Moroccan Quinoa Pilaf

This week I decided to cook from some other food bloggers. Last night I went with a quinoa recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog.

I made a few minor changes due to Whole Foods being out of Kale last Sunday. We had picked up some locally grown Swiss Chard at a market in McKinney, TX called Local Yocal. I also did not have the Herbamare Ingredient but the dish tasted great regardless. I was also low on currants and went with a blend of golden raisins and dried cranberries.

Click here for the full recipe:
Moroccan Quinoa Pilaf

Embelly White Chili

We had stopped by our favorite locally focused grocery store, Urban Acres, and bought some sweet potatoes. What we did not expect was what kind of sweet potato. Apparently the Japanese Sweet Potato is a white, creamy potato that is very sweet. It has a smooth texture and tasted amazing in a vegetarian curry dish I made.

While looking for more recipes to use sweet potatoes in, my wife follows a good vegetarian blog. Emily Levenson's blog has a post with the most amazing scones that just happen to be vegan. We wanted to try another recipe, this time a vegan soup.

For the Embelly White Chili recipe and other great cooking adventures checkout Emily Levenson's food blog.

Sweet Potato and Chard Stew

This by no means is a favorite dish, but it is a good choice to mixup a week's meals with a vegetarian selection that uses a couple vegetables that are not often used - sweet potato and chard. The coconut milk adds a rich flavor and the squeeze of lime juice makes this more of a Spring dish than a Fall or Winter month choice.

Sweet Potato and Chard Stew
serves 4

2 Tbs. olive oil
2 cups yellow onion, diced
1 large sweet potato
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1Tbs. fresh ginger
1 tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. Curry powder
1 1/2 cups water
1 can (14oz.) coconut milk
1 bunch of Swiss chard
squeeze of lime for garnish

Directions:

Warm the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan; add the onion and a bit of salt. Cook while stirring for about 4 minutes.

Add sweet potato, garlic, pepper, ginger, spices and sauté for a minute or two.

Add 1 1/2 cups of water, coconut milk and a bit of salt; bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes, covered.

Add the chard, and continue cooking for about 8-10 minutes until the chard

Serve over quinoa or jasmine rice. I used a quinoa and lentil mixture sold by Trader Joe's

Vegetable Korma

If you haven't noticed, I've been on a bit of a vegetarian/vegan kick lately. My wife Stephanie decided to give it an extra boost for my birthday by getting me "Appetite for Reduction" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It's a brilliant book.

Here is one of the recipes from the book. It's called 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma and was an interpretation from one of the author's favorite restaurants in New York City - Madras. Sounds like I have a new restaurant to checkout when I head back to New York in late March.

Lentil and Cauliflower Curry Stacks

The flavors in this dish make up for its lack of beauty in presentation. The yellow curry with cinnamon really brings the dish to life.
If you don’t want to use Pappadums (a crisp Indian flatbread), you can also use the lentil mixture to fill a piecrust with for a vegetarian Indian Pie. Or you could make pastry stuff turnovers with the mixture too.

Lastly, if you want to make this dish Vegan, substitute the butter with a product like Earth's Balance.

Lentil and Cauliflower Curry Stacks
Serves 4

2 Tbl butter (or Earths Balance for a vegan version)
1 medium onion, sliced thin in to quarter moons
1 1/2 Tbls yellow curry paste
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 cremini mushrooms, thinly chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups dried brown or green lentils
1 (13 oz) can chopped tomatoes
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 head of fresh cauliflower, cut into small florets
oil for deep-frying
8 small Pappadums

Heat butter in a large pan over medium heat and cook the onion for 2-3 minutes. Add the curry paste, garlic and mushrooms cooking all for 2 minutes until mushrooms are soft.

Add the vegetable stock, tomatoes, lentils and cinnamon and mix well. Bring to a boil and cook for 40 minutes until lentils become tender. Add the cauliflower in the last 10 minutes and cover. If the curry is too wet after 40 minutes, cook longer uncovered until most of the liquid is evaporated. Remove cinnamon sticks.

About 5 minutes before the lentil mixture is done, heat oil in a saucepan on medium-high. Drop Pappadums, one at a time, into oil. They will quickly puff up so act quick and flip using tongs to straighten out the Pappadum. Each one takes about 4 seconds on each side. Remove and pat both sides with a paper towel.

Assemble by putting one Pappadum on a plate and spoon lentil mixture into it. Place another Pappadum on top and add some more lentil mixture. Serve.

Lentil and Rice with Garlicky Kale

We are trying to add more vegetarian dishes to our weekly dinner menu. I'm finding a lot of rice and lentil dishes are a great way to do something other than the typical vegetarian pasta dish for a reluctant vegetarian.

Here is a recipe I modified quite a bit from an article in Men's Journal magazine. I go pretty light on salt and pepper while cooking. If you like a more robust flavor, add salt and pepper at the dinner table. This dish isn't particularly flavorful but it does have a good mix of flavors for a rice and lentil dish.

Lentil and Rice with Garlicky Kale
Serves 6

2 cups dried lentil
2 cups of cooked rice
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white and light-green parts only,
split lengthwise and cleaned
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 large bunch kale, stems removed, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp red-wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

In a large pot place lentils, carrot, onion, leak, bay leaf and dried thyme then cover with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Drain water.

While the lentil mixture is cooking, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a nonstick fry pan and add garlic heating at medium temperature and let the garlic cook for about 2 minutes, do not burn. Add kale and salt and pepper cooking it for about 5 minutes until slightly wilted.

Add kale to drained lentil mixture. Add cooked rice, red pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, red-wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Heat mixture at medium low heat for about 3-5 minutes for flavors to gel.

Remove from heat and serve as a vegetarian main dish or as a side dish.

Falafel with Lemon Tahini Dressing

I'm not much of a fan of Falafel so I wasn't too excited about making this when my wife Stephanie asked if I could try it. Most Falafel I've had is really dry and not very flavorful, even the one's at good Middle-Eastern restaurants. This recipe did have a different approach since the Falafel is baked, not fried, and I added a bit of curry instead of Tumeric (if you want more authentic substitute the curry I have with 1 tsp of Tumeric.)

To make it more of a meal, we used add some pita bread, humus, and tabbouleh. The flafels will crumble a bit because they are baked and I may have had my mix a bit too wet, so be careful with the water (I reduced it from the recipe I used so the reduction is accounted for in the recipe listed here. Hopefully that helps.) Stuffing the Falafels in the pita with some lemon tahini and tabbouleh really made this meal excellent and one you'll want to add to your list, especially if you are vegetarian or want to reduce meat intake.

Falafel
Serves 6

3 Tbsp olive oil for baking
3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
1/4 cup tightly packed parsley
2 15-oz cans chick peas, drained
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry
1/8 tsp cayenne
black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup oat flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread olive oil on it. Mince garlic in food processor. Add onion to food processor. Chop. Add parsley and chop too. Add remaining ingredients except oat flour in processor and combine. Get the batter where it is wet but will hold together. You should be able to form balls. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour to make it easier to roll balls. Recipe makes 16 2-inch falafel balls. Place on oiled, foil cookie sheet and gently press down slightly. Cook for 15 minutes, turn and cook about another 20-25 minutes. Serve with Lemon Tahini dressing.

Lemon Tahini Dressing
Makes 1 cup

1 garlic clove
1/2 cup sesame tahini
3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 cayenne

Puree garlic in food processor. Add lemon juice and tahnini to blend, pour in water a little at a time to get consistency desired. Add salt, cayenne and cumin. Store in refrigerator in airtight container. Will keep for a couple weeks.