Pumpkin, chickpea and spinach salad with tahini dressing

Less than two weeks now until our trip to Europe, so excited!  MD has been away for 10 days snowboarding down south, I thought I would be doing all sorts of experimenting while he was away but seems that it sucks to cook for one and I was much more inclined to scramble a couple of eggs or eat toast!

I saw this dish in Dish, the magazine.  I get Cuisine, Taste and Delicious. magazines, but haven't been that keen on Dish.  But since I can get it for free from the library, why not?

Pumpkin, chickpea and spinach salad w tahini dressing

1.    Slice ½  a medium pumpkin into slim wedges and place on a baking tray.  Spray with oil and season with salt.  Bake until tender.

2.    Heat oil in a pan, add a chopped onion,  3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 ½ tsp ground cumin, 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon,  and ½ c raisins.  Season and cook until the onion is tender.

3.    Add 1 T tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.  Add equivalent of a tin of chickpeas and a bag of spinach and cook for a few more minutes.  Stir in the juice of one lemon.

4.    Make the dressing: whisk together ½ c plain yoghurt, 3 T tahini, 2 cloves crushed garlic, finely grated zest of a lemon and the juice.  Whisk in enough water to make a pourable dressing.

To serve:  arrange pumpkin on a platter, spread over chickpea mixture, drizzle with dressing and scatter with ¼ c toasted flaked almonds and a sprinkle of paprika.

FROM:  Dish 24 June-July 2009

South Pacific banana meringue pie

I've been wanting to make this dessert for the last couple of months since I cut it out from Sunday magazine in the Sunday News.  I made a couple of batches of custard awhile back and had egg whites lurking in the dark corners of my freezer - if you didn't know you could freeze egg whites, now you do!  Easy - just remember to label the container with how many you've put in there!  Not sure how long they last but mine were sweet and they had been in there for a least 2 months (and knowing my memory, probably much longer!).

Anyway, I had invited my friends S+M and their 3 adorable kids for dinner last Friday night and planned to make it then.  In order to get as much prep done before they got to our house I mixed up the topping ingredients and defrosted the eggwhites so I was already to go.  I asked the boys when they wanted dessert and there was a bit of mis-communication resulting in me thinking that they didn't want dessert at all!  By the time I discovered that they did in fact want some it was already 9 o'clock and I didn't want to be beating the eggwhites with sleeping children!

No matter, since I had the ingredients ready, just meant I got to make it on Saturday night instead and only had to share it with MD! 

 

South Pacific banana meringue pie

Ingredients:

6 bananas

1/2 grated palm sugar

25 g diced butter

zest and juice of a lemon or lime

1/4 c coconut

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 c caster sugar

Thick coconut cream to serve

Method:

1.  Cut up the bananas into chunks and fit into the bottom of a casserole dish.  Sprinkle with grated palm sugar, diced butter, zest and juice of lemon or lime, and coconut.  Place in 200 degree oven and bake 10-15 minutes until golden.

2.   Meanwhile make meringue:  Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff but not dry, slowly add caster sugar, beating until it’s all used up.

3.   Pile the meringue on top of the banana and bake 3-4 minutes until golden.

4.   Serve immediately with coconut cream.