Zaatar carrots with feta mash

The combination of sweet roasted herby carrot pieces on a bed of creamy feta mash is a winner – a delight for the eyes and the tastebuds.

For the roasted carrots:

Ingredients:

700g carrots

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon zaatar spice mix

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1.        Preheat your oven to as hot as it will go.

2.        Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

3.        Combine the oil, zaatar, cumin and salt in a large dish.

4.        Slice the carrots diagonally – about 8mm thick is good, but the important thing is to make them all a similar thickness. (No need to slice the carrots unless you really want to – we just gave ours a quick scrub.)

5.        Add the carrot slices to the oil mix and stir so the slices get coated evenly.

6.        Tip them on to the lined baking sheet and spread them out evenly.

7.        Bake until the slices are soft and slightly caramelised: about half an hour, depending on your oven temperature, the thickness of the slices and the age and moisture level of the carrots.

For the mash:

Ingredients:

200g Angel Food vegan feta (keep a little aside as garnish)

1 x 400g can of cannellini beans (don’t drain them – you’ll use the liquid in the mash)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:

1.        In a food processor, blend the feta with the olive oil and the liquid from the tin of beans until it is very smooth.

2.        Add the beans and pulse or blend until it is as smooth (or chunky) as you like.

3.        Make a ring of the mash on a serving plate.

4.        When the carrots are cooked, stack them in the centre of the plate and garnish with parsley and a little crumbled vegan feta.

This hearty dish works beautifully as a simple main course or as part of a buffet. Serve hot or at room temperature with warmed wedges of flatbread for scooping up the luscious feta mash. You could also add a crisp green salad, a dish of warmed black olives in oil (the best way to dress up supermarket olives! Add some sprigs of fresh thyme if you have it) and maybe some oven roasted tomatoes finished with some flaky salt and lashings of fresh ground black pepper.

INGREDIENTS INFO AND SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES

·      Zaatar is a traditional aromatic Middle Eastern blend of herbs, sesame seeds, salt, and sumac (a tangy red spice made from dried sumac berries). If you don’t have zaatar on hand you could replace it with a mix of sesame seeds, salt and dried herbs such as thyme and oregano.

·      Tinned cannellini beans work well in the mash because they are soft and quite easy to blend smoothly. You could cook up some split peas instead, for an even smoother and creamier result (because the split peas don’t have skins). Canned black beans or kidney beans would work too, but the colour might be a bit grey.