Mezze Platter
Serves: 2
Time: 30 mins
Picky Platters are one of my all time favourite dinner choices and now that we have a toddler this style of eating works perfectly for us. Tonight I have given it a slightly Mediterranean spin with the addition of tabbouleh and dolmades, which also helps to make this a more substantial dinner than my usual picky plate. I do normally tend to drink my calories because picky plates go perfect with wine! But holidays, no matter how hard you try to make healthy choices, always leaves me feeling a bit heavy so there was no alcohol with this one. I will often buy my hummus to save time, but Pilpel is the only brand out there that I actually like and when I can’t find it I am always left a little disappointed, so I’ve been kicking my lazy self up a notch and making my own again because it’s super frickin easy and I like being able to control the flavour. But if you’re short on time or don’t have a good blender then buy all the way xx
What is a Dolmades
These are vine leaves stuffed with rice, you can find them in most deli sections in your supermarket or in a good gourmet deli. Sydney has some amazing delis so if you wanted to save some time you could always buy your tabbouleh here as well.
Leftovers
I often go overboard with these types of dinners to make sure that my husband gets enough in so there is a little leftover tonight.
What you'll need
1 red pepper, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper
1/2 a cucumber
1 block halloumi cheese
1 packet cherry tomatoes
3 pieces Lebanese bread
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin lentils
1 1/2 lemons
1/2 cup coconut yogurt
1 bunch curly parsley
1/2 bunch of coriander
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 red onion
8 dolmades
1 large tomato
From the Pantry
1 tablespoon tahini
1 large pinch of paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
olive oil
salt and pepper
Feeding Four?
I have added an extra block of haloumi, an extra packet of tomatoes and some carrot sticks, but I suggest you also toast extra bread.
Prep
Preheat oven to 1eighty
Slice the Lebanese bread into 8 segments and layout on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle or brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle lightly with some cumin seeds and pop into the oven to cook for 8 minutes until golden crunchy.
Make Hummus
Drain chick peas and pop into a kitchen blender with 1 tablespoon of tahini, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of water. Season with salt and pepper and blitz till really smooth. Transfer into a serving dish and sprinkle over the top with paprika.
Mix Tatziki
Double Up
Tomorrow night there is tatziki with the chicken so save some time and make double the batch.
Wash and roughly chop the coriander, finely slice cucumber lengthways then slice on a thin diagonal across the slices so that you end up with a nice shredded look almost spaghetti-like, add to the yogurt with the juice of half a lemon. and season well.
Prep Veggies
Cut peppers in half and remove the core and tap out any leftover seeds. Slice lengthways into finger size pieces.
Cut the cucumber into sections a similar size to the peppers.
Slice cherry toms in half if they are large.
Make Tabbouleh
Wash and finely chop the curly parsley, cut the tomato into a rough dice, peel the onion and slice into small dice. Drain the lentils really well and mix all together with a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper.
Cook Haloumi
I would skip first to the next step and have your platter all ready to go so that the halloumi is served warm, then come back and cook the halloumi.
Slice halloumi into pieces. Heat a non stick fry pan on medium to high heat with just a small dash of oil and use a spatula or fish slice to work it around so that it covers the whole base of the pan. Cook halloumi for just over a minute each side so that it is lightly golden.
Plate it Pretty
This is a perfect dish to share with friends. It’s easy to eat and easy to make look pretty, so lets talk a little more about the presentation. It is easy to make mezze platters look amazing because there is such an array of colours. One of the keys to presentation for this one is to pick the right dishes. Start with the dips - you don’t want to go too big or they will take up too much space, then choose the platter. Ovals look cool if you have this shape, if not then a large board is ideal and you can build the ingredients up as opposed to spreading out too thin. This will create an abundant look and if you think there is too much of something, then hold the rest back and top up as you need.
Enjoy!