A fridge full of condiments is my fallback in those ‘what-the-hell-do-I-make-for-dinner’ moments. Even when the veg drawer is looking bare, I know the faithful, overcrowded shelf full of jars and sauces means the promise of a meal with bags of flavour.
Condiments are also a great weapon in the fight against bland food when you are cooking for little people whose palates can’t necessarily handle the same spice or acidity levels you crave. A spoonful of kimchi into noodles, a squeeze of hot sauce over fried rice, or a scattering of jarred jalapeños over tacos, and suddenly you’ve got a meal that mum and dad will enjoy too.
This week I looked in the fridge and there was a pepper, a couple of carrots, two stray potatoes and an almost-wilting half-finished bag of Tenderstem broccoli. I roasted the veg with cumin and nigella seeds, piled the lot onto flatbreads spread with harissa-spiked yoghurt, and finished with jarred pickled chillies and a thrown-together cucumber, olive and herb salad. Like a chip butty, but better.
Roasted vegetable flatbreads
Serves 2
1 potato, cut into wedges
1 red pepper, thickly sliced
2 carrots, cut into 4cm pieces
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
6 stalks Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed
2 Greek-style flatbreads
Pickled chillies, to serve
For the cucumber, olive and mint salad
½ cucumber, sliced
1 tbsp pitted black olives
A handful of fresh mint
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
For the harissa yoghurt
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 tbsp rose harissa paste
Preheat the oven to 200C fan. Par-boil the potatoes for 10 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and allow to steam dry.
Arrange on a large baking tray with the carrots and pepper. Sprinkle with the cumin and nigella seeds, season with salt and pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil. Roast for 30-40 minutes, turning halfway, until golden. For the last 15 minutes add the broccoli to the tray, drizzling with a little extra oil.
Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the salad in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Combine the harissa and yoghurt, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Warm the flatbreads for a couple of minutes in the oven.
Serve the flatbreads with the harissa yoghurt spread on the bottom, and the roasted veg, salad and pickled chillies on top.
The baby step
Serve the roasted veg and some flatbread with plain yoghurt and cucumber slices, mashing the veg to your little ones’ desired consistency or serving as finger food.
PS This week I’m loving…
We are addicted to these mega-fiery jarred pickled chillies. Serve them in the flatbreads above, finely chop and scatter on salads, serve with your cheeseboard, or put a jar out at a barbecue and watch them go.