Tomato, Tahini and Ginger Salad with Crumpet Croutons

by Ixta Belfrage, featured in Mezcla: Recipes to Excite

Published by Ebury Press

Introduction

I should really take the salad out of this title, because, let’s be honest, we’re all here for the crumpet croutons. Once baked, their inherent holes crisp up and allow for an extra crunchy crouton experience which will leave you wondering if you’ll ever do it any other way again. Add these croutons to just about any salad in the book — they’re especially wonderful atop a salad made from leftover curried roast chicken.

This salad uses Middle Eastern chillies in the oil, as well as many other ingredients that would never be used in Sichuan cuisine, but nonetheless it is very much inspired by the inimitable cucumber salad at Xi'an Biang Biang Noodles in East London (not the crumpet croutons part, of course).

As featured in

Mezcla: Recipes to Excite

Image of Ixta Belfrage's Tomato Salad with Tahini Ginger Sauce, Chilli Oil and Crumpet Croutons — Photo by Yuki Sugiura

Ingredients

Serves: 4

1 large cucumber - peeled, halved and watery centre scraped out (260g)
5 ripe plum tomatoes (650g) - chopped into 1½ –2cm cubes, seeds discarded (360g)
⅓ teaspoon fine salt
½ large lime

CRUMPET CROUTONS

3 crumpets (160g) - cut into 2½ cm chunks
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove of garlic - finely grated/crushed
¼ teaspoon fine salt
freshly ground black pepper

CHILLI OIL

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove of garlic - very finely chopped
1½ teaspoons tomato puree or tomato paste
1¼ teaspoons pul biber or Aleppo chilli flakes (plus extra to serve)
¼ teaspoon Urfa chilli flakes (plus extra to serve)
⅛ teaspoon fine salt

TAHINI GINGER SAUCE

60 grams tahini (shake the container well before using)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger - peeled and finely grated
1½ tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ tablespoon water
1½ tablespoons maple syrup

Method

Tomato, Tahini and Ginger Salad with Crumpet Croutons is a guest recipe by Ixta Belfrage so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C.
For the salad, chop the cucumber into 1½–2cm cubes. Put them into a bowl with the tomatoes and fine salt and lightly crush with your hands. Set aside while you prepare the rest.
Put the crumpets on a flat baking tray with the oil, garlic, fine salt and plenty of pepper. Mix well and bake for about 14 minutes, tossing halfway, until crisp and golden-brown. Set aside to cool.
For the chilli oil, heat the olive oil in a small saucepan on a medium heat for 1½ minutes. Remove from the heat, add the garlic, tomato purée/paste, both chilli flakes and fine salt and whisk well to combine.
Put all the ingredients for the tahini ginger sauce into a medium bowl and whisk until smooth.
Add the tahini sauce and a third of the chilli oil to the bowl with the tomatoes and cucumbers. Stir together but don’t overmix, you want the sauce to be streaky with the oil. Tip onto a lipped platter and squeeze over half a lime.
Sprinkle over some more pul biber and Urfa chilli. Finish with the remaining chilli oil and the croutons and serve.