With autumn upon us once again, it’s time for pumpkin to make a return to the table. This versatile memeber of the squash family makes for perfect comfort food for the longer, chillier nights. KCC’s back catalogue features a number of pumpkin dishes – try this cousin of lasagne made with chickpeas and mixed greens and this roasted pumpkin with halloumi for starters.
A nutty chickpea and pumpkin fritter served with a lettuce, pear, pomegranate and walnut salad
This time, we’re using the pumpkin in a fritter made with chickpeas and fine bulgur wheat. Recently, we recieved some walnuts from a friend of a friend’s dacha outside Almaty, here in Kazakhstan, which are ideal for adding a nutty edge to these chickpea and pumpkin fritters. We also added some walnuts to a fruity salad made with lettuce, pear and pomegranate seeds to accompany the fritters. Dress it with equal parts of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
This year’s walnuts fresh from the dacha in Almaty, Kazakhstan
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.
A taste of summer
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.
A blast from the past
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.
Here’s the recipe
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 dodgyprovenance) 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.
This weekend is Nowruz, a spring festival which originated in Persia some 3,000 years ago. Nowruz, or New Day, is a celebration of the end of winter and the start of a new year on the date when day and night are equal in the Northern Hemisphere – usually on or around the 20 – 21 March. The holiday is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Central Asia, and in parts of Turkey, Syria, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia and China.
Preparing for Nowruz (Nauryz) in Almaty, Kazakhstan
There are many traditional foods associated with the holiday – Uzbekistan has sumalak, a paste made from what flour, sprouted wheat and oil. Kazakhstan has Nauryz Kozhe, a soup made from seven ingredients: barley, meat, kumis (fermented horse milk), onion, garlic, water and salt.
Iran’s Kookoo Sabzi – a herby frittata
Iran’s Nowruz table features the wonderfully named Kookoo Sabzi, sometimes written as Kuku – a herb-filled cousin of Italy’s frittata. The fresh herbs represent rebirth, while the eggs stand for fertility.
This Kookoo Sabzi’s ready to flip
Kookoo Sabzi is usually a combination of garlic chives, corainder (cilantro) and dill, but seeing as we’re not fans of dill, we’ve opted to replace it with parsley and mint. You can also omit the coriander if that’s not your thing (feel free to add some dill if you must). We’ve added parsley and mint, along with toasted walnuts, for some protien, and barberries (if you can find them – we couldn’t), to add a tart edge to the dish. Cranberries are a good replacement if barberries are proving hard to track down.
Turn it onto a plate and slide it back into the pan
Ingredients (makes four servings)
50 g fresh parsley
50 g fresh coriander
50 g garlic chives (jusai)
25 g fresh mint leaves
50 g walnuts
10 g dried barberries (or cranberries)
4 eggs
20 g chickpea flour
One teaspoon each of: cumin seeds, sumac and turmeric
25 ml olive oil
Method
Wash the garlic chives and cut into 0.5 cm pieces. Leave to dry on a tea towel or kitchen paper. Wash and finely chop the parsley, coriander (including stems) and mint leaves. Combine all these ingredients with the chickpea flour, spices, berries and the eggs.
Crush and then toast the walnuts (without oil) for 10 minutes in a 12 cm frying pan. Remove the walnuts and mix them in with the herbs and eggs. Put half the olive oil in the frying pan and heat it up and then add the herb mixture, flattening it with a spatula.
Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Put a plate on top of the kookoo and turn the frying pan over. Add the rest of the oil to the empty pan and heat it up. Slide the kookoo back into the frying pan and cook for another 10 minutes.
Cut the kookoo into four slices and serve with a dollop of natural yogurt and some olives.
Almonds are on the agenda in KCC’s spiritual home of the Datça Peninsula this weekend as the Turkish seaside town hosts its annual Almond Blossom Festival.
The festival, which celebrates the blossoming of the peninsula’s almond trees, takes place between 13-16 February. Alongside live entertainment, with local faves Rampapa performing on Thursday and Anatolian psych rock legends Moğollar headlining on Saturday, there are cookery competitions, sports events and a speedy almond cracking contest.
Datça’s tasty almonds, badem in Turkish, are rightly famous all over Turkey – I remember sitting on a terrace in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district, back in the days when it still had tables on the street, when a guy came round selling ice-chilled Datça almonds.
Bademli havuç tarator (carrot and almond tarator)
In Istanbul and along the Aegean coast tarator is a yogurt-infused meze made with carrots or courgettes and walnuts (recipe link here). Tarator started life in the eastern Mediterranean as a tahini-based dipping sauce for falafel. In Ottoman times it referred to a sauce made from walnuts, breadcrumbs and lemon juice (often served with kalimari), before it took on its yogurt iteration in the modern day. In Bulgaria, Tarator is the name of a yogurt-based, cold soup.
We adapted the recipe to make it vegan by replacing the yogurt with almond cream and gave it more of a Datça vibe by using almonds instead of walnuts and throwing in some local capers to give it an umami kick. The resulting dip had a thicker consistency than the yogurt version – it came out more like a savoury carrot halwa, but was still delicious.
Ingredients
100 g blanched almonds
50 ml cold water
Two teaspoons apple cider vinegar
20 capers (with brine)
150 g carrot
One or two garlic cloves (optional)
Pinches of herbs and spices of your choice (e.g. oregano, black pepper, salt, sumac, red chili flakes)
One teaspoon nigella (black cumin) seeds
Method
If your almonds have skins on, then pour hot water over the almonds and leave for a minute or two. Drain off the water and peel the nuts between your fingers. Set aside 20 g of the nuts. Cover the remaining almonds with cold water and leave to soak overnight.
Drain the almonds and put in a blender bowl. add the vinegar, capers and water and blitz to a smooth cream. Add more water if needed (10 ml at a time) to get the required creamy consistency.
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, grate the carrot and saute it in the oil for ten minutes over a medium heat. Add diced garlic (if using), the remaining almonds (crushed with a rolling pin or wooden spoon) and pinches of herbs and spices (as needed).
Allow the carrot mix to cool and then blend with the almond cream. Garnish with nigella seeds and some unblanched almonds. Serve as part of a meze set or as a dip.
Here at KKC we’re big fans of smashed avocado, but in Kazakhstan it can sometimes be difficult to find the ideal fruit when needed – they’re either underripe and too hard to use immediately or gone mushy with grey stringy bits. Another problem is that most of these fruit that make their way here are grown in Israel and Colombia. So, a less well-travelled alternative is needed – look no further than the humble garden pea.
Move over avocado, here come the smashed peas!
Smashed peas can be used replacement for avocado, and involve a lot less food miles. We combined our peas, from a tin as there were no frozen peas in our local supermarket, with some unsalted cashews and chopped celery to make a great substitute for the alligator pear.
There could be a solution in the offing to the problem of sourcing avocadoes in Kazakhstan. An enterprising farm in the south of the country, near Shymkent, has started growing bananas in greenhouses. This is quite a feat in a country with a sharp continental climate with hot summers and freezing winters.
Get ready to smash those peas…
This year’s banana crop will cover around 5% of demand in Shymkent and the commercial hub, Almaty. And in the coming years, GenGroup Qazaqstan hopes to add mangoes and avocadoes to the supply chain of locally grown fruits, significantly reducing the food miles clocked up for these treats.
Ingredients (makes four servings)
250 g peas
75 g celery
25 g cashew nuts
15 ml olive oil
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon mustard seeds
To garnish: a handful of beansprouts
One teaspoon sunflower seeds (per serving)
One teaspoon pomegranate seeds (per serving)
Method
Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan and add the mustard and cumin seeds,. When they start popping, add the chopped celery and stir fry over a medium heat for two minutes and then add the cashews and continue to stir fry for another few minutes until the cashews start to brown.
Turn the heat down and add the peas. When the peas are warmed up, turn off the heat and use a potato masher to smash all the ingredients together. Spread the smashed peas on wholemeal bread or toast and garnish with pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and beansprouts.
Turkey meets India this time round on KCC as we cook Turkey’s beloved bulgur wheat in in Indian biryani style. Bulgur, parboiled, dried and cracked wheat, is a quick-cooking alternative to rice that works really when combined with spicy vegetables.
Bulgur biryani
Biryani belongs to the family of layered rice dishes that includes Uzbekistan’s plov and other pilafs. The name is from the Persian barian, which translates as ‘roasted’.
The dish was originally brought to the Indian sub-continent by travellers from Iran and has developed into a number of regional variations, with the Hyderabadi one, served with a yoghurty raitha, being the most famous.
As bulgur is parboiled, it cooks really quickly. It takes around 15 – 20 minutes to cook – the total prep time for this dish is less than an hour from start to finish and it is cooked in one-pan, so less washing up to worry about.
Ingredients (for two servings)
100g coarse bulgur
100g diced carrot
100 g courgette
150 g cooked chickpeas
25 g tomato paste
25 g pepper paste (we used tatli (sweet), if you want it hot, use acili)
20 ml olive oil
1 stick of celery (approx 25 g)
2 spring onions (approx 10 g)
1 green pepper (approx 30 g)
250 ml vegetable stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, fenugreek, chilli powder
25 g fresh coriander
Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the chopped spring onion and celery and cook for two minutes. Then add the chopped green pepper and diced carrot and cook for two more minutes. Add the courgettes and cook for another two minutes.
Add the spices and stir well and then add the cooked chick peas and the vegetable stock. Stir in the tomato and pepper paste, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Add the bulgur in a layer over the veggies. Put a lid on the pan and cook over a low heat for 15 – 20 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.
Turn off the heat and allow the mix to rest for ten minutes or so. Stir well and then serve. Garnish with chopped coriander.
This year is flying by, I can’t believe it’s already Halloween and the time for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. The transition into winter is gaining pace with the leaves falling and the nights closing in. The summer veg has given way to pumpkins and squash – an ideal base for comfort food as the colder months approach in the northern hemisphere.
Pumpkin and white cheese pasta
Over the last month, my Insta feed has been full of variations on baked pumpkin and white cheese dishes. Many of these dishes use sprigs of rosemary but I think that the more woodsy flavour of sage makes a better partner for pumpkin.
Oven-baked pumpkin goodness
For this recipe, I used a cheese called adygeisky, a white cheese with a slightly sour taste, that originates in the mountains of the Caucasus between the Caspian and Black Seas. Feta or any other crumbly white cheese that is available in your area that holds itself together under heat will work just as well.
Ingredients (serves two)
300 g pumpkin or butternut squash
100 g white cheese (Feta, halloumi or similar)
140 g dried pasta (of your choice)
25 ml pasta cooking water
Dried sage
Drizzle of olive oil
two teaspoons pumpkin seeds
Method
Line a baking dish with baking paper. Cut the pumpkin into 1 cm cubes. Place the cheese in the middle of the dish and arrange the pumpkin cubes around it. Sprinkle with crumbled sage leaves and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 c for 30 minutes covered with tin foil and then bake for another 10 minutes uncovered. While it’s baking, prepare the pasta (according to the packet instructions).
Mash the pumpkin with a potato masher and mix with the cheese. Add the drained pasta and 25 ml of cooking water. Stir well and serve straight away with a garnish of pumpkin seeds.
With the rain finally relenting here in Almaty, Kazakhstan, it’s time to hit the great outdoors for the BBQ season. Courgettes, zucchini to our North American friends, are in their prime at the moment and this versatile vegetable makes a great addition to a barbecue platter.
One thing about courgettes is that they contain a lot of liquid, so before cooking you can remove some of the excess by cutting the courgette into two slices down the middle and then use a knife to cut diagonals into the fleshy side. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes then squeeze out the excess liquid.
Pour some olive oil over the courgette halves into the diagonal cuts and then cook on the grill, turning to brown both sides. These courgette slices can also be baked in a hot oven (180 c) for 30 minutes or fried in a pan until browned. We served them with some parboiled new potatoes, finished on the grill, and a slab of char-grilled halloumi. Add a green salad for a great outdoor meal.
It’s that asparagus time of year once again. These tasty green spears are a harbinger of the warmer months of Spring and Summer – the first tips are ready for harvest shortly after the ground temperature hits 10°C.
Asparagus and chickpea pasta
Here in Almaty, Kazakhstan, locally-grown asparagus is currently having its moment in the sun, with many restaurants offering seasonal dishes featuring these flavour-packed spears of goodness.
Asparagus from Kazakhstan
Over the years, KCC has featured a number of asparagus dishes, such as a bulgur pilaf with asparagus (KCC’s first ever recipe), Mr Alan’s Top Tips, and in a stir-fry. This time round, after tracking down some locally-grown asparagus in Almaty, we’ve cooked it with chickpeas, capers, walnuts and tagliatelle:
Ingredients (for 2 servings)
150 g asparagus
175 g chickpeas
30 g walnuts
20 g capers
50 – 100 ml aquafaba (chickpea cooking liquid)
25 ml olive oil
150 g dried taglaitelle
One teaspoon fresh or dried rosemary
Method
To make the green sauce, blitz 50 g of chopped, raw asparagus in a blender with 75 g chickpeas, the chopped walnuts and capers and olive oil. Keep adding aquafaba slowly until the sauce had a creamy consistency,
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions in a pan of boiling, salty water. Slice the remaining asparagus into 3 mm slices and cook with the pasta for the last five minutes. While the pasta is cooking, add the remaining chickpeas to the green sauce in a heavy-based pan, warm over a low heat and stir in the rosemary.
Drain the pasta and asparagus, reserving some of the cooking Waterloo to loosen the sauce, if needed, and add to the green sauce and chickpeas, combine well and serve.
It’s been a crazy winter here in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It didn’t really get going until after New Year and has seen short cold snaps interspersed with rapid thaws as the temperature creeps into positive territory. This has made it particularly dicey when walking by buildings, as chunks of ice have a tendency to fall from roofs as the temperature rises. Usually, this is a once in a winter event, but this year it seems to be every few days.
A tahini-infused cauliflower and spinach soup
We’ve been getting through a lot of tahini recently, using it as a salad dressing, a pasta/noodle sauce, in variations on hummus, and, in this case, as an earthy, nutty base for a thick soup – he intermittent cold snaps call for a comforting bowl of hearty, seasonal goodness.
Crazy Almaty weather for 15 Feb 2024 onwards
Tahini is easy to make if you can’t find it in your local Middle eastern store – you just need some white sesame seeds, some olive oil and a good blender. Here’s a link to our tahini recipe from a few years ago.
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
500 g cauliflower
150 g spinach
100 g celery
5 g fresh coriander
500 ml vegetable stock
50 ml tahini
25 ml olive oil
one teaspoon soy sauce
one teaspoon caraway seeds
one teaspoon dried oregano
Method
Heat the olive oil and then fry the chopped celery and caraway seeds in a large pan. Cook over a medium heat for five minutes and then add the cauliflower, broken into small florets, and the oregano. Stir fry over a medium heat for five minutes and then add the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes.
Put half the soup in a blender, add the soy sauce and tahini and blend until smooth. Add to the other soup in the pan, stir well and add the spinach leaves and cook until the spinach wilts. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve piping hot.
Knidos Cookery Club 