This is the kind of dish I can eat all day long. The type of dish which tastes good but also seems to nourish your soul. And that, my friends is a good meal.

Sweet Potato & Chickpea Loaf with mint raita

Womens Weekly magazine, issue unknown, 2011

• 1kg kumara, peeled & chopped
• 3 slices stale multigrain bread
• 1/2 cup roasted cashews, toasted
• 400g chickpeas, rinsed & drained
• 1/2 cup coriander, coarsely chopped
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 eggs
• 3tsp yellow mustard seeds

Preheat oven to 180C and line an 11x25cm loaf pan

Blend/process the cashews and bread until coarsely chopped

Steam the sweet potato until tender and cool for 10 minutes

Heat the mustard seeds in a frypan until they pop

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon into the pan.

Bake for 50 minutes or until firm to touch, stand for ten minutes then cut into thick slices and serve with raita and a salad.

Raita

• 1 cup Greek yoghurt
• 1tbsp fresh mint
• 1tsp grated lemon rind

1. Mix together and season

With any leftovers I find a very tasty way to consume is to heat a frypan and gently reheat the slices in the pan. They get a nice crispy edge to them. Quite lovely.

A few of us have a garlic dip obsession. Some of us have been on a quest to make their own that has frustratingly ended badly each and every time. Even with recipes from reputable restaurants. Then I saw this, or one of them saw it and thought it could be worth a go.

Chef still thinks it’d be better if you blanched the garlic before whizzing it – dancing morgan mouse suggested about 30 seconds in the microwave, what a clever idea is that! But I don’t care if I breath garlic fire, this is divine.

Serve it with kebabs
Smear it quite liberally over a pizza base, scatter over some cheese and voila, the best garlic pizza base ever
Add a teaspoon to some sour cream or guacamole to have with your queasadillas

Dudes, just make it.

Quick Garlic Dip
The Food Blog

• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• A good pinch of salt
• 1 cup of iced water of which you will use around 2 tbsp

1. Put the garlic cloves along with salt and 1/4 of the lemon juice in the blender
2. Blend on medium and scrape the sides down then add the egg white and blend on medium
3. Add half the oil in a steady stream. If the sauce looks like it has split, remove half the amount, add another egg white, whizz and re-pour what had already split
4. Switch to a slow blend, and add the rest of the lemon juice in slowly then  the oil
5. Add 1 or 2 tbsp of water. You will see the consistency change into something wonderfully creamy and light. 

Go and check out the original on The Food Blog for some gorgeous images.