Yogurt flatbreads

Yogurt flatbreads

Another fantastic recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi - whole wheat flatbreads made with yogurt and chopped cilantro. They are quite simple to make, and they turn out really well!

In the book, Ottolenghi serves them with a saute of mushrooms and barley. You can serve them with something similar, hummus or baba ghanoush, thick yogurt or tzatziki, or other spreads.

Italian wedding soup

Italian wedding soup

It was snowing when we got up this morning - perfect day to make a pot of soup! I had flipped through Food and Wine's February issue and and was inspired by the recipe for Italian wedding soup. I used the recipe as a general guide and just kind of made my own version. Here's what I did:

The broth

• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 quarts chicken broth, or 1 quart plus 1 quart water, which is what I did since I only had one container of broth
• 5 oz. pkg. of fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• olive oil to saute vegetables

lots of little meatballs

Roasted eggplant with yogurt sauce

This recipe is adapted from  "Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce" from Yotam Ottelenghi's fantastic vegetarian cookbook Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi, with a few minor tweaks. If you've flipped through it, you'll recognize it as the cover recipe. It's a beautiful book with fantastic photographs and everything just looks and sounds so good.

Because I don't ever have cow milk or buttermilk on hand, and didn't want to pick up a whole thing of buttermilk just to make this, I whisked the greek yogurt with a little almond milk and a bit of lemon juice to give it a little tang. Feel free to use buttermilk or other combinations - I'm sure it'll be delicious!

I loved the author's description of how to get pomegranate seeds out. When I was a kid, getting a pomegranate every so often was a big treat since they're always a bit expensive, and they are just messy. After splitting your pomegranate in half horizontally (go around the circumference with a knife not too deep without cutting all the way through, then put your fingers in and pull apart), Ottolenghi describes the method by basically taking a rolling pin or a bit wooden spoon and, with the half cut wide down in the palm of your hand, tapping on it slowly at first and then increasing the speed and intensity until everything falls out! It's still a bit messy as you inevitably crush a few in the process and there's a little bright red juice splattering a bit so don't wear anything white and do it over a big bowl.

The recipe calls for a sprinkle of za'atar or zahatar at the end - if you haven't come across or used this before, I recommend giving it a try sometime. I love the combination of sesame seeds, sumac and thyme and I love just mixing it into some labne or really thick greek yogurt with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt to dip pita into or sometimes serve it with grilled fish or meat. I mix some right into the yogurt sauce here and sprinkle a little on top to serve.

The pomegranate seeds on top give the dish nice little bursts of sweetness and tartness, but if you can't find a pomegranate, feel free to skip - the dish is still delicious without them.