I've been picking up books on gardening and cooking from the library - just flick through over breakfast books, you know? Or lazy afternoon reading. Some are boring, some are uninspiring, some are downright awesome - like the book I got on composting, which I'll try to review at some point if you're interested. Most cookbooks can be a little meh for me - I'll get a couple of ideas, but that's about it. But this week I hit a winner - Lugma by Noor Moorad, full of Arabic, Persian and Indian flavours. I'm a big fan of such flavours - fennel and cummin seeds are prominent, cinnamon, saffron, cloves and cardomon.

Having picked up a big bunch of beetroot at the market compete with leaves - I hate buying leafless beetroot as the leaves are delicious - I decided to experiment with this recipe from the book, which you can find online here.

Of course, I didn't follow the recipe completely, because I used beetroot leaves instead of chard and kale, and I didn't have any raisins so passed on those. However, I didn't miss them, and I'm not a fan of fruit with savoury much.

The way I did it was super simple - fry the onions and turmeric powder til cooked and set aside, then fry the spinach with some garlic til wilted. I mixed some lemon juice and yoghurt in a bowl, then layered it all on the plate - a smear of yoghurt, some turmeric onions, the greens, and repeat.

I'm not sure even if I fried the onions til super crispy - they were kinda browned and caramelised, but just as delicious. To compliment the greens, I decided to make a buttery saffron rice with some spices, a bit of a cross between a few recipes I suppose. You fry spices in butter til fragrant - here, saffron (which gives it a lovely orange colour), cinnamon stick, cardomom, and cloves. I used white rice, simmered for ten minutes then let it absorb til soft, and fluffed up with a fork.

I cooked a simple chicken fillet stew with fresh tomatoes and chicken marinated in lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon, cummin seeds, garlic, onion and fennel seeds. No, this recipe wasn't in the book - I just made it up by paying attention to some of the spices she was using over various recipes.

The three dishes went beautifully together. The onions were so sweet with the slight bitterness of greens, the spiced rice was incredible, and the tomatoey sauce was delicious. I thought to make a more plant based version - even vegan - the stew would be great with canneloni beans or chick peas, and the yoghurt could easily be coconut yoghurt or perhaps even a white bean hummous.

I really love experimenting with food. I strongly advise you give these greens a go - just superb!

With Love,

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