There are some things that I eat that I would never make from scratch or prepare for myself.
Sure, I eat a lot more different kinds of things, now, but I’m still very much squeamish about certain ingredients, animal products, textures and smells.
Taramasalata, also known as caviar or fish roe dip, is one thing that I only buy from a market deli.
And even then, I don’t think about what it is too much.
Afterall, it doesn’t taste fishy or eggy. Sure, it tastes salty, but it’s also smoky and lemony, the other ingredients in the dip helping to diffuse the pungent fish roe taste.
I grew up eating taramasalata, and I distinctly remember finding out what it was made from at a young age and refusing to eat it for the longest time. Then someone asked me how it was different to eating chicken eggs; eggs were eggs, right?
I stopped eating eggs for a while too.
Both ingredients came back into my diet… eventually.
So I took a closer look at a recipe that popped up during my search, pairing taramasalata with native finger limes – I would just buy it instead of making it! And turn an elegant starter into more of a main course by whipping up some flatbread.
Because flatbread goes with everything, don’t ya know.
This is essentially a yogurt flatbread recipe with a charred vegetable topping, and flavoured with taramasalata and finger lime pearls. It’s a jumble of ingredients, but it just works. And if the fish roe dip really isn’t for you, a lemony cream cheese would be a very tasty substitute.
Yogurt Flatbread w Charred Greens, Taramasalata and Finger Limes
Ingredients
For the Yogurt Flatbread
- 250 g bread flour
- 200 g Greek yoghurt
- 1 tablespoon herbs de Provence*
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
For the Greens
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 bunches broccolini
- 2 bunch young asparagus, woody ends trimmed
- 1 Zucchini, halved and chopped into quarters
- Handful snow peas, trimmed
- ⅓ cup fresh podded peas
To Serve
- Taramasalata dip*
- 2 finger limes
Instructions
- For the Yogurt Flatbread: Add all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until small pieces of dough start to form.250 g bread flour, 200 g Greek yoghurt, 1 tablespoon herbs de Provence*, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, around 3 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 6, rolling each piece into a ball. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
- Roll out each ball to around 3mm thick and brush on side of each with olive oil.
- In batches, cook the flat bread on a char-grill pan* for around 3 minutes each side or until cooked through, brushing extra olive oil on the other side before turning.
- For the Greens: Drizzle olive oil over all the vegetables except for the fresh peas and grill using the same char-grill pan. Cook on each side for 2 to 3 minutes, until you get a nice char on the vegetables.Extra virgin olive oil, 2 bunches broccolini, 2 bunch young asparagus, 1 Zucchini, Handful snow peas, ⅓ cup fresh podded peas
- To Serve: Spread some taramasalata dip on each piece of flatbread, top with a mixture of charred greens, the fresh peas and finger lime pearls.Taramasalata dip*, 2 finger limes
Cook along with me
Notes
- You don’t have to use herbs de Provence; you can use a single dried herb flavour, such as basil, or a blend like Italian or mixed herbs.
- A mentioned above, if the caviar dip really isn’t to your liking, flavouring some cream cheese with a bit of lemon or lime and using that as the base would also work really, really well. As would a French onion dip.
- If you don’t have a char-grill pan or griddle, an everyday frying pan will do the same job just as well, you’ll just have more even colouring instead of grill marks; nothing wrong with that!
