Chargrilled cucumbers with tomato & anchovy sauce
Cucumbers might not be everyone’s first thought about what goes on the barbecue, but they work really well in Tara Wigkey's recipe. These instructions are for charring the cucumber indoors, but the method is the same on the barbecue. This is lovely as a standalone starter – served with crusty bread, to soak up all the oily juices – or as a side to grilled fish or meat or brown rice. It also works without the yogurt for a dairy-free dish.
- Serves4
- CourseStarter
- Prepare15 mins
- Cook20 mins
- Total time35 mins
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- 250g Greek yogurt
For the sauce
- 400g pack cherry vine tomatoes, off the vine
- 6 clove/s garlic, thinly sliced
- 150ml olive oil
- 8 anchovies in oil, drained
- 1½ tsp coriander seeds, roughly crushed
- ½ tsp salt
- 20g pack dill, leaves chopped
Method
Add all the sauce ingredients, except the dill, to a large saucepan with plenty of black pepper. Bring to a simmer, then cook on a mediumlow heat for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the tomatoes start to break down and the garlic is golden brown and soft.
Remove from the heat and, using a fork, crush to form a rough sauce. Stir through the dill and set aside to cool. Halve the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds, then halve again lengthways and cut each into halves or thirds (they need to fit a griddle pan).
Place the griddle pan over a high heat and, when hot, brush the cucumbers with the oil and season with the salt. Add to the pan, cut-side down, and griddle for 4-5 minutes, turning so that all sides get charred. Remove from the pan and, once cool enough to handle, slice diagonally into 1cm-thick slices.
Spread the yogurt out over a wide, shallow bowl and arrange the cucumber on top. Spoon over the sauce with the oily juices and serve.
Cook’s tip
It feels like a lot of olive oil to add to the pan, but if there is one thing that tomatoes like, it’s olive oil and the punchy, oily juices spooned over the cucumbers and yogurt are what makes the dish.
The sauce can be made in advance – it keeps in the fridge for 3 days – and then brought back to room temperature to serve. The cucumbers are best grilled fairly close to serving.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy | 2,076kJ/ 503kcals |
|---|---|
Fat | 48.3g |
Saturated Fat | 10.2g |
Carbohydrates | 7.8g |
Sugars | 5.9g |
Fibre | 3g |
Protein | 7.8g |
Salt | 1.2g |