Farinata

Also known as socca, farinata is a simple Italian flatbread type of pancake made of chickpea flour. I've made it before with Ottolenghi's recipe, but wanted to try Ruby Tandoh's recipe with rosemary and garlic, which actually tasted better if you ask me. It's quick and easy to make, and nice with a salad or something on the side.

Makes 8-10 large pancakes

8 tbsp olive oil, plus more for greasing
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 sprigs rosemary
300g chickpea flour (gram flour)
1 tsp salt
Black pepper, to taste
500ml water

1. In a small saucepan over a medium-low heat, cook the olive oil, garlic and the leaves from two rosemary sprigs until the garlic is sizzling. Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool. If it sits around for a while, even better – the flavour from the rosemary and garlic will have longer to infuse.

2. Combine the chickpea flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Strain in the infused oil through a sieve (discarding the rosemary leaves and garlic), and add a little of the water. Stir to combine, then add the remaining water gradually until the mixture slackens to the consistency of a thick batter.

3. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan until hot. Spoon in enough of the batter to coat the bottom of the pan. While the upper surface of the bread is still wet, sprinkle on a few rosemary leaves from the remaining sprig. Once the upper surface has set (this won't take more than a minute or two) flip the pancake and cook for a further couple of minutes, or until golden brown in patches.

4. Repeat until all the remaining batter has been used, making sure that the pan is well‑oiled each time.

Plenty: Socca

This is Socca, a sort of savoury pancake made of chickpea flour, topped with slowly fried onions and gently roasted tomatoes. I've made this three times now, each time as a starter for dinner with friends and family. Each time I've been in a rush to prepare the next course that I haven't been able to snap a photo. It's easy and a real treat. The pancakes have a light savoury flavour, topped with onions and cherry tomatoes sweetened by slow cooking. There are always a couple left over, which I finish off for brunch the next day.

 

Moroccan vegetable couscous

I love this meal for many reasons, not just for its wonderful flavours, but because it reminds me of my childhood. I usually make this with carrots, onions, leek, zucchini or pumpkin, chickpeas, red pepper and raisins. It's a feast of vegetable goodness cooked in with diced tomatoes and spices like cumin, coriander and tumeric.

Plenty: The ultimate winter couscous

Ultimate suggests maximality, fundamentality, extremity, the utmost of a given something. So to claim something is the ultimate this or that is no light assertion. Ottolenghi delivers again, though. This is the ultimate winter couscous if there ever was one. Carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, chickpeas, dried apricots and shallots are roasted in the oven with lots of heavenly spices (including cinnamon sticks and star anise) and olive oil. Harissa and preserved lemon peel are added later. The couscous is perhaps the most precious yet, laced with saffron. The richness of flavours is astounding. I'll be making this again on a cold night this winter. Thanks goes out again to my darling neighbours, for the pumpkin.

Hummus

I had an earlier post on hummus with ful, but I've been making hummus so often since without the ful to stuff into my lunch sandwiches that I thought hummus deserved the honour of it's own entry too. So here it is. So easy to make, so cheap, so delicious and healthy. That's paprika sprinkled over the top as a garnish. Gonna go have some now...

Plenty project: Hummus with ful

Tonight I made another Plenty recipe by Ottolenghi: Hummus with ful. I'd heard that making hummus isn't really difficult, but I had never heard of ful. Still, I braved my uncertainties to prepare this meal, wonderfully simple yet overwhelming in its strong flavours. I soaked the chickpeas overnight, and after boiling them for a couple of hours this afternoon, added tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt, plus some of the boiling liquid and voilà, hummus is born. A lot of it. So much that my brother said that we could just make a cake out of it all. Or fill a hundred pitta breads. Next, the ful, which was even easier: broad beans, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, garlic. There was no photo in Plenty, but in the Guardian blog photo, the ful is just as much a paste as the hummus, though in the instructions Ottolenghi doesn't say anything about putting that through the food processor. With some googleing I got the impression that one does indeed serve the beans as beans, disintegrated a little from cooking, so that's what I did. I also left out the onion to serve as well as the egg.

Below you can see my plate, with the hummus spread at the bottom, topped with the ful, some extra olive oil and lemon juice, then garnished with ground paprika and parsley. I also served it with toasted pitta bread. Heavenly! The lemon juice and garlic come through especially strongly thanks to the ful. One plate was enough, it was so filling.

As I keep repeating, it's a simple meal, as well as very nutritious; fibre, zinc and protein from the chick peas, iron, magnesium, manganese, copper, and calcium from the tahini (sesame seeds), broad beans help prevent diseases like Parkinson's and control high blood pressure, plus loads of Vitamin C and calcium from lemon juice, and all the familiar benefits of garlic.