Just Add Yoghurt

I’m always looking for some filling, fresh and yummy accompaniments to a meaty summer BBQ. A side that can stand alone and isn’t just the obligatory greenery on the plate that justifies the three sausages next to it. Pumpkin is my new favourite vegetable – so versatile, colourful and flavoursome. So I wanted to come up with a BBQ side that would utilise pumpkin in all its glory. A pasta salad was an obvious choice! This light and summary pasta salad is the perfect addition to a summer BBQ. Ingredients: 500g pasta 1/2 pumpkin – half diced and half boiled ½ cup vegetable stock 2 cloves garlic diced 1 tablespoon oregano Salt and pepper 3 tablespoon yoghurt 1 zucchini 6 mushrooms diced 4 rashes of bacon Punnet of cherry tomatoes ¼ cup parsley ¼ cup basil ¼ cup of olive oil 100g ricotta Tablespoon of lemon juice Method: Put half the pumpkin in the oven at 250 degrees and roast for 30minutes or until cooked Boil half the pumpkin and once soft, mash u...

It’s no secret, the Australian summer has not been overly thrilling. However as I rang in 2017 with two jumpers on, standing near a hot BBQ to stay warm, I had hope that summer was still to come. Now after consecutive days over 25 without rain, I had to pull out a lovely summary recipe – caramelised onion and cheddar tart. Using yoghurt instead of cream adds a lightness to this dish and helps me overcome my 2016 Christmas binge. Ingredients: Pastry 1 .5 cups plain flour 100 g butter, chopped 2 1/2 tbsp iced water 1 tablespoon Greek Yoghurt Filling: 1 tablepoon olive oil 3 onions sliced 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon sugar 1 sprig of thyme 100g cheddar cheese 5 eggs ¼ cup milk ¼ cup Greek Yoghurt Salt and pepper. Method Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs Add 2.5 tablespoons water and 1 tablespoon Greek Yoghurt and mix in until dough starts to form (add more water if too crumbly) Put dough onto a flour...

This Ethiopian stew is commonly served after periods of fasting like Christmas and Easter. Its hearty nature makes it the perfect dish to break a fast and enjoy family time. Christmas according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Ethiopian calendar is 7 January, not 25 December. Spicy, tasty and warming, this dish is far from the typical Australian BBQ but would be delicious on a cold Christmas night. Traditionally cooked with butter, I opted for oil and a little yoghurt instead – lighter yet still a little creamy with the yoghurt. Ingredients: 3 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 tablespoon of minced ginger 1 onion finely chopped 3 garlic cloves 2 tablespoons of Ethiopian spice mix (berbere) 1 tomato, chopped 8 chicken drumsticks 2 cups water 2 cups chicken stock 4 hard boiled eggs 3 tablespoon Greek yoghurt Salt and pepper Method:       Cook onion in oil until it starts to soften            Add garlic an...

After a Google search and a few interesting Christmas traditions later (for example in Japan, KFC is the traditional Christmas Eve feast - the lines go out the door!), I came across this interesting Danish Christmas tradition. Risalamande is a rice pudding with almonds and cream, served with cherry sauce. Riz a l’amande translates to rice and almonds. Having grown up on rizogalo, a Greek rice pudding with cinnamon, I was curious so had to give this one a go…with a yoghurt twist of course. Traditionally this dish is served mixed with cream however to lighten it a little I opted for ¾ cream and ¼ yoghurt. I think the result was good. Ingredients: ½ cup white rice 2.1 cups of milk ¼ cup water ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence 2 tablespoons of sugar 200g pitted cherries in syrup 2 tablespoons of the cherry syrup 2 tablespoons of icing sugar 1 tablespoon of sugar 2 tablespoons of ground almonds ¾ cup of cream ½ teaspoon vanilla ¼ cup of Greek yoghurt Meth...

When I think about Christmas growing up I think about waking up early, opening presents, rushing to church and then coming home to a stomach-stretching lunch shared with family, whereby every belt buckle and pants button would fly open as soon as that final bite was taken. That is why I wear dresses on Christmas day. Our lunch table was a mix of traditional Australian-Christmas BBQ and prawns and Greek-Christmas inspired Pastitsio (like Greek lasagne), tiropita, Greek salad and roasted vegetables. For dessert icing-sugar coated Greek almond shortbread, kourabiethes, would almost always make an appearance. You won’t find many Greek houses not serving kourabiethes at Christmas time. Truth be told, I never liked them because they are lathered in icing-sugar and could often be really dry. However when combined with a semi-sweet yoghurt and honey custard and only lightly dusted with icing-sugar, I’m all over them! Yoghurt and honey custard ingredients: Ingredients:...

As Christmas draws near I wanted to use my next few blog post recipes to explore what other culture’s Christmas table looks like. In Australia, prawns, ham, BBQ and the humble Pavlova commonly fill people’s Christmas table. However for other countries, traditions differ. The Japanese celebrate Christmas with KFC and the Dutch make a biscuit called banketletter (meaning letter cake), which is made from marzipan or pastry and made in the shape of the first letter of people’s name that attend a family’s Christmas party. I was intrigued by the Italian tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve. Drawing on the  Roman Catholic  tradition of abstinence, which in this case refers to not eating meat or milk products, the Italian-American community took this tradition one step further with the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  This feast involves families coming together and sharing seven fish and seafood based dishes. The first course is often something snack-like, sinc...

As the weather gets warmer and days longer, beef koftas with salad is one of my favourite dishes to make. With the yoghurt garlic sauce, these koftas are packed with aromatic spice and flavour. You can also cook these koftas on a stick, one of the most basic, ancient forms of cooking. It also makes it a lot of fun to eat and the kids will love it. Ingredients: 1 kg mince beef 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped finely ¼ cup bread crumbs 1 ½ tablespoon ground cumin 2 tablespoon yoghurt (heaped) Juice of ½ lemon 1 onion, minced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon salt Pepper to taste Yoghurt sauce: 4 tablespoons yoghurt 1 small cloves of garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon Method: Mix all the kofta ingredients together Shape into short sausage shapes Heat a non-stick pan until hot Place the koftas on the pan and turn the heat to medium Cook until brown on all sides – approximately 3 minutes on each side Don’t overcook – cut...