Salads

Baked beetroot with walnuts and pomegranate molasses

By Ozlem Warren on March 12, 2019 in Ozlem’s Turkish Table Cookery Book, Salads, Supper Clubs, Turkish cookery book 5

I hope you enjoy this delicious and wholesome Baked beetroot salad with walnuts and pomegranate molasses , so easy too. We love beetroot, pancar, as we call in Turkish and I have been making this delicious baked beetroots with garlic, walnuts, pomegranate molasses dish a lot recently. It makes a wonderful meze, also accompanies pasta, rice and grills beautifully. Baking the beets brings out its natural, delicious sweetness; it is also vegan and gluten free, and so easy to make. Here’s my recipe, if you’d like to give it a go. It keeps well in the fridge, covered, 2-3 days.

SEBZE, Vegetarian Recipes From My Turkish Kitchen

This baked beets recipe and 85 other delicious, easy to make, vegetarian Turkish recipes are included at my new book. SEBZE, Vegetarian recipes from my Turkish kitchen. You can get a copy here worldwide.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Baked beetroot with walnuts and pomegranate molasses

We love beetroot, pancar, as we call in Turkish and I have been making this delicious baked beetroots with garlic, walnuts, pomegranate molasses dish a lot recently. It makes a wonderful meze, also accompanies pasta, rice and grills beautifully. It is also vegan and gluten free, and so easy to make. Here’s my recipe, if you’d like to give it a go.

Author: Ozlem Warren

Recipe type: Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free meze

Cuisine: Turkish cuisine

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

880 g (1 lb 15 oz) beetroot (beets)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (nar ekşisi, see page xx for homemade)
45 g (1¾ oz/1/3 cup) walnuts, chopped
handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas 6.
Trim and peel the beetroot and slice into quarters lengthways. Slice each quarter into even bite-size chunks (about 1 cm/½ in). Place on a large baking tray, drizzle over the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Use your hands to combine well (your hands will be stained but it’s worth it to infuse the flavours – you can rub sliced lemon over your hands to get rid of the worst of the stain). Spread in one layer and bake for 30 minutes, turning them around halfway.
Remove the tray from the oven and stir in the chopped garlic. Bake for a further 6–7 minutes until the beets are cooked and starting to caramelise at edges, taking care not to burn the garlic. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
Transfer the beets to a serving bowl, drizzle over the pomegranate molasses and combine well. Add the chopped walnuts and parsley, and mix well. Decorate with pomegranate seeds just before serving.

I hope you enjoy it, Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Ozlem’s Turkish Table Cookery Book – in the making!

By Ozlem Warren on July 18, 2017 in Ozlem’s Turkish Table Cookery Book, Salads 27

Merhaba dear All,

I hope you are all well. Apologies for a bit of silence from my end; it’s been a very busy few months with teaching Turkish cookery in England, Istanbul and in Amman – Jordan, as well as being a part of exciting events like the Taste of London, thanks to Turkish Tourism Board – UK’s kind invitation; it was great to share Turkish cuisine with everyone.

But the main event that kept me busy has been the preparation for my Turkish cookery book. It’s been very exciting and busy getting the content ready and the photo shoots excitement last week all of a sudden made this special project very real. Here I wanted to share a little glimpse of our very exciting and labor of love 5 day photo shoot for my Turkish cookery book. My very special thanks goes to the amazing food photographer dear Sian Irvine, who passionately shot each and every image with a huge expertise, I can’t thank her enough. Over 70 dishes have been lovingly prepared and photographed, with huge thanks to an army of dear friends who helped during the shoots and gave their plates and bowls to be used as props. A labor of love in making but so worth it, enjoyed every minute of it:

Getting ready for the Turkish breakfast spread photo shoot

Turkish breakfast spread, almost there, one of my favorite chapters in the book! Love all the freshness and abundance of Turkish cuisine.

My dear publishers George and Brenda at GB Publishing, most kindly let us use their wonderful space for our photo shoot for 5 days and their living room became our “Prop Room” with a vast collection of plates, bowls, textile, boards and more, our huge thanks to them for their kindness – in return, we made sure they sampled each and every dish after the shoot !:)

Here’s our prop room!

More of the prop room!

A close up on a part of the Turkish breakfast spread – I can eat this all day long!

Getting the spices ready for the photo shoot – essential part of southern Turkish cookery

The crew getting the fresh produce shoot ready

Sian is shooting the mezze spread – another highlight from the book

All curious eyes checking the images over the Image man Jonny’s expert hands

Some of the absolutely fabulous dear friends, Heleen, Ann and Susie here, helping out during the shoots and the lovely Sian, my sincere gratitude each and every one of them

My publishers George, Brenda, our lovely photographer Sian and some of the fabulous friends helping, dear Susie and Claire here- sitting down after the shot and enjoying the food we produced together. My huge thanks also goes to dear Mina, Ellie and Leonie who helped out and kindly packed us all up!

I hope you enjoy having a little glimpse of our 5 day photo shoot with over 70 dishes lovely prepared and presented – a labor of love in making and so very special. My photos really don’t do enough justice, I can’t wait for you to see the real images, they are absolutely amazing.

This Turkish cookery book project is a tribute to my homeland and a very dear project to my heart, a dream come true! It will have a special focus on Southern Turkish cuisine though my favorite, classic Turkish recipes will also be featured. I have so longed to share my homeland’s bountiful, delicious, healthy cuisine, packed with culinary traditions and high on hospitality, generosity and warmth, along with my personal stories; I really can’t wait to share this special book with you all. Many of you so kindly filled in my Turkish cookery book Survey with your valuable feedback, my sincere thanks. If you haven’t had a chance to do yet and may be able to fill in, your feedback would be greatly appreciated it to help shape the book. As a thank you, if you leave your name and email address at the end of the survey, you will be entitled to a 10% discount when the book is published. I would be more than happy to send you a signed copy!

We plan to start the pre-orders for the book as of end October, with a worldwide publication as of March 2018, I so look forward to sharing this special book with you all!

My best wishes for a wonderful summer – I will be back home, Turkey and I can not wait – and I will be in touch on my return. In the meantime, I wanted to share one of my favorite salads, Antakya’s Cokelek Salatasi – crumbled feta cheese salad with spices; perfect for Turkish breakfast and brunch.

Cokelek Salata; crumbled white cheese or feta salad, flavored with spices and olive oil

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Piyaz Salad with red onions, tomatoes, parsley and sumac

By Ozlem Warren on February 6, 2017 in Salads, Turkish Cooking Classes 24

Piyaz Salad with red onions, tomatoes, parsley and sumac

We had a delicious Turkish cookery class at the Divertimenti Cookery School in London on Jan. 29th with enthusiastic participants. This vibrant and easy Piyaz Salad with red onions, tomatoes and parsley, flavored with sumac was a big hit from the class. It is a traditional salad at home, especially popular alongside Turkish meatballs, Kofte, as well as Lahmacun, Turkish thin pizza with minced meat and vegetables topping. I love the tangy sumac with the red onions in this salad, gives a refreshing, zingy flavor, so delicious.

Rolling Piyaz Salad inside Lahmacun, delicious

We also made Lahmacun, thin Turkish pizza with minced/ground meat topping at our Turkish cookery class – another big hit! – We then placed some Piyaz Salad in the middle of Lahmacun and rolled to eat, as we do it traditionally at home. Such a wonderful combination. Here’s my Lahmacun recipe, if you like to make it at home.

Wonderful participants of my Jan. 29th Turkish Cookery Class at Divertimenti Cookery School, London.

I am passionate about healthy, delicious Turkish cuisine; this recipe and over 90 healthy, authentic Turkish recipes are included at my cookery book, Ozlem’s Turkish Table, Recipes from My Homeland. Signed copies are now 20 % this link and delivered worldwide including USA, if you like to get a signed copy.

Ozlem’s Turkish Table; Recipes from My Homeland – can be purchased at this link (signed copies!)

I hope you enjoy this easy, delicious, healthy Piyaz Salad, Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

5.0 from 3 reviews

Piyaz Salad with red onions, tomatoes, parsley and sumac

This vibrant and healthy Piyaz Salad gets ready in no time and it is so delicious. Red onions and tomatoes work very well with the tangy sumac; we tradionally enjoy this salad with Lahmacun, Turkish thin pizza with minced/ground meat topping, as well as Turkish meatballs. It is also a lovely salad served with cheese, olives and hummus.

Author: Ozlem Warren

Recipe type: Salads

Cuisine: Turkish Cuisine

Serves: 4

Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes, quartered and roughly chopped
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon salt
15ml/1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
10 ml/2 teaspoon ground sumac
½ teaspoon paprika flakes – optional –
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Rub and work sumac and the salt into the onion slices with your hands really well (this will soften the onions and help spices infuse in well).
Stir in the chopped tomatoes, parsley and paprika flakes, combine well.
Wisk together the extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and pour over the piyaz salad. Season with more salt (if needed) and freshly ground black pepper.
Serve Piyaz Salad with feta cheese, olives and/or hummus for a delicious spread. Piyaz Salad is also the ultimate accompaniment of Lahmacun and Turkish meatballs, kofte.