Greek Meze

Method

1. Begin by cooking the split peas for the fava. Roughly chop one half of a medium sized onion. Rinse the split peas under cold running water and pop them into a large saucepan. Add a litre of water, the chopped onion, and the bay leaf. Bring the water to the boil before reducing it to a simmer. Cook until the peas are soft and a little mushy, this could take up to an hour but check after forty-five minutes. Keep an eye on the pan and add more boiling water if needed. By the time the peas are cooked, the water will have largely evaporated off, but if there is still a bit in the pan, drain most of it away leaving about 50ml or so.

2. While the peas are cooking, you can get one with prepping the other mezze. Rinse the red pepper and pop it into an air fryer or preheated oven set to 180 Celsius. Roast the pepper until it blistered and little charred all over, twenty minutes in an air fryer should do it, or about thirty minutes in an oven. When it is done, transfer it to a bowl and cover with cling film. Set the bowl aside for thirty minutes to allow the roasted pepper to cool and soften so that the skin is very easy to remove.

3. Peel the potatoes and cut them into roughly 3cm chunks. Toss them in a little olive oil and some salt. When the fava has twenty minutes to go, pop the potato into your air fryer at 200 Celsius for twenty minutes, tossing them a few times as they cook to make sure they are crisp and golden all over. If you do not have an air fryer, you can cook these in your won. Simply arrange them in a single layer on a roasting tray and cook them for thirty minutes, making sure to turn them halfway though.

4. Finish the feta and red pepper dip. Peel the red pepper, the skin should come way very easily now. Discard the skin, stalk, and seeds, retaining just the lovely sweet roasted flesh. Pop that into a food processor along with the feta and the rest of the ingredients and pulse until everything is well combined but still has a little texture. Transfer to a clean serving bowl and pop it into the fridge until you are ready to serve.

5. Make the tzatziki. Cut the cucumber in half lengthways. Use a teaspoon to scoop out all the seeds and discard those. Slice the cucumber widthways quite thinly, about 2-3mm is perfect. Wash and finely shred the mint leaves. Peel and grate the garlic. Pop the cucumber, mint, garlic, honey, salt, and lemon juice into a bowl along with the Greek yoghurt and stir to combine. Taste and add a little more salt, honey, or lemon juice to your own preference. Set aside.

6. By now the split peas should be done. Check to ensure they are soft and mushy, and that most of the water has evaporated away. Remove the bay leaf and transfer the cooked peas and onion, with just a little retained liquid, to a food processor. Peel and grate the garlic, adding it to the cooked peas, along with the lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and a good grind of black pepper. Blitz to a smooth puree. Fava should be similar in texture to a thick hummus. You will see that the peas blitz into a quite thick paste, so add just a little more water or olive oil if it needs to be thinned out a bit. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and lemon juice if required.

7. Serve these four dishes with your choice of other simple mezze and some fresh crusty bread or toasted pitta.