The other day I posted a recipe for super easy oven baked falafels, and what goes hand in hand with falafels? Houmous of course! Now if you've made your own falafels you really should pair it with home made houmous, don't you agree?
Since transferring to a vegan lifestyle houmous has become my new 'cheese', not a week goes by without me devouring some houmous. This recipe makes your basic, standard houmous, but its far from boring! But if you want to jazz it up just add extra ingredients. If you want a little spice in your houmous just add some pri piri sauce, or you could add roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomatoes or caramelised onions. Whatever takes your fancy.
Ingredients - Serves 3-4
1 Small tin of chickpeas, drained weight 230g
1 Clove of garlic, diced
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
½ Tbsp Olive oil
½ Tsp Ground cumin
Salt & Pepper
3 Tbsp water
Method
Wash the chick peas well and pat dry. I always remove their skins to make a smoother houmous but if you don't mind a little bit of texture or if you have a super duper food processor you can skip this part.
Add the chickpeas to the food processor followed by the remaining ingredients bar the water.
Process adding a little water at a time until you have reached your desired consistency.
Enjoy dolloped on crusty bread, or with carrot sticks or paired with your home made falafels in a pitta bread with salad.
The months of summer are what we've all been waiting for after a dark and bitterly cold winter, spring has given us hope of warmer weather and finally the sun has come out! We need to celebrate, after all, the sun may not stay out for too long, it seems rather shy at the moment.
To me summer means salads, picnics, long walks over the fields and through the woods, strawberries and other fresh fruits and the lighter nights allow us to go wild and enjoy the fresh air for just that little longer. I mean who likes going to bed when its still light outside - not me! Summer is inviting family and friends around and enjoying each others company, eating great food and drinking sparkling drinks. Get out the bunting and start enjoying those summer garden parties.
I don't know about you but a picnic or garden party is just not the same without falafels. I know shop bought falafels are easy to purchase and some of them are pretty darn tasty but you really cant beat making your own can you? If you've got a food processor then you have no excuse, these can be made in a matter of minutes. The recipe is super easy, just throw your ingredients into a food processor, roll the mixture into balls and pop in the oven.
Ingredients - makes 10 falafels
1 Tin of chickpeas, drained, washed
and picked over and patted dry
½ Onion, chopped
3 Cloves of garlic
2 Tsp Ground cumin
1 Tsp Ground corriander
¼ Tsp Chilli powder
Salt & Pepper
1 Tbsp Parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Method
Place the first seven ingredients into a food processor and process until the mixture is coarse and it starts to stick together.
Turn the mixture into a bowl and add the chopped parsley. Stir to combine fully.
Add the tablespoon of olive oil and mix again.
Take a small amount of the mixture about a tablespoon and roll into balls in your hands. The mixture should easily come together.
Place each ball onto an oven proof tray and cook in a moderate oven for ten minutes. Turn each ball over and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
Enjoy on their own, with a salad or pop into a pitta.
I was ravenous when I got home tonight and I needed something fast, easy and most importantly tasty! On opening up the fridge I had some Redwood Cheezly that I'd used sometime back and needed using up and in my crisper box was an odd courgette, a red pepper, a couple of mushrooms. I also had 2 pitta breads that needed using up. The others had been filled with houmous, falafel and salad for lunches. And so pitta bread pizza was born purely out of hunger!
Ingredients
2 Pitta Breads
Tomato passata
½ Courgette
½ Red Pepper
½ Onion
3 Mushrooms
2 tsp Mixed herbs
Method
Coat one side of each pitta with the tomato passata. Finely slice the onion, courgette, red pepper and mushrooms and layer them on to the tomato passata in that order. Grate the vegan cheese of your choice over the vegetables and sprinkle with the mixed herbs. Bake in an oven until the 'cheese' has 'melted'. Careful not to bake for too long as the pitta breads have a tendency of going hard and therefore difficult to cut saw through!
1 Small tin of chickpeas, drained weight 230g 
