Middle Eastern Style Vegetables Recipe

This Middle Eastern style vegetables recipes is  ideal for using up any aging veggies you may have knocking around in your kitchen. It is adaptable and I encourage you to see this step by step guide as more an inspiration than a strict recipe. 

In our house, we have decided that for one day a week (with a view to improve on that), we will not eat meat and we will try to cook something a bit different. With that in mind, this Middle Eastern style vegetables recipe was born. 

Himself was not overly impressed with it. He found it filling and satisfying but he felt it was like eating a full plate of a side dish. It’s an interesting comments and it tells me that maybe this is not meant to be a full main course. It’s hard to know to be honest as it worked perfectly well for me. Maybe if I’d tossed some couscous in for him, he might have enjoyed it more. 

I’ve a great love for middle eastern food. It’s warming without that burning heat that other exotic cuisines can have. I find it delicate and elegant. I have written some persian recipes in the past like this pomegranate soup, this bejewelled feta recipe , this warm halloumi salad and this Iranian shirazi salad. 

Ingredients 

• 1 cauliflower
• 1 bag of sprouts
• 1 onion scape or 3 spring onions
• half a pack of feta
• 1 handful of pomegranate seeds
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 2 table spoons of sumac
• 1 table spoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
• Drizzle of pomegranate molasses
• Drizzle of olive oil

Method

• Prep your sprouts by throwing out the manky leaves and cutting them in half. The cauliflower florets should be about twice the size of one full sprout so that everything cooks evenly.
• Toss your vegs and garlic with the spice, the oil and the pomegranate molasses
• Cook them on 180 C for about 45 min or until the veggies are golden.
• Toss the sumac in the vegs. 
• Add the feta sliced onion greens and the pomegranate seeds on top.