Takeover: A broccoli and lentil salad that suits hot weather

From Yasmin Kahn in this week's takeover

Hi and welcome to my newsletter, a celebration of cooking, vegetables and life. It’s great to have you here. If you have found yourself here but are not yet subscribed then you can sort that out below….

My cookbooks (there are five) are available here. The latest is Easy Wins - a Sunday Times bestseller. There are hundreds of free recipes on my website which you can find here. I am also a proud patron of the brilliant TastEd, which exists to change food education for good.

Image: Rach Pilston for Anna Jones

From Anna:

Once a month I hand my newsletter over to another voice whose food and writing is worthy of your attention. This month I am so happy to be handing my newsletter over to my dear friend Yasmin Kahn. Yasmin is a writer and a cook who spent many years working in human rights. The threads of culture, belonging and compassion are woven into Yasmin's recipes and writing. Her work celebrates what connects us, and reminds us that however far from home we might be, the food and stories of home come with us, and that’s more important than ever just now.

Yasmin is sharing her story with us as well a recipe from her new book Sabzi, a collection of vegetarian and vegan recipes which I am so excited to cook from. The first thing I made from Sabzi was a huge hit - the broccoli and lentil salad that Yasmin is sharing this week. I was so surprised by how good the curried tahini dressing was, I've not stopped thinking about it. This is the perfect hot weather salad, minimal cooking and it gets better as it sits. A perfect picnic, packed lunch, cooking-once-for-the-week salad.

Yasmin has also shared with us some of her favourite things from podcasts to graters, films to harissa. Thank you Yasmin for your words, your recipes, your work and your friendship. I'm a huge fan.

Image: Issy Croker for Yasmin Khan

From Yasmin

My obsession with food started early. When I was little and living in Iran, I used to sob my little heart out each morning as my mum got ready for work, clinging to her legs and begging her not to leave. To appease me, my mum would tell me she needed to go to work, to earn money, so she could buy me pomegranates. I’d practically push her out of the door when I heard this.

My love of pomegranates, dried limes, pickled garlic and fragrant saffron came from my mum’s Iranian heritage and stayed with me as I grew up in inner city Birmingham feasting on the colourful rice pilafs and hearty Persian stews she made for dinner. My Dad is Pakistani so we had the added bonus of South Asian food in our house too and from him I gained a deep appreciation for sweet and juicy mangos, round domes of rose-scented gulab jaman and soft mung daal served over white rice, with tangy yoghurt, crunchy radishes and lime pickle on the side – a meal that to this day, is my go to comfort food.

But I wasn’t initially drawn to a career in food and spent the first 12 years of my career immersed in human rights work, predominantly focused on Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. After a life-changing burnout and being diagnosed with chronic fatigue, I found the kitchen a source of solace and through spending time on my grandparent’s farm came up with the idea for my first book, The Saffron Tales, a collection of stories and recipes from Iran. From there my journey to food and travel writing began and I went on to write Zaitoun, a cookbook about the food and people of Palestine, and explored concepts of borders and migration in my cookbook Ripe Figs.

For each book, I cooked in people’s home kitchens which was the most incredible way to learn about each place. It’s been a joy and deep privilege to share beauty from places more commonly associated with conflict and offer a window into places we only tend to hear about for negative reasons. I’ve cooked with Iranian yoga teachers in Tehran, Palestinian opera singers in Jerusalem and Afghan teachers in refugee camps in Greece, sharing ordinary people’s stories that go beyond the usual headlines. This feels especially important now in light of the escalations of violence in the Middle East over the last year. It’s been nothing short of terrifying for the people there, including friends and family of mine in Iran. At a time when world leaders want to divide us and espouse the rhetoric of fear, food can be one way in which to recognize our shared humanity.

My new book is a celebration of the vegetarian and vegan food I most commonly cook at home. It’s called Sabzi: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes for Everyday and is filled with of 80 easy-to-cook recipes inspired by my travels and my heritage. Sabzi means fresh greens and herbs in Persian and whilst they aren’t needed for every recipe in the book, it encapsulates so much of the cooking I do at home. I have yet to find a food culture that so enthusiastically feasts on fresh herbs as Iranians do. They chop them into frittatas, mince them into thick pastes that are used as seasoning, and simmer them by the pound to make thick stews. Most days handfuls of herbs will be eaten simply and unadorned, with fresh feta cheese, walnuts, and bread for breakfast. The world sabzi also means cooked vegetables in Urdu, the language of my Pakistani Dad, and describes some of my favourite dishes I ate as a child, from bindi, braised okra in a spicy masala, to aloo matar gajar, a simple dish of spiced potatoes, carrots, and peas that we would scoop up enthusiastically with warm wholemeal rotis.

Today I’m delighted to share one of my favourite recipes from Sabzi with you, a rich and bold salad made with roasted broccoli served on a bed of lentils, dressed in a creamy curried tahini sauce and with Medjool dates dotted throughout. It’s perfect for entertaining or taking on a picnic as you can make it ahead of time and it happily will sit on for a few hours. I hope you enjoy it and that brings some joy to your summer table.

Image: Rachael Pilston for Anna Jones

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Things to read

• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi – The most beautiful and funny graphic novel chronicles the story of a young women living through the Iranian revolution of 1979. It’s one of my favourite books on Iran.

• Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl – This is one of my all-time favourite

  books by one of my favourite food writers. This memoir tells the story of

  Reichl’s journey into the food world, from cooking vegan food in co-ops in Berkley California, to foodie adventures around the world and eventually

  landing a job as restaurant critic of the New York Times.

• Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever – Another brilliant memoir, albeit with a

  very different tone. Woolever was the former assistant to the superstar chefs

  Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali and reveals her own battles with addiction

  and heartbreak told with razor sharp wit in this candid and moving book. You

  can read my profile of her for the Observer Magazine here.

Things to buy

• I cannot live without my microplane zester and use it every day from grating

  ginger or garlic, zesting lemons and limes, or shredding parmesan.

• The secret to cooking great dishes and to use great ingredients and the best

  spices you can buy are from Diaspora Co. They are launching on Ocado in

  July and are currently available through Natoora.

• My favourite cookware brand is Our Place, they make the most incredible

  multifunctional, non-toxic pots, pans and ovenware

• I love Belazu’s Rosa Harissa which I enjoy on Cheddar sandwiches, with

  scrambled eggs or as a marinade for roasting vegetables. Their tahini is also

  incredible – creamy and tangy without any hint of bitterness. Perfect for

  making hummus or a tahini sauce.

Things to watch/ listen to

• No one made better programmes about food than chef and author Anthony

  Bourdain and his Parts Unknown series is a masterclass in culinary journalism. He’s one of the few broadcasters to have filmed inside Iran and his episode from there is one of my favourites. The episode on Jerusalem is also very powerful.

• I love everything Louis Theroux makes and his podcast is always funny, entertaining and insightful. I really enjoyed his recent conversations with

  Jamie Oliver and Sharon Horgan and his recent BBC documentary The

  Settlers is worth a watch too.

• Cerys Matthews BBC6 music show on Sunday mornings has been a regular

  listen of mine for over 15 years, the eclectic world music is so delightful and

  it’s such a soothing and uplifting show.

Image: Yasmin’s own pic of the salad by Issy Croker for Sabzi

Broccoli and lentil salad with curried tahini and dates

Tahini sauces are wonderful vehicles for adding creaminess to dishes without the need for dairy. Here broccoli florets and radishes are first roasted and then dressed with a curry-spiced tahini dressing and served on a bed of lentils. Giving exact measurements for tahini dressings can be tricky as each brand varies so much in thickness (and on how long you’ve had the jar open), so use the recipe below as a guide and add a touch more water or lemon to loosen, or extra tahini to thicken. I’ve suggested Puy lentils for this dish as they hold their shape so well, but they are more expensive. You can use regular brown or green lentils instead— just reduce the cooking time as they normally soften in 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their freshness.

ROASTED VEGETABLES

700g broccoli (about 2 crowns)
140g radishes (about 16 small red round ones)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt

LENTILS

240g Puy lentils (or regular brown, see headnote)
600ml just-boiled water
2 tablespoons extra- virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

CURRIED TAHINI SAUCE

120g tahini
75ml lemon juice
60ml water
1 garlic clove, finely grated
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon medium curry powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

TOPPINGS

6 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1 small handful chopped parsley or coriander leaves

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas Mark 6.

Break up the broccoli florets and slice off the stalks as they naturally separate. Slice the stalks into thick pieces about the same size as the florets. Put the broccoli and radishes on a large baking sheet and toss with the vegetable oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Roast for about 20 minutes, until cooked but still firm. The broccoli will be slightly charred and that’s OK! Set aside to cool.

While the vegetables are in the oven, combine the lentils and just- boiled water in a small saucepan, cover, and cook over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the lentils are soft but still have some shape. Drain and return to the saucepan, then dress with the olive oil, the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

To make the curried tahini sauce, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic,
maple syrup, curry powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl. The sauce will thicken as it sits, so if you are making it ahead of time, you might need to add more water.

To serve, spread the lentils in a shallow serving dish, spoon over two- thirds of the tahini sauce, pile the roasted broccoli and radishes on top, drizzle over the remaining tahini sauce and scatter the dates and herbs on top.