Makes two cups
No cooking required

1 400ml can of chickpeas
1 1/2 tbsp tahini – but we use peanut butter
3+ tbsp lemon juice – to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
2+ tbsp olive oil
up to 1/4 cup water

And for serving

Turkish flat bread or some long-life wraps.

Recipe

Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then combine the all the ingredients in a food processor, with a stick blender (we use a basic one like this – Kenwood Stick Blender, or you can manually mash them if you’re desperate!

Add extra lemon juice, water or olive oil to taste, and if it dries out just add a little more oil.

That’s it – easy, quick, and delicious.

Makes 1 large flatbread

1½ hours from start to finish (1 hour rising)

Ingredients

2 cups plain white flour – or strong bread flour

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

7-10g dried yeast

3-400ml lukewarm water

3-4 tsps of sesame & cumin seeds

Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Add the water, bit by bit, mixing the dough with a spoon – not too slowly or you end up with an impenetrable ball of dough that shrugs off any more water. Keep adding water until you have a very soft and almost sloppy dough.

Cover the bowl with a tea towel and put in a warm place to rise for an hour – our kitchen is usually warm enough. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 250°c and put a large baking tray in it to heat up.

When the dough has risen, remove the hot tray from the oven and sprinkle with a little flour. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and straight onto the tray (it’ll be too soft to handle) and gently press into shape.

Quickly spray or brush the loaf with a mixture of cold water and a dash of olive oil then sprinkle with the seeds.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 12 mins, then remove from the oven and brush/spray once more. Bake for a further 5 -8 mins, or until the bread is golden.

If you want a crusty loaf then cool it on a wire rack, but for the genuine Turkish Flatbread soft crust, wrap it in a teatowel.

We love eating it as toasted sandwiches, but it’s also great with our home-made hummus.

Turkish flatbread was one of our staple foods in Australia – so it was great when we found this recipe for it. It is so easy to make – no kneading required, and absolutely delicious. Now we’re starting to try out variations, with cheese, olives and other additions, and making rolls rather than just a single long loaf.

Serves 4 hungry people
25 minutes from start to table
Uses only one pan and cooks on the stovetop

Basic Recipe

1-2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tins of beans (whatever you have – kidney, cannelini – even baked beans!)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 small tin tomato puree
1-2 cups of stock/wine
100g chorizo (I have some that stores for 4 months)

½tsp dried mixed herbs (or 2 tsp fresh)

And for serving

french bread, or good think slices of our everyday wholemeal bread.

Variations

Exchange the chorizo for any other pork: bacon (smoked preferably), chunks of pork belly, sausages etc.
It’s very easy to hide veg in this recipe so the kids eat it without knowing! Try grating in a carrot or courgette – they’ll never spot it.

Heat the oil in a large pan (we use a non-stick wok). Add the onion, garlic, chorizo and cook gently for 5 minutes while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Then add the tomatoes, puree, beans, herbs and enough stock to make sure it’s not too thick.

Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the beans are just soft. Then serve with the bread on the side to clean the bowls!

Another recipe I seem to have had with me for ever – varies every time I make it, but we always have the ingredients it needs. Always delicious, and very filling after a day of digging.

Basic Recipe

3tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
300g risotto rice (Arborio)
600ml stock (chicken or vegetable)
150ml white wine (or red! or stock if none available)
300ml passata (or a tin of tomatoes, pureed)
½tsp dried oregano / mixed herbs (or 2 tsp fresh)

and for serving

2 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
50g black olives, sliced
50g parmesan, shredded

Additions
Mix and match – add one or more of these.
Reduce the quantities if you add more than one.

250g mushrooms, sliced
10g dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated
100g chorizo, diced
350g chicken, cubed

Heat the oil in a large pan with a lid (we use a non-stick wok with a lid). Add the onion, garlic and any extras you want, other than the porcini mushrooms. Fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes.

Add the rice, stock, wine, passata, herbs and porcini mushrooms and bring to the boil.

Cover, and cook gently for 25 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is just tender.

Remove from the heat, stir in the olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and serve sprinkled with the parmesan.

Can’t remember where the original version of this recipe came from – it’s been with us for years. It’s a delicious healthy, hearty staple which can be varied depending on what you have available.

It doesn’t store well though – if you’re re-heating any, you will need to add more liquid as the rice will have absorbed all that was available. Alternatively, make it into small rice cakes and fry them – delicious!

250g wholemeal  bread flour
250g white bread flour
5g salt
350g water – not freezing cold!
10g dried yeast

Pour the water into the loaf pan, sprinkle the white flour over the water, followed by the yeast, then the wholemeal flour and pour the salt into one corner.

Put the pan in the machine, and set to the rapid cycle – delicious bread ready in one hour from store-cupboard ingredients.

Variations

For a delicious seed loaf add 25g of seeds – 10g Sunflower / 10g Linseed / 5g Poppyseed works well.

The original version of this Real Bread recipe comes Chris Young of the Real Bread Campaign. My adaptation has made it work perfectly for us every time in our machine – you may need to tweak it for your own breadmaker. We’ve got a old version of this Kenwood Bread Maker and the rapid cycle on it is just fantastic – highly recommended.

We looked at the cost of this recipe in my previous Trafford Eco-House post - “How much does it cost to bake your own bread”: