Tasty Persian Recipes from Sally Butcher

Sally Butcher runs the acclaimed Persian food store Persepolis in London. In this upbeat guide to Middle Eastern vegetarian cookery Sally Butcher proves that the region is simply simmering, bubbling and bursting with sumptuous vegetarian traditions and recipes.

Written in her trademark engaging and knowledgeable style, Sally takes a fresh look at many of the more exciting ingredients available on our high streets today as well as providing a host of delicious recipes made from more familiar fare. From fragrant Persian noodle rice to gingery tamarind aubergines, pink pickled turnips and rose petal jam, Veggiestan is filled with aromatic herbs and spices, inspiring ideas and all the knowledge needed to cook wonderful vegetarian food.

Domates Corbasi ve Raki - tomato, fennel and arak soup

Tomato soup. Guaranteed to put a smile on the face. And a stain on the tie. Well, this one isn’t quite the ‘Cream of’ variety upon which the British are partially raised. There’s more than a hint of the exotic about it.

Instead of arak, you could use raki or ouzo, or even Pernod at a pinch

Serves 4

• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 large bulb fennel, chopped
  
• 1 red pepper, chopped
  
• olive oil, for cooking
  
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  
• ½ teaspoon thyme
  
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  
• 100ml/3½fl oz/scant ½ cup arak
  
• 1 can (400g/14oz) tomato concasse (chopped tomatoes)
  
• 350ml/12fl oz/1½ cups vegetable stock
  
• 4 medium tomatoes

To serve

• sour cream or crème fraîche
  
• chopped parsley
  
• flatbread croûtons

Method

1. Right, so you fry the onion, fennel and pepper in a little olive oil: as they begin to soften, add the garlic, fennel seeds and thyme, followed by the tomato paste.
2. Add the arak – if you are confident so to do, you can flame it as you pour it in, but this is not essential – and chase it with the concasse and the stock.
3. Bring the soup to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Roughly chop the fresh tomatoes, lower these in to the soup – this gives the soup a more artisan, less homogenised feel – and cook for around 15 minutes more
4. Serve the soup together with sour cream/crème fraîche for swirling, a scatter of chopped parsley and flatbread croûtons.

A Token Tagine – Prune And Turnip

Tagine is, of course, of Berber origin, from the Maghreb, and is the name of both a vessel and the food cooked in it. The dish is cone-shaped, the idea being that steam from the cooking stock is trapped and funneled back into the food, resulting in a uniquely tender and very flavoursome combination.
Tagines could take up a whole chapter of this book, and I would have been happy to write one: what’s not to like?

A perfectly balanced mixture of sweet and savoury vegetables, spices and herbs, multi-textured and coloured, soft-cooked in the world’s most photogenic cookware. But I have restrained myself, as to do so would have been to sacrifice other exciting corners of Veggiestan. This is admittedly one of my favourite tagines, but it is, nevertheless, a token. The original recipe was on the back of a postcard someone sent me from Essaouira.

The making of a good tagine is a state of mind rather than a culinary art. Once you have grasped the basic principles of seasoning, balance and contrast, the opportunity is there to have fun creating your own. Have a play. If you don’t have a tagine pot, you can use a casserole dish, or just make the whole thing in a saucepan.

Serves 4

• 2 tablespoons olive oil mixed with 1 tablespoon butter or ghee, for cooking
  
• about 12 shallots, peeled but left whole
  
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  
• 700g/1lb 9oz baby turnips (about 7–8), peeled and cubed (3cm/1¼in chunks)
  
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
  
• 400ml/14fl oz/1¾ cups vegetable stock
  
• ¼ teaspoon ground saffron, steeped in a splash of boiling water
  
• 300g/10½oz/10½oz soft pitted prunes (or dry prunes, soaked for 30 minutes)
  
• 1½ tablespoons runny honey
  
• salt and black pepper

To garnish

• 1 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted
  
• 1 tablespoon flaked almonds, toasted
  
• big handful of fresh coriander, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160?C/325?F/Gas mark 3.
2. Heat the oil and ghee in a frying pan (unless you have a fancy cast-iron tagine), and toss in the shallots, stirring them so that they cook evenly. After a few minutes, add the spices together with the turnip and carrot. Let it cook gently for a few minutes more and then add the saffron and vegetable stock:
3. when this comes to the boil, lower in the prunes and add the honey.
4. Stir well and season to taste.
5. At this stage transfer the whole thing to your tagine pot or a casserole, put the lid on and pop it in the oven to do its thing – it will need about 40 minutes.
6. Serve, sprinkled with the sesame, almonds and coriander.

Serve with couscous if you wish, although contrary to general belief couscous is not the inevitable companion of tagine but is rather a dish in itself. In Morocco, tagine is most often eaten solo, or with bread and a colourful salad.

Images from Veggiestan by Sally Butcher, published by Pavilion. Image photography by Yuki Sugiura