Carrot Yoghurt Dip

Ingredients

• 6 carrots, grated
• 1 kg yoghurt
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced

Method

1. Grate the carrots and saute in some oil until they are cooked. Don't overcook them.

2. Cool the cooked carrot.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the minced garlic and yoghurt, and salt and mix it together with the cooked carrot. You need to make sure the carrot is well cooled down before you mix it in with the yoghurt.

Easy Red Lentil Soup - Chunky Style (Kolay Kirmizi Mercimek Corbasi)

There are so many ways to make lentil soup.... I make this when I feel like having a chunky style soup. Enjoy with lots of lemon :)

Ingredients

• 1 cup red lentils, picked and washed
• 1 cup chicken stock (optional)
• 7 cups water
• 1 onion, diced
• 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste
• salt
• vegetable oil

Method:

1. Pick through the lentils to ensure there are no stones, and wash a few times in water until the water runs clear.

2. Then place the lentils in water and leave it to boil. As the lentils boil, you will notice foam build up at the top of the pan, keep scooping this foam off with a big spoon until the lentils boil. Once boiled, turn off the heat and let the lentils sink to the bottom of the pan. The reason for this is its easier to drain some of the water without losing the lentils. So drain some of the water off the top and refill with hot water and let the lentils boil.

3. In a separate pan, heat up some vegetable oil and fry up the onions, add some hot water to the tomato paste so its runny then add this into the onion mixture.

4. Add the onion mixture to the lentils and mix. Add your salt.

5. Blend the soup if you wish.

6. When serving squeeze some lemon juice and enjoy with crusty bread.

Hummus

I got this recipe from the Exclusively Food website. They suggest making this dip one day earlier so the flavours develop. I modified this recipe according to my taste buds - I like my hummus quite garlicky and lemony.

Ingredients

400g canned chickpeas, drained
salt to taste
3 medium cloves garlic, peel and mince
Juice of one lemon (you may need more depending on how juicy the lemon is)
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons tahini
2.5 tablespoons water

Method

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until well combined. Easy!! You will need to taste it and see if you need to add any more garlic or lemon juice depending on how you like it.

Peri-Peri Chilli Chicken Burgers

This burger is great for those days you just don't want to cook anything. You can either buy a pre-cooked roast chicken or buy yourself some chicken breasts and cook it up on the grill (George Foreman or something similar) or just pan fry. We used roast chicken for the above photo. These burgers were prepared by Foofer and his buddy Dilshan.

Ingredients

Pre-cooked Roast Chicken or chicken breast, grilled/pan fried.
Burger Buns
Tomatoes, sliced
Avocado, either mashed or sliced
Lettuce, sliced
Mayonnaise
Tomato Sauce
Peri-Peri Sauce Hot or Mild (This is a must!)

Method

1. If you are using chicken breast, slice it into thinner strips and cook whichever way you like.

2. Toast your buns

3. Butter buns, add tomato sauce, lettuce, tomato, chicken, avocado, tomato sauce and peri-peri sauce, top with mayonnaise and there you have it, your very own burger. Very easy and very yummy!

Cracked Wheat (Bulgur) Pilaf

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
2 green chilli peppers (omit if you don't like chilli or you can substitute with red capsicum), diced
4 ripe Tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup cracked wheat (bulgur), washed
2 tablespoons Canola Oil (Olive oil if you prefer)
2 cups hot water
1 cube chicken stock powder, or use chicken stock if on hand (optional)

Method

1. Sweat the onion and peppers in the oil, add the tomatoes and cook on low heat crushing the tomatoes as you cook it.

2. Pour in the hot water and boil up the tomatoes, then turn the flame to low heat and add in the bulgur, let it simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Finally mix in the chicken stock powder and season with salt. I don't like my bulgur pilav too dry so i turn off the heat when its a little juicy.

I usually serve this dish with some chicken. In this instance I marinated some chicken drumsticks and potatoes with paprika,olive oil, salt and pepper and cooked in an oven bag for 1.5 hours at 180c.

Bocconcini Salad

It doesn't get any easier than this! This was made by foofer. You could even have this for breakfast with some yummy crunchy toast.

Ingredients

1 large tomato, sliced
2 pieces of Bocconcini cheese, sliced
Olive oil
cracked black pepper
salt

Method

1. Layer up the tomato and cheese on a plate.

2. Drizzle some olive oil over the top, season with salt and pepper.