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I’m frequently concocting various cous-cous or quinoa based salads, which I love to spruce up with nuts, beans, dried or fresh fruits, etc. However, I always make this very basic and traditional tabouleh salad to accompany falafel. But it’s also quite excellent by itself.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dry cous-cous (preferably whole wheat)
- about 1 to 1 1/2 cups packed fresh parsleuy leaves (this ends up being about one of those standard-sized bunches you find at most grocery stores; it can be the curly or flat variety)
- about 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves (again, about one of the bunches you find at the grocery store)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 small to medium sized cucumber, chopped
- 3 T olive oil
- 3 T lemon juice
- 1 tsp sea salt, or more to taste
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste
To make:
1. Place cous-cous in a bowl. Bring one cup of hot water to a boil, then pour it over cous-cous; cover and let stand for about ten minutes. Fluff with a fork.
2. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, garlic and ground black pepper.
3. Put parsley and mint in a food processor until finely chopped. If you don’t have a food processor, get out your chef’s knive and have at it.
4. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Tabouleh can be served cool or at room temperature. The flavor will improve if you let it stand for awhile.
Last weekend’s cooking adventures took on a very middle eastern flavor: falafel, hummus, tabouleh salad and my very first attempt at making baklava (stay tuned for the baklava post).
I’m going to go ahead and make a sweeping generalization here: pretty much everyone loves falafel, which are little patties made out of fried chickpea batter and a common form of street food in many countries of the world (though they are Arabic in origin). I had my first falafel from a street stand in Amsterdam circa 2001 (thank you, Debbie, for the formal introduction) and have been hooked ever since. If you’ve got a food processor, falafel is pretty easy to make at home, and the homemade version is way tastier than the boxed dry falafel mixes available most health food stores.
My first two attempts at making falafel resulted in a big mushy, crumbly mess. The key, I discovered, is always testing out a patty before you commit to rolling and frying the whole batter. If the patty falls apart in the oil, simply add more flour to the batter until the patties maintain their shape. Once you become a falafel pro, you’ll develop a sense for how wet the batter should be.
Falafel isn’t exactly elegant food (can “elegant” and “fried” go together?). In many parts of the world, it’s actually considered “fast food,” but I’ll take it over McDonald’s any day. It’s often served with a tahini sauce or yogurt cucumber sauce; I’ve developed a tofu-based version of the latter that I always make to accompany my falafel.
This batter should feed 4 to 5 people. I recommend serving on pita bread with tabouleh, hummus and cucumber-dill sauce (recipe below). Tip: only fry what you’re going to eat right away, because the falafel simply must be eaten hot and fresh. If you only use part of the batter, the remaining batter can be kept in the fridge for a day or so until you’re ready to eat it.
Falafel Ingredients:
- 2 cups of cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup packed fresh parsley leaves
- 1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 T ground cumin
- scant 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, preferably freshly ground, more or less to taste
- 1/4 cup flour (I sometimes use chickpea flour in keeping with the theme of fried chickpea batter, but all-purpose or white whole wheat will do just as well); plus reserve some additional flour aside, be added in before frying
- oil for frying — something neutral, like canola or grapeseed, but olive oil would be okay too.
To Make the Falafel:
1. In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, onion, and bread crumbs until well chopped. Then add in the remaining ingredients (except for the frying oil) and combine until everything is well incorporated. Put the batter in a bowl, cover, and refridgerate for about 30 minutes (or more).
2. Fill a skillet with a layer of the frying oil — it doesn’t have to be much, less than 1/4 inch will do. Heat the oil to a medium high heat.
3. Now, onto the frying: always, always, ALWAYS do a tester patty. It’s very likely that you will need at add in more flour, maybe even up to 1/4 cup more, depending on what kind of flour you are using and how wet your batter is. The patties are made by rolling the batter into little balls, about one and half inches, and then slightly flattening them into patties (this will help you get more frying coverage). Throw your tester patty into the hot oil. If it falls apart and crumbles, you definitely need more flour. Fry on one side a few minutes, until the sides start to turn golden brown. Then flip and fry the other side, until the whole patty is golden brown.
4. Remove falafel from the hot oil with a slotted spoon and briefly place on paper towel to blot excess oil. Serve hot!
Cucumber-Dill Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 cup silken tofu
- 1 small cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1.5 T lemon juice
- 1/2 cup packed fresh dill weed or 2-3 T dried dill weed
- 1/4 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
- black pepper to taste
To Make the Sauce:
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor. You may have to scrape down the sides with a rubber scraper to ensure that all the ingredients are well incorporated
This was my second shot at granola. As was true with the first attempt, I want emphasize that this recipe is extremely flexible. If you don’t have enough of one ingredient, substitute more of another. If you can’t find hempseeds, use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, etc. Peanut butter or cashew butter will work just as well as almond butter. And so on, so forth.
A note on finding dried fruits: I prefer to use only unsulphered and unsweetened dried fruits, which can be difficult to achieve depending on which fruits you are using. Make sure to read labels. I have a love-hate relationship with Trader Joe’s (love when I hear the total at the cash register/hate when I can’t find what I need there — a common occurrence – and also when rude fellow shoppers bump into me due to extremely poor floor design), BUT I must say that they offer an excellent assortment of dried fruits and raw nuts — some organic — at very reasonable prices. Dried blueberries are often sweetened, but Trader Joe’s and usually Whole Foods offer varieties that are not. Trader Joe’s also offers a product called “Just Bananas, flattened” which consists of nothing but dried bananas. It’s not organic, but it beats those super oily-heavy banana chips, and it’s what I used here. Once I saw a similar dried banana product (nothing added) at a Whole Foods, but this was awhile ago and there have been no subsequent sightings. Trader Joe’s also sells freeze-dried bananas, which contain nothing but bananas. They make you feel kind of like an astronaut, but I think they would work well with granola.
This makes about 12-13 cups.
Ingredients:
- 4 C rolled grains (I used 2 cups oats and 2 cups of Country Corner Organic Hot Cereal, which is contains rolled oats, barley, wheat and rye and nothing else)
- 2/3 C oat flour (can substitute any kind of flour)
- 1/2 C wheat bran
- 1/3 C sunflower seeds
- 1/3 C hemp seeds
- 1 C raw almonds, chopped
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 C almond butter (I used the raw crunchy kind), plus 1-2 T more if desired (see step #4 below)
- 2/3 C (I used half maple syrup and half honey), plus 1-2 T more if desired (see step #4 below)
- 2 T coconut oil (optional)
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups dried blueberries and dried bananas, preferably unsweetened and unsulfured (I also threw in some dried figs).
To make:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Oil well cookie sheets or baking dishes (I find baking dishes to work better because they don’t make such a mess when you stir the granola).
2. Combine all dry ingredients EXCEPT the dried fruit.
3. Whisk together the almond butter and liquid sweetener with 1/3 cup hot water, leaving aside the additional tablespoons of almond butter and sweetener, if using, for step #5.
4. Combine liquid and dry ingredients well; poor into baking dishes and bake until golden brown, about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so to make sure granola bakes evenly and does not burn.
5. When granola is a nice golden brown color, remove from the heat and stir in the fruit, and if so desired, the additional almond butter and liquid sweetener. I find that adding a little extra of these helps hold everything together after the baking.
Notes:
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a recipe for buckwheat pancakes somewhere, and ever since the words “buckwheat pancakes” have been nagging at the back of my head. I’ve never been a huge pancake person, but something about the sound of “buckwheat” made them sound really hearty and wholesome, and also vaguely familiar, like a long-lost childhood breakfast. (The latter simply cannot be true; I almost never ate pancakes for breakfast as a kid, and if I did, they were surely compliments of Bisquick. Or Bob Evans.) Eventually, I found myself making a 9:45 p.m. buckwheat flour run to Whole Foods. However, I was dismayed to discover they didn’t have any. In mysterious determination to come home with SOMETHING buckwheat, I ended up buying a giant bag of kasha (toasted buckwheat groats) that I had absolutely no idea what to do with.
Once I finally did get my hands on some buckwheat flour (from Whole Foods — apparently they were out of it on trip #1), it took me several attempts to concoct a batter that would render presentable pancakes. However, the experimentation process did reveal that kasha actually makes a fine pancake topping, especially along with some fresh berries and maple syrup. Kasha kernels have a fun pyramid shape and impart a nutty, earthy flavor. Petar and I enjoyed a batch of these pancakes after a Sunday morning practice, and I’m pretty sure he’d also be willing to offer his full endorsement of kasha as a pancake topper. Plus, the name just “kasha” sounds kind of cool, like something that hippies would name their dog.
Some fun facts: buckwheat actually isn’t a cereal grain; it’s a fruit seed. Despite its misleading name, it doesn’t contain any wheat (making this recipe gluten-free, if you’re into that). It’s also an excellent source of fiber and antioxidants.
This batter will serve about two (maybe three if your pancake-flipping skills are well-honed and your appetites are small — neither of which apply to me).
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/2 cup spelt flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tablespoons palm sugar (can substitute any granulated sugar)
- 2 tablespoons COLD expeller pressed coconut oil (can substitute vegan margarine, e.g., Earth Balance)
- 1 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- maple syrup for topping,
- Lots of fresh berries and kasha (if you know what’s good for you).
To make:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and the vinegar and allow to stand for about 10 minutes. The vinegar will curdle the soymilk, providing for that “buttermilk” effect associated with good pancakes.
2. Combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon and salt.
3. Cut the COLD coconut oil (or vegan margarine) into small pieces, and then cut it into the dry ingredients until you have a sandy like texture. I actually do this in the food processor. I first pulse the flours for a few seconds, then I throw in the pieces of coconut oil. But this can easily be done by hand if you don’t have a food processor or are averse to cleaning one. (Note: as mentioned above, coconut oil, like dairy butter, is a saturated fat — which means it becomes solid when chilled).
4. Begin heating up a skillet — preferably cast iron — to a medium heat.
5. Combine the dry mix with the soy milk/cider combo, and then add in vanilla and applesauce. Assess the thickness of the batter — you will probably need to add water to thin the batter out. I ended up adding about 1/3 cup, but start slowly and always do a small tester pancake. If the pancakes is too thick and doesn’t cook all the way through, add more water.
6. LIGHTLY grease the skillet right before you are ready to start the pancakes. I choose to do this by wiping a little coconut oil on the warm skillet with a paper towel. I find that the edges of the pancakes turn out better if there isn’t a lot of oil or grease bubbling up around them. You can also use a non-stick spray.
7. Ladle out the batter onto the skillet and allow to cook until little bubbles start to form, usually less than two minutes. Then gently flip the pancakes and cook a minute or two on the other side.
8. Serve fresh and warm, with the toppings of choice.
I once thought seaweed salads were really exotic and beyond the scope of my kitchen. So even though they were my favorite part about eating Japanese food, I never considered trying to make them at home. I’m not sure why this was; perhaps the seaweed itself intimidated me, or maybe it was my lack of experience with Japanese cooking, or possibly even a sub-conscious desire to let some foods remain mysterious and special. But at any rate, I’m getting to the point where I usually prefer to prepare my own food over eating it in a restaurant. This is for three main reasons: (1) it’s more fun to make it myself, (2) my own version is usually just as good if not better, and (3) I like to know exactly what’s going into my food. So when it occurred to me that I had been toying with seaweed in some other recipes, I figured it was high time to de-mystify the seaweed salad.
Turns out that it is the easiest thing in the world to make. And this version tastes pretty much just like the ones you get at Japanese restaurants.
This recipe is for a single salad, so just multiply the ingredients by the number of salads you want to make.
Ingredients:
- about 2 servings of dried wakame (the seaweed), which is about 6 tablespoons
- about 2 tablespoons of chopped cucumbers
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (the dark brown kind, also known as “Asian” sesame oil)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sweetener (I used agave nectar, but you could use sugar too)
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
- red hot pepper flakes, to taste
To make:
1. Soak the wakame in a bowl of cold water for ten minutes. It will turn bright green and expand.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, sweetener, ginger, and pepper flakes.
3. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until they turn golden brown (this will happen quickly, watch out).
4. Drain the wakame and pat off excess water with a towel or paper towel. Toss it with the cucumbers and dressing and top with the sesame seeds. Then get out your chopsticks and enjoy.
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