Persepolis: Recipes from mushroom moussaka to Macedonia beans

What started as a little food shop in Peckham, South East London, has now bloomed into a beautiful book, showing off Middle Eastern recipes from simple soups and quick meals to huge platters to share at family feasts. But there’s one thing: it’s meat free. Author Sally Butcher’s recipes are so tantalising and creative that it’s not immediately obvious, and instead the book celebrates the diversity of vegetables in all forms.

Covering each of the day’s meals, Sally Butcher also adds into the mix useful additions like cold and hot starters and mains, pickles and preserves and hot and cold drinks. With 150 recipes, the book takes you on a journey of inspiration through the countries of the Middle East and Mediterranean, from Afghanistan through to Morocco and Turkey.

Macedonian Baked Beans

This is practically the Macedonian* national dish, and a lot more flavoursome than your average over-sugared, over-salted 57-varieties-of British-beans-on-toast combo. Without wishing to sound preachy, we should all be eating more beans – and cooking them ourselves. They are nutritious, thrifty (I didn’t get that many badges in the Brownies, but to this day I remain inordinately fond of my thrift badge), versatile and very simple to work with. The only drawback is the fact that as most pulses need soaking for around six hours, you need to plan ahead.

500g dried beans (preferably hard-to-find sobra, but pinto or cannellini will do) 
2 large onions 
2 bay leaves 
2 whole dried chillies 
pure olive oil, for cooking 
salt 
4–5 garlic cloves, minced 
1 tbsp paprika 
1 tsp smoked paprika 
2 tsp dried marjoram or oregano 
handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Soak the beans overnight or for at least six hours. Drain the beans and place them in a large pan. Roughly chop one of the onions and add it to the pan along with the bay leaves, chillies and two tablespoons of olive oil. Cover with cold water so that the level reaches about 5cm (2in) above the beans and bring to the boil.

Turn the heat down and simmer for around one-and-a-half hours, or until the beans are soft. During this time, you will need to top the pan up with water – you are aiming for a thick casserole-like consistency. Only once the beans are cooked should you add salt to taste: the beans will otherwise resolutely refuse to cook. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Chop the remaining onion and fry it in plenty of olive oil along with the garlic.

Once it has softened, add the spices and herbs and sauté for a few minutes before tipping the mixture into the beans, stirring well. Tip the whole bean caboodle into an ovenproof dish, checking that there is just enough liquid, cover with foil and bake for around 30 minutes. Serve with warm bread and maybe some cheese crumbled on top.

*I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that most of you have majored in modern Balkan geopolitics, but for the few of you that haven’t let me explain about the Macedonia thing. You see, to most of us, Macedonia means a bit of land stuck on top of northern Greece, and Alexander-the-some-say-Great (before you raise an eyebrow, I am married to an Iranian, and Iskandar, as he is known in Farsi, effectively trashed Persepolis, the ancient Persian citadel). But at the back of our mind, we also know that it is a real country with real Eurovision entrants. And when we think about it, we realise that we are a bit confused.

Macedonia is indeed a province in northern Greece, and the Greeks are very touchy about the use of the name elsewhere. So when, in 1991, the former Yugoslavia devolved into four new states, one of which called itself the Republic of Macedonia, the Greeks were not best pleased. In fact the new state (which is just to the north of the Greek region of the same name) is officially meant to refer to itself as FYROM – the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – and the two countries have also locked diplomatic horns over their respective flags. So now you know.

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Baked mushroom mini moussakas

Whoever designed the Veggieverse got it right with Portobello mushrooms: they are pretty much God’s gift to the vegetarian chef. They are just asking to be stuffed, shaped as they are like little edible bowls. You can pretty much stuff them with anything. Try a mixture of fresh herbs with walnuts, breadcrumbs and halloumi, or pitted olives with tomato, feta and oregano. It is hard to get it wrong. This recipe, though, is a bit of fun as it deconstructs moussaka. After years of working in Greek restaurants, I used to dream of being able to deconstruct the things rather than construct them.

Generous starer for 4

3 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 large onion (preferably white, mild), sliced into rings
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
good glug of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 medium potato, cut into really thin slices
oil, for cooking
1 small aubergine, cut into thin slices
8 Portobello mushrooms, chunkier parts of the stalks removed (you should really keep these for your next stir-fry/stockpot)
150g labneh (or plain salted yogurt)
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
​200g grated halloumi
big handful of fresh parsley
100g breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5. Layer the tomatoes, onion and garlic in an ovenproof dish, trickle with oil and sprinkle with oregano and seasoning. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until soft but not overcooked.

Fry the potato slices in a good glug of hot oil until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and repeat the exercise with the aubergine slices (although these do not need to be crisp). Divide the labneh between the mushrooms, smoothing it over the gills of the shrooms. Top the labneh with a slice of potato, then use tongs to arrange some of the par-baked tomato and onion on top. Next, comes a slice of aubergine, which you should then sprinkle with a pinch of cinnamon, if using. If there are any bits and bobs left over, layer them up as well, pressing gently to sandwich it all together. Mix the grated halloumi with the parsley and breadcrumbs and dot it on top of the mushrooms, again pressing gently to make it all stick.

Arrange the moussaka stacks on a greased oven tray, splash a tiny bit of water into the bottom of the tray, and bake, covered with foil, for around 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further five minutes to brown the top. Serve with a Greek salad, natch, and perhaps a dirty Retsina on the side. Say what?

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We put this in our patisserie counter and it sold out within the hour. This is because it is so very pretty. And then there’s the nut snobbery. Really – it’s a thing. Pistachios are seen as the king of the nut world and I’ve seen otherwise sensible shoppers swoon for them. While I recommend this for all-year-round consumption, it is undeniably festive and so would make a corker of a Christmas pudding. Mohsen, by the way, is Mr Shopkeeper’s uncle. He is a consummate chef and we have worked together for donkey’s years.

Serves 6–8

For the base:
​300g crushed biscuits (those unwanted ones that always stay at the bottom of the cookie jar will do)
​150g butter, melted

For the cheesy bit: 
​400g creamed labneh (or cream cheese) 
​100g caster (superfine) sugar 
​200g ground nibbed pistachios* 
1 level tsp ground cardamom 
2 eggs, whisked 
​175ml double (heavy) cream 
4 tbsp rose water 
​200g rose Turkish delight, finely diced 

For the topping: 
​100g labneh or mascarpone 
1 tbsp icing sugar 
50g nibbed pistachios 
75g rose Turkish delight, finely diced

Grease a 25cm (10in) springform cake tin with butter. Mix the cookie crumbs with the melted butter and press the mixture into the bottom of the cake tin. Pop it in the fridge to chill while you make the topping. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3.

Beat the labneh with the sugar, then slowly work in the nuts, cardamom, eggs, cream and rose water. Stir the chopped Turkish delight through the mix and pile it into the cake tin on top of the chilled base. Bake in the centre of the oven for around one-and-a-half hours, or until the top is set and lightly golden. Allow to cool before carefully ejecting from the mould. Beat the labneh for the topping together with the icing sugar and spread it lightly over your cooled creation.

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Sprinkle the top with nibbed nuts and cubes of Turkish delight. Marvel at how very jolly it looks. Chill well before cutting into portions.

Tip: * Almonds make for a slightly cheaper dessert, but they are not nearly as pretty.

Persepolis: Vegetarian Recipes from Peckham, Persia and beyond by Sally Butcher, published by Pavilion Books. Image credit to Yuki Sugiura