Leblebi - Vegetarian/ Vegan, DF and GF

The soft boiled egg broken artistically on top is optional but good...this is a slow-ish cook in the oven and you can use tinned chickpeas to speed things up a bit. I soaked some then simmered them with bayleaves til mostly cooked, then carried on from there. There are spices and chilli, garlic and ginger, tomato and spinach as well as the base of potato, red onion and chickpeas. It's one of those "pile everything into a baking dish and walk away" recipes. I like those... This is traditionally a workers breakfast street food.

Eggplant and Chickpea stew - vegan, DF and GF

This is simple to make and plenty substantial enough for an evening meal - especially if you have some chunky bread to dip  into it... It has onion and eggplant, spices, chickpeas and chilli (optional), tomato and stock, all in together then simmered until the chickpeas and eggplant are tender. Add some chopped flatleaf parsley at this point, and either mash for a chunky texture or blitz til smooth (or keep some chunks aside and blitz the rest, then put the chunks back in...)

Potato pancakes with fresh corn pickle - vegetarian, DF and GF

The pancakes are very simple, crispy and delicious! The fresh corn pickle is also simple to make and will keep for up to a month in the fridge - if it lasts that long which it probably won't. Together they make a great combo!

Courgette and feta clafouti - Vegetarian and GF

(it took me a while to figure out that the weird optical illusion with the ridges in the table mat was due to the rim and handles of the glass baking dish ...)

This is a bit fancy but it is not complicated! First you roast strips of courgette, then you add strips of spring onion and roast them together for a bit, then you make the egg mix with feta, yoghurt, some hard cheese and polenta grits, and pour that over the roasted veg to bake some more - until puffy and golden. Done!

Chicken Shawarma - DF and GF

This will marinade happily until you're just about ready to eat... Lemon juice, garlic, a blend of allspice, cumin and turmeric and light cooking oil (eg. sunflower) mixed together and then you just bathe the chicken in this mix until your grill or grill pan is hot. From there it will take 10 minutes tops ... have flatbreads and salad at the ready!

Spice crusted lamb rump and smashed potatoes - DF and GF

This will take about three quarters of an hour for everything to come together. The lamb is rolled in a mix of crushed coriander and cumin then left to imbibe those flavours (while you get the potatoes sorted) then seared. The potatoes are partially cooked then leaned on to break them open. Splash them with oil and bake them til tender in the middle and crispy on the outside. Once the lamb is well coloured and seared it finishes off on top of the potatoes... When everything in the oven is nearly ready, make a quick saute with the corn, chilli, beans and capsicum. Done.