Roasted Green Beans & Tomatoes with Spiced Tahini Dressing
Cumin roasted green beans with charred baby tomatoes served with a quick spicy Ras-el-Hanout tahini sauce and toasted sesame seeds!
It’s a WINNER of SUMMER dish when the organic cherry tomatoes and green beans are at their best. This dish will be lovely with some really good feta on the side and you can also roast some organic lemons halves too, serving them on the side, squeezing the roasted lemon juice over the finished dish will be a fantastic acidic elevation.
Many commercially grown tomatoes are often cultivated for characteristics like uniform appearance and durability during transportation, sacrificing flavour in the process. The focus on mass production (most are planted in greenhouse tunnels with artificial lighting and conditions) and extended shelf life can lead to tomatoes with a less vibrant and robust taste compared to varieties cultivated for their flavour rather than their commercial appeal.
When thinking about how one can inject some FLAVOUR into your dishes one should I would strongly urge you to invest in supporting small scale organic farmers. Produce are planted and harvested in their natural season ensuring they are only picked when ripe which translates into flavour on your plate.
I love to support farmers, markets and businesses who support more sustainable growing initiatives.
For the best tomatoes:
- Those Who Harvest
- the most impressive tomato stand probably this side of Italy is at my local farmers market – OZCF market
- Wild Organics
Leftover Magic: A lovely unusual side dish that I don’t mind serving warm rather than straight from the oven, and the type of leftover that leaves me satisfied every time I open the fridge door and put a bean (swirled in some tahini) in my mouth.
Ingredients: Ras El Hanout is a warm Moroccan style spice mix with beautiful rose petals. Its a good spice to have in your cupboard, when mixed with olive oil it makes the perfect rub for vegetables or meat. If you are in Cape Town, you can find this spice at The Olive Branch Deli or any good deli or large supermarket.
Tahini: I love a natural Tahini with no additives and a slightly runny consistency. I love the Sababa one (sorry, again only if you are in Cape Town, they are at the OZCF market on a Saturday, not Sunday).
Serving Suggestion: This wonderful side dish will sit well along a table full of mezze (little) plates and these flatbreads. I also like to serve this with some confit garlic which plainly translates to garlic slowly roasted in the oven in olive oil.
Roasted Green Beans with Spiced Tahini & Sesame Seeds
Ingredients
- 500 g cherry tomatoes on the vine
- 500 g extra fine green beans topped but not tailed
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander leaves
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- sea salt flakes & black pepper
Spiced Tahini Dressing
- 75 g tahini
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 5 tablespoons water maybe more
- 2 garlic cloves minced or finely grated
- 4 tablespoons EVOO
- 1 1/2 teaspoon runny honey
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch Ras el Hanout * or smoked Spanish sweet paprika
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200c.
- Put the tomatoes into a roasting tin big enough with enough room to add the beans later. Toss the tomatoes with 1 tablespoons of oil and season really well with salt and black pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Toss the green beans with the cumin seeds and olive oil and add to the tomatoes. Return to the oven for the last 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the timings though as both the tomatoes and the beans can go from perfect to overdone in a flash. At the end of the roasting time the tomatoes should be completely soft, even caramelising a bit and the beans slightly scorched.
- To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and season well. The tahini will ‘seize’ (become solid) and thicken when you add the lemon juice, don’t panic, adding the water will smooth things down a bit. Tahini varies in thickness (see below for brand suggestions) so you might need less or more water to achieve your preferred consistency. I normally go for a thickness of cream.
- Spoon the dressing over the roasting tray if you are serving this in the roasting tray, alternatively, spoon the dressing on a plate, place the veggies on top and scatter with toasted sesame seeds and the coriander.