1000 Ways to Love Your Total Greek Yoghurt – Part 3

Finally on my Total Greek Yoghurt day with Chef Paul Merrett we started the main course in our groups.

The first tease was preparing the spices.  As we roasted and ground the collection of spices, including fennel seeds, chilli flakes, cunim seeds, corriander seeds, cinnamon and ground ginger, the room began to fill up with the most alluring aroma. If you closed your eyes at that point you would have thought you were in a spice market somewhere exotic!

We first peeled the butternut squash and cut it into small chunks.  These were rolled in the spice mix and fried for long enough to colour the squash.  At this point we all agreed this would make a great tapas style appetiser! 

All the rest of the ingredients were put together and cooked for a further 10 minutes or so until the squash was tender.

Whilst this was cooking the yoghurt sauce was made and then Chef Paul Merrett made us giggle as he prepared the cauliflower couscous!

And finally we had our full meal made and we sat down at a large table and a group meal with wine and lots of food blogger talk!

I hope this account of my day out with Total Greek Yoghurt and Chef Paul Merrett  makes you want to try a few of the 1000 ways to love your Total Greek Yoghurt! Cheers.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the Spice Mix

½ tbsp of fennel seeds

2 pinches of chilli flakes

½ tbsp of cumin seeds

1 tsp of coriander seeds

1 inch of cinnamon

1 tsp of ground ginger

½ tbsp of paprika

For the Tagine

1 butternut squash, peeled and
roughly cut into 3cm cubes

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 red onion diced

1 yellow pepper, diced into 3 cm
squares

1 red pepper, diced into 3cm squares

1¾ tin of chopped tomatoes

100g of dried apricots, halved

Approx 20 green olives

1 tin of chick peas

Olive oil (for frying)

For the Fennel Seed Yoghurt

200g of TOTAL Greek yoghurt

2 tsp of fennel seeds

½ tsp of smoked paprika

1 tbsp of coriander, chopped

1 tsp mint, chopped

For the Cauliflower Couscous

1 head of cauliflower

20 inch square of muslin

Method:

1.      Dry
fry, cool and grind all spices for the spice mix in the pestle and mortar.

2.      Dust
the cubed butternut squash with a third of the spice mix and fry in batches
until brown all over. At this point you are just ‘colouring’ your squash. Set
aside.

3.      Heat
a casserole and fry the garlic and red onion.

4.      Add
the peppers.

5.      Add
the tomatoes and bring the pot to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes.

6.      Add
the dried apricots, olives and chickpeas.

7.      Add
a little water at this point if required.

8.      Add
the pre roasted butternut and another third of the spice mix.

9.      Cook
on until the butternut is just cooked (about 5 min).

10.  Check
the seasoning and add a little salt and some more spice mix if required.

11.  Toast
the fennel seeds in a frying pan, cool and grind.

12.  Mix
the yoghurt with the fennel seeds, paprika, mint & coriander and set aside.

13.  Trim cauliflower florets from the stalk.

14.  Whizz up the florets to a crumb in a robot coupe.

15.  Wrap the cauliflower couscous in the muslin and place
in a colander over a pan of boiling water for approximately 5 minutes.