Anna Jones' frying-pan flatbreads
A nice, easy recipe from chef and food writer Anna Jones, these veggie flatbreads can be whipped up in no time.
She explains "the part of east London I live in is full of Turkish cafes. They turn out charcoal-baked flatbreads and insanely good salads, and although meat is front and centre in Turkish food, there are some amazing vegetable dishes too.
Ingredients:
To make the flatbreads
- 200g spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 200g Greek yoghurt, or 150ml warm water
To make the topping
- 2 red onions
- 3 red peppers
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried Turkish chilli flakes
- 1 green chilli
- a small bunch of fresh mint
To make the salad
- 1 red onion
- 1 lemon
- 5 ripe vine tomatoes
- a small bunch of fresh mint
- a small bunch of fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon sumac
- 1 teaspoon harissa or Turkish chilli paste
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
- extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Put all the flatbread ingredients into the bowl of your food processor and pulse until the mixture forms a ball. If you don't have a food processor, this can be done in a bowl using a fork to begin with, followed by your hands, but it will take longer.
Dust a clean work surface with flour and tip out the dough. Knead for a minute or so to bring it all together. This is a quick flatbread recipe, so you don't need to knead it for long. Put the dough into flour-dusted bowl and cover with a plate. Put to one side to rise a little for 10-15 minutes while you do some other jobs. Don't expect it to rise like normal dough, but it may puff up a tiny bit.
To make the topping, heat a frying pan on medium heat, then finely chop your onions and red peppers and put them into the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, then add the dried chilli. Chop the fresh green chilli and mint and add to the pan along with a final tablespoon of oil.
Next, make your salad. Finely slice the onion and put into a bowl with the juice of half a lemon and a good pinch of salt. Scrunch with your hands, then leave to pickle.
Chop the tomatoes roughly, then roughly chop the leaves of fresh herbs. Put them into a bowl with the spices and the pomegranate molasses and add the lemon-picked red onions. Season well with salt and pepper and add a little more lemon juice and a good drizzle of olive oil, balancing out the flavours until it tastes great.
Now back to the flatbreads. Put a large frying pan or griddle pan (about 22-24cm) on a medium heat.
Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour, then divide dough into four equal-sized pieces. Using your hands, pat and flatten out the dough, then use the rolling pin to roll each piece into about 20cm round, roughly 2-3mm thick.
Once your pan is hot, cook each flatbread for 1-2minutes on each side, until nicely puffed up, turning with tongs.
Spread with the onion and chilli mixture while hot, and serve straightaway with spoonfuls of salad.
