Pistachio and Mint Whipped Feta with Zaatar Spice, Chilli Oil and Roasted Asparagus

Generally asparagus are pan-fried with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. But if you’re wanting to serve up a more exciting asparagus side, look no further! This recipe includes some exotic ingredients which come together in a flavour combination that no one will be able to resist. Sometimes a side becomes more popular than the main meal, and this roasted asparagus dish has that potential!

This dish can also be served as a snack. Just add some toasted ciabatta and let everyone dip in!

Ingredients

• 1 cup pistachios 

• 1 Pack of fresh mint leaves

• 1 whole lemon juiced for the whipped feta

• 1 whole lemon zest

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 400g feta cheese. 

• 2/3 cup of Greek yoghurt

• 120g asparagus 

• 1 whole lemon

• 1 disk of feta to crumb over the dish

• a drizzle of chilli oil to pour over the dish

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

How to make the Dish

1. In the bowl of a food processor, blend the shelled pistachios until a smooth nut butter forms.

2. Add the feta, mint, yoghurt, lemon juice, and zest from the lemon and blend to combine. 

3. While the food processor is running, add the olive oil in a thin and steady stream through the hole in the processor’s lid.
   Continue blending until light and silky smooth in texture.

4. In a frying pan, heat up until just before smoking point and then add your asparagus.

5.  Season the asparagus generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper while char grilling.

6. Take off the heat and then juice the lemon and sprinkle over the asparagus.

7. Place the whipped feta into a serving plate, pour over a drizzle of chilli oil and place the asparagus and crumbled feta on top.

Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made your own basil oil using this recipe, I’d love to see it!

This dish can also be served as a snack. Just add some toasted ciabatta and let everyone dip in!

This dish was created in partnership with @home and the recipe first appeared on the @home blog. Photography done at my house, using their MasterChef Elite collection of cookware and stoneware and the Taurus Foodie, which is a great piece of equipment!

See below more recipes made using the @home MasterChef Elite collection of cookware and stoneware

About Shawn Godfrey

Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.

Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.

It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.

On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).

Sign up to the newsletter below to be kept up to date with events, new recipes and reviews, or contact Shawn to chat about recipe creation, restaurant takeovers and public speaking events.