Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad with Chappatti

Yesterday was my day off after a crazy long, 6 day, 60-something hour week. The sun was shining the whole time while I was in my underground kitchen, sweating away. It’s pretty standard for me to wake up to grey skies or pouring rain on my days off. It’s Sod’s law. But amazingly, the sun stuck around! So I spent my whole day outdoors soaking up the glorious June warmth…. As a result, I didn’t think about dinner until the very last minute.
Supper was a thrown together salad of roasted chickpea and sweet potato with Chappatti and wine. If you make the Chappatti dough first, this dinner can be ready in 90 minutes or less, with a nice long break between preparing your salad and cooking the bread. There’s no yeast in this bread, and no long baking times, so it’s a perfect stand by recipe for scatty, last minute people like me! If you don’t have the rye flour, just add in an extra 50g of white flour. You could also use just wholemeal flour for a more nutritional bread, just be prepared for your dough to be a lot stiffer.

Chappatti Recipe

• 50g wholemeal rye flour 
• 300g strong white flour
• 200g water
• 10g salt
• 10g oil

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and bring together to form a ball.
2. Knead for approximately 10 minutes (7 if using a mixer) adding extra flour if required.
3. Cover and allow to rest for 1 hour or more.
4. Divide into small portions, about the size of a ping pong ball. Roll into balls, cover and rest for twenty minutes.
5. Roll each ball out on a lightly floured surface as thinly as you can.
6. Cook in a preheated, heavy frying pan or cast iron skillet. They take about 1 minute, flipping half way through when bubbles start to appear.
7. Keep warm in a clean tea towel.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Salad

• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 8 ground peppercorns
• 2 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Juice of one lemon

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius/gas mark 5

1. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes, place in a roasting pan with the chickpeas. Drizzle with oil and coat in the spices. Add a sprinkle of salt.
2. Roast for 45 minutes.
3. Place the onion, garlic and lemon juice in a bowl. Massage in a spindle of sea salt and ensure the onion is well coated in the lemon juice.
4. Mix in the pepper.
5. When the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are out of the oven, gently mix it into the rest of the salad.
6. Serve on peppery salad leaves, with a drizzle of oil, a sprinkle of almond flakes and some nigella seeds.