It’s worth making a mention of what chillies have hidden in their colourful little packages. They are super-high in antioxidants and vitamins, and they boost the immune system and help spike up your metabolism. Chilli magic.
SERVES 2 AS A DINNER, OR 4 AS A SNACK
olive oil
1 sweet potato, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon maple syrup
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chipotle paste
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 × 400g tin of white beans, drained (I use haricots)
1 avocado
½ a lime
a few sprigs of fresh mint or coriander, leaves picked and chopped
4 corn tortillas (see note here)
Heat a touch of olive oil in a pan, add the sweet potato and the maple syrup and season with salt and pepper. Add the chipotle paste and the chopped chilli and cook for a few minutes, until the potato has softened and lost its rawness.
Transfer to a bowl and add the beans, then use a potato masher to mash the whole lot up a little – you will still have some flecks of unmashed sweet potato. Season if needed.
Mash the avocado with a little lime juice and stir in the herbs. I use the potato masher again here.
Now heat a frying pan big enough for your tortillas. Lay a tortilla flat in the pan, spoon a quarter of the mixture on to one half of it, then fold over the other half. Dry fry on one side until it’s blistered and golden brown, then flip over and do the same on the other side. Keep the quesadilla warm while you do this with the rest of the tortillas.
Serve straight from the pan with the mashed avocado.
As part of a bigger meal:
· Serve with a couple of handfuls of lemon-dressed salad leaves.
· Serve with a crunchy salad of radishes, leaves, shaved fennel and coriander, and a quick tomato salsa.
Oven-baked kale chips
Kale chips have found their way over the sea from our health-conscious friends in America. They are delicious. Moreish, salty, sweet, crisp and all-round good – a super-healthy alternative to a packet of crisps. The only downside is the price tag. My top count is £8.50 for a little pot, which would last half an hour in my house.
I’ve got some raw-cook friends who make them using their dehydrator, which slowly dries out and preserves food, but don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you to go out and buy a £300 piece of kit either.
The answer is a £1 bunch of kale and the trusty oven. By cooking the chips in the oven they don’t have quite the same ‘raw’ credentials as their dehydrated brothers, but I like compromise and this is a good one – oven-baked kale for deep-fried potato.
I couldn’t decide which flavour was best, so here’s both. The miso and sesame seed version has all the sweet savouriness of a killer sushi roll. The tarragon mustard chips are sweet and fragrant. Give both a go and then try your own – stick to the formula of salt/acid/sweet and you can’t go wrong.
These are a great way to get greens haters on to the good stuff. Disguised as little flavour pop crisps, these could persuade anyone to like kale.
MAKES ENOUGH FOR A FEW FRIENDS TO NIBBLE, OR A FEW DAYS’ SNACKING FOR 1
200g curly kale, washed and spun dry (I use a mix of white, green and purple)
FOR THE TARRAGON AND MUSTARD DRESSING
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey or agave syrup
½ a bunch of fresh tarragon, leaves picked and chopped
juice of 1 lemon
a good pinch of sea salt
FOR THE SESAME MISO DRESSING
1 teaspoon miso paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
Preheat your oven to 120°C/fan 100°C/gas ½ and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Tear the kale off its stalks into crisp-sized pieces (remember they will shrink a bit). Little stalks are fine, you just don’t want any of the big ones. Lay them well spaced out on the baking trays.
Make whichever dressing you choose, mixing the ingredients in a jug. Drizzle the dressings evenly over the trays of kale. Now get your hands in and toss and turn the kale in the dressing until everything feels coated.
Put your kale into the oven for 30 minutes. Then take both trays out and loosen the kale from the baking paper with a spatula. Pop the trays back in, turn the oven off, and leave them until they have crisped right up, which will take about another 30 minutes.
Lift the kale chips from the tray and store them in a jar or airtight container. They will keep for up to a week, but they will be gone long before that.
Smoky walnut and cumin muhammara
If there is someone in your life who thinks vegetarian food is bland, hand them a bowl of this and some charred flatbreads and give them 5 minutes. It’s a riot of flavours: musky sweetness from the peppers, earthy spice from the cumin and buttery depth from the walnuts. And it’s so versatile. I keep a jar of it in the fridge for spicing up pretty much any meal.
Pomegranate molasses is traditionally used here to add a sweet piquant roundness. Most larger supermarkets and Middle Eastern shops stock it, but if you can’t get your hands on it you can substitute a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of date syrup, dark honey or agave syrup.
MAKES A GOOD JARFUL, ENOUGH FOR A CROWD TO DIP INTO
75g shelled walnuts
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 × 200g jar of roasted red peppers, or 3 freshly roasted red peppers, peeled, deseeded and chopped
2 slices of good brown bread, whizzed to breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons good-quality tomato purée
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon Turkish chilli flakes (see here) or a pinch of normal chilli flakes
juice of ½ a lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Preheat your oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7.
Put the nuts and cumin seeds on to a baking tray and roast for 6 minutes, until the nuts are just starting to turn golden and the cumin smells wonderful and has released its oils. Tip into a food processor and add the red peppers. Blitz to a paste, then add the breadcrumbs, tomato purée, pomegranate molasses, chilli flakes, lemon juice and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Blitz again until