Tabbouleh

We ate this with some cold roast lamb, and pitta breads.

Makes enough for four greedy adults, as a side dish (would be lovely too with some sharp cheese, like feta).

You'll need:

125g bulgar wheat
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
lots of flatleaf parsley, chopped
a good handful of mint, chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used the juice of 1 lemon)

Soak the bulgar wheat in hot water for 20 minutes or so, until it's softened. Drain, and run under the cold tap.

Chuck the bulgar wheat, tomatoes, spring onions, parsley and mint in a large bowl. Mix. Drizzle over the olive oil and lemon juice, and mix again. Season with salt and black pepper.

You can eat this straightaway, but I find it tastes nicer once it's been left for an hour or so, so the flavours have had a chance to mingle.

Chard with lemon and olive oil

You wouldn't want to eat this on its own, but (a) it's good with things like sausages and (b) it makes chard taste nice, which is something of a miracle.

You'll need:

chard - much like spinach it cooks down, so you'll need more than you think
a lemon, juiced
a very good slug of peppery olive oil
lots of black pepper

Wash the chard, and roughly slice the leaves/stalks (you could do fine ribbons, but I can't usually be bothered). Plunge into a pan of boiling water for 6 minutes.

Drain, and tip the chard into a bowl. Pour over the lemon juice, and a really good slug of olive oil. Grind over lots of black pepper.

Serve fast, before it has chance to cool down.

Olive oil pastry

I wouldn't normally have done pastry with olive oil, but Clare was staying with us and is avoiding dairy at the moment. And I didn't have any margarine to use instead.

I used this as a base for an oniony pissaladiere, complete with olives, capers and anchovies.

You'll need:

8oz plain flour
6 tablespoons olive oil
a little salt
a little water, preferably cold from the fridge
a food processor

Chuck the flour and olive oil in the food processor, and then press the button (you like doing this bit). Pulse everything together, until it starts to look a little like couscous. Add a small amount of water, and pulse. Repeat, until you get to the stage of lots of small beads of dough (I think I must have used a couple of hundred ml of water, and that was more than enough - you don't want it too wet). Roughly pull it all together (don't knead), and stick in a tupperware in the fridge for 20 minutes or so.

Roll out as normal, onto a floured surface. It worked pretty well - and the olive taste complemented the onion topping brilliantly. I'm not sure it'd make great jam tarts though.