Summertime Veggies with Yogurt and Mint

26 June 2025

Summer is in full flow so it’s time for some lighter dishes that bring to the fore fresh seasonal ingredients at their best. I found this on-trend recipe that uses fresh peas, broad beans and runner beans while going through some old stuff in the UK recently.

I was at my late parents’ old place and during the archaeological dig I found a copy of the first vegetarian cookbook that I owned – Elaine Bastable’s Vegetarian Feast, a Christmas present from way back in 1985. It was sold by Marks & Spencer under its StMichael guise.

Vegetarian Feast was quite advanced for its time with a recipe for Avocado (and Stilton) on Toast, a Felafel recipe and other dishes that were very exotic for Margaret Thatcher’s meat-heavy Britain of the 80s. The cookbook’s over-reliance on butter comes across in the 2025 filter as a bit dated, but it still stands the test of time in many respects.

1985 was the year I finally took the plunge and went vegetarian. It had been coming for a while. As an impoverished student the meat that I could afford was of the type that had featured in documentaries of the time looking at the meat industry.

Affordable processed products such as burgers and sausages were shown to contain all parts of an animal – mashed up eyelids, lips, bollocks and toes, to be precise.

Although there are now many more vegans and vegetarians, not much has changed in the meat industry – as I write the Guardian is carrying this article on the shocking rise of factory farms across Europe and the UK.

In the summer of 1985 I had just finished uni and I was travelling through Yugoslavia, as was, to Greece via Bulgaria and Turkey. Bulgaria was a veggie turning point. Cafe menus featured a wide selection but when asking for a particular dish a frosty niama (approx: We don’t have it) was the usual response. Baked meat (of dodgy provenance) was the only option other than abundant salads. Who needed meat, especially baked meat of unknown origin, with all those veggies on offer?

Moving on into Greece, after the vegetarian heaven of Turkey’s ev yemekleri cafes, I finally started eating tomatoes, which I’d hated with a vengeance since my childhood. The tomato breakthrough opened up many new veggie avenues. From that point on I stopped eating meat and haven’t looked back since.

So, turning back to Vegetarian Feast, I found the recipe for this side dish of summer vegetables and Datça market came up trumps with fresh peas, broad beans and runner beans. Check out the recipe in the picture above.

The HummusVariations: Beetroot and Walnut Hummus

02 November 2023

Hummus is one of those dips that we come back to time after time here on KCC. Beyond the classic basic dip of chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, the possibilities are endless. Our latest version is inspired by a recent trip to Myrtos, Crete where we tasted a beetroot-driven hummus at the excellent O Platanos restaurant.

In the past, we’ve made a turmeric-infused hummus and one from red beans, now here’s our latest variation. Beetroot is one of our favourite root vegetables, and it’s really good for you to boot. Taking some tips from Georgia, where a similar dip called pkhali is a regular feature on the dinner table, we’ve added some walnuts to give this hummus an extra protein boost.

Ingredients

125 g baked beetroot – grated
125 g crushed chickpeas
50 g tahini – mixed with up to 50 ml of hot water
25 g toasted walnuts
One garlic clove
100 ml aquafaba (chickpea water)
a few dashes of olive oil
Two teaspoons of sumac
pinches of ground cumin and coriander

Method

Grate the beetroot and then put in a large bowl and crush with a fork (you can also put it in the blender, if you have one). Add the mashed up chickpeas and stir well. Combine the tahini with hot water until you have a creamy paste and then add to the mix.
Add the crushed, toasted walnuts, finely chopped garlic and sumac (this replaces lemon juice to give the hummus a citrusy kick without the acid) and stir together. Add some aquafaba and some splashes of olive oil and blend until the dip achieves your favoured consistency. Season with cumin and coriander and serve with warm pita bread.

Hasty Tasty Avocado Tzatziki

12 October 2023

Over the next few weeks on KCC, we’ll be looking at some dishes inspired by a recent visit to Crete, Greece’s largest island.

Avocado Tzatziki – with love from Crete!

Crete has dishes not commonly found in other parts of Greece, including hortapitakia, small pies filled with leafy greens and fresh herbs picked from the slopes of the island’s plentiful mountains and a tzatziki made with avocado – check the recipe for this dish below.

KCC spent some time this summer in Myrtos on the south-east coast of Crete. A favourite taverna was O Platanos, which had some imaginative takes on some Greek classics, such as avocado tzatzikl, beetroot hummus, fried manouri cheese with honey and sesame seeds and a moussaka made with sweet potato.

Avocado Tzatziki à la Platanos, Myrtos, Crete

Ingredients (makes four servings)

200 ml Greek yogurt
75 g avocado
75 g cucumber
One garlic clove
Add fresh basil, oregano or dill (to your taste)

Simply smash the avocado, grate the cucumber and mix with the yogurt and then add crushed garlic if using and the herbs of your choice. Hey presto, your tzatziki is ready! Serve with warm pita bread.

Green Bean Amandine

22 September 2022

This time round on KCC, we’ve brought a recipe back from our heartland of the Datça peninsula that uses fresh almonds, lemons and olive oil to make an amandine dressing for green beans based on France’s classic almond sauce.

Green beans amandine – an almond, lemon and chilli dressing

We had some great meze dishes on our travels around the peninsula including one made with fresh black-eyed beans – börülce in Turkish – and almonds at Ada Pansiyon on Ovabükü beach. Having failed to track down fresh black-eyed beans back in Almaty, we opted for green beans as they were available.

Toasted almonds with stir-fried green beans and lemon zest

This dish can be served along other meze dishes – check out some of our other meze ideas here, or with bulgur, rice or pasta as more of a main course. The amandine dressing also works well with other vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower.

Ingredients

500 g green beans
100 g red onion
100 g almonds
50 ml olive oil
One lemon
One teaspoon chilli flakes

Method

Peel the almonds – put them in hot water for 30 seconds and then into cold water, the skins should now be easy to remove. Break the almonds into small chunks and toast in a frying pan over a low heat until they go a golden brown colour. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Top and tail the green beans and slice into 5 cm lengths. Heat the oil in the frying pan and then fry the chopped onion for five minutes and then add the beans and stir fry over a medium heat for five minutes or so – they should retain a little bit of crunch. While the beans are cooking, zest the lemon and then squeeze the juice.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, including the lemon juice and chilli flakes and serve straight away or allow to cool if you prefer.