Falafel Fun

For me, falafel has always been one of those foods that can go either way. At Middle Eastern restaurants sometimes the little fried balls of ground garbanzo beans and herbs are chalky and bland. But other times they are moist, delightfully crunchy and perfectly seasoned. When looking for meal ideas in the cookbook How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman, Trevor found a falafel recipe. Since we know that when falafel is good, it’s very, very good, we gave it a shot.

The odd thing about the recipe it that the garbanzo beans are not cooked. You get dried beans and soak them for 24 hours. Then you whirl them in a food processor with parsley, garlic, onion and spices. Once shaped into little balls or patties, you deep-fry them for about 5 minutes. The recipe doesn't call for it, but I put them on a cookie-rack-covered baking sheet as opposed to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet. I think it keeps fried foods from getting soggy.

We usually make a yogurt-tahini sauce to slather over them and stuff them in pitas with shredded lettuce, and slices of cucumber and tomato. (Sometimes I’ll sprinkle a little feta cheese on top, too.)

The best thing about homemade falafel is its consistency. You know it will always be piping hot, crunchy and seasoned to your taste. Sure it’s deep fried, but it’s also vegetarian. The only other fat in the meal comes from the tahini – and it’s good fat. It’s now become a meal we crave. And because it takes minimal work, it’s suitable for making on a weeknight.

Dirty Hippie

Homemade yogurt and chunky granola with almonds, apples and craisins

When I told my friend Randi that I had started making headbands and selling them at craft shows, she said, “Denise, you move to Portland and become a dirty hippie.” The years since then, I’ve done plenty more to add to my dirty hippie status. Like growing vegetables, eating seasonally, canning, and sewing my own clothes and home accessories. I do admit to showering regularly though.

But the other day I think I reached the zenith of dirty hippidom – I made my own granola and fermented my own yogurt. For Christmas, Trevor’s parents gave us a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated magazine. What it lacks in modern, glossy layouts it more than makes up for in genius kitchen tips and recipes that work because of on-staff science editors and repeated testing. We’ve made several recipes from the issues we’ve received so far and each one is just perfect. One day I decided to make the super chunky granola from the March/April issue. I’d also been eyeing the yogurt recipe in Canning for a New Generation. And our friend Paul had recently given us a copy of Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, which also had a yogurt recipe. Yogurt and granola seemed like a perfect combination.

The granola was simple enough. Oil, vanilla, maple syrup and brown sugar mixed to coat rolled oats and almonds, then pressed into a lined baking sheet and baked at a low 325˚ for about 40 minutes. After it’s cool, you break it apart and add the dried fruit. We used apples and craisins. (Making this granola, I found getting rolled oats, dried fruit and nuts from the bulk bins at the grocery store is much cheaper than buying packaged versions!) I like granola, but it’s never been all that exciting to me. But this granola was so tasty and crunchy, I really liked it. Now Trevor is hooked and would rather eat it for breakfast than his usual Kashi goLean Crisp. He’s even said he’d be willingly to be the one to make it on a weekly basis.

The yogurt was surprisingly easy to make. You use a bit of plain yogurt with live active cultures as a starter. You heat up some milk to the right temperature, let it cool a little then add the starter and let it sit in a cooler warmed up with bottles of hot water. My first attempt at yogurt was a little thin. The couple times I’ve made it since then, it’s been thicker. Nevertheless, I really like the richness and tanginess of it. It’s a perfect foil to the sweet granola. When I have the two for breakfast, I feel like I’ve eaten something really good for me. Then I take a shower and put on some makeup, because I’m not a total dirty hippie.

Link:

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/default.asp

Weekday Vegetarian

Homemade pasta with Brussels sprouts and toasted pecans.

I’ve always wanted to be a vegetarian, but I just can’t picture myself having my last cheeseburger ever. A few weeks ago, Trevor shared the concept of a TED talk he’d heard. Basically, you become a weekday vegetarian, but still eat meat on the weekends. He said he wanted to try it. And it was something I could get behind, too. We’d be eating more healthfully, saving money, reducing our environmental impact and giving way less money to companies that treat animals inhumanely. And I’d never have to completely give up cheeseburgers.

Spicy cauliflower pasta

We had already incorporated many vegetarian dinners into our repertoire, but it’s been a challenge to find more tasty meatless meals. The Moosewood New Classics cookbook has been our go-to book. But I was getting a little tired of it, so I started looking through my other cookbooks that weren’t necessarily vegetarian. In our giant Pasta cookbook, I found a spicy cauliflower pasta. With homemade noodles and Persephone golden cauliflower, it was a keeper.

My Martha Stewart New Classics cookbook had a section on meatless main dishes and number of tasty soups and pastas that fit into our weekday needs. Trevor filled in at Hollywood Farmers’ Market on Saturday, so we’re stocked with lovely fall produce from Persephone, including my favorite, Brussels sprouts. Martha had a wonderful recipe for Brussels sprouts with walnuts and pasta. Since Trevor can’t eat walnuts we used toasted pecans instead. And I out Martha-ed Martha by using homemade fettuccine instead of store-bought, dried pasta.

For the pasta, the Brussels sprouts are cored and then the leaves are pulled off. They are sautéed in butter with red onion and garlic. Fresh sage and thyme added even more fall flavors to the mix. Then the pasta is added to the Brussels sprouts and it’s topped with browned butter, pecans and grated cheese. (I used less butter than called for – ½ cup plus 3 tablespoons.) We used Parrano cheese instead of Parm. I served it slices of wheat baguette, roasted Persephone delicata squash, and Trevor’s Persephone mixed greens. It was unbelievably good. Probably one of the best meals we’ve had lately — vegetarian or not.

Link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

Vegan, really?

OK, I love to eat meat. While I’ve flirted with the idea of vegetarianism, I’ve never been able to go fully meat free. Mainly, because I love cheeseburgers. But since reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, I have cut the amount of meat I consume and make the effort to buy grass-fed beef or free-range chicken whenever possible.  (And by the way, homemade burgers made with grass-fed beef and a pinch of chopped sage are really, really good.)

Trevor recently read Omnivore’s Dilemma by Pollan, and made horrified gasps and exclamations as he was flipping the pages. And now he’s really determined to know exactly how the meat that makes it to his plate is being raised.

So to fit the more expensive (and humanely raised) meat into our budget, we eat less of it and more meals that are meat-free.  And now that Persephone Farm has more produce at the Saturday PSU Farmers’ Market, and Trevor is working the stand again, we’ve got a lot of ingredients to make fabulous vegetarian meals.

Last night we tried a new recipe from Cooking Light magazine’s July 2010 issue: Chickpea Bajane. We used Persephone garlic and spinach, and thyme from our own garden. Trevor insisted he didn’t really like quinoa, a slightly nutty grain, but once we started eating this meal, he decided he like this quinoa. The recipe is time-consuming, but not too hard. And it was so tasty it was hard to believe it was vegetarian, let alone vegan.

Links:

Chickpea Bajane 

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dynaction=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1995734

Napkin by Rustbelt Fiberwerks   http://www.etsy.com/shop/rustbeltfiberwerks