Warm Courgette and Nectarine Salad #nosadsalad no.3

Like most people, I have a long list of places I dream of visiting – Greece, Tuscany, Turkey, Palestine, Mexico, Peru, the south of India (actually, make that all of India), The Philippines… But until then I make do by reading as many cookbooks as possible, searching for authentic recipes so that I can *try* to create a little taste of the sun at home. Most of the time I don’t do them justice and it makes me want to travel even more to get the real deal!

A few weeks ago, we were looking at the best way to fly back from Ireland to Cape Town after Christmas. Did you know you can fly from Dublin to Cape Town via Istanbul? Me neither! So, all going to plan, we will be kicking off 2024 with a few days in Istanbul! I scoured the bookshop for a good Turkish cookbook and found a gorgeous one by Ghillie Basan, simply titled Turkish Cooking. This salad is inspired by one in this book. It’s simple but really satisfying and comforting.  A mixture of warm roast veg, nectarines and herbs sits on a bed of garlicky yoghurt, drizzled with tahini sauce, then topped with toasted flaked almonds. It has lots of layers of texture and flavour and can be adapted to what you have / or like.

If you prefer you can serve it with just one of the sauces – yoghurt or tahini. Or you could get a tub of hummus, spread that on a plate, top with the veg, nectarines and mint, and drizzle with olive oil.

Serves – 2 for lunch/4 as a side salad  

Ingredients

Roast veg

·        Courgettes: 6 baby / 2 medium – try to get the smallest ones you can especially when they are in season! Cut into chunks

·        Pepper: 1 red/yellow – cut into eight

·        Nectarines: 2 -  cut into 8 wedges

·        Tomatoes: 10 baby plum/ cherry - cut in half

·        Olive oil, salt, pepper

·        Fresh mint – a handful, chopped roughly – you could use basil/parsley/ coriander /parsley

Yoghurt sauce

·        2-3 big heaped dessert spoons of Greek yoghurt

·         ¼  – ½ garlic clove grated – I LOVE a really garlicky yoghurt, but maybe start with ¼ and add more if you want a real hit of raw garlic power!

·        Salt and pepper – NB to round out the savoury yoghurt flavour

·        Squeeze of lemon juice

Tahini sauce

·        One big heaped dessert spoon tahini

·        ½ - ¼ garlic clove grated as per preference

·        Big squeeze of lemon juice

·        Water to thin

To top: Flaked almonds/pine nuts/ walnuts – whatever you have, you could also use bread crumbs or an old slice of sourdough cut into cubes and fried in olive oil.  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190 and prep your veg. Put the courgette and pepper wedges into a roast dish and drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20min

2.      Add the nectarines and tomatoes to the dish and roast for a further 15-20 min

3.      Leave to cool, sprinkle over the fresh mint

4. Meanwhile make your sauces: mix all the ingredients for the yoghurt sauce. Taste and add more garlic/yoghurt / salt /pepper/ lemon depending on taste preference!

5.      Mix the garlic, tahini and lemon juice, slowly add water, mixing well until it gets to a thin drizzling consistency

6.      Dry fry your nuts in a small pan, watching carefully so they get a nice toasting without burning. Don’t go on Instagram, even if you are standing beside them they will burn!

7. Get out your prettiest serving plate: start with the yoghurt sauce spread over the base, next top with the veg/nectarine /mint, drizzle over the tahini sauce, and sprinkle over the toasted almonds and any leftover herbs. Serve warm or room temperature and dream of lying on the banks of the Bosporus under the hot Turkish sun, listening to the fishing boats trundling past….