Spicy Chickpeas and Winter Vegetables

In anticipation of the travel adventure that the Husband and I will soon be embarking on, I spent a bitterly cold day yesterday transacting commerce in suburbia. It was the kind of day that makes you recoil when you step outside. The wind never died down and people ran from their cars to where they were going.

Yes. I complain about the cold all the time, so I lack credibility. I know this. But yesterday was different. Yesterday I was literally moved to tears when I saw a man at an intersection.

I was waiting to turn right, and he was standing in the median by the left lane. He was dressed for the weather. He had on thick canvas coveralls, a hooded sweatshirt, workboots and ski gloves. He looked to be about 65. There was a duffel bag on the ground near him, and he held a big, creased cardboard sign: Hard Worker.

[Heavy Sigh.] So many people are struggling this year to survive, just as the weather is getting dangerously cold. At dinner last night, I hoped that the hard worker had somewhere warm to go home to.

Spicy Chickpeas and Winter Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 TB vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 leeks, white and light green parts chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp whole cloves

3 c lower sodium vegetable broth

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice

4 dried red chilies

2 carrots, chopped

2 small (or 1 large) heads of cauliflower, chopped into florets

1/2 lb assorted mushrooms

10 oz kale, stems trimmed, roughly chopped

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice or red wine vinegar (optional)

Preparation:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions, leeks garlic, and cloves and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes, scraping bottom of pan to remove any browned bits.

Add the remainder of the ingredients (excluding salt, pepper and lemon/vinegar), and bring to a simmer. Cook with lid on for about 30 minutes, or until cauliflower and carrots are soft. Season with salt and pepper. Remove chilies prior to serving. Add a splash or lemon juice or red wine vinegar to each bowl prior to serving if desired. Serve with couscous or rice. Serves 6-8.

Black Bean and Kale Soup

Happiness is a warm bowl of soup, to paraphrase Linus.  Speaking of Linus, I heard on NPR last week (OH NO. Stop me now. Starting sentences with "I heard on NPR..." ranks right up there with, "One time, in band camp...").

So I'm afraid, due to self-censorship, we'll never learn what the story was I heard on NPR, but take heart. I have other ideas.  

I love love love soup, and am trying to cut back on salt (how ironic, I know) ever since I learned that excessive sodium intake can interfere with calcium absorption.  Sort of a drag, but it just means that I am being driven further from the canned sodium bombs that the grocery store offers. 

Speaking of canned soup, want to hear something evil?  I thought so.  Progresso makes this soup in their vegetable classics line. That's vegetable classics, mind you, not pork-lovers classics.  Anyway, the soup is split pea. Sounds good so far, right? Wrong. In teeny, tiny .9 font under the name it says, snarkily, in italics that you need a bionic eye to read, "with bacon".

Thanks a lot, Progresso. Screw you, too. 

Hence, I've been making a lot more of my own soups. I know the food blog universe is flooded with kale love this time of year, but I'll add my valentine.  

Black Bean and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1 TB olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp thyme 

4 c vegetable stock

4 c water

2 bay leaves

10 c kale

1 14 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed 

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice

salt and pepper to taste

juice of 1/4 lemon 

Preparation:

Heat oil over medium-high heat in skillet.  Add onion, carrot, thyme, and cumin and saute for 5-7 minutes, or until onion is soft. Set aside.

Put 1/2 c of black beans in blender with 2 TB water. Blend until creamy. Set aside. 

Meanwhile, bring stock,water and bay leaves to a boil in a large stock pot.  Add kale, and turn heat down to medium.  Cook, with lid on, until kale begins to soften, about 7-9 minutes.  

Add onion mixture, beans,  and tomatoes with juice to pot. Cook, with lid on, for about 10 minutes.  When kale is soft, but still has some bite to it, remove soup from heat.  Add bean puree and stir to combine.  Remove bay leaves and discard. Add lemon immediately prior to serving. Serve with grated cheese if desired.  Serves 6-8.  

Spiced Cauliflower, Spinach, and Chickpeas

Brrrr... it's gotten chilly here lately. Or is that just the ghost of John McCain running through my house?

Whatever the case, a big bowl of warm veggies is the cure.

Ingredients:

2 TB vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 TB curry

1 TB garam masala

1 TB cumin

1/2 TB coriander

1/2 TB hungarian paprika

1/2 TB turmeric

2 TB tomato paste

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice

1 15 oz can chickpeas, with juice

2 small (or 1 large) heads of cauliflower, chopped into florets

10 oz fresh spinach

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice (optional)

Preparation:

In large dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, and saute until softened. Add spices and tomato paste, and stir to combine. Add canned tomatoes, chickpeas and cauliflower. Put lid on oven, and bring cauliflower mixture to a low simmer.

Take lid off, and let mixture simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. Add spinach once cauliflower has softened, and cook until spinach softens. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice. Add a small amount of lemon juice to each bowl prior to serving if desired. Serves 6-8.

Kidney Bean Cakes

OK, the joke's up. You can tell me now.  I feel certain I am in some sort of a social experiment that involves a gnome, or other sprightly, jesting creature, who tears off the calendar days while I sleep, unknowing that whole weeks are flying by. That's the case, isn't it? 

I have not been cooking very much that is presentable these past two weeks, with little explanation.  It could be the confusion of the WDC 'is it hot? or is it cold?' weather. I am ready to start making things that go in the oven- possibly for extended periods of time- but the 75 degree weather is telling me that's not a good idea.  Ditto with soups.  It just feels too sweaty.  

I still cook for myself, sure, but no one really wants to look at some of my scary dinner concoctions. Trust me. We'll wait for the cold weather, and the recipes and photos will start flowing again.  

Next week we're off on an adventure to California, which promises to provide very good food, and more weather confusion. I can't wait! 

On an unrelated note, did you see this article? Eggs have become a daily thing for me since I stopped eating meat, and truly, sorting out what kind to buy--  unless you're buying right off the local, environmentally responsible, animal-loving farm-- is a challenge.  Something I learned from this article-- hens like to eat grubs and other animals. So, claims on egg cartons that hens are fed vegetarian diets takes on a whole new twist.  Sorta seems like feeding a cow corn, even though their stomachs and entire bodies are made for grass. What kind of eggs do you eat, readers?

Here's a recipe for the bean-lover in you.  I was craving the beautiful, dark red of kidney beans a few days ago, and whipped these up.  On a per serving basis, these are ridiculously cheap.  If more people had access to cooking and nutrition education, they too could appreciate how easy and cheap it can be to eat well. We would all be that much healthier for it.  

These have a bit of kick to them, and would go well with sauteed onions. Try them on a bun, with tortillas, or with rice.  

Kidney Bean Cakes

 

Ingredients:

2 cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 small white onion

1/2 carrot

handful parsley

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cayenne powder 

1 tsp red pepper flakes 

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg, beaten 

1/2 c panko 

cooking spray

Preparation:

In a food processor, process beans, onion, carrot and parsley until some chunks of beans remain.  Spoon mixture into bowl.  Add spices, and salt and pepper to taste.  Add egg, and combine mixture with your hands.  Add up to 1/2 c of panko crumbs to mixture, until mixture can be formed into cakes.  Shape bean mixture into 6 cakes, and refrigerate for about an hour. 

Cook cakes 3 at a time over medium-high heat in a large skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Serves 4, with left-overs.  

Chickpea Zucchini "Patties"

There's no way to sugarcoat the situation: this was not a photogenic dinner. This is the "before cooking" picture, which trust me, was better than the after picture. One of the exciting things about cooking without a recipe is the satisfaction of feeling like you've created something.  The obvious peril is that your creation might be sort of a disaster.  This wasn't a total disaster: it tasted great.  But the texture was suspect, at best.  

I'll post the ingredient list so that others can learn from my brazen silliness of trying to make a patty that would hold up in a skillet out of nothing but vegetables. It did not work my friend, do not be as arrogant as I was.  Use egg, use chickpea flour, use breadcrumbs, use a glue-stick for goodness' sake-- anything to get these to bind together better.  

Let's call it what it is, shall we. This was a veggie scramble.  Ingredients were: 1 can drained chickpeas, 1 grated zucchini, 1/4 white onion, 2TB tomato paste, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, cumin and salt and pepper.  Delicious, if you want a scramble, but this was no patty in the end. I was able to get them into the skillet in patty form, but was not zen enough to flip them without destroying them.  If you are more sage than I, you may be able to do it. Let me know. 

Summer Supper: Polenta, Spiced Black Beans with Sauteed Poblano, and Tomato and Corn Salad

It is so hot here in DC that the usually surly population has officially gone off the charts. In "only in Washington" fashion, I observed a character this week,  who I'll call "ridiculously hostile watermelon pusher man", or WP,  for short.  

I had seen him a few weeks prior, camped out on the same corner, a few blocks from DuPont Circle. He'd set up his shop of meanness outside of what was presumably his residence.  (Note: if you ever "work" where you live, try not to be a jerk. People know how to find you.)  The first time I saw him, I thought it had to be some sort of performance art.  Sadly, that was not the case.  

What was he peddling, in the 100 degree heat? Slices of cold watermelon.  Sounds refreshing, right?

Wrong.

WP's brilliant, and yet maniacal business plan, surely one not honed at Wharton, was to give the slices away. That's right, free of charge. Gratis.  Equipped with a blue cooler, lawn chair, and cardboard sign, WP set about trying to foist free produce on the unsuspecting masses.

But like all good city dwellers, the intended beneficiaries were highly suspicious.  Not many souls were brave enough to accept the free fruit. 

How did WP deal with this? By mocking and ridiculing anyone within earshot.  As in, "What the hell is wrong with people in this city?" "What, are you scared? You're scared, aren't you? Scaredy cat!" and, my favorite, "Don't be a loser, eat some freaking watermelon!"  

Further proof that the heat makes people crazy, and that no allegedly good deed goes unpunished. 

Good deed = no punishment; meanness = people avoid you. Think about it, WP.  

The heat has also resulted in me avoiding the oven, and even the stove, whenever possible.

Tonight's dinner was a simple combination of polenta, black beans, and tomatoes and corn.  I served it with a big spinach salad.  Perfectly summer. 

The recipes were so simple as to not really be worth mentioning.  For the polenta, I used a 50/50 mix of finely and coarsely ground corn, which I find to produce the best consistency.  The black beans were already prepared for me: I bought a can of seasoned beans.  To the beans, I added sauteed diced poblano and  few garlic cloves.  The corn and tomato salad featured fresh corn, cut off the cob, and San Marzano tomatoes.   San Marzano tomatoes are worth the extra cost-- they are so sweet, perfect with summer corn.  I added salt, pepper, sugar, and fresh basil.  

Very few of the ingredients had to be purchased; most were ingredients I had at home. Just a couple of seasonal ingredients can really make dinner special.

This concludes my Martha Stewart Moment for the day. Thank you. 

Pasta Salad with Eggplant and Red Peppers tossed in Chickpea Sauce

This salad was made for a bbq, that turned out to be less bbq, and more inside air conditioned affair. I have a sadistic love of the heat in DC, so I was disappointed. Everyone else was quite comfortable.

I pulled this salad together on Saturday morning, in my wee kitchen, my hulking figure hunched over the stove. OK, so I'm not Godzilla, but sometimes I like to think of myself as a big action figure in a small doll house. It makes city living seem more reasonable. Otherwise, why the heck would two people and a cat voluntarily share so few square feet?? Must be for the entertainment factor.

After salad making was done (note: sadly, no offers to turn the adventure into a comic strip have come in), husband (he's still unnamed; shall we have a contest?) and I went for a bike ride, again taking advantage of the 95 degree weather. All was fine, even fabulous, until about mile 30. At that point, I abruptly abandoned my new road bike and sprinted in the direction of a suburban sprinkler system, prepared to roll around in their lawn, if need be.

The passers-by in their air conditioned cars looked horrified, but I was downright gleeful. Unfortunately, even after a good soaking, I was still speaking jiberish and threatening to completely jump ship if my head didn't cool off a little.

We biked a few more miles to a grocery store, where husband announced that what I needed in life at that very moment was a banana. I haven't had a banana in probably a year, because they always seem like such a commitment. And it's so easy for the texture to feel like pureed cardboard. But the reunion was sweeter than I ever could have imagined.

The banana was the perfect temperature (grocery store cool) and ripeness-- bright yellow, with no green, but also no brown. For about ten minutes, I communed with this fabulous fruit, and we had an earnest conversation, the banana and I.  I promised to eat more in the future. My sanity having been restored, we continued the ride back into the city. I'd like to dedicate Saturday to that banana; it was so humble, yet so heavenly.

Moral of the story: dehydration makes you loopy. Even salty girl's salt balances get out of whack from time to time. Eat bananas, be happy.

Pasta Salad with Eggplant and Red Peppers tossed in Chickpea Sauce 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb shaped pasta

2TB olive oil 

1/4 white onion, chopped finely 

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly into 1 inch strips

1 medium eggplant, cubed

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

salt and pepper 

1.5 c chickpeas

1 TB ricotta 

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 c Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped 

Preparation:

Cook pasta in salted water.  Remove pasta and drain when quite al dente.  Reserve 1 c of cooking liquid.  Run pasta under cold water for several minutes to stop cooking. Set aside. 

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions and saute until soft.  Add garlic, and red peppers saute an additional 3-4 minutes.  Add eggplant, stirring to coat in oil.  Add red pepper flakes, and stir to combine.  

Turn heat down to low-medium, and add a few tablespoons of water to skillet.  Stir well, and cover skillet.  Cook covered, stirring frequently, until eggplant softens.  Take mixture off of heat before eggplant begins to fall apart. Season with salt and pepper to taste.   Set mixture aside, and allow to cool. 

To prepare sauce, add chickpeas and ricotta to food processor, and combine. Add pasta water slowly, until sauce is consistency of tomato sauce. 

To prepare salad, combine pasta, eggplant mixture, and chick-pea sauce in a large bowl.  Add lemon juice and parsley to mixture.  Serve room temperature, or refrigerate for an hour prior to serving. Serves 4.  

Jalapeno and Lime Black Bean Burgers

Maybe it’s summer, or maybe it’s the lurking, vanquished carnivore in me, but bunned foods are sounding mighty tasty these days. I’ve been on quite the veggie burger kick lately. Not only do they fulfill my need to apply condiments to anything that will sit still for long enough, but they are healthy and quick to prepare at home. They are also fun to sample out at restaurants, since no two are the same.

This past week I’ve been on a little promenade up the east coast, visiting my people. I realized that 3 out of the 6 nights I was away, I had veggie burgers. Mmm mmm.

The first stop was in NYC, at a vegetarian place called Counter that my meat-eating friends thoughtfully slected. The burger had great flavor, but the consistency was all wrong; something akin to clotted yogurt. I suspect it was too heavy on the mushrooms, with nothing to bind it all together. Next stop was in Brooklyn at a cute little place called Siggy’s. This burger was everything I had hoped for- great flavor and texture, and served on brioche--a nice twist. I rounded out the tour at Café Heaven in Provincetown. My last vacation dinner was a giant, oversized veggie burger, served with not one but two types of mustard!! Halleluja. And it was again served on brioche. Maybe the elf I take on vacation with me phoned ahead to notify the locals?

Today’s photo isn’t much to look at, but it was delish (oh god – out, out, damn Rachel Ray). I didn’t use any egg to bind it together, and it worked out fine. As long as you allow the mixture to sit in the fridge for a bit before forming the burgers, they will hold togther with no problem.

Jalapeno and Lime Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

2 c black beans, rinsed and drained
½-1 chopped jalapeno, deseeded
½ onion, roughly chopped
1-2 TB tomato paste

Juice of ½- 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful of Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
½- 1 c panko crumbs

1TB vegetable oil

Preparation:

To a food processor bowl, add beans, jalapeno, onion, tomato paste, lime juice and parsley. Process until mixture is a thick paste, with some chunks of bean remaining. Spoon into another bowl. Season to taste. Fold panko crumbs into mixture. Refridgerate mixture for about an hour.

Form bean mixture into patties. Meanwhile, in skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Place patties in skillet. In order to ensure a crust on the patties, do not move them once they are placed in skillet, except to flip. Cook patties for about 4 minutes on each side over medium heat. Flip carefully, using a fork. Serve on a toasted bun with lettuce, tomato and onion and your favorite condiment. Serves 4-5.

Salad with Chickpeas, Couscous and Soft Boiled Egg

Hello, God, are you there? It's me, Salty Girl. And I'm really, really hot. Not like, go on with my bad self hot, but like sweaty, salty, filmy and swampy hot. I know I'm just a grain of salt down here, but I just wanted to remind you that it's only the first week of June.... and it's ONE HUNDRED DEGREES HERE IN DC. Thank you, that is all. 

Times like this call for a nice, clean, satisfying salad. Luckily, before going outside here felt like walking on the surface of the sun, there was a nice period of ark-necessitating weather. Hence, the lettuce in the garden is going bonkers. Bonkers, I tell you! And lettuce is a use or lose type of produce. I mean, what are you going to do, freeze it? Not likely. So my family is eating a lot of salad these days. 

This week we had a lovely salad with some colorful vegetables (and even some fruit).  I used arugula, red lettuce, and a few other types of lettuces.  In an effort to make eating salad for dinner less, um, emasculating, I topped each portion with warm chickpeas with onions, garlic and red pepper, some couscous, and a soft boiled egg. A lot of components, but very easy, and tasty.  It's no manwich, but it'll do the trick.

Salad with Chickpeas, Couscous and Soft Boiled Egg

Ingredients:

1/2 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced

1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced into strips

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 white or yellow onion, diced 

1/8 red onion, thinly sliced

6-8 radishes, thinly sliced

10-15 ounces lettuce of your choice

1TB olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper

1/2 c water

1 c chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 c prepared couscous

2 soft boiled eggs (recipe follows) 

Dijon vinaigrette dressing

Ingredients: 

1TB Dijon mustard

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 TB extra virgin olive oil

salt 

pepper 

Preparation:

In a small bowl, combine ingredients for Dijon vinaigrette dressing. Mix with a fork or whisk, set aside.

In a large bowl, place apple, red pepper strips, red onion, radishes, and lettuce.  Add dressing.  Toss to combine. Set aside. 

In a medium sized skillet, heat olive oil.  Add white or yellow onion dice, garlic, and red pepper dice. Saute over medium heat for about 7 minutes, until all ingredients are soft.  Add chickpeas to skillet, and saute for about a minute.  Then add about 1/4 cup water.  Stir to combine, and cover.  Cook over low-medium heat for about ten minutes. Check mixture periodically, and add more water if needed. Chickpeas should be slightly softened, and water cooked away when you serve them. 

To plate salad: put about 4 cups of salad mixture on each plate. Place 1 c of couscous, and 1/2 c chickpea mixture on top of salad. Top with a soft boiled egg. Serves 2. 

2 Soft boiled eggs:

Preparation: 

In a small saucepan, boil enough water to cover 2 eggs.  Add eggs to boiling water, taking care not to crack them. Use a large spoon to lower them into water if necessary.  Cook eggs in gently boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove using a large spoon, and run under cold water for a minute. Use a spoon to crack eggshell, and peel.  Serve immediately.  

Spaghetti with Fava Beans

Tonight we made spaghetti with fava beans, which no one told us was going to be sort of punishment-like, only not really that bad. I'm just dramatic. But, if anyone has better ideas about how to shells favas, I'd love to hear them.

We blanched them for @ 40 seconds, shocked them in a cold bath (you've been naughty little beans) and then peeled them. I guess I was expecting them to leap out of their shells like bears out of their winter caves in May... but alas. However, the manual labor was worth it.

A nice al dente spaghetti with enough garlic to kill the evil + basil + onions + parmesan cheese, you can't really go wrong. I did turn up the heat a little too high with the red pepper flakes, because I have a problem with red pepper flakes .. eg...I am obsessed. Sorry to just "e.g." you. Must work harder to banish lawyer sprite living in my brain. Be gone with you!

I must say though, the fava beans weren't the most exciting part of dinner. Lettuce from the garden was! Oh my goodness. I went today after work to snip some of the lovelies and it was really such an unexpectedly emotional process. It's my first garden of my own, and my first time eating things that I have grown. Harvesting was a powerful experience. One that I wish I could share with more people. My veggies (radishes, carrots, lettuces, etc) haven't been overly tended to, it's more just that they grew at all that blew my mind.

Here are some radishes from the garden.... quite spicy.

Spaghetti with Fava Beans

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. spaghetti

2 lb fresh fava beans (about 2 c shelled)

3 TB olive oil

1/2 white onion, chopped finely

4 garlic cloves, minced

red pepper flakes to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp)

salt and pepper to taste

handful of basil, sliced
grated parmesan
juice of 1/4 lemon 

Preparation:

To prepare fava beans: Boil large pot of salted water. Prepare ice bath for beans. Remove beans from outer shell. Put fava beans in pot, boil for about a minute. Strain, and place beans in cold bath. Remove hulls. Yield will be about 1.5- 2 cups. Set beans aside.

Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to directions. Strain cooked pasta, and reserve about a cup of cooking liquid.  Set aside. 

To prepare pasta: Heat olive oil in large pan. Add onion,  garlic and red pepper flakes. Saute until soft, about seven minutes.

Add cooked pasta, basil and fava beans to large pan, combine. Add parmesan and cooking liquid until desired consistency is achieved. Season with salt and pepper. Add basil, and drizzle fresh lemon juice on pasta right before serving. Serves 4.