Hummus

Hummus often goes out on our condiments table and nicely compliments the curry or the pasta salad depending on whether its a lunchtime or evening distribution.

Making hummus in our kitchen requires in excess of 25kg of chickpeas and litres of tahini. But dont panic we have scaled down the recipe so you can make it for a family dinner or for a few friends!

We often like to add a few extras bit and pieces, some ideas include, roasting red peppers and blitzing them in the other ingredients to make a delicious red pepper hummus or sprinkling some nuts/seeds/coriander on top.

Ingredients:

250g of cooked chickpeas

70ml tahini

1/2 teaspoon cumin

30ml lemon juice

50ml water that the chickpeas were cooked in

2 garlic cloves

2 spoons olive oil

2 oven roasted red pepper (optional)

harissa paste (optional)

chilli powder (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Add it all to a blender and blitz it together until it reaches a consistency your happy with!

Taste it and adjust to your preferences. RCK loves a garlicy hummus and so goes heavy on the garlic part!

Basbousa

Serves 5

YOU WILL NEED:

Syrup:

- 150g sugar

- 1/2 cup of water

- Few drops of orange blossom water

Cake:

- 150g sugar

- 80g yogurt

- 225g course semolina

- 75g melted butter

- Optional, crushed pistachios for decoration

METHOD::

1. Make the syrup by sugar, water and orange blossom and bring to boil. Let the syrup then cool.

2. To make the cake beat together the sugar and the yogurt (aim to make the sugar dissolve)

3. Mix in the rest of cake ingredients and mix until it all comes together

4. Score with a diamond pattern on the top

5. Bake for 25 minutes

6. Once out the oven pour the syrup over the cake

7. Enjoy! And if you make don’t forget to send us your photos!!

Happy baking!

Keralan Cabbage Thoran

For 4-6 people:

YOU WILL NEED:

½ a large white cabbage finely sliced

2 tablespoon of green lentils

2 onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 green chilli, sliced

6 tablespoons of grated coconut meat

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp mustard seeds

A few curry leaves

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp mild chilli flakes

Salt to taste

Bunch of chopped fresh coriander to finish

METHOD::

1. Grate the cabbage finely.

2.Gently cooking the lentils until they are soft.

3. Make a smooth thick paste of coconut meat/ garlic/cumin/green chilli.

4. Heat a small amount oil in pan till hot - add mustard seeds - when they start jumping about add the dried chilli, then onions, and salt. When the onions have become soft add turmeric and curry leaf.

4. Next add the cabbage, stirring it in on low heat.

5. Cook slowly on low heat: if sticking add small amounts oil (but no water or stock). This is a dry curry using only the onion and cabbage moisture.

6. When soft and tasty stir in the coconut paste - cook through

for couple of minutes.

7. Stir in the lentils. Scatter over chopped coriander and voila!!

8. Send us a photo of your Keralan Cabbage Thoran!!

RCK Calendar 2022

February is well underway but we're still dreaming of the January calendar recipe by the wonderful Michelin-starred Giorgio Locatelli! His delicious Potato and Kale Bake was the perfect side or an indulgent dinner on its own - order one of our 2022 Calendars for this and 11 more great recipes from the RCK kitchens!

Try out our sauces, curries and salads for fresh flavours, new tastes and soon-to-be favourites!

Each calendar pays for 32 hot meals, served with love and respect

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Recipe Skill Share time

This week we met up bright and early for a recipe skill-share! In Calais we serve dozens of communities including Eritrean, Sudanese, Algerian, Pakistani, Egyptian, Iraqi, Moroccan, Senegalese and many more. Providing meals that are familiar, varied and delicious is at the heart of what we do, so researching and sharing recipes for spice mixes, salads, stews, desserts and drinks was a great way to kickstart the week's cooking!

VEGAN MAYONNAISE for ETHIOPIAN OTHODOX LENT

At Refugee Community Kitchen we believe it's important to serve culturally familiar food & condiments. It's currently Ethiopian Orthodox Lent, which means that some of the people we serve will eat vegan until April 18th. Our vegan mayonnaise has been going down really well - it's made of AQUAFABA a.k.a. chick pea juice!

Here's a recipe for you to try at home:

*2 cups Aquafaba

*2.5 cups veg oil (any flavourless veg oil will do)

*1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

*1.5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

*2.5 tablespoons dijon mustard

*pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients (expect for the oil) in a bowl and combine with stick blender. When combined, slowly but steadily add the oil, making sure the blender is sucking in some air, so that it gets foamy, and eventually goes white. Keep adding oil until it will stick to a spoon without dripping. Now add more salt, mustard, vinegar to taste, or get creative and add chili or garlic!