and mixed with a little vinegar or lemon juice it is good as a sauce over grilled or fried vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 4 raw beetroot (beets), washed and trimmed
  
• 500 g / 1 ¼ lb / 2 ¼ cups thick and creamy natural (plain) yogurt
  
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  
• sea salt and ground black pepper
  
• a few fresh mint leaves, shredded, to garnish

Serves 4

Directions:

1) Boil the beetroot in plenty of water for 35 - 40 minutes until tender, but not mushy or soft. Drain and refresh under cold running water, then peel off the skins and grate the beetroot on to a plate. Squeeze it lightly with your fingers to drain off excess water.

2) In a bowl, beat the yogurt with the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Add the beetroot, reserving a little to garnish the top, and mix well. Garnish with mint leaves.

Notes:
Warm Beetroot Salad: In some households, the beetroot is diced and stir-fried with coriander seeds, sugar and a splash of apple vinegar. Then it is served warm with the cooling garlic-flavoured yogurt and garnished with dill.

A Carrot Version: Cut four carrots into chunks and steam for about 15 minutes, until they are tender but still with some bite, then grate and mix with the yogurt and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with mint or dill.

Per Portion: Energy 95 kcal / 403 kj; Protein 7.8 g; Carbohydrate 14/4 g, of which sugars 13 g; Fat 1.4 g, of which saturates 0.6 g; Cholesterol 2 mg; Calcium 249 mg; Fibre 1/3 g; Sodium 137 mg

Leek Soup with Feta, Dill and Paprika

As the weather is starting to get nippy, I'm thinking of warm, homemade soup. Here's a great recipe from Turkish Cooking: Classic traditions, Fresh ingredients, Authentic flavours, Aromatic recipes by Ghillie Basan that I think is absolute delicious.

Creamy leek soup is a popular home-cooked dish in Turkey. Flavoured with dill and topped with crumbled white cheese, this one is warming and satisfying. The saltiness of feta is good in this soup, but you could just as well us Roquefort or Parmesan, both of which are equally salty, and you could substitute croutons for the cheese. Serve with chunks of fresh, crusty bread.

30 ml/2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
3 leeks, trimmed, roughly chopped and washed
1 onion, chopped
5 ml/1 tsp honey or Rapadura
1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped, with a few fronds reserved for the garnish
300 ml/1/2 pint/1 1/4 cups milk
15 ml/1 tbsp butter
115 g/4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
salt and ground black pepper
paprika, to garnish

serves 3-4

1) Heat the oil in a heavy pan and stir in the chopped leeks and onion. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

2) Add the sugar and chopped dill, and pour in 600 ml/1 pint/2 1/2 cups water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

3) Leave the liquid to cool a little, then process in a blender until smooth.

4) Return the pureed soup to the pan, pour in the milk and stir over a gentle heat until it is hot (don't let it come to the boil).

5) Season with salt and pepper, bearing in mind that the feta is salty. IF using the butter, drop it onto the surface of the soup and let it melt.

6) Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the crumbled feta. Serve immediately, garnished with a little paprika and the dill fronds.

Sultan's Chickpea Pilaff

Rice is eaten frequently in Turkey. But it's rarely served as just plain rice; it's almost always combined and cooked with other ingredients, such as meats, organ meats, vegetables, and other legumes or pulses. Here's a common and wonderful pilaf from Turkish Cooking: Classic traditions, Fresh ingredients, Authentic flavours, Aromatic recipes by Ghillie Basan that combines rice and chickpeas.

There is a story that Mahmut Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Mehmet the Conqueror, used to invite his ministers to lunch every Friday, when he would serve a special mound of rice and chickpea pilaff at the end of the meal. As each minister dipped into the rice with his spoon, solid gold balls the same size as the chickpeas would be revealed, bringing good fortune to those who managed to get one on their spoon. A classic buttery pilaff, fit for a sultan, this dish is a perfect accompaniment to almost any meat or fish dish.

Ingredients:

• 50 g / 2 0z / 1/3 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight
  
• 30 ml / 2 tbsp butter
  
• 15 ml / 1 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 225 g / 8 oz / generous 1 cup long grain brown rice, well rinsed and drained (and preferably soaked overnight in water and whey)
  
• 600 ml / 1 pint / 2 1/2 cups water or chicken stock
  
• sea salt and ground black pepper

Serves 4

Directions:

1) Drain the chickpeas, tip them into a pan and fill the pan with plenty of cold water. Bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute, then lower the heat and partially cover the pan. Simmer the chickpeas for about 45 minutes, or until tender. Drain, rinse well under cold running water and remove any loose skins.

2)Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy pan, stir in the onion and cook until it softens. Add the rice and chickpeas and cover with the water of stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, partially cover the pan and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until almost all of the water has been absorbed.

3) Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a dish towel and put the lid tightly on top. Leave the rice to steam for 10 minutes, then fluff up with a fork before serving.

Per Portion:
Energy 328 kcal / 1368 kJ; Protein 7.1 g; Carbohydrate 52.3 g, of which sugars 1.2 g; Fat 9.9 g, of which saturates 4.4 g; Cholesterol 16 mg; Calcium 36 mg; Fibre 1.6 g; Sodium 51 mg