Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow – this lovely, one-tin recipe is the very definition of practical cooking. The flavour of the lightly spiced carrots against the toffeed dates, sharp feta and lemon works beautifully; I took it to a friend’s house for a pot-luck lunch and it went down very well. Use your choice of tinned butter beans, black beans, haricot, cannellini or indeed chickpeas – it’s a great dish to use up whatever you have around.
Spiced roast carrots with feta, dates, bulgur and beans
Prep 15 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4
200g bulgur wheat
400ml vegetable stock
1 x 400g tin beans (black, haricot, butter beans or chickpeas), drained and rinsed
450g carrots, peeled and cut on the diagonal into 1cm-thick slices
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, peeled and finely grated
2½cm thumb fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cardamom pods, seeds ground
200g feta, crumbled
10 medjool dates, quartered
15g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
For the dressing
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt flakes
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Tip the bulgur, stock and beans into a large roasting tin, and stir. In a large bowl, mix the sliced carrots, olive oil, garlic, ginger, salt and spices, then scatter them evenly over the bulgur mix. Transfer to the oven to roast for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the dressing. Whisk the lemon juice and zest, olive oil and salt.
Once the bulgur and carrots are out of the oven, fluff the bulgur with a fork and stir through the lemon dressing. Taste and adjust with more lemon and salt as needed, then scatter over the feta, dates and parsley. Serve warm or at room temperature.
