Usulü Piyaz: Turkish beans salad

Ingredients:

•1 Can White Kidney Beans

•1 Small Onion

•50 ml Olive Oil

•Lemon Juice of half a lemon

•1/2 tbsp Salt

•Half Bunch of Curly Parsley

•1 tsp Black Pepper

•1/2 tsp Paprika (Optional)

•1 Small Tomato

•1 Egg (Medium- Optional)

•Black Olives

•1 tsp Dry Mint

Steps:

1. Wash and drain the kidney beans.
2. Peel the onion and halve it lengthwise. Cut it in half moons.

3. Add onion onto the kidney beans, include dry mint, paprika, black pepper and salt to the mixture and mix them all. Cut tomatoes into small squares and add into the mixture.
4. Add parsley, lemon juice and olive oil and mix well
5. Adorn with olives and egg.

Havuclu Haydari: Carrots and yoghurt salad

Ingredients:

5-6 carrots
3-4 tbsp olive oil
3-4 clove garlic
¾ cup plain yogurt
Salt to taste
Parsley, a bunch

Steps:

1. Grate the carrots and sauté carrots in olive oil for about 10 minutes.
2. Combine yogurt and garlic, and mix this with fried carrots.
3. Decorate with parsley, drizzle of olive oil and some olives.

'Hmiss': roasted peppers and tomatoes salad حميس

Another very popular summer dish in north Africa (I can have it for lunch any day of the week). Also known as, ‘Chlita’, ‘Slata Mechouia’ (Roasted salad) or ‘Slata Tounssia’ (Tunisian salad), it is a common side dish with kebab shops in Algeria. If you omit adding the lemon juice, you can keep it for few day in the fridge and use it to make more interesting sandwiches.

I like to keep it plain but I know that Tunisians like to decorate it with tuna chunks, olives, boiled eggs and capers. They also use it in a kind of Brucheta dish called ‘Slata Blanquette’, where it is served on slices of stale French baguette previously dipped in a mixture of olive oil, vinegar and harissa paste.

Ingredients:
3 sweet peppers
2 beef tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Lemon juice

Steps:

1.      Clean the vegetables, wipe them

2.      put them in one layer on an oiled baking tray, brush them with olive oil

3.      Cook in a preheated oven for 30 minutes

4.      Keep turning until they soften and the skin starts to make dark blisters (see pictures)

5.      Put in plastic bag and leave to cool down, the steam will help with peeling them later on

6.      Peel off the skins, and get rid of all the seeds from the peppers. Cut the tomatoes in halves and squeeze them to remove the seeds as well

7.      Dice the tomatoes and peppers as small as you can, season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour more olive oil on top when serving

Other variations:

·         Add one aubergine and or 3 gloves of garlic

·         Add 1 hot chilly

·         Use as a dip by blending the mixture in a food processor

·         Use green peppers or a mixture of colours

Pancar Salatası: Beetroots and Dill salad

Salade niçoise: a taste of the south of France

I like this kind of rustic, bold, wholesome dishes. That will make a dietician quite happy. Plenty of fresh and colourful veggies, a bit carb (potatoes), a bit of protein (eggs, tuna, anchovies) and a refreshing vinaigrette to dress the whole thing.

I usually just mix all the ingredients but I am going for a posh presentation today and I hope you like the pictures.

A vegetarian version of this salad (omitting the tuna and anchovies and sometimes the green beans) is a very popular summer dish in Algeria best eaten outside by the sea side or on a picnic.

I am not going to be very accurate with quantities and I leave it to your personal taste.


Ingredients:

½ cucumber (thinly sliced)
1 to 2 medium tomatoes
1 to 2 potatoes boiled or steamed cut into chunks
½ romaine lettuce or 2 gems salad
2 boiled eggs cut into quarters
1 handful of steamed or boiled green beans
1 tin of tuna chunks
6 to 10 anchovies in oil
Salt
Black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
Optional: 1 tsp mustard

Steps:

1.     Make the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil, lemon juice and mustard. Mix thoroughly (I make it in a recycled small jar). Season with salt and some black pepper and keep aside.

2.      make a layer with the lettuce leaves (washed and dried from water using a clean kitchen towel)

3.     Layer the rest of the ingredients as seen on my pictures.

4.     Drizzle the vinaigrette all over, leave to absorb for few minutes and enjoy.

5.     You can also mix all the ingredients apart from the eggs, serve on a big platter and decorate with the eggs quarters

Sweet potatoes and feta cheese salad

The first time I made this salad was, it was the first course of a meal from Jamie Olivers ‘30 minutes meals’ book. I steamed the vegetables instead of using the microwave because I doubled the quantities and also because I Do not like the texture of microwave cooked potatoes. Since that day, this salad makes some wonderful light lunches or dinners for me and my husband. I am still waiting for my boys to adopt it!!!!

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato
2 medium potatoes
1 cup feta cheese (crumbled)
1 cup finely chopped coriander
(Optional) juice of ½ lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
(Optional) 1 small chopped mild green chilly


Steps:

1.      Wash and scrub the potatoes. Leave skin on and cut them into big chunks. Steam or boil until cooked

2.      Leave potatoes to cool down, then roughly chop into small pieces (use a chopping board and a big knife)

3.      Mix all the ingredients (preferably using both hands) season with salt and black pepper

4.      Serve cold or at room temperature. (you can save some feta cheese and coriander and a drizzle of olive oil to add on top of salad before serving)

Middle Eastern Salad سلطة عربية

Ingredients:
1 sweet pepper (3 big chunks from peppers of different colours: red, green, yellow for me)
1 tomato
½ cucumber
½ lettuce head (Romaine is best)
2 green onions (spring onions)
1 cup coriander
½ cup fresh mint
Juice of 1 to 1 ½ lemons
Olive oil (about 4 tbsp)
Salt
Black pepper


Steps:

1.      As shown in the picture finely chop or dice all the ingredients

2.      In a mixing bowl put all the chopped vegetables, add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mix all the ingredients (preferably using your hands)

3.      Check seasoning and fix it according to your personal taste and serve

Shakshouka شكشوكة

Shakshouka as known in North Africa is a summer dish made from sautéed onions and peppers in a rich tomato sauce. It is very common to add few eggs on the top. The eggs could be fried, poached or scrambled with the sauce. It is also common to have it quite spicy by the addition of chillies or the famous Harrissa paste.

Shakshouka is a popular fast food dish at bus stations in Tunisia and Morocco. But for me, it is synonymous of trips to the beach when my mum used to fill half baguettes with this moist filling and some potatoes wedges for a delicious and filling lunch. Just bring on the lemonade and the watermelon!!!… Yum

I don’t always add eggs to my Shakshouka if there is another source of protein on the table. You can see that the one on the picture is surrounded by fried potatoes. It is actually a healthier version where I start by boiling the potatoes chunks before frying them. I find that they absorb less oil and the result is tastier.

Ingredients:
3 sweets peppers (I like mixing the 3 colours: green, red, and yellow)
2 onions
1 tin of chopped tomatoes or 4 big fresh tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp black pepper
3 tbsp
1 tbsp salt
4 eggs
Steps:

1.      Chop the vegetables into fine strips

2.      heat olive oil in a heavy bottom pan and fry the vegetables over low heat for about 15 to 20 min (lid on)

3.      When vegetables have softened, add tomatoes, garlic, salt and spices

4.      Cook for another 15 min and checking that mixture is not sticking to the bottom of the pan (lid on)

5.      It is ready when the sauce has reduced and the taste is concentrated. Check seasoning, then it is your choice to enjoy it as it is or to crack the eggs and let it cook for another 5 to 10 minutes (mix the eggs in if you want the scrambeled)