Your midweek vegan dish: Chicks in a Boat

This recipe has it all: so many flavours, so many textures, a truly great recipe to introduce your strictly carnivore friends to veganism.

Serves 3

Ingredients
400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 spring onion (green part only), chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped (optional)
6 mint leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp flaxseeds
1 tbsp olive oil
6 large lettuce leaves, to serve

For the avocado mix
2 avocados, halved, stoned and roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1 spring onion (green part only), finely sliced
a bunch of basil leaves, torn
1 green pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
6 crushed walnuts

Method
First, make the avocado mix. In a medium mixing bowl, smash up the avocados and tomatoes. Add the lime juice and mix until smooth. You can pop it into a blender if you prefer, but I like it chunky. Mix in the remaining ingredients, but only half the crushed walnuts, and season with a little salt.

Put the chickpeas, turmeric and chilli powder in a pan over a medium heat. Pour in 60ml water and cook for 3 minutes. Once all the water has been absorbed, add the remaining ingredients, except the lettuce, and stir for roughly 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and cover with a lid.

Wash and dry the lettuce leaves – these will be used as your boats. Fill the lettuce boats with 2 tbsp of avocado mix and 2 tbsp of chickpeas. Sprinkle with the reserved walnuts.

Serve and enjoy.

Extracted from Beat Your Bloat by Maeve Madden (Kyle Books, approx €17). Photography by Tamin Jones.