Flatbread two ways : spiced + fruity lemon curd dream and nutty zucchini

August 21, 2014 by Margaux 8 Comments

Sometimes Man-thing comes up with pretty sensational ideas, all off-the-cuff and mostly inspired by his love of sweet things. I made Kristy’s amazingly easy and delicious flatbread the other day (to enjoy with plum ketchup and all sorts of savoury noms), and he was quick to ask whether one could add fruits and nuts to the mix. Well, yes and YES! I was going to make an elaborate lembas bread effort with this flatbread but alas I was foiled by a lack of ingredients in the shops, and hence the lemon curd and hummus sides for the sweet and savoury versions respectively- just as delicious, if not moreso!

This…is just so much fun! Flatbread is easy, delightful, tasty…all the good stuff. I don’t like munching bread every single day, but this goes beyond “bread” and into the realm of shiny.

Again, keep in mind the base of the flatbread recipe is all Kristy – this is just me faffing around!

1. Spiced + fruity lemon curd dream

• 1/8 cup cranberries
• 1/16 cup pine nuts
• 1/16 cup diced almonds
• 1 tsp mint (the powdered kind)
• 1 TBSP mixed spice
• 1 TBSP cinnamon (ok, ok, it may just be me with these huge helpings of spice – according to taste!)
• 1 tsp ginger spice
• 1 cup wholewheat flour
• 1/2 TBSP baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 TBSP EVOO
• 1 TBSP custard powder

How-to:

1. Kristy says to use a dough blade in the food processor but I was lazy and used a normal sharp blade and it worked fine! 🙂
2. Mix your custard powder to the non-dairy milk thoroughly – whisk and carry on until NO clumps remain (clumps will form orange spots on your bread)
3. Add all ingredients (except the almonds, cranberries and pine nuts) to the food processor and blend/pulse until combined. It should form a dough ball.
4. Take out the dough and work in the almonds, cranberries and pine nuts with your hands until it’s somewhat evenly distributed. Don’t fool around too much with the dough!
5. Flour your work surface and divide the dough into four equal pieces.
6. Spray a baking sheet on a tray and then go about rolling out each dough ball into a rough circle quite thinly.
7. Place each circle on the baking sheet and then heat up your non-stick pan to medium-high.
8. Cook for approximately 3-5 minutes one each side – they don’t rise and puff as the original recipe says, most likely because of the custard powder and other extras. Just check gently underneath the flatbread to see that it gets browned on each side.
9. I kept my see-through lid on to speed things up a tad.
10. Transfer to a plate with a lid or wrap in a clean towel as you make the rest.

To serve:

I used some delicious lemon curd (I used Jessica’s recipe for the lemon curd sauce and just doubled the starch) as well as a strawberry compote to drizzle, dip and smear all over my sweet flatbread. I made the lemon curd the day before to save on time, but if you’re industrious you can do it all at once! I made my compote as I was cooking up the flatbread because it doesn’t require so much attention and is done rather quickly. The lemon curd, by the way, really is that yellow! I went a bit wild with the colouring (I got a pack of vegan colouring from Rikke that needed testing!). Also, I love yellow, so this was just for my own glee. So yum!

Strawberry poppy compote

• 1 cup strawberries, chopped finely
• 1 dropper NuNaturals Vanilla NuStevia Liquid
• 1-2 tsp NuNaturals Simple Syrup/1-2 TBSP agave/maple syrup
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1 TBSP water

How-to:

1. Mix all ingredients in a non-stick pan and cook on medium-low heat for 5 minutes, pressing down the strawberries with the back of a wooden spoon to mush it up a bit.
2. Let it cool a bit before serving.

This is a sweet treat – no doubt! – but yeesh, so worth it! Warm, delicious bread studded with nuts and fruit, then dipped in strawberry and lemon delights? Gah, so much shiny in one place; all in my tummy!

But it’s not fair to just have sweetness, eh? Sometimes one gets pangs for something salty and easy as a base for other spreads and dips.

2. Nutty zucchini studded grilled flatbread with beetroot hummus +  pesto

• 1/16 cup sunflower seeds
• 4 pieces sun-dried tomatoes, chopped finely
• 1 baby marrow, grated
• paprika, white pepper
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spices
• 1/2 batch flatbread mix + up to 1/4 cup extra flour (to compensate for the moistness of the baby marrow)

How-to:

1. Follow the same process as above, just mixing together the spices with the flour and then working in the sunflower seeds, sun-dried tomatoes and marrow before beginning to cook each flatbread. Add extra flour as needed if you feel the dough is too sticky as you roll it out.
2. These flatbreads did puff and rise after 2 or so minutes, unlike the sweet version, so it is definitely the custard powder! Therefore keep an eye on them – they will cook for less time.

To serve: I steamed some mayo-free coleslaw with black beans, sweet chili sauce, and the beetroot hummus, and had some pesto and plum ketchup on the side. Onto the panini grill and voila!

Beetroot hummus (this is pretty much my favourite hummus – I sometimes add dried fig, apricot, nuts, olives…even nori sheets when I have some to spare!)

• 1 large beetroot, peeled, choppped + steamed for 5 minutes
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 TBSP tahini
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk (OR some EVOO if you’re into that)
• 1/2 TBSP mustard
• Spices to taste

How-to:

1. Blend down the beetroot in a food processor until it forms smallish, almost grated bits.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until combined – you can have some chunky beetroot pieces if you like (as I do!). Add some balsamic if you like as well.
3. Store in an air-tight glass container in the fridge for best results and munch in a week.

Man-thing was very impressed with this dish! He was making noises (always a good sign), and then the noises got sadder the closer he got to finishing it! I’ll go ahead and give myself a gold star. Even if he’s an actor extraordinaire I still wanted to steal it from him and munch it all myself 🙂

This flatbread making business is SO easy that even Man-thing can do it (and will, if I get my way!). I want to serve some for our upcoming wedding anniversary, and luckily they freeze well. Each year we have and want to continue to host a family get-together as a thank you for our support system, without which we would be in tatters as individuals and together. Family is extremely important to both of us and they are so supportive, so hosting a free meal once a year is the least we can do! It does, however, take lots of prep, so I’m going to try and assemble as many odds and ends that can be made in advance such as these delights, as well as some falafel and raw treats. Easy peasy!

What do you usually eat with flatbread?