Currabinny Cooks: The easiest hummus recipe ever

— and more great recipes if you're wild about wild garlic

Sat, 13 Mar, 2021 - 08:00

Quick, delicious recipes using seasonal ingredients

It's that very special time of year when the wild garlic appears as if out of nowhere along wooded paths and parklands everywhere. For any of us whose idea of foraging only really extends as far as going for a leisurely stroll in the countryside, wild garlic is the dream. It pops up in Spring in abundant clusters. They grow in roughly the same patches every year so once you find your patch, you can be sure to return each year and find wild garlic growing. If you have yet to come across a patch, the smell of wild garlic will guide you to it should you be walking nearby. They are easily identifiable by their glossy green, pointed leaves growing in close-knit bundles. Wild garlic tends to carpet whatever particular patch it grows in so there should be plenty to pick. If indeed your idea of going for a leisurely walk doesn’t involve heading off-track to pick some wild garlic of your own, you can often 'forage' for it in some good greengrocers and farmers markets, where it comes in tidy bunches. If you do happen upon a nice patch of wild garlic, make sure it is somewhere a bit away from the roadside, especially if it's a busy one. It is best practice to snip the leaves off with a scissors rather than pulling at them — this way the roots remain intact and they are sure to grow back.

When you return home from your foraging adventures, be sure to put your freshly-picked wild garlic in a large bowl and submerge the lot in cold water. After this, you drain, pat dry and transfer to a suitable container. We keep ours in a large jar in the fridge.

You can use your wild garlic as a substitute for most things you would have used garlic cloves for, but remember to treat it more as a herb. Wild garlic is more pungent on the nose than bulb garlic but its actual flavour is mellower and more herbaceous. Even though it is generally more gentle than regular garlic, wild garlic has a knack of permeating its flavour throughout whatever you put it in. In this way, it acts very much like a herb.

Soft Boiled Eggs, Wild Garlic Ricotta & Yoghurt with Wild Garlic Brown Butter

This heavenly breakfast bowl is devilishly easy to pull together and the addition of wild garlic offers a fresh garlic flavour that seems brighter and lighter than using regular garlic. Be careful with the quantities as it is still very much possible to overpower the more subtle flavours from the yoghurt, ricotta and spices. This dish looks elegant, beautiful and sophisticated whilst also being incredibly simple to pull together in the morning.

Ingredients:

100g Ricotta
200g Greek yoghurt
Small handful of wild garlic, finely chopped
½ teaspoon of Za’atar
½ teaspoon of Sumac
Sea salt and black pepper
4 organic eggs

For the butter:

80g butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
½ teaspoon of mild chili powder
½ teaspoon of paprika
4-5 small leaves of wild garlic, finely chopped
Sea salt

Method:

Whip together the ricotta, yoghurt, wild garlic, za’atar, sumac, sea salt and black pepper in a bowl and set aside. If it is too stiff, stir in a little good quality olive oil to loosen it a little.

Boil the eggs until soft or jammy but not too soft to peel. Alternatively, you could of course poach them. Peel the eggs and set aside while you make the brown butter.

In a small pan, melt the butter over a medium-high heat and cook until it starts to get foamy and turn brown. Add the olive oil, spices and half the wild garlic and cook for a further minute. Take off the heat and set aside.

Assemble by dividing the ricotta/yoghurt mixture between two bowls, cut the eggs in half, season and place on top and finally drizzle the brown butter on top. Garnish with the reserved wild garlic, a pinch of za’atar, sumac and black pepper.

Wild Garlic Koftas with Tahini sauce and Potatoes

This dish was developed from a recipe we use often from the wonderful cookbook Falastin by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley. The addition of wild garlic to both the koftas and tahini sauce gives this dish a new freshness which lightens an otherwise quite hearty meal.

Ingredients:

500g rooster potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
125g Tahini
80g Greek yoghurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
Good handful of wild garlic leaves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely sliced
Small handful of parsley leaves, chopped
40g pine nuts, lightly toasted on a dry pan
Sea salt and black pepper

For the Koftas:

250g lamb mince
250g beef mince
½ medium onion, finely chopped or grated
1 large plum tomato, grated and skin discarded
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Small handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped
Large handful of wild garlic leaves, finely chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

In a bowl, toss the potato cubes in olive oil and season with sea salt. Place in a baking tray and put in the oven for around 30 minutes until cooked through and starting to turn golden.

When they are cooked, remove from the oven and set aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 230°C.

Place all the ingredients for the koftas in a large bowl and mix together well with your hands. If you want to check for seasoning, just fry a little of the mixture on your frying pan and taste. Don’t be shy with the sea salt and especially black pepper.

Shape the mixture into 12 torpedo-shaped pieces and set aside while you make the sauce.

In a large bowl mix together the tahini, yoghurt, lemon juice, vinegar and wild garlic. This will be very stiff so pour in 125ml of water while you whisk. Season with a good pinch of sea salt and a grind of black pepper. The mixture should be well mixed together and smooth. Set aside until needed.

Put a little olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan or skillet on medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and koftas, cooking for around 5-6 minutes, rolling the koftas over so they are cooked all over.

Transfer to the oven and bake for just 4 -5 minutes. Remove and stir in the sauce and potatoes.

Return back to the oven for another 5 minutes until the sauce is bubbling gently.

Remove from the oven and serve, garnished with fresh parsley, wild garlic and a generous scattering of the toasted pine nuts.

Wild Garlic Hummus

Following the vaguely middle eastern theme of this weeks recipes, wild garlic is the perfect thing to jazz up a hummus and elevate it into something a little bit more special.

Ingredients: