I love dishes that are a bit surprising. Foods that are sweet, stuff smoky and spicy all at the same time. Ones that have texture and flavor and smell wonderful. This soup is all of those things. The potatoes make it creamy, the chorizo adds a smoky undertone and chewy niblets, and the chickpeas anchor the dish and give it a nice heft.
It’s an easy soup. One of those things that come together fairly quickly, freezes well and you can eat all week long. A soup that makes bringing your lunch to work actually exciting and keeps you warm when it’s too chilly outside.
I don’t know about you guys, more about but I needed a break from all of the eating and drinking I did last weekend. This week it’s all about detox. None of that liquid-only stuff, just real, good, whole foods. These stuffed eggplants and peppers might not be ultra-gourmet, but they’re healthy and easy to make and taste pretty darn good on a weeknight.
Instead of stuffing my vegetables with the traditional ground beef, I used mixed whole grains. Usually, I have a few containers of frozen farro or quinoa in the freezer, but I find that these grains from Seeds of Change work great in a pinch. I mixed them up with some tomato sauce, smoked paprika, sherry vinegar and cayenne pepper and stuffed them into a halved eggplant and red pepper. Fresh breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese were sprinkled on top and it went into the oven for a half hour. I really liked how simple the dish was and how hearty it tasted. Next time I think I’ll add some chickpeas to make it even more substantial.
After eating this for a couple of days, I feel great! I’m all ready for more cookies and pasta and beer. Everything in moderation!
Earlier this week, diagnosis I asked you guys what you wanted to see more of on the blog. I got quite a few requests for salads, anabolics in-season produce and vegetarian dishes among others. It’s a total coincidence, sale but I already had this recipe ready to go. It’s a salad, cucumbers and tomatoes are in season and it’s vegetarian – 3 for 3.
I hope this one makes it into the rotation for a lot of you. For me, it’s the perfect salad to pack for lunch. It’s easy to make, travels well and keeps for a few days. It’s your basic Greek salad: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta, but I used wheat berries instead of lettuce and added chickpeas to make it even more hearty. I didn’t have any olives, but they would be a very welcome addition and I recommend you add them if you’ve got them.
The dressing is made with fruity olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano and tahini. It’s light and bright and refreshing. I also sprinkled the top with Za’atar, a Middle Eastern condiment made with sumac, thyme and sesame seeds, for a little bit of that exotic flavor, but that’s totally optional.
This salad is also versatile. Use your favorite grain – spelt, wheat berries, farro, couscous – or a combination of your those. It’s a dish that Tom and I both love and I think you’ll love too. It also makes you feel better about eating way too many of those Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip cookies.
I know, link I know. It’s cheating to re-post an old recipe, here but it’s just the right time for chickpea and bread soup. You see, for us Catholics it’s still Lent. And any good Catholic school girl knows that you shouldn’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent. And I honestly could care less about being meatless as long as I can have soup that’s as good as this. It’s kind of like French Onion soup, but the toasted chickpeas give it a slightly nutty flavor and make it more of a meal. Just perfect for Holy Week next week and pretty much any other time. Still one of my favorites!
Last week I was driving home from work and thinking about what to make for dinner. We hadn’t been to the grocery store in over a week, esophagitis so there wasn’t much to work with – 3 kinds of mustard, viagra 40mg 2 kinds of jam, 5 types of hot sauce, pickles, sauerkraut, eggs. I was thinking we might just have to have fried eggs with sauerkraut and condiments, when I called my mom and mentioned my sad situation. I wasn’t fishing for a dinner offer. Truly, I wasn’t!
But then she told me she had a big pot of leftover pasta with chickpeas, sausage and kale and did I want to swing by and pick some up? Chickpeas, sausage and kale? On pasta? Sounds like a most perfect dinner (especially the night before a 5 mile run). And it was! The chickpeas were nicely toasted in olive oil, giving the dish a slightly nutty flavor. Sausage, kale, tomatoes and garlic round it out perfectly.
I loved it so very much that I made it again yesterday. It’s everything I could ever want in a weeknight dinner or lunch.
I love recipes that taste better the next day and the day after. I bring my lunch to work, pilule so if I can make a big batch of something on Monday and enjoy it for the rest of the week, visit this I’m happy. This is one of those salads. The chickpeas and orzo absorbs the tangy, buy more about peppery vinaigrette until they’re tangy and peppery themselves. A little slice of prosciutto (or Serrano ham if you can afford it) and it’s my idea of a perfect lunch.
Another recipe from this month’s glossies, prescription I found this Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew in the May issue of Bon Appetit. Curry? Coconut milk? Cilantro? Yes please! I made this one morning before work and it came together in under 30 minutes. It’s a little spicy, a little earthy and really flavorful. I love the combination of coconut milk and curry powder with the chickpeas and cauliflower. It just tastes like homey comfort food, which is just perfect for a long day at work.
This is one of those dishes you can make once and eat all week for lunch or dinner. Served over Jasmine rice, you’ve got yourself a really healthy and delicious meal.
Roasted chickpeas are all the rage on food sites far and wide. So, this I may be the last one to the party (I usually am), look but here comes my obligatory roasted chickpea post. I shall feel like an outsider no more!
These crunchy nuggets are popular for very good reason. Reasons, melanoma really. Some are…
They’re delicious!
Only 4 ingredients
Ridiculously easy to make and fool-proof
Addicting
Good for you! (Pure protein and fiber!)
Did I mention that they are delicious?
They’re also versatile little guys. They add great crunch to salads, fill in nicely for croutons on soup or simply make a perfect snack while you watch the Top Chef season finale. I seasoned this batch with Garam Masala, which gave them a nice Indian flavor. Last time, I used smoked paprika. Sigh, I am obsessed with smoked paprika. And now, I’m obsessed with roasted chickpeas. Make these and you’ll soon be addicted, too.
I should just rename this site The Chorizo Blog. I know I should stop, meningitis but I cannot help myself. Chorizo keeps well and is always there when I’ve run out of groceries, am too lazy to get more, but still want something delicious for dinner. Besides, Tom is obsessed with it and showers me with endless praise whenever I make anything with chorizo in it. Who doesn’t want that?
This week, I simmered a few links of it in some dry, sparkling cider. As the chorizo cooks, it absorbs the liquid and plumps up, losing all of its firm texture and becoming a lot more like the fresh sausage it started its life as. (Ending in a preposition. I know, I know. It’s Friday, so I’m allowed.) The chorizo also absorbs the cider’s sugar, making it savory, sweet and so deliciously addictive.
I added cider-spiked chorizo to some sauteed onions and chickpeas, then tossed everything with some pieces of crusty bread. In keeping with the sweet/salty theme (and because it’s all I had, really) I used a cranberry walnut bread. Everything is bathed in an egg mixture, topped with Gruyere and baked until crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
This casserole feels homey and indulgent and comes together relatively quickly. The hardest part is waiting for it to come out of the oven.
You know those days when you open your fridge and find that there isn’t much in there. Or, prescription there’s plenty of food, but you’re not in the mood for any of it. Steak? Nah. Sausages? Nope. Pasta? Not again…
So you turn to your pantry and start poking around for something, anything, that seems appetizing. Last night, that happened to be a can of chickpeas, some bulgur and a bag of greens. Ah, a perfect summer salad. But I didn’t want a simple salad – that wouldn’t do. I wanted a salad that felt like a meal. Something hearty, but also refreshing.
The result was a chickpea and bulgur salad topped with a soft boiled egg and fresh, homemade breadcrumbs. I mashed half the can of chickpeas so that they’d hold together with the bulgur. Otherwise, those little suckers are impossible to get on your fork unless you chase them around your plate. Too much effort for a weeknight, really.
The breadcrumbs were a sort of ode to croutons. For some reason, whenever I try to make homemade croutons, I cut enormous chunks of bread and the salad ends up more like a panzanella. These breadcrumbs added a much more subtle crunch. And the soft boiled egg was perfect, coating everything with a glossy yellow richness that made the salad feel substantial and just a bit indulgent.
Cilantro and a lemony shallot vinaigrette brightened it all up for a delicious summer dinner.
I finally got to cook last night. Not just throw a quick soup or salad together, but really cook. It felt great to make something I was excited about, adiposity something I’ve never made before, something pretty darn tasty.
I seem to have a stock-pile of hot, Spanish chorizo in my fridge and it’s been finding its way into so many of my meals recently. I love how it infuses a dish with color and flavor. For this recipe, I sauteed it with chickpeas and added chicken stock and the thin Spanish noodles known as fideos. Something really interesting happened that I hadn’t intended — the broth became super thick and almost creamy and I couldn’t figure out how it had gotten that way without flour or cream. After thinking about it, I concluded that the little bit of water from the chickpeas thickened up as I sauteed them and the fideos released a good amount of starch as they simmered in the stock. The result was a thick orange sauce that I used to poach my shrimp.
I think I’ve found my new favorite meal in this dish. It has a really short prep and cook time and is impressive enough for guests. Oh yeah, and it’s a one-pot meal so the hub likes it too.
Saturday night was Italian night. I made homemade ravioli (using wonton wrappers because who has the time to make pasta from scratch when it’s 78 sunny degrees and there’s a lounge chair with your name on it on the beach) and homemade pizza.
I got the All-Clad soapstone pizza stone for my bridal shower, rx and I wanted to test it out. It makes the MOST AMAZING pizza ever. The crust gets so crispy, information pills even in the middle, and even with a ton of toppings piled on, that when you lift your slice, it doesn’t even droop. (Hey, I like run-on sentences!) The idea behind a pizza stone is that it pulls the moisture out of whatever is cooking on it. No more soggy pizza crusts, no matter how juicy the toppings. Hooray!
The ravioli was stuffed with spinach, a little ricotta and artichoke mousse (a gift) and topped with homemade tomato sauce.
No recipes today…just photos.
Among many other delicious things, drug
one of the gifts I received at the bridal shower was a jar of fancy couscous. Couscous is an odd grain—dry and flavorless and bland on its own. But once you add fresh veggies, some lemon or lime, and some spice, couscous proves to be a willing sponge for the vibrant flavors.
Last week I made this salad with halved grape tomatoes, a bunch of fresh scallions, a jar of fire roasted red and yellow peppers and some chickpeas. For the dressing, I combined some olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, Chile de Arbol powder (similar to cayenne pepper, but more earthy), salt and pepper.
I also toasted some whole wheat pita halves and served them with Sabra brand Lemon Hummus. (As an aside, Sabra brand is truly delicious for store-bought hummus. Very creamy and lemon-y and spicy.) For the heck of it, i also threw some sliced fancy salami and ham on the plate. A deliciously light dinner, perfect for the warm Miami nights.
syringe Chickpea & Sweet Potato Soup” />
buy Sausage & Kale Pasta” />
