Harissa with quinoa & roasted vegetables | Vegan | Gluten free | YouTube

Hello my lovelies! This month I happened upon fancy dining and thought to myself what dishes would I like to recreate. A few years back I had a wonderful, happy go lucky co-worker who have Tunisian roots and one evening we were invited for dinner at her home and I'll tell you that her dishes where beautiful, colourful and packed with flavour and to honour my experience with her roots I tried my hands on making harissa along with roasted vegetables, quinoa and a tangy sour Greek yoghurt.

You can follow along my video below.

Serves 4 people.

What you need for harissa paste:

1 jalapeno

1 habanero

200g tomato paste

150g pre-roasted paprikas

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp sea salt

Olive oil, to cover

What you need for harissa dressing:

4-5 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp harissa paste

A pinch sea salt

What you need roasted vegetables:

500g carrots

500g fennel

2 red onions

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

225g quinoa seeds

Water to cover

Serve on top of:

2 1/2 dl (1 cup) vegan Greek yogurt

Zest of 1 lemon

A pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200℃ (390℉)

We will begin with our spices into a dry pan and roast the spices for a couple of minutes really bringing out the flavour. Set aside for now.

Now peel the garlic and add them into a food processor along with the chillies, roasted paprika, toasted spices, lemon juice, tomato paste and salt and blend until smooth. If it's too thick add some water and blend to thin it out.

Transfer the harissa to a glass jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil.

Pop it into the fridge and it should stay good for about a month.

Preheat the oven to 200℃ (390℉)

Let's carry on to our vegetables, rinse them and scrub the carrots. Peel the red onion and slice it into 6-8 wedges. Slice the carrots in halves and the fennel thin slices.

Add them into a cooking tray and rub the vegetables with coconut oil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pop them into the oven and roast for 40 minutes to an hour.

Season with salt and pepper and set aside for now.

While the vegetables are cooking we will cook our quinoa, give the seeds a good rinse and drain until the water appears clear. Pour them into a pot and cover them with water. Bring them up to a boil and then simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes and add 1 tsp salt and cook for another 5 minutes.

Drain and rinse the quinoa and season with salt and pepper.

Now to make our harissa dressing, combine olive oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, harissa paste and a pinch sea salt give it a nice stir and set aside.

Also combine the Greek yoghurt, lemon zest and salt. Give it a stir and we will get to assemble our dish.

Divide the yoghurt, dressing and lentils onto 4 plates and pile on the vegetables and give a nice sprinkle of sea salt and it's ready to enjoy!