Cilantro Lime Hummus

This weekend we had a couple of Nate’s friends over to dinner. One of them might cat-sit for us over our honeymoon, so we wanted a chance for him to come over and meet L.C. We also thought we’d sweeten the deal by cooking for him…i.e. Nate suggested that I cook for him.

Cilantro Lime Hummus

In case L.C.’s flirtation wasn’t enough to make him agree, I first liquored him up with some AMAZING Mojito Slushies (recipe to come soon) to decrease his inhibitions…and ability to say no.

After waiting for the alcohol to go into effect, I put a plate of Cilantro Lime Hummus in front of him with some chips. I would never say hummus is particularly refreshing, but this version totally is. The cilantro and lime make it reminiscent of guacamole, but with much less fat.

Cilantro Lime Hummus

Everyone, myself included, was raving about it.

I made a few other things that I will most likely be sharing on the blog in the near future: Pasta Puttanesca and a Cold Lemon Mousse.

Cilantro Lime Hummus

He’s checking on the dates to make sure he can catsit, but I’m pretty sure he’ll say yes.

I’d like to think it will have everything to do with the meal, and nothing to do with this adorable face:

Cilantro Lime Hummus

Slightly adapted from How Sweet It is

Print this recipe!

makes about 2-2.5 cups

2 15-ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 cloves of garlic, minced (more or less, depending on your tastes)
3/4 cup cilantro
zest and juice of 1 lime
2/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine beans, cilantro, lime zest, juice and garlic in the food processor and blend until mixed. With the processor on, stream in olive oil until desired consistency is reached. 3-4 minutes to make it super creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pita chips or tortilla chips.

Tabouli

If you like chopping vegetables, then this recipe is for you.

Nate and I headed down to his mom’s for Memorial Day weekend, and as always I took advantage of her giant kitchen with ample counter space to make lots of recipes.

I love having room to spread out! I literally had every square inch of the counter covered with ingredients for three different recipes I was making at once. It’s such a nice change from our little apartment kitchen where I have to clean as I go (something I’m horrible at) if I want any hope of keeping some semblance of order in the kitchen.

Tabouli

I will be SO happy when we move to a house with *hopefully a nice big kitchen! Unfortunately, we just signed our lease for another year, so it’ll be at least a year til my dream comes true.

Anyway, this salad isn’t quick to make. There are a lot of vegetables to chop…and not just any vegetables, but small vegetables. I wish there was an easy way to chop small things.

I did use Rachel Ray’s tip for cutting cherry tomatoes. She kind of annoys me sometimes, but in this case, she’s a freaking genius. This is hands-down the best time-saver EVER.

Tabouli

Speaking of Rachel Ray, did I ever tell you guys I was in the audience of the Rachel Ray show, and they kept panning the camera to me. It was my 15 minutes (okay, seconds) of fame :) You can see it here…if you go to minute 1:50, you can see me!

Try to ignore the fact that I look directly at one of the cameras. I’m not an actress, folks. I was beckoning to the camera man. I’m also in the other segments from show that day, which you can find here. They loved me!

Ok, so back to the recipe. This may be time-consuming, but when all is said and done, it’s so colorful, fresh and delicious!

Be aware that this makes a lot of Taboulli. Perfect alongside your summer barbecues or for a light lunch!

Tabouli

 

Tabouli

From Mom’s recipe box (i.e. source unknown)

Print this recipe!

Serves 8-10

1 cup bulgur, uncooked
1 cucumber, diced
2 tomatoes, diced (or 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes, cut in half)
1 bunch radishes, chopped in 1/4 dice
3/4 cups scallion, sliced
1/2 cup fresh mint, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Wash bulgur in cold water til water runs clear. Place in bowl, cover with 4 cups boiling water. Mix and let stand 30-40 min.

Drain bulgur and squeeze out excess moisture. Place in clean bowl

Add rest of ingredients. Adjust seasonings.

Vegetable Lasagna

Since my grandpa passed away a couple months ago, my mom and aunt decided to help my grandmother go through her house to clean it up. Both my grandma and grandpa love(ed) to save things…I unfortunately inherited this packrat tendency.

This cleanup was necessary both because their house contains all sorts of crap, but also because my grandma will be downsizing to an apartment.

Vegetable Lasagna

During the cleanup my mom found and bequeathed to me a collection of recipes my grandfather had saved.

The ironic thing is that my grandfather didn’t cook (though he loved to watch the Food Network), and my grandmother also doesn’t cook…which makes you wonder what exactly he was saving these recipes for.

I think I also inherited his recipe clipping addiction.

Vegetable Lasagna

When my mom mentioned giving me this collection, my grandmother got upset, saying that maybe she would make some of these recipes now…even though she hadn’t made any of them for the last 50 years.

A lot of his recipe clippings came from newspapers and the back of food cartons, and some were hand written ones scribbled while watching cooking shows on tv.

Vegetable Lasagna

The recipes were super organized. He had different envelopes on each of which he wrote a category: Dessert, Salad/Vegetables, Side Dishes, Meat and Poultry, etc. There must have been 10 different categories.

Going through each category I was able to learn a little something about my grandpa- his favorite foods. There were about 20 recipes for the practically the same dish in each category, though the sources varied.

Apparently his favorite dessert was apple crisp/pie, he loved any type of chili, and in the pasta category, he preferred Lasagna.

Vegetable Lasagna

The recipe in this post came about from adapting one of “his” recipes. I think it must have come from the back of some lasagna noodle box, and I have to say that it turned out delicious! I’ll be sharing more of his recipes in the coming weeks.

When my mother gave me my grandpa’s recipe clippings, I knew exactly what I had to do- finally cook the dishes my grandpa had been saving for someone to make.

I guess maybe he was saving it for me :)

Vegetable Lasagna

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna

Print this recipe!

Serves 8-10

1 lb lasagna noodles, not the “no boil” ones
1 lb sliced mushrooms
1 bunch broccolini, chopped in 1/2 inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2- 26oz jars pasta sauce
1.5 tsp dried italian seasoning
15 oz Ricotta cheese
16 oz (4 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta 8 min or until just tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Spread noodles onto a sheet pan coated with cooking spray so noodles don’t stick together.

While pasta is cooking, heat a large saucepan over med-hi heat. Heat oil and add onion. (**You could easily add ground beef here and skip the broccolini if you wanted it to be non-vegetarian). Cook onion 2 minutes then add mushrooms, broccolini and garlic and cook until tender.

Stir in 4 cups (1 1/3 jars) pasta sauce and italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.

Mix ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella and eggs.

Spread 1 cup remaining sauce in greased 9×13 casserole dish.

Layer 5 noodles on top of sauce, slightly overlapping noodles to fit. Spread 2 cups of the veggie sauce over the noodles. Dollop with 1/2 of the ricotta mixture, spreading evenly in pan. Sprinkly with 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese.

Repeat above step, layering noodles, veggie sauce, ricotta, parmesan.

Top with 5 more noodles and top with rest of sauce.

Sprinkle with 2 cups mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered 40 minutes or until bubbly. Put a sheet pan covered with foil underneath to catch any drips.

Let stand 15 minutes. Refrigerate leftovers.

*Note: I found this recipe much better the next day. Some of the sauce gets absorbed into the noodles and it’s not watery.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Nate will be running the Boston Marathon this coming Monday! I’m so so proud of him. I can’t even run a mile, no less a marathon that you actually have to qualify for.

I highly doubt you need to carbo-load for a full week leading up to any marathon race (since I’m sure most of it gets digested the day after you eat it), but Nate requested that this week be “pasta week,” so that’s what I gave him!

What a cruel joke that the week of Passover (i.e. THE WEEK I CAN’T EAT PASTA) coincided with Nate’s pasta week.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite sites, SeriousEats.com. I find their recipes extremely reliable, and delicious!

I wanted something a little different than our standard rotation of pasta with sausage and red sauce, pesto, or broccoli and garlic. It also continues with my vegetarian theme. Next time I’m going to try soaking dried chickpeas if I have the forethought, rather than using the canned variety.

We’re heading up to Boston on Friday for a relaxing, site-seeing weekend leading up to the actual race.

When Nate gets his best time ever (knock on wood!!!), I will definitely attribute it to this meal that I made him eat all week long, since I only know how to cook enough for an army. Luckily the boy likes leftovers as much as me.

On a side note, please cross your fingers that the weather forecast showing 75 degrees for the race on Monday is totally wrong!

I copied this recipe directly from Serious Eats, so head over there for the recipe! But in case you wanna know what’s in it without having to click on a link, here are the ingredients:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more for the pasta water
black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 pound pasta shells
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups chopped arugula

I’m not a vegetarian by any means. In fact, there are days when I’m absolutely craving a good piece of steak, and a rare one at that!

But Nate doesn’t eat beef (he doesn’t like the taste), and there are only so many ways to cook a piece of chicken or turkey. Not to mention I DETEST touching raw poultry. I’m totally paranoid about Salmonella and it takes me forever to cut it up and dispose of the infected knife/cutting board and then thoroughly cleanse every surface it might have touched.

So sometimes it’s easier, and spices things up, to just go vegetarian for a meal. I’ve been using a lot of beans lately because they’re just so simple to use (especially when you get them precooked in a can). Not to mention vegetarian sources of protein are much lower in fat than animal sources.

I had seen a recipe for Tamale pie that just had me totally craving something similar, and that’s when it hit me to sub Tempeh for the beef. Now in this case I more than made up for the fat I was saving by adding the cheese and cornbread topping, but that’s neither here nor there ;)

You can crumble it up to get it into similarly sized pieces as ground beef. I’m telling you, a man meat-lover will not even know that it has no meat!

This wasn’t a super spicy version and I think next time I’d add even more mexican spices (or maybe just use a packet of taco seasoning instead of the chili powder/cumin/salt!), but it was still mighty tasty.

I dare you to make this “meaty” meal and see how many people notice there’s no meat involved!

P.S. Please don’t judge this recipe by the photos. I had a hungry man on my hands when this came out of the oven and had to rush.

“Meat Lovers” Vegetarian Tamale Casserole

Print this recipe!

Serves 6-8

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, cut in half and then into thin slices
2 ribs of celery, diced
2- 8 oz. packages of Tempeh, crumbled
1 Tbsp chili powder (*alternatively use taco seasoning instead of chili powder, cumin, and salt)
1 tsp cumin
1- 19 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1- 8.75oz can corn, drained
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp tabasco (or more to taste)
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1- 10 oz. can enchilada sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
s+p to taste
1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream for garnish (optional)

Topping ingredients:
1- 8.5 oz. cornbread mix (such as Jiffy)
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1- 4.25 oz can diced green chiles
1- 8.75 oz can corn, drained

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over med-hi heat. Cook a few minutes until onions have started to soften. Add celery, Tempeh. Cook until Tempeh begins to brown, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add spices and stir well. Stir in beans and next 6 ingredients. Cook until warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Remove mixture from heat and spread into a 9×13 pan. Sprinkle cheese evenly on top.

Mix cornbread mix, milk and egg until smooth. Stir in chiles and corn. Put drops of cornbread mixture even over Tempeh mixture and then spread into a thin layer.

Bake casserole for 40 minutes or until top begins to turn golden around the edges.

Cool 5 minutes before serving.