Baked Eggs w Spinach & Labneh (Ottolenghi style)

In my (eternal) quest for guilt-free, yet delicious treats, I have come across this beautiful & absolutely mouth-watering comfort breakfast that will probably leave you drooling until you decide to make it yourselves. I recommend it warmly because it's healthy, low-fat, balanced, and it doesn't contain a drop of oil (unless you want to drizzle some on top at the end).

I am in a love/hate relationship with oil and that is because Romanian/Eastern European food tends to be so greasy, so I kind of go on the extremes sometimes. However, I love extra virgin olive oil that I use on a regular basis in cooking and as a skin moisturizer. 

Inspired by "Cilbir, which is Turkish poached eggs with yoghurt", Yotam Ottolenghi paired them with rocket and Greek yoghurt.  I transformed this beautiful recipe by using fresh spinach instead and my home-made labneh.

Baked Eggs with Steamed Spinach, Lebnah and Zataar

inspired by Baked eggs with yoghurt and chilli

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Type of cuisine: Fusion/Middle Eastern

Ingredients

(serves 1) *

1 egg

300 g fresh spinach

a pinch of salt

zataar

labneh

extra virgin olive oil (optional)

* if you are cooking for more, you can increase the quantities

Preparation

Preheat the oven at 150 degrees.

Labneh is drained yoghurt and it's similar to a very soft spreadable cheese. It is recommended that you let the yoghurt drain overnight. 

Wash thoroughly the spinach and steam it. You can also add half a glass of water and a pinch of salt in a large pan and let it simmer till the leaves soften.

Don't use frozen spinach. Though I have never tried it with frozen spinach, I trust the taste is different. Fresh spinach is better. 

Method

Drain and transfer the spinach to a small ovenproof dish and made a circle in the middle. Break the egg into the hallow and bake it for 20-ish minutes or so. Once you see that the egg is cooked, decorate the dish with three or four labneh balls and finish by sprinkling some salt and zataar all over.

This is probably one of the easiest and healthiest dishes that I can think of and it's perfect for a laid-back breakfast or weekend brunch. 

Stuffed Aubergines with Yoghurt Tahini Sauce & Zataar

In June I hosted a small party and one of the things I cooked as a starter was this delicious Middle Eastern/Fusion dish. Busy as I was, I never got the chance to post it here on Lemon Love Notes and in the meantime, on a whim, I blogged about Fancy Moutabal :) 

You may wonder, why on a whim? - because it was quite late in the evening when I got the eggplants out of the oven and I wasn't in the mood to foodstyle. But like most beautiful things in life are also very simple, so I grabbed the camera, took some shots and then took a taste. Impressed by it, yes, my decision was made. It was blog-worthy. :)

So I am not going to do the usual and write the list of ingredients & the method of cooking. Just click on Fancy Moutabal as this is a variation on that dish. 

Thank you very much for 'liking" my "Stuffed Aubergines" photo album on Facebook; you have inspired me to post this appetizer here.  

Love, xx Yolanda

Aubergine with Buttermilk Sauce (aka Fancy Moutabal) :)

Somebody was writing on Facebook today "15 days left of summer" :( and that gave me a shudder. Where did summer go? It's undeniably my favourite season. The markets are busting at the seams with fresh, local produce and fresh is always better than canned, frozen, or marinated, as we do with food in winter. :(
Yesterday I went to the market and, to my amazement, I bought some beautiful aubergines at 1 RON a kilo.  For all my readers who don't live in Romania, 1 euro is equivalent with approx 4 RON, so 0.25 euro cents for freshly-picked aubergines is a great bargain.

I love aubergines immensely. I used to love them in my childhood when my mother would make them "Romanian style" with mayonnaise and red onions, which was very nice, but could never compare with the magic of moutabal, or Yotam Ottolenghi's Aubergine with buttermilk sauce from Plenty.

Burned Aubergines with Yoghurt, Shredded Cucumbers & Zataar

(aka Fancy Moutabal- perfect for parties and intimate meals)

Adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi and inspired by Delicioasa

I must be honest and tell you that I wasn't even planning to blog about my dinner of last night - actually I was going to write about a Romanian dish and also post some stuff about a beautiful place in the heart of Transylvania. Hmmm... maybe next time...  so hang around for my next post :)

I have been making these beautiful-looking and delicious-tasting eggplants many, many times over the spring and summer, both for myself and Mike and for parties, and let me tell you something, they make a statement, worthy of their diva status. The great presentation and the fabulous taste will make an amazing impact on you & your loved ones. 

Type of cuisine: Middle Eastern/Fusion

Cooking time: 40 minutes for roasting + 5 minutes for presentation

I first discovered this great recipe on Delicioasa's delicious blog and I tried many times to get the recipe right, but because I wasn't cutting the aubergines before roasting them, I always ended up making moutabal! Also, while browsing, one day I discovered this very video recipe presented by Yotam Ottolenghi himself and that was the reason why I decided to order his two (absolutely mind-blowing) books on the spot.

Ingredients (for two people)

 2 aubergines (1 per person)

2 small cucumbers

zataar

salt

olive oil

pomegranate seeds

1 tbs of tahini paste 

yoghurt

lemon juice

a pinch of cumin seeds

salt

extra virgin olive oil

Method

(Wash the aubergines and pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C)

Halve the aubergines and place them on a tray upside down. Make sure you also use a baking sheet as it will prevent the aubergines from sticking to the tray. Roast for approx 40 minutes "at which point the flesh should be soft, flavoursome and nicely browned" (as instructed in Plenty).

In love

In the meantime, shred the cucumbers very finely and prepare the yoghurt sauce. Mix the yoghurt with a pinch of cumin seeds, salt & a little lemon juice and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over. Once you remove the aubergines from the oven and they cool down, place them on a plate and start decorating. Pierce the burned flesh with a fork & drizzle the tahini paste over the plant, season with a pinch of salt, zataar, and add the shredded cucumber. Finally drizzle the yoghurt sauce with generosity and top with pomegranate seeds.

So when you eat,  follow these instructions: use a small spoon and use the skin as if it were a longer bowl. Whisk the flesh with the yoghurt, the tahini paste, the cucumbers and the slightly sour pomegranates and you will have the most delicious fancy moutabal in the world :)
And don't forget the zataar, so easy to make and so heavenly delicious, the more you sprinkle, the tastier. Enjoy :)

Green Couscous with Hemp Seeds & Raw Garlic

I discovered Yotam Ottolenghi and his dashing, fresh, crisp and delicious recipes in the Life & Style section of The Guardinan, or to be more precise, in his "The New Vegetarian" column and that was love at first site & bite :)

I am not a vegetarian myself, but I eat a lot of veggies - I prefer them raw, grilled, or stir-fried, sometimes oven-baked, but hardly ever boiled "Eastern European style", if you know what I mean. I love simple, yet surprising combinations, light and healthy with a touch of wild, intense, and nutty flavours. So you can imagine why I became a feverish reader of both the column and the blog and I couldn't wait till I received Plenty and Ottolenghi The Cookbook by courier. So excited :) - my heart was racing flicking though the two cookbooks, being totally wowed & overwhelmed, and saying to myself: what an amazing idea, this is great fusion, this is a delicious dish, I'm drooling :))

Hope you'll be drooling now as well as I am about to share with you my take on Green Couscous from Plenty.

Green Couscous with Hemp Seeds & Green Garlic

Adapted from Plenty

Type of cuisine: Fusion/Vegetarian/Low Fat


Cooking time: less than 15 minutes

Ingredients

3/4 cup of medium-grain couscous

4 tbs of hemp seeds

1 small onion

3 spring onions

2 green garlic shoots

a small bunch of fresh mint leaves

a bunch of parsley

1/2 tsp of freshly ground cumin 

pistachios

a pinch of (Camargue) salt

extra virgin olive oil

hot water 

Preparation

Put the couscous, the hemp seeds and the ground cumin in a large bowl, sprinkle some salt and drizzle some olive oil over, then cover with boiling water and set aside. 

Fry the chopped onion until it turns slightly golden. 

Place the mint, parsley, spring onions, green garlic, and some olive oil in the food processor to make the herb paste. Keep some parsley and spring onions aside to chop up later for decoration.

Method

Add the green paste, the fried onion and some crushed pistachios to the fluffy couscous, mix, season with extra salt, if necessary, and decorate with the remaining greens. 

Couscous is not only a staple food throughout the Northern African continent and the Middle East, but it is also a staple and a fixture in my kitchen. It's so versatile and playful that I am constantly surprised to discover new combinations all the time: classic tagine with couscous, chickpeas and sweet roasted vegetables, couscous with butter, parsley and pomegranate seeds, sweet couscous with light agave syrup and caramelized figs, and the list can go on. Couscous is simple, healthy and so very gourmet that it has - in time - earned a diva status in my kitchen.

Here are some beautiful zoomed-in photos that I have taken for you from Plenty and The Cookbook that will probably pop out of the screen and make you ... so hungry :)