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Veggie Spread: Grilled Carrots With Labneh and Dukkah

Yotam Ottolenghi

Lesson time 19:33 min

The combination of abundance and informality creates a memorable dining experience. In this lesson, Yotam transforms the humble carrot into an artistic display and prepares dukkah, a dry blend of spices and nuts.

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Topics include: Dukkah • Making the Carrots

Preview

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:25.83] - I started writing a vegetarian column for The Guardian more than 10 years ago, almost 15 years ago. And I had to come up with a new vegetable idea every week. And I remember when I started, I was pretty daunted. I thought like, how do I do this? How could I make vegetables inspire people, get them to come back to them every time, and not bore them? And I thought, oh my gosh, what do I do? This is really hard. [00:00:49.86] But over time, I realized that it's actually quite the opposite, because vegetables have an incredible ability to be played with, manipulated a bit, soak flavors, grill. And this ability to take a vegetable and play with it in so many ways always translate into really exciting eating experience. And I guess that's really what food is all about. It's about the experience. And when you get those experiences, you really remember them. [00:01:15.87] So carrots and yogurt are a great combination. Creaminess and sweetness. Really, really lovely. I'm using my labneh, which is yogurt that has had the water drained out of it. So you've got this intensity of yogurt. And what I'm creating here is a contrast between the sweetness of the carrots that will be intensified with a bit of honey and the sharpness of the labneh. So sweet carrots, sharp labneh with a bit of duqqa. You've got texture. You've got color. And you've got intense flavors. And for me, when I think of vegetables, that's what I want, all these three elements together on one plate. [00:02:00.90] Duqqa is a spice mix from Egypt. It's got both nuts and seeds in it. So it's both crunchy and aromatic. It's something that you very happily have in a jar on your kitchen shelf to sprinkle over anything you want to that needs a little bit of spice up and a bit of a crunch. [00:02:18.91] And I'm just gonna start by toasting some seeds. I've got coriander seeds here, roughly two tablespoons. And some cumin seeds, about a teaspoon. And I'm gonna let-- mix them up a bit. And I'm gonna add a mixture of black and white sesame seeds, about a tablespoon and a half. And I'm gonna start toasting. [00:02:53.84] While I wait for all these aromas to start overwhelming me, I'll tell you a little bit about duqqa, because it's quite-- it's quite magical. In Egyptian cooking, you take a bit of bread, you soak it in olive oil, and you dip it in the duqqa. So the duqqa kind of clings into the bread and gives it a wonderful flavor. It's also something that you can easily sprinkle over meze. It looks great. But it gives you both crunch and spice. And this combination of crunchy and spicy is really something useful that you can always have in the kitchen. [00:03:28.63] You know how you taste something, you make a bit of rice and you go like, oh, it's-- maybe it's not quite right, I don't have enough flavor in there and it's not textural enough, you grab your jar of duqqa and you sprinkle that on top. And you go-- you get everything in abundance. The cum...

About the Instructor

One of the most influential chefs working today, Yotam Ottolenghi creates dishes that layer color and flavor for maximum impact. Now the James Beard Award winner teaches you simple steps for making and mixing Middle Eastern–inspired recipes. Learn how to make generous platters—mezze and brunch spreads to homemade condiments, stunning stand-alones, and delicious vegetables—so you can entertain with ease.

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Yotam Ottolenghi

James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.

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