A tray of roast vegetables is a noble dinner. Huddled low topographically yet covering so much surface area; the magnificent juxtaposition of tender internal cellular structure and crisp-lipped exterior; so much result for so little fuss. If you want to make a modicum of fuss, however—perhaps by borrowing the multiplicity of rich spices present in shawarma—and then crumbling over a genuinely modest quantity of feta—then you’re really in for a good time. The hardest part of these shawarma-spiced roast vegetables with feta, for me at least, is that every time I open up my spice drawer the boxes of spices have re-ordered themselves or got themselves all wedged and bunched up the back like an upwardly-directional pair of underwear; I intend to be the kind of person who has spices neatly contained in small, labelled containers but it never comes to pass, luckily this doesn’t put me off using them.

These spices also takes some fairly humble vegetables—a single carrot, a handful of potatoes (admittedly the fancy purple and red ones) an orange kūmara—and makes them feastlike and sumptuous. As the vegetables don’t require the tenderising marinating process, you can just stir together the spices, olive oil and lemon juice into a paste the colour of bricks in the rain, toss everything to coat and then roast immediately; the half-hour in the oven passes surprisingly quickly.

As I note in the recipe, if all you have to hand is the smoked paprika and the cumin, they alone will still provide you a delicious dinner with their earthy, resinous, fireside sweet smokiness. However! The cardamom really makes you feel like you’ve done something with her elusive, lemon-ginger fragrance; the cinnamon and nutmeg provide aromatic, woody warmth, and the bay leaves? It’s weird, I can never tell exactly what bay leaves do but everything tastes inexplicably elevated with them around. If you’ve got, some ground ginger and cloves will add even more heady, spiky perfume; although I largely drew from Nigella Lawson’s geographically unassigned shawarma recipe in Simply Nigella, I saw the latter two spices included in a Palestinian shawarma recipe by Wafa Shami and can highly recommend their inclusion.

It’s even delicious without the feta—especially if you daub it with streaks of tahini-yoghurt sauce—but it does make a tiny quantity of cheese go a long way, using the same line of thought that makes a tiny amount of chocolate feel lavish in these macaroon and chocolate cake recipes. As a final flourish I stir through a handful of rocket leaves and strew over slivered almonds; you could replace the former with spinach or leave it out, and the latter could be replaced easily with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, or payday pine nuts.

Since you’ve been so prudent with the feta in this recipe, if you’re looking for recipes to use up the generous remainder you could try these roasted green beans, fennel, potato and feta; this pasta with harissa, beans, and feta; these lemon feta pistachio cookies and these roasted brussel sprouts with agrodolce and feta.

And if I may, a reminder that you can sign up here to hear irregular and unobtrusive updates and details about my forthcoming 2025 debut novel, Hoods Landing. The second update went out last week, but any newcomers get sent back issues. Find out more, which you probably already know, at my official author website.

Shawarma-spiced roast vegetables with feta

The spices in shawarma are so stunning that it’s a shame to not let them shine their fragrant light on, say, a tray of roast vegetables. The second time I made this, I added some ginger and ground cloves inspired by their inclusion in this Palestinian recipe by Wafa Shami and it was excellent—I encourage you to do the same, but it was still glorious without them, which is why I’ve listed them as optional. Recipe by myself but largely inspired by the spices in the Chicken Shawarma recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Simply Nigella.

• 2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper, or plenty of fresbly ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 400g red, purple, and white baby potatoes (though all of one colour is fine)
• 1 medium-sized orange kūmara
• 1 large carrot
• 4 cloves garlic
• 20g rocket leaves
• 50g feta
• 40g slivered almonds
• A handful of chives

1: Set your oven to 200C/400F and have a large, shallow roasting tray or sheet pan at the ready. In a large bowl, stir together the two teaspoons each of smoked paprika and cumin, the 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, and nutmeg, the teaspoon of salt and the half teaspoon of ground white pepper. Add the teaspoon of ginger and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves here if using, too. Drop the two bay leaves in, then pour in the four tablespoons of olive oil.

2: Grate the zest of the lemon and add it to the bowl, then halve the lemon, squeeze as much juice as possible into the bowl, and stir this mixture into a thick, dark-dark-red paste. Don’t worry if it tastes a little too salty at this stage, it will mellow out when stirred through everything.

3: Chop your vegetables into roughly 1.5inch chunks—for the 400g potatoes this means halving and perhaps quartering them, for the kūmara and carrot you just need to chop away at them. Tumble all these chopped vegetables into the spice paste and stir to coat. Peel the four garlic cloves and halve them lengthwise and stir them, too, into the bowl of vegetables.

4: Tip the vegetables onto the shallow roasting tray and spread out evenly. using a spatula to scrape out any last flavoursome paste. Roast for 30 minutes.

5: Once the thirty minutes is up, remove the tray from the oven. Stir in the 20g rocket leaves, crumble over the 50g feta, and scatter with the 40g slivered almonds. This is presuming you’re serving it straight from the roasting dish; otherwise, remove the vegetables to a serving dish before adding these ingredients.

Serves two, any leftovers keep well for packed lunches or for stuffing into pitas or wraps.

Notes:

• You can use different vegetables here but consider the density and how long you’d normally cook them for—parsnip or butternut can sub in easily, whereas more tender vegetables like brocolli are best added halfway through or they’ll get too frizzled.
• If you’re low on spices, you could still have an enjoyable dinner with just the smoked paprika and cumin.
• Add some boneless chicken thighs if you want, though you might need to add an extra ten minutes to the cooking time. I wouldn’t recommend chicken breasts, here or anywhere!
• I sometimes serve this with thick, plain yoghurt whisked together with a few spoonfuls of tahini, as you can see in the plated photos here.

music lately:

Boys with the Characteristics of Wolves by Unknown Mortal Orchestra. New UMO is always good news. I love the scansion of the title; it slots into its time signature so perfectly, propelled along by the pensive yet squally guitar riff.

Well-alright by Spoon, it has a The Clean-esque rock’n’roll scrappiness to it that is very charming. That being said, this song itself is coming up fifteen years old so the aforementioned scrappiness has possibly since been inherited by another band.

Faster Disco by Faith No More, the way it drifts over you like a lucid dream, the thick, adenoids-first quality of Chuck Mosley’s vocals…a perfect song.

Pretrial (Let Her Go Home) by Fiona Apple, inspired by her time volunteering as a court watcher. In her video she says, “I saw so many people caged away simply because they could not afford bail…I hope that this song will help to show what is at stake when someone is touched by a system that won’t let them go.” That’s RIGHT.

PS: As we enjoy our food we can’t forget those going violently without it. Though the people of Gaza are existing under barbaric cruelty with aid continually blocked, NZ-based humanitarian org ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal continues to work to deliver water sourced and treated from within Gaza so give it if you’ve got it. And as always, the absence of dollars can have power too; check out the BDS page of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa for some useful directions to not spend your money in.