I thought I would kick off the blog with the most recent cooking technique I’ve added to my repertoire. Lathera is a method of cooking vegetables in olive oil, tomato and herbs that comes from Greece and means “with the oil”.
As you’d expect it uses a lot of olive oil which actually keeps the nutrition of the vegetables in the dish and helps our bodies digest them more fully. Before we dive in too deep, here’s an example of a typically dish, with green beans and potatoes.
Recipe
Approx. 4 servings (8 as a side dish). Active time 10 mins. Cooking time 40-60 mins.
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped, sliced, or diced as you like
2-3 medium tomatoes, diced
300-400g trimmed green beans, fresh or frozen
1-2 small/medium potatoes, diced
125ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
(around ½ a cup, no need to get the scales out)
2-4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
A handful of chopped fresh herbs, I used thyme and parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Water
Optional:
Feta or goats cheese
Wholegrain Sourdough Bread
Method
In a good sized pot over a medium-low heat add the onion, garlic and olive oil. Cook for a few minutes until the onion and garlic have started to soften.
Add the tomato and potato and stir to coat well. Cook for a minute or two then add in the green beans and herbs and stir well to mix.
Add enough water to come about halfway up the beans in the pot, cover and simmer over a low heat for around 40 minutes.
By this point the vegetables should be tender and most of the the water cooked off or absorbed leaving just a rich tomato and oil sauce in the pot. If this isn’t the case then simmer for a while longer, checking every 5 mins or so until done. Leave the lid off at this point if it’s still a bit watery.
Taste the dish and season with a pinch of salt and pepper if it needs it. Take off the heat and leave for ten minutes or so for the flavours to mingle, then spoon the vegetables and sauce into a bowl and enjoy.
This is very satisfying on it’s own, but to take it up an extra level you can sprinkle some crumbled feta or goats cheese over the top and serve with a thick slice of crusty bread. This also works well as a very versatile side dish.
If you don’t have whole tomatoes you may prefer to use 6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered, a heaped tablespoon of tomato paste, or a ½ cup (around 125ml) of tinned tomatoes/passata. If you don’t have green beans, use some other veg. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use dried. If you don’t have the herbs listed here, use what you do have. These don’t need to be exact, if you like more or less, adjust accordingly. If you want to make more or less of it, the proportions can easily be adjusted.
A bit of a blether
So there you have it, a pretty straightforward recipe that produces a delicious and warming dish. It can be enjoyed both warm from the pot and at room temperature and tastes rich and comforting. You may be concerned about the amount of oil and the calories in it, but given most of the rest of the dish is low in calories and the oil helps your body process all those good nutrients, it’s completely okay. If you’re particularly concerned about carbs you could of course leave out the potato or replace it with a lower carb alternative like cauliflower, but there is only a small amount of it in each serving.
The great strength of this style of cooking is that it can be used to cook just about any vegetable.
In place of (or as well as) green beans, I’ve used sugar snap/snow peas, mangetout, brussel sprouts, pak choi and cabbage. I’ve also made this variously with aubergine (eggplant), squash, courgette (zucchini), bell peppers (capsicum), mushrooms, peas, cauliflower and white beans. For herbs you can use whatever you fancy and have on hand. Thyme, rosemary, mint, dill, bay leaf, tarragon and so on all add their own distinct and fresh flavours to the dish and it’s fun to experiment with combinations to see what works well.
You can also add some spices in to add a different depth to it. A stick of cinnamon with a little bit of allspice and cloves can make a warm and comforting addition in the colder winter months for instance.
I usually make some variation of this dish every week and really look forward to eating it. It’s a great way to pack in a load of vegetables and the technique of cooking with the oil and tomato is so simple yet effective. Scooping up the last of the veg and sauce with a hunk of crusty bread is hard to beat.
In time I may post different varieties I make to give some further examples, but please do try this dish, you won’t be disappointed! You can also check out this excellent blog for some more suggestions.
Thanks for reading,
Matthew
A Sincere Love of Food 