Winter Rice Salad lunch

Ingredients
Rice
Chickpeas
Chard
Butternut squash
chipotle powder
olive oil

Tahini Sauce
2 parts tahini
2 parts soy sauce
1 part black vinegar
1 part rice vinegar
0.5 part hot sauce
1 partish water

Method
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut butternut squash is half lengthwise. Clean out seeds and place cut side down in a baking dish with high sides. Fill the bottom of the dish with water to cover about 1/2 inch of the squash. Bake for about 30 minutes until the flesh is soft.

Drain and rinse chickpeas, saving brine for Aquafaba experiments, if desired. On a baking sheet covered in parchment paper lay out chickpeas and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and chipotle chili powder or any other spices desired. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until chickpeas are firm. They crisp up more as they cool down.

Cook rice in rice cooker. Can you cook rice any other way? I argue that there is only one way to cook rice and that is with a rice cooker.

Chop up chard into bite size pieces.

Whisk everything together for the tahini sauce adding more water if needed to get tahini to blend nicely.

In a bowl place rice, a couple of spoonfuls of butternut squash, chickpeas, chard and drizzle with sauce. Mix until blended together.

Notes
This was super tasty and a great way to use up the butternut squash that has been sitting on my counter for the past 3 months. The tahini sauce was adapted from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook.

This is what it looks like before mixing everything up. The squash sort of disappears in the dish.

The salad was served with carrots, apple, and hummus.

Beer brewing/pumpkin carving party food spread

My husband brews beer. Every few weeks he has his brew buddies over to brew a new batch. He has gotten very technical with all of it and now our basement is filled with two chest freezers with temperature controllers to have the beer brew and condition at the proper temperature as well as a lot of other peripheral brew equipment. The newest piece of equipment saw its debut a few weeks ago. We had a group of people (mostly physicists) over for beer brewing and pumpkin carving. The equipment is a plate chiller and is used to cool the boiling wort to yeast pitching temperature. Unfortunately, we didn't have the proper fittings to hook the hose onto the plate chiller, so they brainstormed and came up with a way to gravity feed the water from our second floor bedroom through the plate chiller to cool the beer. You can see pictures of this adventure at my friend, Robert's, blog. After all the shenanigans, I was glad I made a lot of food!


The entire spread


Dehydrated banana bread, from Practically Raw
It tastes just like banana bread, and only has a few ingrediants. Delicious!


Chocolate kale chips, also from Practically Raw
This is a pretty similar recipe, although I used raw cashews, maple syrup, cocoa powder, and no chia seeds or lemon juice. The massaging of the kale took the longest time. These taste like crispy bits of chocolate. You cannot taste the kale at all. The Practically Raw cookbook has an entire chapter on kale chips and another one on hummus. It is a fantastic book. I need to just buy it, I have been using the library copy for the past few months. The perk of being a graduate student, I get to check out books for as long as I desire.


Hummus, baba ganoush, pineapple, guacamole
All pretty standard recipes.


Homemade pita bread
I used a recipe from Whole Foods for the Whole Family and cooked them on a cast iron griddle in a 400 degree oven. I had the oven heating up to 500 degrees, but the smoke detector went off. Obviously, something was burning off the pan, but 400 degrees worked out fine. I got into quite a rhythm while I was making them. I divided them out into 12 balls. Rolled one ball out into a round with the rolling pin. Put it in the oven. Rolled out the next ball. Turned the first pita over. Put the second one in the oven. Roll out the next ball. Take the first pita out of the oven. Turn the second one over. Put the third one in the oven. I was so happy that these actually puffed up in the oven, it was great and amazing.



Notes
Everyone enjoyed the spread and we only had minimal leftovers. I would say the day was a hit!

The day after the beer brewing/pumpking carving, we were hit with the outskirts of Sandy. School was cancelled for Monday and Tuesday, but there wasn't a lot of damage in the area, thank goodness, and we never lost power. We did, however, see a pack of wild turkeys wander in our backyard during the worst of the wind and rain. They hung out for an hour and then moved onto whereever they were going.

Chickpea "Omlette" pancake thing - pudla

I have now tried two recipes involving chickpea flour to mimic an omlette texture and I do have to say - it is really tasty. The first one I tried was based on a recipe from Vegan Richa. The second one I tried was from Kittee Kate. The recipes are slightly different, but both my husband and I enjoyed them throughly!



Notes
Would very very very much make again. I had to cook them for a while to make sure they were cooked through, but it was so so worth it. The perfect thing about these recipes is you can use them with practically any vegetables you need to use. Try one of the recipes today!

Falafel and tzatziki sauce

Wednesday, I got home after my zumba class and I needed to eat. I was trying to decide if I should just heat up a can of soup or go with the original plan of making falafel. I decided that I would be much happier with falafel.

This is based on the recipe from Rabbit Food cookbook, which is a fabulous cookbook.

Ingredients
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
1/4 red onion, diced,
3 - 4 garlic, diced (I love a lot of garlic flavour)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup flour
lemon juice
cumin
cayenne pepper
black pepper
salt

plain coconut yogurt, this was a tad bit too sweet
1/4 cup diced cucumber
lemon juice

tomato slices
cucumber slices
pickles
lettuce
sriracha sauce

pita bread or tortillas

Method
Using a potato masher or food processor, mash up the chickpeas until there are no whole ones left. Usually I use the food processor, but I didn't want to dirty up the food processor bowl, so I used the potato masher and it works okay. Make sure that all the other ingredients are diced very very small. Add all the other ingredients and mix until evenly distributed. The mixture should be able to stick together when pressed.

Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium heat. You can also deep fry or bake the falafel, but I prefer to shallow fry them in a skillet. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out a 1/4 cup and mash into about a 6 cm diameter patty. Place on the skillet and cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Continue making patties until the mixture is gone. I made about 8 patties.

To make the tzatziki sauce, mix together the yogurt, cucumber, and lemon juice. Set aside to let the flavours blend.

To serve, heat the bread or tortillas until warm and pliable. Place 2 patties in the center and add the tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, pickles, sriracha, and tzatziki.

Notes
These were surprising good. The recipe is so simple and came out really well. The patties didn't get hard the way they do when falafel is fried, and even though the fell apart a bit, they were still good. My husband had already had dinner, but he kept stealing bites because he liked it so much. We ate the leftovers for lunch on Thursday and they were still quite tasty.

Hummus Board

My husband and I are more grazers than set meal eaters. When we eat smaller meals, we are generally in better moods and have more energy. This is one of our "meals".



Ingredients
Homemade hummus - crockpot cooked chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper
pita bread
cucumbers
carrot sticks
celery
avocado
pickles
strawberries
peaches


Notes
We love making our own hummus. We add a lot more garlic and spice it up with the sriracha. It tastes so much better than store bought.

Dinner club: Chickpea Patties

Recently, we started having a weekly dinner club. Every Tuesday night, we rotate cooking responsibilities. It is a fun way to socialise in a low pressure environment, on a weekly basis. It is also a great way to use up the massive amount of salad greens we get with our CSA and food delivery! This is what we made the first week.




Chickpea cutlets - I have tried these both baked and cooked on the stove top and I like them best slightly burnt from cooking in cast iron skillet
mashed potatoes
gravy
salad with local greens, carrots, red onion and a vinegar, oil, basil salad dressing

Notes
Everyone enjoyed the meal. We tend to make the cutlets when we have guests over because they are delicious and seem to be liked by people who eat meat as well as those that do not.

We have now been doing dinner club for about 2 months now and I look forward to it every week!

Planet Box Lunches

So it has been a while since I have posted, but we are still cooking a lot around our household. We are currently doing a food delivery service and a winter CSA. The delivery comes right to our door every week filled with all organic fruits and vegetables - not local because we get things like oranges, bananas, and fresh blueberries. For the CSA we pick it up every three weeks and it usually full of carrots, potatoes, apples, lettuce, local milled wheat and oats, honey, etc. It is amazing, but a lot of food to receive all at once. It is a good thing it is vegetables that store really well.

Anyway, we have been eating better because we are always flush with fresh produce and I have been enjoying putting together awesome lunches.

If you are wondering about our great lunchboxes, you can find all about them on their website, Planet Box. They are pretty expensive, but we really like them. We have the rocket magnets, because you know, we are scientists!


My husband put this together for me this past weekend. It is Field Roast smoked apple sage sausage, salad with carrots, apples, and red bell pepper, chipotle spiced mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, salad dressing made with curry powder (do this! it is delicious!), an orange, and a leftover biscuit from our biscuits and gravy earlier that day.


I made this after a ladies night where we had a taco bar. I turned the TVP taco meat into a taco salad with sauteed onions and bell peppers. Actually, my husband made all the food for ladies night and then I kicked him out. He is really good to me. Next we have some pear, blueberries, a leftover macaroon, vegan mayo mixed with sriracha, bell peppers and carrots, raisins, Lara bar, orange, and tortilla chips.


In January, I test cooked the vegetarian meal for Once a Month Mom February meals. We have been slowly eating all of those meals. It is a great way to pull together an easy lunch because everything pretty much unfreezes by lunch time. On this day we had, Chickpea patties, bell pepper and blueberries, kiwifruit, BBQ sauce, carrot sticks, raisins, and a lemon poppy seed muffin.

I'm really sorry for the terrible pictures! Early morning is not the best time to take pictures in my kitchen.

Polenta with chickpeas, spinach, mushroom

I just threw this together based on what I had in kitchen and it came amazing. This was my first time making polenta and it came out tasty, but I am not planning on making more any time soon.



Ingredients
2 cups water
vegetable better than bullion paste
3/4 cup polenta
5 oz shiitake mushrooms
1 cup frozen spinach (I used frozen because that is what I had, but feel free to use fresh)
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
fresh oregano

2 heads of garlic

Method
Boil water and the bullion paste. In a slow and steady stream, whisk in the polenta. Continue to whisk nearly constantly until it comes away from the sides of the pan and has a "shiny" texture. This should take about 15 - 20 minutes.

When the polenta is done, place the polenta in an 8x8 pan and smooth the top. Cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or preferable longer. When the polenta is cooled, it sticks together.

Roast the garlic: chop off the top of the head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil, and place in a preheated 350F oven for about 40 minutes, or until brown and soft.

Heat a cast iron pan over medium heat and add some olive oil. When the pan and oil are heated, add squares of the polenta and cook until browned on both sides, about 8 minutes.

While the polenta is cooking, in another skillet over medium heat, add a splash of olive oil and cook the mushrooms until softened. Add the spinach and chickpeas and heat through.

Place a piece of polenta down and top with the mushroom mixture. Garnish with the fresh oregano and roasted garlic.

Notes
This was crazy delicious. I had the problem of the browned part of my polenta sticking to the bottom of my pan when I went to turn it over, but I think it was because I had not allowed the polenta to cool sufficiently. I made this a while ago, but I am pretty sure that my husband liked it as well.

Simple Split Chickpea Curry

For my birthday this year my sister added to my cooking obsession by buying me a cast-iron wok and a cookbook. The cookbook is The Indian Slow Cooker and it is pretty fantastic. It is mostly vegetarian with only seven out of the fifty recipes containing meat. I looked at a few of those recipes and they are easily veganizable. Well, everything in here is easy to make without the dairy. I have a slight criticism of this cookbook and it is some of the recipes are really similar. For example, are two recipes called "Split Green Lentil and Rice Porridge" and "Whole Green Lentil and Brown Rice Porridge" really necessary? Overall, I am pleased with the book, though, because I love Indian food.





This is adapted for my 1.5 qt slow cooker.

Ingredients
1 cup dried chana dal, cleaned and rinsed
onion
1/2 tomato
fresh ginger
garlic
hot chili pepper
1 t cumin seeds
1/4 t turmeric
1 t chili powder
salt
3 cup water

Method
Put the chana dal, tomato, chili, garlic, water, and half of the rest of the spices in a slow cooker. Cook on low for about 8 hours. Add the rest of the spices and stir to combine. Using an immersion blender, pulse the soup until there is still some texture left.

Notes
I have decided that cooking Indian spices for a long period of time does not make them intensify, it only makes them mellow and disappear. My husband had the great idea of only adding half the spices at the beginning and then the rest right before serving. Such a great idea. I did have to add just a bit of sriracha because my grocery store only had mild chilies and not any hot ones.

This was the first dish I used with our immersion blender. Oh my goodness, how did I get by before without one? It worked so well (maybe a bit too well, there is not much texture left, but that is really because I was playing around with it) and so quickly. I was amazed. No more hot liquids in the blender for me!

I am going to increase the spice level for sure next time.

Why yes, I did eat this with a toasted whole wheat hot dog bun.

Hummus Pizza!

I based my lunch today on a recipe I found in Supermarket Vegan. Every time I flipped through the cookbook, this recipe stood out to me. Who can go wrong with hummus on a pizza? I used a hot pitted salad mix from the olive bar at the grocery store.





Ingredients:

hummus (I made my own based on what I did a few days ago. If you are not making your own hummus, what are you waiting for? It is fast, cheap, and you can make it exactly how you want.)
kalamata olives, chopped (I chopped the olives in my food processor until it was chunky)
sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips
rosemary
oregano
pita bread (I used the small size, they were about the size of my hand)
olive oil

Spread a bit of olive oil over the top of the pita bread and place in the toaster oven for a minute or two under toast until the bread is warm and bendable.

Spread hummus over the top of the pita bread. Layer on the olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Sprinkle with dried rosemary and oregano. Place back in the toaster oven for a few minutes more until everything is warm and the exposed pita is getting crispy.





Next time, I would like to make my own pita bread, but this was a filling, fast lunch.

Mediterranean Fest 2011!

A few days ago, I realized that I was craving falafel, so this week I put it into my menu plans and made it for dinner tonight. Dinner took about two hours to pull everything together, but it was delicious.

I wanted to add dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), but the two jars of grape leaves at the grocery store both expired in October and had weird white floating things inside. It is too bad, because I had a recipe for them in the slow cooker cook book. I plan on going to the natural food store some time this week and maybe they will have grape leaves.





The menu tonight, all homemade:
Flat bread
falafel
hummus
tabbouleh
tzatziki sauce

Flat Bread
(From Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. This book is awesome. I bought it for $7 from Powell's and it has 750 pages full of bread recipes.)

2 cups white wheat flour
1 t active dry yeast
1 t salt
2 t olive oil
3/4 cup hot water (120F - 130F)
(I wish I had kneaded in some roasted garlic for a bit more flavor)

In a bowl combine half the flour, yeast, and salt. Add in the water and oil and combine. Keep adding flour 1/4 cup at a time until you are able to knead the bread easily.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the bread until it is soft and elastic. Do not add too much flour or the bread will be dry and dense.

Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough inside, turning once to cover it in oil. Cover tightly and set aside in a warm spot to rise. It took about 40 minutes to double in size.

Punch down the dough and divide into 4 parts. Roll the dough with your hands or a rolling pin, until it is about 8 inches in diameter.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and add oil olive. Cook the flat bread for 3 - 4 minutes per side, or until brown and risen slightly. Cover with a damp towel to keep warm and moist while the other breads are cooking. Serve warm.


Falafel
(Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance and Great Vegetarian Food)

1 cup cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 T flour
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 green onion, chopped
1/4 t baking soda
cumin, ground
coriander, ground
cayenne pepper, ground
1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt
black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well mixed. You don't want it to be hummus, it should be small bits of food that hold together when pressed. Place in fridge for about 30 minutes.

Form into patties and cook in a bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.


Hummus

1 cup chickpeas
4 cloves garlic
1 T tahini
salt
black pepper
sriracha sauce
olive oil

Add everything, except the oil to the food processor. Blend until everything is combined. While the processor is running, slowly add oil until it looks smooth. Continue processing until a paste has formed. I meant to add lemon juice to the mixture, but I did not have a lemon.


Tabbouleh Salad
(Adapted from Great Vegetarian Food)

2 T bulgur wheat
boiling water
2/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
1 T olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced (I didn't have a lemon on hand, but it would have added much more to the salad)

Place bulgur in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Drain and dry the bulgur. Add the bulgur to all the other ingredients and mix to combine. Alternatively, you can add everything to a food processor and pulse several times until it is the consistency you desire.


Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped
salt
pepper
1/2 lemon, juiced (I didn't add this and it came out fine)

Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until the cucumber is liquified. Chill until ready to use.






Oh my goodness, this was so deliciously good. And all the homemade items tasted fantastic. Neither my husband or myself like any of the hummus we can buy in the store, so making it from home is a necessity.