Begun Pora | Bengali Eggplant Puree | A Rustic Cousin of Baingan Bharta

Baingan Bharta is the well known, Punjabi, wonderful Indian eggplant puree, easy to make, full of spicy flavours and so versatile in its use. This is its rustic cousin from Bengal, less well known than Baingan Bharta but no less well loved. This has the tastes of Bengal and is totally different in flavour to its cousin.

Make both! This one is almost salsa-like in its rustic composition. Wrap it in a roti and bliss out.

Are you after Eggplant recipes? Try Babaganoush,  Saffron and Rose Scented Eggplant, and Japanese Baked Eggplant.

Or perhaps you would like other Bengali dishes. Try Bengali Vegetable Kitchari and Bengali Rice Kheer.

Have a look at all of our Eggplant recipes, and all of our Bengali recipes. Perhaps you want more Indian dishes. Or simply explore our Early Autumn feasts.

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Green Chilli and Coriander Paste | Chilli, Garlic and Coriander Chutney

This recipe is for a chilli, garlic and coriander paste that can be used as an accompaniment to dishes and full meals (like an Indian style chutney), and as a flavouring for food. Stir it into steamed rice, for example, or into any curry. It works particularly well with coconut milk based spicy dishes. Have it on the side of rice or curries, drizzle it into soups, spread a tiny amount on a sandwich, smear a little onto a snack.

Keep it handy too for spreading on your sandwiches and toast (try it with cheese!), and as a dip for snacks and finger food. It also goes well with idli, vada and other Indian snacks. We are claiming this as an Indian style chutney, although it does vary a little. Nevertheless, it is every bit as delicious as any Indian green chutney.

The paste keeps well in the fridge if tightly covered and avoid using a wet spoon when using the paste.

Similar recipes include Balinese Sambal Tomat, Coriander Paste, Zhug, Chilli Jam, and Chilli Paste.

Browse all Chilli recipes, and all Pastes and Purees. Or explore our Mid Summer dishes.

Fava | Split Pea Puree

Fava is a puree or spread made from yellow split peas, not Fava Beans (Dried Broad Beans).  The naming of these Mediterranean dishes is a mine field! A puree made from dried Broad Beans is known as koukofava.

There are many versions of Fava, some with cumin and sumac, but this one is made from split peas which are topped with capers and caramelised onion, eaten warm and served as a starter dip. Ottolenghi, whose recipe this is, says the dish is soothing yet exciting. It is indeed. It is a delight to see Ottolenghi use white pepper in several of his recipes – a rare thing these days but an exquisite taste.

You know we love pastes, purees, dips and spreads here and this is a delightful addition to our collection.

Similar recipes include Green Olive Tapenade, Cauliflower and White Bean Puree, and Fava Bean Puree with Dill and Olive Oil.

Browse more of our Purees and Spreads. Our Greek dishes are here. Or explore our Early Summer dishes.

Green Olive Tapenade

There are a great number of recipes around for a spread made from green olives, but this is the easiest. Made with ingredients straight from your kitchen, no special purchases required, it is made in seconds, and your family or gang of friends will devour it in minutes.

This tapenade is salty, spicy (from the chilli) and pungent (from the garlic). Just perfect for a cool Early Summer day’ snacks on the verandah with some aniseed tea.

Similar recipes include Fava, Tapenade Bread Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella, Tomato Salad with Green Olives, and Olive and Orange Salad with Mint and Basil.

Browse all of our Olive recipes and all of our Spreads. Or explore our Early Summer recipes.

Broad Bean Puree with Chilli Oil

As broad beans get older, they suit purees and spreads really well. It is very simple – simmer them for some time, peel each bean, and then puree them with herbs. It makes a delicious snack on toast – I love it at morning tea time with a good cuppa. Or use the puree to make a fresh, spring soup by adding some stock or water and thinly sliced spring vegetables.

Are you after other Broad Bean recipes? Try Broad Bean and Mint Mash, Fava Bean Puree with Dill, Glorious Five Bean Salad, and 13 Treasure Happiness Soup.

You might like to look at our other Broad Bean Purees here, and all of our Broad Bean recipes. Browse our Italian recipes as well. Or take time out and explore our Late Spring recipes.

Umbrian Broad Bean Puree | Broad Bean Sauce

Traditionally an Easter dish, this Umbrian Broad Bean Puree is eaten on toasted crusty bread that has been drizzled with olive oil. But it is equally as good with vegetables, pasta and as a dressing in salads.

It is a simple but gorgeous, flavoursome dish.

Similar recipes include Broad Bean Puree with Chilli Oil,  Umbrian Cure-all Sauce, Young Broad Bean Pod Puree, Broad Bean and Mint Mash, and Broad Bean and Butter Bean Spread.

You might like to look at our other Broad Bean recipes. Browse our Italian recipes here, and our Broad Bean Puree recipes are here. Or take time out and explore our Late Spring recipes.

Roast Capsicum Sauce or Salad Dressing

So simple, how have I never thought of this before? With a surfeit of roasted peppers, due to roasting them on the BBQ after a Sunday lunch, I whizzed them into a perfect salad dressing.

The puree can also be used as a sauce – use with halloumi, for example, or some lentil balls. Drizzle over steamed or roasted vegetables. Mix with stir fried greens. Drizzle a little in wraps and sandwiches, or use it thick as a spread. It could be a dip. Mix with yoghurt for a wonderful sauce, dip or dressing. Use as a pasta sauce. Use as a base for a cold soup. Use for a dressing on a cold pasta salad. It is a pure delight!

Similar dishes include Creamy Salad Dressing, without Eggs, Grilled Pepper and Apple Relish, Sweet Onion Salad with Roasted Red Peppers, and Grilled Sweet Peppers and Eggplant Salad.

Have a look at our other Salad Dressings and Sauces. Or simple explore our Salads. You will enjoy our Late Spring recipes too.

Young Broad Bean Pod Puree

Did you know that you can make a puree of young, vibrant green Broad Bean pods? They must be young, and the simple puree then can be used as a dip, with grilled vegetables and salads, or as a base for a wonderful soup. It does oxidise very very quickly (to an interesting shade of black), so needs to be covered well or made immediately before use.

The taste is green and fresh. I made this with broad bean pods straight from the garden, from about 6 cm long to 12 cm long. I left the beans in the pods, although you can remove them if you want to use them for a different dish.

We love this top to tail eating with vegetables. With broad beans, the shoots can be eaten, the beans of course, the pods as in this recipe, and also the dried beans. A life-cycle of uses.

Are you after more Broad Bean dishes? Try Umbrian Broad Bean Puree, Glorious Five Bean Salad, Dried Fava Bean Puree with Dill, and Tawa Broad Beans. Also try Fava.

Browse all of our Broad Bean recipes, and all of our Purees. Or explore our Early Spring dishes.

Broad Bean and Mint Mash | Broad Bean and Mint Dip

Our love affair with Broad Beans continues with some mashes. Broad beans mash very well – especially later in the season when the beans are not as young and tender as they were earlier in the season.

This is easy to make, but it is necessary to double peel the beans – first remove them from the pod and then peel each bean. For this recipe it is Ok to cook the beans for a few minutes before peeling – they are also easier to peel once cooked.

Similar recipes include Saffron Mograbieh Pilaf with Broad Beans, Umbrian Broad Bean Puree, Young Broad Bean Pod Puree, Spring Pasta with Broad Beans and Mint, Broad Bean and Butter Bean Spread, and Avocado Smash.

You might like to browse our other Broad Bean recipes. Or explore our other snacks. Our Late Spring recipes are here.

White Bean, Sage and Roasted Garlic Spread

Snacks in this house often include a spread or dip that can be lathered onto crusty bread with some salad greens and tomato slices, or just on its own. Most spreads can be thinned a little and used as a dip with crackers or vegetable sticks. They can even be served as a sauce to accompany falafel, lentil balls or other vegetarian fritters or patties. Try adding them to salad dressing too, for creaminess and flavour. They can even be thinned out to form a great basis for soup!

This recipe is a classic White Bean puree with sage and garlic – some garlic is roasted, and some cooked with the beans for layered garlic flavours. Deborah Madison includes a recipe in her book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Similar recipes include Broad Bean Puree with Chilli Oil,  White Bean Puree with Harissa, Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Puree, Broad Bean and Mint Puree, Chickpea, Almond and Sesame Spread, and Fava Bean Puree with Fresh Herbs.

Try other White Bean recipes: White Beans with Tahini, White Bean Soup, and Tuscan Beans with Sage and Lemon.

Or browse all of our Spreads, our Dips, and all of our White Bean recipes. And explore our Late Winter dishes.

Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Puree | Dip, Sauce and Spread

Cauliflowers were so cheap and I bought a huge one, three times bigger than others. After making the Green Pea Soup (which has cauliflower in it), I estimated there were still 6 more dishes possible from this one cauliflower!

Today’s cauli dish is a beautiful puree of roasted cauliflower with cannellini beans. You can also use chickpeas.

Are you looking for other Cauliflower recipes? Try Aloo Gobi, A Plate of Cauliflower, and Cauliflower Slow Cooked with Lime and Spices.

What about some other Purees? Try White Bean Puree with Harissa, Fava Bean Puree with Dill and Olive Oil, Spiced Tomato Puree, Georgian Coriander and Walnut Spread and Home Made Tomato Paste.

White Beans feature in White Bean and Tahini Salad, White Bean Soup, and Glorious Five Bean Salad.

Or browse all of our Cauliflower dishes and all of our Purees. Or take some time to explore our Early Winter dishes.

Fava Bean Puree with Fresh Herbs | Dried Broad Bean Puree with Herbs | Dip, Spread or Soup

Dried Broad Beans are a great substitute for fresh broad beans once their season has finished. They don’t exactly taste like the fresh version, but are pretty good in their own right and make the smoooooothest divine puree.

The downside is that they need to be peeled before cooking. They say that dried, peeled Broad Beans (or Fava Beans) are available, even split ones, but I have been unsuccessful in my search for them. Thus it is necessary to soak the dried beans for 12 hours, then slip the peels from them, and only then put them on to cook. Not every recipe you see will tell you this trick – it seems to be rather a secret.

This recipe can be used for older fresh broad beans – the ones that have lost their green freshness and are now rather white, and for the dried variety. Either way, the individual beans will have to be peeled.

Are you looking for Broad Bean recipes? Try Umbrian Broad Bean Puree, Thirteen Treasure Happiness Soup, Glorious Five Bean Salad, and Fava Bean Puree with Dill and Olive Oil.

For our dried Broad Beans, we have Dried Fava Bean Soup with Turmeric and Herbs and Fava Bean Soup with Potatoes.

Or perhaps you are looking for dips for your Mezza table? Try Young Broad Bean Pod Puree, Zhug (Coriander – Chilli Puree), Chickpea, Almond and Sesame Spread, and Turkish Cacik.

You can find all of our Dips here, or browse all of our Broad Bean recipes. You might like to look through all of our Turkish dishes. Or simply take some time to explore our Mid Autumn dishes.

Avocado Smash with Radishes | Spread, Dip or Salad

Sometimes you don’t quite want a guacamole, you want a bit more than smashed avo, and you want to use that ripe avocado, mashed and tasty, to pile onto sourdough toast. Or to use as a salad. Well, here we have that recipe for you.

Are you looking for other Avocado dishes? Try Avocado Salad with Pomelo, Cucumber and Avocado Salad, and Roasted Sweetcorn and Avocado Salad.

Or Radish Salads? Try Avocado and Caper Salad, Wombok and Radish Salad with Peanut Dressing, Radish Salad with Coconut Milk, and Cucumber and Radish Slightly Pickled Salad.

Or perhaps you are looking for other Dips and Spreads? Try Fava Bean Spread with Dill, Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Puree, White Bean, Sage and Roasted Garlic Spread, Zhug – Coriander Chilli Spread, and Babaganoush.

Browse all of our Avocado dishes and all of our Dips. Or explore all of our Late Autumn collection of recipes.

Fava Bean Puree With Dill and Olive Oil | Turkish Fava | Dried Broad Bean Puree

It seems that no matter how you cook broad beans, they need peeling. Except perhaps for the extremely young fresh beans, you need to get your long thumb nail working and peel that outer skin off of the individual beans.

This applies also to the dried beans. I have heard that you can buy pre-peeled, dried broad beans, but I have not been able to find them. So trust me, it is not worth cooking the dried beans without peeling first. The dried skin is like a suit of armour, hard and tough even when the inner flesh has boiled away to nothing.

To peel these little battle beans, cover with boiling water, and leave to soak for 12 hours, no less, and up to 24 hours. The peels may have split a little, allowing you to peel the skin off. Once peeled, you can cook them as desired.

This recipe is a Broad Bean Purée with Dill, a Turkish dish. Turkish Fava is made with Fava beans (broad beans), unlike the Greek Fava which is made with yellow split lentils. Confusing, I know, but how great diversity is! The purée is left to set, then unmoulded or cut into cubes. It is then drizzled with olive oil, lemon, and some fresh dill.

Are you looking for Broad Bean recipes? Try Broad Bean and Butter Bean Dip, Glorious Five Bean Salad, and Tawa Broad Beans.

For our dried Broad Beans, we have Fava Bean Soup with Potatoes, and Dried Fava Bean Soup with Turmeric and Herbs.

Or perhaps you are looking for dips for your Mezza table? Try Broad Bean and Mint Puree, Green Tomato Salsa with Coriander, Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Puree, Hummus, and Tomato and Chilli Jam.

Try some other Turkish dishes too. We recommend Beets in a Herbed Dressing, Semi Dried Tomatoes with Pomegranate Molasses, and Rose Petals and Yoghurt.

You can find all of our Dips here, or browse all of our Broad Bean recipes. You might like to look through all of our Turkish dishes. Or simply take some time to explore our Mid Autumn dishes.

Zhug | Zhoug | Skhug | A Coriander-Chilli Paste, Dip and Sauce

What to do with the left over coriander (cilantro) leaves and stems at the end of the week – a perpetual problem in a family that uses a lot of green coriander. One solution we have is to make Coriander Paste. Another is to make Zhoug, a Yemeni-Israeli sauce or dip full of spices – sometimes spelled skhug, zhug, , schug or s’hug. It is a fiery, garlicky, herby green bowl of goodness. Traditionally a perfect accompaniment to pita with falafel, it also serves as a sauce, spread and dip. It can be stirred into soups and stews to spark them up. Spread a little on a sandwich or warm pita bread, drizzle it on pasta, or serve it with grilled halloumi or vegetables for an extra herby and spicy kick of flavour.

Zhoug can be fiery hot, depending on your chilli level, and Yemenites believe that eating zhoug daily strengthens the immune system, keeps away illness and strengthens the heart. Preparations for Zhoug vary widely, but a few things remain constant – green herbs, garlic, spices and chilli.

Once you have experienced the fragrant spiciness of Zhoug, you will be making this weekly with your left over coriander, or, indeed, buying extra coriander each week, just to make this pesto-like sauce. Actually, Zhoug is a green cousin to Shatta, which is a similar dish, except Shatta uses mild red chillies. Zhoug has also been called Israeli Chilli Paste, a green harissa, a Middle Eastern Gremolata and a hot chermoula.

Are you looking for other coriander recipes? Similar recipes include a Green Chilli and Coriander Paste, Sweet Chilli Jam, Coriander Paste, Coriander Pesto, and Coriander and Coconut Chutney.

Or try these: Carrots and Green Peas with Green Coriander, Coriander and Lemongrass Vichyssoise, Pudla with Green Coriander, or Urad Dal with Tomato, Coconut and Green Coriander.

Read some more about Green Coriander, and also How to Use Leftover Green Coriander.

You might also like other Coriander dishes and other Coriander Pastes. Middle Eastern dishes are here. Or enjoy our easy Late Autumn dishes.