Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
With Sugar Cafe's roast pumpkin and chickpea salad
Ingredients
1kg diced pumpkin
olive oil
salt and pepper
Base
800g cooked chickpeas (if using canned, drain and rinse well)
3-4 Tbsp sundried tomato pesto (see recipe below)
¼ red onion, finely diced
125g feta, crumbled
2 handfuls baby spinach
Sundried tomato pesto
¾ cup sundried tomatoes
⅓ cup pinenuts and/or cashews
2 cloves roasted garlic
1 Tbsp lemon juice
⅓ cup grated parmesan
approx. ⅓ cup olive oil (or oil from sundried tomato jar)
Method
Put the pumpkin in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper, toss, then roast at 180degC until tender, approximately 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool.
Mix base ingredients together in the order listed then mix in the roasted pumpkin. Taste and season further if required.
Sundried tomato pesto
Pulse together until smooth. Season as required.
Requested by Ana Byford, of Dunedin.
This recipe comes from With Sugar Cafe in Lower Stuart St, Dunedin.
• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
