Carrot Pancakes with Hummus and a Feta Salad

From The Modern Vegetarian, Maria Elia, Kyle Cathie Ltd, 2009.

The first thing to do for this recipe was to make the carrot hummus. The carrots were boiled until tender. They were then blended with a can of chickpeas (drained), a garlic clove, salt and pepper, juice from half a lemon, 2 tablespoons of tahini and a little ground cumin. Some olive oil was added to assist in making a puree.

The hummus made it was time to make the carrot pancakes. These were simply made; it was only a matter of mixing all the ingredients (quite of list of them) to form a batter. The ingredients were carrots (150 g grated), a chopped onion, a couple of chopped green chillies, 2 teaspoons each of cumin seeds and ground coriander, one teaspoon of fennel seeds, chopped coriander, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 100 g chickpea flour (luckily I had enough in the pantry), 50 g semolina, salt, and sufficient water to make a thick batter. I used about 150 ml.

The mixture made enough for four large substantial pancakes which were simply fried in olive oil.

The salad was a mix of a little watercress, a peeled orange cut into segments, some micro sprouts, some mint leaves, some bean sprouts and flaked almonds (I used cashews). These were tossed with a dressing made of vinegar, olive oil and Dijon mustard with a garlic clove and a pinch of sugar. Feta cheese was then crumbled into this mix and a pinch of cinnamon sprinkled on top.

The dish was served by placing one pancake on a plate, spreading a pile of hummus over this and then topping it was the salad.

The elements all went well together. I found that the pancake was a little stodgy though flavoursome.  The hummus with its carrot base helped alleviate the heaviness of the pancake, as also did the splendid salad mix.

It is always a surprise to find that sometimes you have purchased a book and it has become overlooked and languished on the shelf. This seems to be the case with this book which is filled with recipes that are modern and have little unexpected twists to them. I must spend more time with it.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔