So, it's still bitterly cold and my South African tan has faded away...But, I'm ready for summer and find myself getting tired of all sorts of things as a result of my impatience for sun, skirts, and beer on porches. One of those things is my standard granola/fruit/yogurt breakfast. My favorite alternative to a bowl of sweet and crunchy goodness is a salty, heavily seeded everything bagel with hummus, avocado, sprouts, tomato and cucumber...Clearly my mom did a good job teaching me to eat my veggies! Unfortunately it is impossible to get a good tomato in this town and I'm pretty sure that you can't find decent bagels either. (I'm not quite ready to start making my own!) But, I've been soothing my frustrated inner Californian with dense seedy bread, avocado, sprout and hummus sandwiches for breakfast and eagerly anticipating tomato season.
Which brings me to making hummus. Store bought hummus is OKAY, but it frequently has weird extras in it like soy products, cream of tartar, lactic acid, etc. When I have time, I prefer to make mine from scratch because making hummus is incredibly easy provided you have a blender or blender like device and when I make it I know what is in it. And, things taste better when you make them from scratch. Recently I've been using toasted walnuts instead of sesame seeds to make an earthier, wintrier hummus. What follows is a Spain and South Africa inspired red pepper (Piquillos and Peppadews replace the standard roasted bell peppers) hummus. I'm also partial to delightfully green batches made with obscene amounts of cilantro, parsley or basil. Perhaps you'll find yourself encouraged to save a little money and make yours at home too and we can have a battle of the mashed garbanzo beans!
Ingredients
1 cup dried garbanzos
1 onion
1/2 bunch of parsley
6- 7 cups of water
salt
1 8 oz. jar of roasted piquillo peppers (ingredients should be peppers, olive oil and that's it!)
2/3 cup raw walnuts
5 pickled peppadews
3-4 cloves of garlic
1-2 lemons
olive oil
walnut oil (optional)
paprika
aleppo pepper, harissa, or red pepper flakes
Soak the beans over night. Cook them with the parsley and onions until soft and creamy in the center. Do not add salt until the beans are nearly done! Set aside and reserve the cooking water.
In a large skillet over medium heat toast the walnuts and the unpeeled garlic cloves until the nuts are fragrant. Peel the garlic and process with the walnuts and a good glug of olive oil and a hefty pinch of salt. Usually I use a little swig of walnut oil here too to add to the earthy, nutty background flavor.
Add the peppers and process until smooth.
Using a slotted spoon add the garbanzo beans to this paste and process, a little at a time, being careful not to transfer the aromatics from the cooking water into the blender. Use equal parts olive oil and cooking water to thin the mixture to your desired consistency.
Once you have combined all of the beans with the pepper and walnut mixture, add the juice of 1- 3 lemons depending on your preference and the juiciness of the lemons. A little orange zest is nice too. Season with 1 T of paprika, about 1 T of something spicy and salt. Process until incorporated.
Like most dips, hummus tastes best after sitting for a while. This recipe makes about 4- 5 cups of hummus and it will keep well in the fridge for 5 or so days.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Your Favorite Hippie Lemon-Tahini Dressing
Ariel's baking amazing cookies, Danica's kicking out the Indian food jams, and I present you with...salad dressing. A wonderful, healthy vegan dressing that is — straight outta that hairy-pitted, patchouli-lovin', be-Birckenstocked Shangri-la up in New York State we call Moosewood. Goes with everything. Break out the hackysacks, drum circles, and fire eaters. Let your inner hippie fly!
Luscious Lemon Tahini Dressing
from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special
1/2 c. tahini
1/2 c. water
3 T lemon juice
1 T red wine vinegar (I highly recommend subbing in balsamic here)
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground cumin
freshly ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a bowl or jar and whisk/shake till smooth. Let stand 15 mins before serving.
Luscious Lemon Tahini Dressing
from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special
1/2 c. tahini
1/2 c. water
3 T lemon juice
1 T red wine vinegar (I highly recommend subbing in balsamic here)
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground cumin
freshly ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a bowl or jar and whisk/shake till smooth. Let stand 15 mins before serving.
The best cookies EVER
I love cookies but I am also, as many of you know, neurotic about my weight and health...So, I'm always looking for a cookie that satisfies and packs a nutritional punch. I adapted this recipe from 101 Cookbooks to make the following delightfully spicy, chewy, only marginally sinful cookies. These little carrot/oatmeal/tart cherry/walnut/ginger goodies more than satisfy my cookie craving...Though, it is hard not to eat all the dough before you bake them!
I also made this soup last night...And I highly recommend the recipe! I doubled the ginger, used a couple extra cups of water, and added a hefty bit of orange zest and some chard at the end and it is AMAZING...So hearty, so healthy, so flavorful that it almost makes me wish that winter were not (hopefully) about to come to a close. Almost.
A note on coconut oil: As Heidi mentions, coconut gets a bad rap. These are cookies so they aren't totally healthy...You should not eat 7 in one evening like I did. But, I think that as long as you're using "real food" ingredients pretty much everything is okay in moderation. On the plus side, coconut is delicious, making these makes your hands soft, and now that you have the coconut oil in the pantry you'll be able to use it to make really excellent Thai style stir fry!
Things I might do differently next time:
1. To make them more of a health snack than a treat I would sub 1/2 the coconut oil and 1/2 the maple syrup with puréed, super ripe banana.
2. Use more of a health flower (like spelt) instead of the mix of unbleached all purpose and whole wheat all purpose.
3. Experiment with other flavors-- red currants instead of cherries (my original desire, but dried red currants are hard to find!), use zucchini in addition to the carrots, sub wheat germ for some of the flour, add shredded coconut to make them even more indulgent, etc.
Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (packed into the measuring cup)
1/2 cup TART dried cherries
1- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp of candied ginger, excess sugar shaken and/or scraped off, chopped really fine
1/2 cup real maple syrup, room temperature
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted (I used the Whole Foods 365 Organic kind. Its pretty important to the flavor that the coconut oil smell and taste like coconut.)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the nuts, fruit, candied ginger and carrots.
Heat a small saucepan. Remove from the stove top and use to melt the coconut oil. Add the grated ginger, and let sit for a minute or two before adding the maple syrup. Stir well and mix gently into the dry ingredients to create a wet dough.
Refrigerate cookie dough for one hour so that it firms up.
The cookies will hardly spread. Use about 1 tbsp of dough/ cookie and bake them in the top of the oven for 13- 14 minutes until the tops are just barely golden.
Cool completely on a rack and store in an air tight container. Because these contain a lot of "damp" I don't think they're likely to last too long in storage so I recommend making however many you need and carefully wrapping and freezing the dough.
Yield: 2 dozen cookies (After you inevitably "sample" the dough several times while baking.)
I also made this soup last night...And I highly recommend the recipe! I doubled the ginger, used a couple extra cups of water, and added a hefty bit of orange zest and some chard at the end and it is AMAZING...So hearty, so healthy, so flavorful that it almost makes me wish that winter were not (hopefully) about to come to a close. Almost.
A note on coconut oil: As Heidi mentions, coconut gets a bad rap. These are cookies so they aren't totally healthy...You should not eat 7 in one evening like I did. But, I think that as long as you're using "real food" ingredients pretty much everything is okay in moderation. On the plus side, coconut is delicious, making these makes your hands soft, and now that you have the coconut oil in the pantry you'll be able to use it to make really excellent Thai style stir fry!
Things I might do differently next time:
1. To make them more of a health snack than a treat I would sub 1/2 the coconut oil and 1/2 the maple syrup with puréed, super ripe banana.
2. Use more of a health flower (like spelt) instead of the mix of unbleached all purpose and whole wheat all purpose.
3. Experiment with other flavors-- red currants instead of cherries (my original desire, but dried red currants are hard to find!), use zucchini in addition to the carrots, sub wheat germ for some of the flour, add shredded coconut to make them even more indulgent, etc.
Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (packed into the measuring cup)
1/2 cup TART dried cherries
1- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp of candied ginger, excess sugar shaken and/or scraped off, chopped really fine
1/2 cup real maple syrup, room temperature
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted (I used the Whole Foods 365 Organic kind. Its pretty important to the flavor that the coconut oil smell and taste like coconut.)
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the nuts, fruit, candied ginger and carrots.
Heat a small saucepan. Remove from the stove top and use to melt the coconut oil. Add the grated ginger, and let sit for a minute or two before adding the maple syrup. Stir well and mix gently into the dry ingredients to create a wet dough.
Refrigerate cookie dough for one hour so that it firms up.
The cookies will hardly spread. Use about 1 tbsp of dough/ cookie and bake them in the top of the oven for 13- 14 minutes until the tops are just barely golden.
Cool completely on a rack and store in an air tight container. Because these contain a lot of "damp" I don't think they're likely to last too long in storage so I recommend making however many you need and carefully wrapping and freezing the dough.
Yield: 2 dozen cookies (After you inevitably "sample" the dough several times while baking.)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Italian White Bean Soup
This recipe is adapted from Jack Meyer's Italian Vegetarian Cookbook and the foundation of "soup knowledge" I'm building from cooking my way through Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
I wanted to do something with white beans, which I always think of as being rather "fancy."
2 tbs butter
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic pressed
4 red potatoes, scrubbed, chopped
1.5 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried sage
small bunch of fresh parsley chopped
2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained
6 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion and carrots until onion is translucent (about 10 minutes) in butter.
Add garlic, potatoes, and dried spices, stirring frequently (about 4 minutes).
Add 2 to 3 cups of water, scrape bottom so that the brown layer at the pot's bottom seasons water. Make sure that potatoes are covered, bring to a boil, the turn down heat and let simmer until potatoes are soft and break apart. Add another 2 to 4 cups of water, parsley, white beans, salt and pepper. Adjust temperature so that soup begins simmering again and flavors combine.
If you'd like, run two cups of soup through blender and add back to the pot.
I had this with homemade bread and it was a pretty delightful winter dinner.
The soup reheated a few days later was almost even more satisfying.
I wanted to do something with white beans, which I always think of as being rather "fancy."
2 tbs butter
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic pressed
4 red potatoes, scrubbed, chopped
1.5 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried sage
small bunch of fresh parsley chopped
2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained
6 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion and carrots until onion is translucent (about 10 minutes) in butter.
Add garlic, potatoes, and dried spices, stirring frequently (about 4 minutes).
Add 2 to 3 cups of water, scrape bottom so that the brown layer at the pot's bottom seasons water. Make sure that potatoes are covered, bring to a boil, the turn down heat and let simmer until potatoes are soft and break apart. Add another 2 to 4 cups of water, parsley, white beans, salt and pepper. Adjust temperature so that soup begins simmering again and flavors combine.
If you'd like, run two cups of soup through blender and add back to the pot.
I had this with homemade bread and it was a pretty delightful winter dinner.
The soup reheated a few days later was almost even more satisfying.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Chana Punjabi
Yes, Peter and I have been on an Indian food kick. This recipe is one of our favorites--we've been making it regularly for over a year and I'm finally delivering on my promise to share it.
Chana Punjabi
Serves 2
1 tablespoon canola oil or other vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 small Thai bird chili, chopped or 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped or a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
Cooked rice for serving (optional)
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat oil and add onion. Sauté until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and chili, and sauté until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook until tomatoes are very soft, about 5 minutes, then remove from heat.
Purée mixture in blender or food processor until smooth. Return to pan and place over medium heat. Add paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, coriander, the garam masala, turmeric and lemon juice. Add chickpeas and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
Cover and simmer until sauce is thick and chickpeas are soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir pan about every 10 minutes, adding water as needed (up to 1 1/2 cups) to prevent burning. When ready to serve, sauce should be thick. If necessary, uncover pan and allow sauce to reduce for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until desired consistency. Stir in cilantro, adjust salt as needed and serve with cooked rice, if desired.
Palak Daal
Aka the best weeknight (read: busy studying) dinner ever. And it makes a great lunch. Make it this week.
Palak Daal
1 cup white urid or urad daal (white lentils), picked over and rinsed
6 cups water, plus more if necessary
1/2 pound spinach, washed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 serrano chiles, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon pure red chile powder
a pinch of asafetida, optional
more salt to taste
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the daal and water. Bring to a boil, then add the spinach, ginger, turmeric, serranos, and all of the tomatoes. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the lentils are extremely soft. You may need to add a bit more water during the cooking process to keep the lentils soupy. After an hour and a half, stir in the salt. In a separate pan, heat the butter and cumin and fry until the cumin seeds start to pop. Now add the red chile powder (and asafetida if you're using it) and fry for another 30 seconds. Taste and add more asafetida if you like. Add this butter mixture to the lentils and allow to cook for another five minutes. Taste, and season with more salt if needed. Stir in lemon juice.
Serve over basmati rice topped with the cilantro.
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