Roasted chickpea and avocado salsa wraps

This is one of our favourite midweek recipes and is something we make at least once every few weeks, sometimes more.  It's a very quick and tasty evening meal.  We've pimped this version up slightly with the addition of some griddled halloumi to make it more substantial, however we often have it without.  Minus the halloumi, this recipe is vegan and is a bit lighter.  We really love the mixture of spice and crunch from the chickpeas with the sweetness from the roasted corn and the fresh zing of the salsa.  Delicious!

Ingredients (makes 4 wraps)

4 flour or corn tortilla
400g can of chickpeas - we use Napolina tinned pulses as they are plump and tasty and worth the few pence extra
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli flakes
0.5 tsp salt
1 corn on the cob

Salsa

1 ripe avocado
1 jarred roasted pepper
1 scotch bonnet chilli
1 clove of garlic
Handful of coriander (10-15g)
1 lime
0.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
0.5 tbsp olive oil

To garnish

Sliced cucumber

1 block of halloumi (225g)

Vegan aioli or mayonnaise

Preparation and cooking time 35 minutes

Pre-heat your oven to 190°C and then wrap your corn in the cob in some tin foil along with a knob of butter.  Place the corn in the oven, it will take about 30 minutes to roast up nicely.  In the meantime, add the olive oil, paprika, cumin, chilli flakes and salt to a bowl. 

Drain the can of chickpeas and give them a rinse.  Add them to your oil and spice mixture and mix thoroughly until all of the chickpeas are coated.  Transfer them to a small roasting tin and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes.  Give them a shake halfway through.

Whilst the sweetcorn and chickpeas are cooking, prepare your salsa.  Crush the garlic and finely chop the Scotch Bonnet, depending on your spice tolerance you might want to remove the seeds from the chilli.  Cut the roasted pepper and avocado into a fine dice and put all the ingredients into a small bowl.

Add the olive oil and red wine vinegar and then squeeze over the juice of the lime.  Give the salsa a quick mix and add a pinch of salt and pepper to season.  Finally, chop the coriander leaf finely and then mix in.

If you are having halloumi as we did, chop the block into eight equal sized pieces and in a hot griddle pan crisp the halloumi up for 3 minutes on each side.

Remove the chickpeas and sweetcorn from the oven and use a knife to remove the corn from the cob.  Place into bowls ready for serving.

Soften the tortillas for 40 seconds either on a plate in the microwave or in a hot frying pan.  We used some of our homemade vegan aioli to drizzle over the tortilla before piling on the other ingredients, this is optional but some sort of mayo or sour cream (or vegan version thereof) adds a nice cooling creaminess and helps hold the tortilla together.  Add the other components - including some thin slices of cucumber for crunch and even more freshness - to the tortilla then roll and fold it up.

Your wraps are then ready to eat and enjoy.  Two wraps each makes a hearty dinner for two, another option would be to cook up some spicy potato wedges and serve these with a wrap and a side salad and you have dinner for four.  We hope you enjoy these wraps as much as we do.

Huevos divorciados con frijoles

Today, we bring you our recipe for huevos divorciados con frijoles.  Frijoles are refried beans and are a common accompaniment for a dish such as this; huevos divorciados are the cousin of huevos rancheros - a popular Mexican breakfast or brunch dish consisting of a tortilla topped with fried eggs and salsa, often with other additions too.  Huevos divorciados translates as 'divorced eggs' and it differs from its better-known cousin by having a different colour salsa for each of the two fried eggs.  We have gone for a traditional tomato salsa that would usually be served with huevos rancheros along with an avocado salsa.  In Mexico, we understand that red and green salsas are served with huevos divorciados but the green salsa is usually runny and made with green tomatoes, so this is very much our own take on a Mexican classic.

The recipe makes a hearty, substantial brunch dish and you could have it for lunch or dinner quite happily as it will certainly fill you up.  The balance of flavours works really well, the frijoles are smoky and ever so slightly sweet whilst the tomato salsa gives a sharp freshness and some chilli heat, whilst the avocado offers a richness and an extra whack of chilli to boot.  It's a great alternative to more traditional cooked breakfasts and is really fresh and zingy.  It's easy to make too, so long as you don't mind doing a bit of chopping in the morning.

Ingredients (serves 2 generously):

4 large eggs
2 soft tortillas
Approx. 1 tbsp. vegetable oil for frying the eggs

Red salsa:

6 small tomatoes
1 red chilli
Half a red onion
20g fresh coriander
Juice of 1.5 limes
0.5 tbsp. olive oil

Green salsa:

Large avocado
One green chilli
1 clove of garlic
10g flat leaf parsley
10g fresh mint
Juice of 1.5 limes
0.5 tbsp. olive oil

Frijoles:

400g tin red kidney beans
1 clove of garlic
0.5 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. ground cumin
0.5 tbsp. tomato ketchup
0.5 tbsp. barbeque sauce
0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes

 

Begin by making your two salsas.  Finely chop the coriander and place in a bowl, then do the same with the mint and parsley (use only the leaves of the mint as the stalks are woody) placing them in a separate bowl.  Chop up your red onion and red chilli and add this to the bowl containing the coriander, then crush your clove of garlic and chop your green chilli and add these to the bowl containing the mint and parsley.  The reason for chopping these ingredients first is that they make less of a mess than the tomatoes and avocados and this will save you having to wipe down your chopping board whilst doing your prep.

The next step is to skin and de-seed the tomatoes.  To skin the tomatoes, cut a small cross just deep enough to pierce the skin into the top of your tomatoes and place them in a pan of boiling water for one minute.  Immediately place them in a bowl of cold water so that they don't continue to cook - you want to remove the skin only, not cook the flesh.  The skin should then peel off very easily and you will then need to cut the tomatoes open and remove the seeds.  Don't worry if you have a few rogue seeds left, it won't matter too much.

Finely chop the tomato and add to the bowl with the coriander, onion and red chilli.  Next, cut your avocado in half lengthways and then remove the stone.  Peel off the avocado skin and cut the avocado into small chunks and add this to the bowl containing the mint, parsley, garlic and green chilli.  Squeeze one and a half limes into each of the bowls and add half a tablespoon of olive oil to each then stir to ensure that the ingredients are well mixed.  Add a pinch of salt to season then set aside your two salsas for serving later.

Next, heat half a tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat.  Crush your other clove of garlic and drain but don't rinse your kidney beans.  For most recipes that use canned pulses we usually rinse them after draining but for this dish you want some of the beany flavour that is in the juices in the can so just drain the excess liquid.  At this point, also preheat your oven to 160°C in order to warm your tortillas before serving.

Add the garlic to the pan and soften for a minute or two then add the cumin, cinnamon and smoked paprika and cook for a further minute or two whilst stirring so that the spices cook through but don't catch.  Add the kidney beans and any remaining juices in the can then add the barbeque sauce and tomato ketchup.  Stir and then reduce the heat slightly and leave the beans to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes.  Use your spoon to break up some of the beans when stirring as this gives a nice flavour and consistency to your frijoles.

Heat some vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a medium to high heat.  Once the oil is at temperature, place two tortillas in the oven.  Then, crack the eggs into the frying pan and fry until they are just set, basting the top of the egg to help to heat through the yolk and ensure that the white is cooked through on top.  This should only take a couple of minutes.

Remove the tortillas from the oven and place one on each plate.  Add your frijoles to the middle of the tortilla and then add an egg to the left and right of your frijoles and dress the eggs with the two salsas, with the red salsa on one egg and the green salsa on the other.  It is then ready to serve and enjoy.



This is one of our favourite brunch dishes.  It is packed full of flavour and sets you up nicely for the rest of the day.  Please give it a try and let us know how you get on.  You can leave a comment below or email us.