WITH TOM & JESS

I hope you’re having a great summer. We’ve had a trickle of family and friends come to visit which has been brilliant. The girls are at great ages, aged 4 (Olive) and 21 months (Lola), so we’re able to be a lot more sociable this summer compared to last, and we have been loving taking the girls to beaches and having friends and family over for meals.

It was Olive’s 4th birthday in August, and she fancied an ice cream party with bubbles in the garden, with a chocolate unicorn cake which I made with a glittery unicorn that I propped up on long cocktail sticks with glittery stars! It was magic, and one of those memories which we’ll cherish forever, seeing her surrounded by our family from England who were over at the time, and all her island pals.

Tom’s been busy in the garden, building raised beds, and we’ve planted a whole range of veggies in them and can’t wait to see which ones take off! We’re very much at the beginning of our veggie growing journey, but it’s exciting, and the thought of being able to head out to the garden and pick our own veggies and share the overflow with friends, neighbours and clients feels so special.

With summer, and hosting, having a few additional steadfast recipes to add to your repertoire can be most welcome. I’ve pulled together four recipes that I make on repeat, so you can give them a go. I hope you love them!

Feta & Sundried Tomato Bean Burgers

Sourcing good quality veggie burgers that aren’t crazily processed is something that I’ve struggled to find in Menorca, so we make our own. I made the burgers again last night so I could measure the ingredients out and share the recipe with you. Originally I made these burgers with black beans, but sourcing black beans on the island can be tricky, Hiper Centro sometimes has tinned black beans in the ‘Mexican’ section where the wraps live, or S’Uestra Supermarket has them, but careful not to get the ones marinated in Mexican tomato sauce as it overpowers the flavour. You want plain beans, which is why I now use red kidney beans as you can get them everywhere.

They’re great in a bun with a slice of fresh tomato, some salad, harissa ‘mayo’ (Greekyoghurt with 1 teaspoon of rose harissa mixed through) and some sunshine. If you don’t like burger buns, you can make my ‘Flaxseed Flourless Buns’ instead, recipe below, or alternatively, enjoy the burgers as part of a Mexican salad bowl-esque meal with a side of guacamole, quinoa, chopped tomato and red onion salsa, some yoghurt and stir-fried peppers.

The burgers freeze really well, simply make up the burger mix, pat the burgers into their circular burger shapes, and then store in a Tupperware dish. I layer the burgers on baking paper in the Tupperware dish so they don’t stick to one another.

Makes 12 burgers
2 tablespoons ghee or olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, pressed or grated
570g jar of cooked kidney beans or black beans, rinsed (I used a 570g jar, rinsed net weight 400g)
100g flour, wholemeal, plain or buckwheat
2 teaspoons dried thyme or oregano
190g sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
a handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
small pinch of dried chilli flakes or you could use 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño
peppers or fresh chillies
150g feta, chopped into small cubes
sea salt

  1. Preheat the oven to fan 180°C/Gas mark 6.
  2. Heat the ghee or oil in a pan over a medium heat and fry the onion until softened but not coloured. Stir in the garlic and cook for a few minutes before adding the drained cooked beans.
  3. Mash the beans roughly with the back of a wooden spoon so that their excess moisture evaporates in the heat of the pan.
  4. Add the dried herbs, chilli flakes and sundried tomatoes and allow the flavours to cook together for a couple of minutes.
  5. Transfer the bean mix to a bowl then stir in the flour, mix well to combine everything together.

  6. Gently fold in the rest of the feta and parsley and check for seasoning, adding a little salt and black pepper, if needed, or more jalape.os or chillies, if you like.

  7. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, form the mixture into 12 burgers using your hands to shape them.

  8. Lay the burgers on a baking tray lined with parchment paper then flatten each burger so that they are about 2 cm thick.

  9. Bake the burgers in the oven for about 30-40 minutes until crisp on the outside and golden brown, turning them over halfway through the cooking time.

The Best (Flourless) Flaxseed Buns

Amazing served with soup, or as an alternative to typical burger buns, if you want to be grain free or simply enjoy a more nutrient-packed bread alternative. The ground-up flaxseeds are the ‘flour’ in the recipe, so they take the nutritional value up incredibly high compared to a typical bread bun.

Makes 6 buns
150g flaxseeds, ground (I buy whole flaxseeds/linseeds and then grind them
into a powder in a Nutribullet to create ‘ground flax)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
pinch black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
½ tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice (you can also use apple cider vinegar)
3 tablespoons butter, melted (you can also use melted coconut oil)
3 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon dried herbs (such as thyme, bruised fennel or caraway seeds)
1 tablespoons white sesame seeds, for sprinkling (optional)

  1. Preheat the oven to fan 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 6 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl using a fork. Beat in the remaining ingredients (except the optional sesame seeds) and leave the batter to rest for 5 minutes to thicken up.
  3. Take 4-5 tablespoons of batter and shape into a bun with your hands. Place on the prepared baking tray and use wet hands to shape/smooth the top and to press down lightly so that the bun is approximately 1 cm thick. Repeat with the rest of the batter, sprinkling the tops with sesame seeds (if using), gently pressing them in.
  4. Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes until the buns spring back to touch.
  5. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  6. When you’re ready to enjoy them, slice each bun with a sharp knife and pop your fillings inside.

Mango + Avocado Salsa/Salad

A delicious fruity salad, great as a bbq accompaniment and popped into gem lettuce leaves or wraps with some bbq’d prawns or pulled chicken. If you can’t get fresh mango, or they’re too expensive, frozen mango works great and can be purchased from Gross Mercat or Eroski. Just remove a handful of chopped mango from the bag and allow to defrost, discarding the water before mixing in with the salad so the salad flavours don’t get diluted.

Serves 2
1 mango, finely diced
1 avocado, finely diced
½ red onion, finely diced
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
Salt, tabasco

  1. Combine mango, avocado, onion, chilli, lime juice, vinegar, oil + mint. Add salt + tabasco to taste.
  2. Cover and let stand for ideally 30 mins at room temp to allow flavours to blend. It can be made up to 6 hours before and refrigerated if need be.
  3. To prevent discoloration, store in a covered bowl to prevent contact with air.
  4. Serve in little gem lettuce leaves, or popped on top of chicken or bbq’d prawns for a different flavour hit.

Watermelon & Limed Onion ‘Greek’ Salad

This is such a simple, quick, yet stunning salad. It’s visually beautiful and turns a Greek salad into something a little bit different to the classic Greek salad you typically find. The magic ingredient in this recipe is the limed onion; it’s a process that is so simple and can be easily transferred into other salad recipes. Soaking thinly sliced red onions in lime juice will transform the onions into a beautiful fluorescent pink colour and remove the sharp flavour from the onions. If you have juicy limes then 2 would likely suffice, but I’ve put 4 in the ingredients in case you pick ones up that are disappointingly dry.

Serves 8
1 small red onion
4 limes
1½ kilograms watermelon (sweet and ripe)
250 grams feta cheese
1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
1 bunch fresh mint (chopped)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
100 grams pitted black olives
black pepper

  1. Peel and halve the red onion and cut into very fine half-moons and put in a small bowl filled with the juice of the 4 limes. Leave to soak for at least 20 minutes.
  2. Cut the watermelon into 1 ½ cm bite size cubes by slicing the watermelon into 1 ½ width slices and then creating your ‘squares’. Don’t worry if you’ve got a few different shapes and it’s not all even. Cut the feta into similar sized pieces and transfer both the watermelon and feta into a large, wide shallow bowl. Roughly chop the parsley and add to the bowl along with the chopped mint.
  3. Tip the now colour popping onions, along with their pink lime juices over the salad in the bowl, add in the olives and olive oil, then using your hands toss the salad very gently so that the feta and melon don’t crumble and lose their shape.
  4. Add some black pepper and taste to see whether the dressing needs more lime depending how juicy the limes are.

I hope one of the above takes your fancy and inspires you to welcome in a new recipe into your household. If you’re on social media, feel free to tag me in your recipe @jessleedyer on Instagram so I can see your recreation or email me your feedback on hello@jessntom.com with any other types of recipes you’d like me to share in a future Roqueta article.

See you next month, until then, happy cooking!

Personal Training – Nutrition Support – Qi Gong – Yoga – Island Hikes – Cooking Workshops
www.jessntom.com