Za’atar Smashed Potato Salad

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wash and dry the potatoes, then place them onto a baking tray. Drizzle with 2 tbsp of olive oil and rub onto each potato. Season with salt and pepper, space the potatoes out, making sure none of them touch and bake for 25 mins.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl add the za’atar, half the sumac and 80ml of olive oil. Stir together and season with salt. Pick the dill, parsley and mint leaves, keeping the dill and parsley stalks. Peel, halve and thinly slice the red onion.

In a food processor, add the sun dried tomatoes, reserved herb stalks and blitz until finely chopped. Add in the cottage cheese and 30ml of olive oil, whizz until smooth and creamy. Transfer into a bowl with the zest of half a lemon. Taste and season with salt if needed. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Wash the sliced onion under cold running water then add into a bowl with the remaining sumac and some salt. Toss together and let macerate.

Once the potatoes have cooked for 25 mins, remove them from the oven — at this point they should be cooked. Use the bottom of a flat object to press down on each potato until it’s around 1cm thick. Drizzle over the za’atar oil onto each potato and return to the oven until golden and crispy, 20-30 mins.

Once the potatoes are ready, toss the picked herbs into the sumac onions with 1 tbsp of olive oil and the juice of the lemon.

Spread the whipped cottage cheese onto a platter, arrange the potatoes on top and garnish with the herb and onion salad.