Summer is here at last! And what better way is there to enjoy the sunshine than sitting outside with friends while feasting on delicious Ottolenghi flavours? Ottolenghi’s ability to create feel-good dishes which taste indulgent is truly inspirational. That’s why we created the Ottolenghi Collection - and rest assured, with this range of single origin spices, you’ll have everything you need to make this summer more exquisite than ever before - we’re talking non-stop gourmet summer salads and refreshing cocktails!

“The way to entice people into cooking is to cook delicious things” 

- Yotam Ottolenghi -

All our spices are the finest of their type, combining flavour excellence with sustainability and provenance, sure to transform an ordinary dish into a phenomenal one. Below, we share some of our favourite Ottolenghi inspired summer recipes which we know you’ll love!

Starter: Watermelon with fried halloumi and za’atar

An easy and refreshing summer salad. Watermelon and halloumi work wonderfully together, and the addition of olives, herbs, chilli and za’atar, makes this salad extra special. A favourite of Ottolenghi, Za’atar is a precise blend of wild thyme, oregano, sesame seeds, sumac, sea salt and olive oil. Our Wild Za’atar arouses pine, sesame and herby flavours in the palate. It’s a fragrant complex taste of excellence and works brilliantly with summer salads.

INGREDIENTS

• 220g halloumi cheese 

• 3 tbsp olive oil 

• small watermelon 

• 1 tbsp za’atar 

• lime zest

• sea salt flakes

• kalamata olives 

• 1 medium green chilli 

• 1 tbsp oregano leaves 

• 10 large mint leaves 

Main: Saffron Chicken and Herb Salad

This colourful salad is wonderfully moist and delicious, using the freshest summer herbs possible; mint and basil - plus the world’s most luxurious spice, Herrati Saffron. Our Saffron is as good as it gets - from the home of Saffron! It has a distinctive floral taste, with an earthy aroma and perfects this summery salad. See Ottolenghi’s recipe here.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 orange

• 50g honey

• ½ tsp Herrati saffron

• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

• about 300ml water

• 1kg skinless chicken breast

• 4 tbsp olive oil

• 2 small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced

• 15g picked coriander leaves

• 15g picked basil leaves, torn

• 15 picked mint leaves, torn

• 2 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 red chilli, thinly sliced

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• fleur de sel and black Kampot pepper

Vodka watermelon cocktail with ground black lime garnish

We thought we’d let you in on a little secret because it wouldn’t be summer time without cocktails after all! Our ground black lime is a wonderful garnish for sour cocktails and margaritas. It comes from a family farm in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala and has a uniquely earthy taste to it, bringing a delicious citrusy kick to your cocktails, as well as Persian cooking, roast meats & veggies!

Lots of Ottolenghi’s recipes involve black limes, which are a popular ingredient of Persian cuisines. Ripening limes are harvested and then sun-dried causing an oxidation process which transforms them into black and savoury fruits.

INGREDIENTS

• Watermelon juice or chilled watermelon

• Freshly squeezed lime juice

• Sprite or sparkling water

• Fresh mint and fresh watermelon

• Ice

• Ground black lime powder garnish

Sumac-roast strawberries with strained yoghurt cream

Sumac is one of Ottolenghi’s favourite ingredients. While sumac is normally used in savoury dishes, it works wonderfully in this summer desert. Our sumac has a fine, crumbly texture, and salty-sweet tart flavour, if you’ve used dried Sumac before this will blow you away. Roasting the strawberries in this recipe helps elevate their flavour and their juice thickens into a delicious syrupy sauce. Adding our lemon, vanilla, mint, fleur de sel and cured sumac beautifully transforms the strawberries into a gourmet pudding. See full recipe here.

INGREDIENTS

• 900g Greek-style yoghurt

• 140g icing sugar

• Fleur de sel

• 120ml double cream

• 1 lemon – zest finely grated, to get 1 tsp, then juiced, to get 2 tbsp
  600g ripe strawberries, hulled and cut in half lengthways

• 1½ tbsp cured sumac

• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped

• 10g mint, half left on the sprig, the rest picked and finely shredded (chop the leaves only at the last minute, otherwise they’ll discolour)