Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad

It was so time to get that photo of lentil loaf off the top of my blog!

Yet another recipe from the taste space here.  I made this chickpea salad for dinner last night for some friends.  I also made Robin Robertson's Turkish-Style Stuffed Eggplant with Walnut Sauce, and Amy brought a kale-tofu salad with dried cherries in it!  In each of these dishes, something sweet and/or acidic (lemon, artichoke, tomato, pomegranate, cherry) is balanced by something nutty (almonds, chickpeas, walnuts, tofu).  In this salad, the toasted almonds also add a really lovely contrasting texture.

The only actual change I made was accidental.  In picking up fresh basil at the store, I actually got something else which may or may not have been epazote (that's what my receipt said, but sometimes it also says I was born in 1911).  It tasted vaguely basil-like, though more bitter, so I just used it.  I also one clove of garlic rather than two.  I love garlic, but the raw stuff is so potent, and I think I might be slightly allergic to it.

And finally, I used artichoke hearts that didn't come from a jar.  I was never crazy about artichoke hearts until I had the marinated ones from the refrigerator case at Trader Joe's.  They are amazing, of a different class than anything shelf-stable you can find.  I once recently compared these artichoke hearts to God's testicles, which offended pretty much everyone I was talking to... but seriously.

Oh, and despite its name, this salad can certainly be eaten cold as well.

Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad

(from the taste space)

Ingredients

5 TB olive oil, divided

juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp dried basil, or 1-2 TB fresh, finely chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/4 tsp sea salt

*

2 cups cooked chickpeas

5 artichoke hearts, drained and sliced 

1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Instructions

1. Toast almonds.  Set aside.
2. Combine ingredients up through sea salt.  Set aside.
3. Saute chickpeas til lightly browned (about 5 min).  Remove from frying pan.
4. Saute artichokes til lightly browned.  Then combine everything!  Serves about 3.

* 

By the way... I have heard that humans sometimes make meatloaf sandwiches, so I did the same thing with the lentil loaf.  But I wasn't sure if this delicacy was a ketchup-mustard or a mayo-mustard phenomenon.  I went ketchup, but I think the other would be better.

Lentil Loaf

It may surprise you to hear this, but lentil loaf not very photogenic.  Actually, just Wednesday night I saw a ridiculously beautifully presented lentil loaf at Native Foods--like a layer cake, with mashed yams, and ketchup, and parsley, and I don't even know what else--but when I started writing this post, my standards for presentation were much lower.  But it's very good!  You should keep reading...

Meatloaf is something I never really liked or ate growing up, so making a vegan version hasn't exactly been on the top of my to-do list (my feelings about vegenaise are similar).  But, a friend of mine is somewhat obsessed with lentil loaves, and when I saw a recipe in The Veganopolis Cookbook, which I got for Xmas, I thought I'd try it out.  Unfortunately, the lentil and mushroom measurements were in weight only (!?), so I totally guessed on them.  I also reduced the salt, and instead of vegan Worcestershire sauce, I used a bootleg concoction of olive oil, red wine vinegar, tamarind paste, molasses, and cayenne (going off this very complicated recipe on about.com).  Finally, I added some molasses to the stock mixture with which you glaze the loaf towards the end.  Oh, and this was a half recipe; it filled a loaf pan and served about 6-7.

Cornstarch works its magic in this recipe as well as in the last one--should I be worried?  It seems like nutritionally it's like adding white sugar to your food, but I guess in small amounts (like in this recipe), from time to time, it's probably ok... I wonder if I could use arrowroot as a substitute.

Anyway, lentil loaf is delicious!  It got much loafier as it dried out a bit in the pan overnight, and the aforementioned lentil loaf aficionado described it as "meatloaf and stuffing all in one."  Although lentils make up the bulk of the dish, the inclusion of walnuts and mushrooms means that there's a variety of textures (and even with the 1/2 c walnuts, this recipe is dirt cheap).  This dish would be great with mushroom gravy or something else saucy... maybe even ketchup?  Is that what you put on meatloaf?  I think I'm realizing that I've never actually had meatloaf.

Edit 1/27: Lentil loaf sandwich.

Lentil Loaf

(adapted from The Veganopolis Cookbook)

Ingredients

heaping 1 c dried lentils, rinsed

1 quart veg stock

2-3 c mushrooms, chopped

2 stalks celery, diced

1/2 red or white onion, diced

2 TB canola oil

1/2 TB ground sage

1/2 TB garlic powder

1/2 TB freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp salt (or less)

1 tsp paprika

3 TB cornstarch + 2 TB cold water

1/4 c parsley, chopped

1/2 c walnuts, toasted and chopped

"Worcestershire":

1-2 TB olive oil

1 TB red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp tamarind paste 

1 tsp molasses

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Cook lentils in stock until they soften (40 min), then drain and reserve stock.  Mash up lentils.
2. Preheat oven to 350*.  Oil a loaf pan.
3. Over medium high heat, saute mushrooms, celery, and onion for about 10 minutes.  Add dry spices and cook for 5 more minutes.
4. Add cornstarch mixture to lentils and stir well, then add saute mixture to lentils as well.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Taste for salt.
5. Press mixture into loaf pan and bake about 1 hour until top browns.  Brush top with a mixture of reserved stock and molasses and bake 10-20 minutes more.
6. Remove from oven and let stand for at least 15 minutes.  The longer it sits, the loafier it will become.  Serves 6-7.

Aloo Tikki

I didn't really make any new year's resolutions this year.  My life's pretty awesome right now, and the things I'd like to change are slow processes of mindfulness that are already in motion.  I did decide, however, to stop keeping the meticulous budget that wasn't doing me any good, and then there was the "eat more fried potatoes" resolution.  So I'm totally succeeding at 2011.

This potato stayed in CA while I went home for the holidays.  When I came back, it looked like this, but it was still totally edible!  Mashed up, spiced, and fried, you'd have no idea the potato looked like it came from outer space.
 

I made this recipe from Manifest Vegan, an awesome vegan/gluten-free blog, but I actually re-glutened the recipe by using regular all-purpose flour instead of chickpea flour.  I've since purchased some chickpea flour and am rather curious to try it; please let me know if you have any recipes that use it!

My batter was a little wet, and the first batch I made (pan-frying in 1/4 in of oil), were pretty sad and mooshy (below, left).  So, I got to thinking about the amazing effect of cornstarch in the recently-tried recipe for General Tso's Tofu.  I rolled the second batch of patties in some cornstarch like little wedding cookies before frying, and indeed, the difference was vast: instead of soft and greasy, the cornstarch version were lightly crispy on the outside, and much more cohesive.

Aloo Tikki made without and with cornstarch

This recipe was delicious: the ginger and lemon zest added extra dimensions to what might other be a heavy and greasy snack.  And the whole green peas also livened up the texture.  These would be very good with tamarind-apple chutney, or something like it.

Aloo Tikki

(from Manifest Vegan)

Ingredients

4 medium to large sized potatoes, skin on, in large cubes

1 leek, toughest darker green parts cut away and the rest sliced thinly
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 c fresh cilantro, chopped (I omitted this, but I bet it would be great)
1 tsp salt
1/4 c AP flour or chickpea flour

1 TB lemon juice
1 c frozen peas, thawed

cornstarch
cooking oil 

Instructions

1. Boil, then simmer potato cubes in a large pot of water until pokeable with a fork (7-10 min).  Drain and rinse, then mash, leaving large chunks.

2. In a skillet, fry leek, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, garam masala and lemon zest over medium high heat until fragrant (about 2 minutes). Stir spices into the bowl with the potatoes, along with the besan flour, salt, and lemon juice. Fold in peas and cilantro. 

3. Shape into little patties, dredge in cornstarch, and fry on each side (if not deep frying) until golden brown.  Makes about 20-25 patties.

Chili-Mustard-Tamarind-Glazed Tofu

My first experiment in the "use up some of that damn dry mustard" project was this chili glaze I found on epicurious.  I was excited because of the combination of spicy chilies with tangy mustard and tamarind.  Due to a situation of supply and demand, I skimped a bit on the tamarind and upped the mustard.  I witnessed first hand the binding power of dry mustard: the sauce got a bit thicker.  I used the method from my recipe for marinated tofu, pressing the tofu first and then cooking slabs of tofu in the sauce in the oven for a long time until the liquid was gone.

But I didn't like it very much.  I think this recipe could be really great, but two things were problems: first, there is no salt in this recipe, which left it tasting just sort of... off.  Secondly, I wanted to use the tofu later, cold, for sandwiches and salads and the like, and the honey crystallized and got crunchy!  I think a version that uses some tamari and far less sugar could be really great, but this version wasn't, at least not on tofu.

Chili-Mustard-Tamarind-Glazed Tofu

(glaze recipe adapted from epicurious)

Ingredients

1 block firm tofu (pressed is optional)

5 dried chilies, toasted and ground

3/4-1 c hot water

1 1/2 TB tamarind paste

1/2 c fresh orange juice

1 1/2 TB fresh lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

2 TB red wine vinegar

2 TB olive oil

2 tsp dry mustard

1/4 cup honey (or agave)

Instructions

Heat oven to 350*.  Combine marinade ingredients (everything except the tofu).  Cut block of tofu into about 12 slabs (including one width-wise cut).  Place slabs on the bottom of a baking dish, then pour sauce over the top.  Bake for about an hour, flipping the tofu several times during cooking, until most of the liquid is gone.

 *

In other news, my living room is a very new color!  Goodbye, greenish-beige, and hello, coziness!  This also means I can never move out.

Before:

After:

Obviously, I'm still trying out colors around the corner in the kitchen...

Dry Mustard

What do you call this stuff?  Dry mustard, mustard flour, powdered dry mustard...

I was looking through my spice annex--the cupboard where I put the spices I don't use as often, and the overly large containers of spices, and the backup spices--and I realized I've barely made a dent in the pound of powdered dry mustard I bought for a few dollars just about a year ago.  I originally bought it to make gingerbread cookies, but one can really only make so many cookies, so I decided to figure out what else you can use this stuff in.

Ok, so you can make mustard... and apparently, it works as a thickening and binding agent... gee, great; if you want to make mustard cake or mustard pudding, you've got it.  And, if you're making a sauce that might use prepared mustard, you can probably use dry mustard in that.  But I really had to dig to find recipes besides those mustard or mustard sauce.  Here's a rough list of my findings!

Uses for powdered dry mustard

•  you can make mustard out of it
• you can make mustard sauces out of it (like this one with dill and capers)
• you can make chinese-style mustards and mustard sauces (like this one with sugar or this one with garlic)
• you can make mustard mayo
• cranberry mustard!
• cranberry madeira sauce
• pineapple BBQ sauce, homemade ketchup
• in a jerk rub (is there a less obscene way to describe this?) or in a breading (this sounds good)
• tempura batter (I've made this recipe, and it works great)
• chile glaze (also uses tamarind!) 
• japanese-style potato salad with daikon and cucumber
• collard greens slaw
• cumin quick bread (the only baking recipe I found?

So stay tuned for many experiments in dry mustard as I try to work through some of my overstock.

OH and the award for most hilariously gross dry mustard recipe goes to ... mustard aspic.

Beet and Pomegranate Salad

Strange.  I made three savory dishes for dinner on Thursday, and each of them had a different fruit in it: apples, orange and lemon, and here, two forms of pomegranate.

Cilantro... sesame oil and chili paste... pomegranate seeds and pomegranate molasses... Incongruous?  I wasn't sure about this recipe from vegalicious, but when it called for 4 beets and half a pomegranate--things I weirdly had on hand--it seemed like fate.  Following the lead of this bulgur pomegranate salad, I might have used fresh mint instead of cilantro, but cilantro was a more interesting choice, because it doesn't play along with the sweetness of the fruit, the pomolasses, and the beets nearly as much as mint would.  Instead, cilantro jives with the beets' earthiness.  And putting pomegranate seeds in anything makes the texture more fun.

A word of caution: I used 2 tsp of chili garlic paste, and it was rather hot!  I thought it was just right, but if you're not in the mood for spicy, you might want to reduce or omit the chili paste.

I killed two.. er, blocks of tofu with one stone by roasting the orange veggies for the Squash and Mushroom Pasta with Citrus at the same time as the beets.  Roasting beets took a long time, but the flavor is so much more intense than if you boil them, letting a good deal of their goodness seep out into the water.  Cooked like this, they're concentrated, sweet, slightly dirty in the best way.  The only bad thing about this is that you lose the trick of boiling with the skins on and then easily slipping those skins off later--roasting sort of welded the skins to the beets.  So, you might consider peeling the beets before roasting.

Beet and Pomegranate Salad

(from vegalicious)

Ingredients

3-4 medium beets, washed, peeled (if desired), and cut into bite-sized wedges

1/2 c fresh cilantro leaves

1 c pomegranate seeds

*

dressing:

1 TB pomegranate molasses

2 TB  lemon juice

1-2 tsp chili garlic paste

2 TB olive oil

1 TB toasted sesame oil

pinch salt

Instructions

1. Roast beets at 450* for 30-60 minutes, until firm but pokeable with a fork.  Then set aside and let cool.
2. Combine dressing ingredients.
3. Combine cooled beets with cilantro, pomegranate seeds, and dressing.  Serves about 3.

Apple, Lentil and Wild Rice Salad

My stepsister and her husband gave me Minnesota wild rice for Xmas, which was a really great gift.  This was the first thing I did with it.  I used 4 scallions instead of 2 shallots, and the onion flavor was a bit too much.  Otherwise, this is a simple, pretty salad that would be great to take to work for lunch because it's balanced, it tastes good cold, and it will probably get better after sitting in the fridge for a day or two.

Apple, Lentil, and Wild Rice Salad

(from taste space)

Ingredients

3/4 c wild rice

1 c green lentils, picked over and rinsed

2-4 scallions, chopped

1 apple, large dice

1 carrot, large dice

* 

dressing:

2 tsp ground cumin

1 garlic clove, minced

2 TB extra-virgin olive oil

2 TB balsamic vinegar

salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, to taste

Instructions

1. Cook wild rice and lentils separately according to instructions.  Drain if necessary and let cool.
2. Combine dressing ingredients.
3. Combine rice, lentils, remaining vegetables, and dressing, and allow to sit before serving.  Serves about 5.