This blog has not been getting a lot of love lately, and I feel bad about it. Not bad in a guilty way, per se, more just frustrated because I don’t have the energy or time to put into something I love. Between everything going on at work, my increasingly insane travel schedule, and our frenetic search for a house (alongside seemingly every single other young couple in Boston) my mind/energy is pretty-well consumed. Still, I’m here today, and on sunny mornings like this one where spring seems like a real possibility instead of just a daydream, the light at the end of the tunnel feels closer.

Although I’ve been home from my last trip to Latin America for a little over a week and at this point, my next trip is closer than my last one, I feel like I’m just getting reoriented to life at home. I’m still craving almost all of the things I was when I got off the plane: spending as much time as I can with Trevor, a few lazy mornings spent in a bed that is gloriously familiar, and food that is not some variation of steak, fried plantains, fried eggs, or more steak. Thankfully, I’m no longer craving clean laundry – that, at least, I took care of right away.

It’s a bit tricky to get back into the kitchen after a two-week hiatus. It doesn’t help that the fridge is usually a wasteland. The first thing I reach for are leftovers, tucked away in the freezer for times when I’m really not sure what to cook. After that, I make things that are familiar and simple and that utilize the pantry staples we always have on hand – omelettes, pastas, soups, big bowls of grains and lentils. It takes a few days for my own creative juices to get flowing again, and therefore for me to remember how to blog. Add to that the fact that it’s still unseasonably cold and snowy in Boston, making it hard to focus on healthy cooking and eating when all I want is chicken pot pie and creamy pastas. Still, on Thursday I started envisioning a middle-eastern chickpea stew, something packed with vegetables to help me recover from two weeks of overeating, but still warm and comforting enough to help us deal with the freezing weather. Yesterday we finally made it to the grocery store to restock our fridge, and last night, the stew became a reality. Really it’s somewhere between a stew and a vegetarian tagine, with sweet dried apricots plumped up from the rich broth, hearty chunks of sweet potato and cauliflower, and a thick, sweet-and-sour, almost sauce-like broth. Pomegranate molasses, preserved lemon, cinnamon, coriander, harissa, cumin, and nutmeg are the flavor base, making for a sweet and warming dish. Served over a big bowl of Israeli couscous, it’s a keeper recipe.

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Middle Eastern Chickpea and Cauliflower Stew

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

• 1 c. dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in cold water
• 5 TBS olive oil, divided
• 2 small yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced small
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp dried harissa
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 c. chicken stock
• One 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 TBS pomegranate molasses
• 1 c. dried apricots, cut in half
• 1/2 preserved meyer lemon, seeds removed and finely minced
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped into small florets
• 1 TBS butter
• 2 c. dried Israeli couscous
• 1/2 c. finely chopped parsley

1. Drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas, then set aside. In a large pot, heat 3 TBS of the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and golden brown all over, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and carrots and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the cumin, coriander, harissa, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir spices into vegetables and cook until very fragrant, about 5 minutes more. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, cinnamon stick. and chickpeas. Bring to a simmer and simmer until chickpeas are becoming tender, about 1 hour. As the stew cooks, add water as necessary to keep the stew from burning – consistency should be thick but still runny.
2. Add the pomegranate molasses, apricots, and meyer lemon to the stew. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the sweet potato with the remaining 2 TBS of olive oil and sea salt and pepper, then spread out on a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, then remove, add the cauliflower, and toss the cauliflower with the sweet potatoes to coat with olive oil. Continue roasting for 20 minutes, until sweet potato is tender and cauliflower is charred in places. Remove from the oven.
3. While the sweet potato and cauliflower are roasting, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the couscous and cook in the butter until toasted in places, about 2 minutes. Add 2 1/4 c. hot water to the couscous and bring to a boil. Cook until tender and water is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Stir the chopped parsley into the couscous and set aside.
4. Serve the stew over the cooked couscous, topping the stew with the roasted sweet potato and cauliflower.

The post At Home // Middle-Eastern Chickpea and Cauliflower Stew appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

My department has recently moved to work-from-home Fridays. I’m still figuring out how to be as productive from my apartment, which isn’t really set up as a workspace (no desk, no chairs with backs, no computer monitor), as I am at work, but in general it’s a nice perk. My lunch break  in particular is a whole new experience – I can get out for a quick run, shower, and make myself a homemade lunch all in the space of an hour or so. It completely re-energizes my day. Although it can be tempting to dig into leftover rigatoni bolognese or penne alla vodka at my lunch break, I’ve been trying to come up with creative salads instead. I’ve been experimenting with this Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad over the past few Friday lunch breaks, and I think I’ve finally figured out how I like it best.

The first trick to this salad is that the brussels sprouts should be cooked over high heat so that they’re charred in places but still retain some color and crunch, and not be cooked down to a point of total limpness. A little bit of preserved lemon chopped up and stirred into the sprouts as they cook does wonders to brighten up the overall flavor. For heartiness, I’ve tried both chicken and sauteed shiitake mushrooms, and the mushrooms are the much better choice – especially thickly sliced and sauteed until golden brown in butter. Roasted chickpeas coated in smoked paprika add crunch and a bit of depth, a protein-rich alternative to croutons. Then of course you have the dressing, which should be homemade and extra tangy – unless of course you’re forgoing dressing in favor of an olive-oil fried egg, yolk broken and stirred into the warm salad. The final touch is a few shards of pecorino cheese. These days it’s my perfect salad, and I imagine I’ll continue enjoying it until spring is really upon us and I can move onto lighter, brighter foods. Until then, it makes eating my vegetables a pleasure.

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Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad

Serves 2.

• 1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 4 TBS olive oil, divided
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• sea salt
• pepper
• 20 – 30 brussels sprouts
• 1 wedge of preserved meyer lemon, finely chopped
• 1/2 TBS butter
• 10-15 large shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, thickly sliced
• pecorino cheese
• homemade Caesar dressing

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss the chickpeas with 2 TBS of the olive oil, the smoked paprika, and sea salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast, stirring once or twice, until crispy, about 20 minutes. Set aside
2. Trim the ends and the outer leaves from the brussels sprouts and discard. Thinly slice the brussels sprouts. Heat the remaining 2 TBS of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large frying pan, then add the brussels sprouts and stir to coat with the oil. Add the preserved lemon to the pan, and season the sprouts with salt and pepper. Saute the brussels sprouts, stirring frequently, until bright green and charred in places, but still slightly crunchy, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from the pan into a large bowl.
3. Melt the butter in the same frying pan you used to cook the brussels sprouts, over medium heat. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown on both sides, about 8-10 minutes. Add to the bowl with the brussels sprouts and toss to mix.
4. Serve the salad warm, tossed with shaved pecorino cheese, the roasted chickpeas, and homemade Caesar dressing.

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I struggled a bunch to come up with the right goal for July. I knew the problem I wanted the goal to address: backsliding. I’ve made so much progress this year – I hit the ten pounds lighter mark at the end of June, something that has felt vaguely impossible for the past few years – and I’m worried about losing that progress. I feel really good about how I look, and I’ve been feeling energized and even excited about working out. But last year, July was the month I pretty much stopped working out, partly because of the heat, partly because it was the month we moved, and partly because my work travel schedule became really busy. Although we’re not moving this year and my work schedule is lighter, the memory of last year is looming large over me. Coming up with a concrete goal to address this, that would also continue forcing forward progress, was challenging.

Eventually, I settled on this: do 8 different types of workouts during the month of July. My regular workout routine has 3 components – running, Nike Training Club weight training, and ballet. Those are the easy ones. Hopefully, adding 5 other things will keep me engaged, excited, and active – and maybe I’ll even find something new to add to my regular routine. I have lots of ideas for the types of activities I can try: hip hop, biking, roller blading, swimming, rock climbing, yoga, boot camp, hiking, tennis, jump rope… anything else you guys would suggest? I plan to continue running and lifting on a regular basis, as well, so of course I’ll work out more than 8 times in total.

Now, let’s talk about food. I think a big part of the reason I’m feeling so healthy and strong coming into July is because of how well my goal for June went. Forcing myself to include fruit or vegetables in every single meal was weirdly eye-opening for me. After only about a week or two, my afternoon cookie cravings had significantly diminished, I was eating light meals and feeling satisfied, and when I did feel like indulging, it was easy to stop after a bite or two of whatever overly decadent thing I was eating. The most successful days were the ones when I was able to bring a healthy breakfast, lunch, and snack to work – instead of running to the cafe downstairs for an afternoon treat, I’d reach right next to me and munch on raw peas or blueberries.

Now, there are plenty of days when I do not have my act together enough to even get one of these meals in my bag, let alone all three, so this month’s recipe is a portable, make-ahead, healthy lunch that I can throw in my bag on those super-harried mornings with very little forethought. Wraps aren’t on my normal grocery list, but my mom always has some in the fridge, along with some easy salad-based fillings for them, and it’s a great way to have a quick and healthy lunch. Since the ingredients in store bought wraps and tortillas can be a little suspect, I decided to make my own spinach wraps for easy grab-and-go sandwich lunches this month. They’re surprisingly easy to make – the dough is extremely elastic and fun to work with – and I like knowing exactly what’s in them, including lots and lots of spinach. I filled my first batch with chopped Greek salad, tzatziki, and roasted chickpeas – they were so tasty and zingy and crunchy, a very satisfying vegetable-focused lunch. Because the chopped salad has a lot of liquid, it’s best to serve these immediately after assembling, so if you’re bringing them to go, throw the salad in a tupperware, bring a wrap, and assemble when you’re ready to eat.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous
May: 180 minutes of Nike Training Club; Recipe: Warm Arugula Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing
June: Fresh fruit/veggies at every meal; Recipe: Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curried Chicken and Mango Salsa

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Homemade Spinach Wraps

Makes 10-12 wraps.

• 3 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 TBS vegetable oil
• 4 oz. spinach
• 3/4 c. milk, warmed in the microwave or on the stovetop

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt until evenly mixed. Add the vegetable oil and stir until crumbly dough is formed. Set aside.
2. Place the spinach and warm milk in a blender, and blend on high until the mixture is smooth. Pour the spinach into the flour and stir to combine. If mixture is too wet, add a little bit more flour. Knead the dough with your hands for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin. Break the chilled dough into 10-12 golf-ball sized balls. Roll each ball out into a very thin circle about 8 inches in diameter. The thinner the dough is, the more pliable the wrap will be. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. One at a time, cook the wraps in the dry frying pan, for about 30 seconds on each side or until wrap has stiffened slightly and is golden brown in spots. Let cool, then wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Chopped Greek Salad

Serves 3-4 as a wrap filling.

• 1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 2 TBS + 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 medium tomato, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 small red pepper, stemmed and seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 small cucumber, peeled and seeded and roughly chopped
• 1/3 c. feta cheese
• 12-15 kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 1 TBS red wine vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• tzatziki, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the chickpeas with 2 TBS of the olive oil and the smoked paprika, and spread out on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Roast until crispy, about 30 minutes in total, stirring once about halfway through. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. Combine the tomato, red pepper, cucumber, feta, and olives in a large bowl. Add the red wine vinegar and the remaining 1 TBS of olive oil. Stir to coat vegetables with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, mix in the roasted chickpeas.
3. To serve as a wrap, spread a layer of tzatziki on the inside of the wrap, then place several spoonfuls of the chopped salad on top. Roll up and enjoy immediately.

The post Monthly Fitness Goals: July // Homemade Spinach Wraps with Chopped Greek Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Even though January, February and March felt never-ending, I find myself very surprised that it’s already June. Is this what it feels like to get old, the weeks seemingly disappearing into months like it’s nothing? Oi. It’s not a bad thing, but my life feels full, in a good way, and time is flying by. Given that I might have to spend the better part of August and September in Malaysia for work, I feel like I really have to make the most of summer in June and July, including, of course, sticking with my monthly fitness goals – it is bikini (or at least one-piece?) season after all.

I did a good job with exercise in May, even though I had a ten day, three-stop business trip that could have potentially thrown a wrench in my workout schedule. Not only did I complete my May goal of getting 180 minutes of strength training in (although it came down to the wire, with my last Nike Training Club session just squeezed in on the 31st), I also kept up with the running, clocking over 55 miles at an average pace that was 6 seconds faster than April. I feel good, and now I just have to maintain both components even as the weather gets hotter and working out becomes a sweatier proposition.

However, I did not do so well with my eating habits last month. Business trips are rarely good for my eating habits – too many three-course meals paid for by our hosts, an especially difficult thing to turn down in a world-class food city like Rome – but even when I was at home, I found myself eating out or resorting to cheese and crackers for dinner all too often. This month, I want to be better organized and prepared, bringing healthy lunches to work whenever I can, planning ahead for wholesome dinners, and, if I can really commit myself to this, kicking the daily latte and muffin/cookie habit I seemed to have developed over the past month (it used to be a less frequent habit, but I have somehow slipped into a pattern where I run downstairs to grab one on a daily basis now). Besides planning ahead, I want to rely more on fresh fruits and vegetables for my meals, especially since we’ve finally arrived in the season where a variety of local New England produce is available (beyond radishes and rhubarb, that is). So, the official goal? Have at least one serving of fruits or veggies at every meal (ideally fresh, but I’m not going to fault myself for having a bowl of vegetarian chili at dinner or lightly sauteed spinach in my omelets). I’m also going to try and make most of my afternoon snacks fruit or veggie based – replacing cookies and pretzels with apples and crudités. We’ll see how that goes in practice, but I swear I’ll try.

In that vein, this month’s recipe is packed with flavor, color, and freshness, while still being filling and balanced. I recently received a review copy of Golubka’s The Vibrant Table, and the very first night I flipped through it, I ended up making the Chickpea Crepes with Mango Salsa for dinner. Of course, once I’m inspired, just leaving recipes the way they are is very difficult for me, so I tweaked this and that and ended up with a recipe that’s a perfect dinner for me. The biggest change is obviously the addition of grilled chicken marinated in a curry yogurt sauce – I felt like I needed some more bulk to make this a stand-alone meal – but I also swapped out some of the flavors for a more Indian profile (cumin seeds instead of sesame seeds in the crepes, mint and basil instead of cilantro in the salsa), played with the consistency of the crepes to make them more pliable, and added a bunch of sweet red pepper to the salsa for even more color and freshness. The resulting meal is bursting with flavor, and just the kind of thing I need to get me excited about eating fresh vegetables.

Past Fitness Challenges

January: 10 Visits to the YMCA; Recipe: Gluten-Free Olive-and-Feta Corn Muffins
February: One vegan meal every day; Recipe: Pakistani Chickpea Pulao with Sweet-Hot Date-Onion Chutney
March: Run 40  miles in 20 days; Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Butter Cookie Bites
April: Walk 8,000 steps a day; Recipe: Herb-Flecked Spring Couscous
May: 180 minutes of Nike Training Club; Recipe: Warm Arugula Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing

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Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa

Inspired by The Vibrant Table. Serves 4.

For the chicken:

• 1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 TBS curry powder
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts

For the crepes:

• 2 c. chickpea flour
• 2 TBS whole cumin seeds
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 1/2 to 3 c. water
• 1 large egg
• vegetable oil for frying

For the mango salsa:

• 1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/3 c. very finely chopped red onion (from about 1/4 of a large onion)
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely minced
• juice from 1-2 fresh limes
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• small handful of mint leaves, sliced into chiffonade
• small handful of basil leaves, sliced into chiffonade

1. To make the chicken: Mix the yogurt, olive oil, curry powder, crushed garlic, and 1 tsp of salt together in a large bowl until evenly combine. Add the chicken breasts and rub the curry marinade all over them to fully coat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.
2. To make the crepes: Whisk together the chickpea flour, cumin seeds, turmeric, and salt. Add the water 1/2 cup at a time, whisking until as smooth as possible between batches. Resulting batter should be runny but not watery. Add the egg and whisk to blend with the batter. Cover the batter bowl and let rest for at least 30 minutes, and ideally 1 hour.
3. To make the salsa: Mix together all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning (lime juice, salt, jalapeno, and herbs) to your taste.
4. When you are ready to eat: Fire up your grill and preheat. Grill the chicken for 6-8 minutes on each side, until cooked all the way through with no pink left in the middle (grilling time may vary significantly depending on the temperature of your grill and  the thickness of your chicken – always check that they are cooked in the middle before serving!). Set cooked chicken aside.
5. Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Once hot, add half a cup of the crepe batter and quickly swirl the pan to allow the batter to run into a large circle. Cook crepes for 30-60 seconds on each side, until golden brown and bubbly, then flip. Stack cooked crepes on a serving platter. Slice cooked chicken and serve over the warm crepes alongside the mango salsa. Serve as soon as possible after cooking, although leftover crepes can be wrapped in tinfoil and stored in the fridge if necessary.

The post Monthly Fitness Goals: June // Chickpea Crepes with Grilled Curry Chicken and Mango Salsa appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Olives, Lemons, & Za’atar: The Best Middle Eastern Home Cooking

The Book: This spring has seen a lot of Middle-Eastern themed cookbook releases, including Istanbul, Flavors of the Middle East, and Under the Shade of Olive Trees. The first one to grace our bookshelves is Rawia Bishara’s Olives, Lemons, and Za’atar. By the chef-owner of Tanoreen restaurant in Brooklyn, it’s a book filled with recipes that feel both modern and traditional, an elevated but still accessible take on a rural cuisine. Rawia does not treat her family’s cooking style rigidly, but rather lets it grow and evolve based on inspiration from her travels throughout Europe and her years in New York. Many of the resulting recipes are loaded with summer produce, which feels a little bit like torture right now, but is also filling me with inspiration for what to do with all those eggplants and peppers we’ll have come August. I especially can’t wait to try the Eggplant Napoleon, a stack of fried, pesto-marinated eggplant slices served with a slather of baba ghanouj, fresh tomatoes, and more pesto. I’m also drawn toward the big family dinner and feast dishes that she shares – big platters of meat and grains and vegetables, all heavily spiced and sauced – they feel festive and complete and make me want to gather friends around my table more often. The bright flavors that Rawia presents are echoed heavily in the book’s clean design and photography – the pictures in the book are wonderfully colorful and energetic, immediately transporting me to a warmer climate where food and color are abundant. It’s a book filled with light, flavor and summertime, for sure.

The Food: So far, we’ve made two dishes from Olives, Lemons, and Za’atar, and both were probably more appropriate for a grand feast than for dinner for two, but I have no regrets about either of them. Featured here is Maftool, the word for Palestinian (better known as Israeli) couscous, but that also refers to a traditional feast dish that uses the couscous as a base. This recipe adorns the couscous with chicken, chickpeas, and pearl onions, all beautifully spiced with a mix of caraway, allspice, cumin, coriander, and other warm spices. I really liked the technique for this dish – after spice-coating and browning the chicken, you add the chickpeas, onions, and several quarts of water to a pot with the chicken to simmer until the chicken is very tender, simultaneously making a gorgeous spiced chicken broth. Then, when it’s time to cook the couscous, you ladle the broth out of the pot onto the couscous, meaning the whole meal is infused with the flavors of the broth and spices. I cooked the couscous just a moment too long, leaving me with a crunchy, caramelized layer on the bottom of the pot – but after trying those crunchy couscous bits, I wouldn’t cook it any other way. The meal is served on one platter – couscous topped with the chicken pieces, lightly shredded, the chickpeas, and the pearl onions. It’s an aromatic, filling, and wholesome dish, perfect for serving a crowd in the winter. As an aside, the recipe headnote states that this dish makes enough for four, but we got at least eight servings out if it – it really makes an obscene amount of food. Plus as a byproduct, you have a delicious pot of chicken and chickpea soup, which I quickly stashed in the freezer for my next cold. The other dish we tried was a braised lamb shank dish which Trevor prepared, served with potatoes and a fresh tomato sauce. Again, the meat was beautifully spiced, and the addition of a cup of basil made it smell like summer. I think we’ll be cooking from this book for a while.

Recipe Shortlist: Brussels Sprouts with Tahini, Pomegranate Molasses, and Panko; Za’atar Bread; Cauliflower Salad with Tahini and Pomegranate; Sweet Pea and Kafta Stew; Eggplant Napoleon; Smoked Wheat with Lamb; Garlic Sauce for Roasted Chicken; Flower-Scented Custard with Pistachios

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Olives, Lemons, & Za’atar free of charge from Kyle Books, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Maftool: Palestinian Couscous with Chicken, Chickpeas, and Pearl Onions

Recipe adapted slightly from Olives, Lemons, & Za’atar. Serves 8.

• 2 TBS ground caraway seeds
• 1 TBS ground allspice
• 1 TBS ground cumin
• 1 TBS ground coriander
• 1 TBS sea salt
• 1 TBS freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces
• 8 TBS olive oil, divided
• 2 lbs. fresh pearl onions, peeled (blanch first to make peeling easier)
• 3 yellow onions, roughly chopped
• 1 lb. dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, then boiled until tender; or 2 (15 oz.) cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 lemons
• 2 lbs. Israeli couscous

1. In a small bowl, combine the first 9 ingredients, stirring to mix. Rub half of this spice mixture all over the chicken pieces. Set aside the other half of the spice mix.
2. Add 4 TBS of olive oil to a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot. Heat over medium heat, then add the chicken pieces in batches, skin-side down, being careful not to crowd the chicken. Brown the chicken for 6-8 minutes per side, until golden brown. Use tongs to transfer the chicken pieces to a plate. Repeat with any remaining chicken pieces.
3. Add the pearl onions and chopped yellow onions to the olive oil and saute until they begin to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and add the chickpeas and 3 quarts of water. Raise the heat and bring to a boil, skimming any foam from the surface of the pot. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir in the juice of 1 lemon, and remove from heat.
4. About 20 minutes before the chicken is done, add the remaining 4 TBS of olive oil to a large saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add the couscous, stirring to coat with the olive oil, and saute until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add the reserved spice mixture and stir to coat grains, then saute for 1 minute. Ladle 6 cups of the broth from the chicken pot into the couscous and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the couscous is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes.
5. To serve, spoon the couscous onto a large platter and top with the chicken pieces, chickpeas, and onions. Reserve any leftover broth for another use (or it makes a delicious soup on its own with some of the extra chicken in it).

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My January fitness challenge went pretty well – although I may not have stuck to the letter of the goal, I certainly accomplished the spirit of it. Starting from a place of zero athleticism at the end of the year, I wanted to work my way back into regular exercising, so I bit the bullet, joined the Y, and vowed that I’d go there at least ten times during the month of January. I only ended up making it to the Y eight times, but I also went to Brooklyn Boulders twice for a combo rock climbing and treadmill workout, so I’m counting those as well, because, well, they’re both gyms, right? All told, I worked out on 23 of the 31 days of the month, and I think I deserve a big pat on the back for sticking with the plan. I’ve definitely gotten my base back, both from an aerobic and strength perspective, and now it’s time to build on that. I had a lot of thoughts about how February’s goal could build on January’s success: I could focus on speed, stamina, strength, or workout frequency. But really, I think the next step is that stubborn number on the scale, and that basically means one thing: healthier eating.

Boooo, I can hear you all thinking, what is this, January? But hear me out, I promise it’s not that bad. After waffling back and forth between trying to not eat out at all during the week (including coffee breaks, takeout, happy hours, and the snack drawer), and doing Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before 6:00 program (wanna know more? check out Emma’s honest review here), I decided to start simple and just choose one meal a day that would be vegan. Now, I don’t ever want to actually be vegan, but I know that cheese, milk, butter, eggs, and salty meats (bacon, sausage, prosciutto) are frequently part of my go-to comfort foods, so I wanted to consciously remind myself that there are other options, and replace one potentially cheesy meal each day with something more fresh-vegetable-based. I’ve also been trying to be generous with the term “meal” by making it encompass a full 3-4 hour period after the meal itself, to keep myself from cheating and sneaking on non-vegan snacks immediately afterwards. E.g., if I have a green smoothie at 9, no latte at 10, and no brownie at 3pm after my virtuous lunchtime salad. You get the picture. So far I’ve stuck to it 95% of the time, with a slip or two for which I blame the allure of the office chocolate box in the afternoons. I think the biggest benefit is just that I’m more aware of what I’m eating. And I’m already hyper-aware of food, so that’s saying something. I have also noticed that it forces me to actively plan out my meals every day, because I know that every single day I need to have budgeted in something healthy and vegan and I can’t just wing it. Ten days in, I’m happy with it, but we’ll see if it has any impact on the scale by the end of the month.

Now, on to the good part – the food! I recently bought myself a copy of Mangoes & Curry Leaves, the first cookbook I’ve purchased for myself in over a year. Cooking Indian food that tastes even reasonably well-balanced is tricky, and I love Indian food so much that I really wanted to learn how to do it well, step-by-step. This book is great for that, and also happens to be the perfect resource for finding vegan recipes that don’t taste like they’re “missing” something – so much of Indian and Asian cooking is naturally vegan, with spices and precise cooking techniques supplying the flavor we often rely on dairy for. I’ve been cooking up a storm from this book – from Sri Lankan Beef Curry, to Mountain Dal, to Potato-and-Pea Parathas, to this Pakistani Chickpea Pulao that I’m sharing with you today – and everything has been amazing. This pulao is definitely comfort food, but the kind you can feel good about. Warming, filling, and slightly saucy, the mixture of rice, chickpeas, sweet onions, tomatoes, and spices is packed full of heartiness and flavor, and has lots of good protein and vitamins. With a spoonful of the sweet and spicy date and onion chutney stirred in, it becomes a head-clearing mess of goodness that’s almost impossible to stop eating (completely negating my weight goals, but c’est la vie).

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Pakistani Chickpea Pulao

Adapted very slightly from Mangoes & Curry Leaves. Serves 4.

Note: The rice needs to be soaked at least an hour in advance, so plan ahead. This can be made on the stovetop or in the oven. If you plan to finish it in the oven, make sure you use an ovenproof pot with a lid for the initial stages. Because the cooking times are relatively short for each stage, it’s important to have your ingredients prepared ahead of time – i.e. measure out your spices, pound your garlic and ginger, and slice your onions before you start cooking.

• 2  c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt, divided
• 1 c. basmati rice
• 4 c. water, divided
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• one small piece of cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
• 2 medium onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 c. crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 c. coarsely chopped almonds, for garnish (optional)
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro, for garnish (optional)
• Sweet Hot Date-Onion Chutney, for serving (optional, recipe below)

1. Toss together the chickpeas and 3/4 of a tsp of salt. Set aside. Rinse the rice in several changes of cold water, then add 3 cups of cold water and let the rice soak for at least one and up to three hours. After this time, drain the rice and set it aside.
2. If using the oven (for finishing the cooking, you may also use the stovetop), preheat it to 325°F. Place a wide, heavy-bottomed pot that has a lid over medium heat (use an ovensafe pot if finishing in the oven). Add the vegetable oil, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, and bay leaf, stir together, and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
3. Place the garlic and ginger into a mortar and pestle and pound into a paste. Alternatively, finely mince both. Add the garlic and the ginger to the spices and stir fry, stirring constantly for about 1-2 minutes, until golden brown. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring frequently, until very soft, about 10 minutes. If onions are starting to brown before they soften, lower the heat – you want the onions to remain a pale golden color.
4. Add the chickpeas, coriander, cumin, black pepper, and cayenne to the pot, stir to coat the chickpeas with the spices, and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then, add the tomatoes, turmeric, and remaining 1 c. water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then sprinkle the drained rice over the top. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and tightly cover. Place covered pot in preheated oven, if using, or keep at a simmer on the stovetop. Cook for 45 minutes in the oven or 30-40 minutes on the stovetop,then remove from heat and let stand, still covered, for 15 minutes. If you’re cooking on the stovetop, you may want to check once or twice for burning on the bottom while it’s cooking – just give it a quick stir and then replace the lid.
5. If you can spot them, fish out the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, clove, and bay leaf before serving, to avoid inadvertently biting into them. Serve in bowls with chopped almonds, cilantro, and sweet hot date-onion chutney.

Sweet Hot Date-Onion Chutney

Adapted very slightly from Mangoes & Curry Leaves. Makes about 1 cup.

• 3 dried Thai chilies, stems removed
• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1 TBS sesame oil
• 1 large sweet white onion, about 1/2 pound, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. chopped pitted dates

1. Bring a kettle of water to a boil, then pour about 2 cups of the boiling water over the dried chilies in a heatproof bowl. Let stand and soften for 10 minutes.
2. Add the vegetable and sesame oils to a frying pan, and heat over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and the salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden brown all over with darker brown spots, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Drain the chilies from the water, then place chilies in a food processor with the chopped dates and pulse several times to coarsely chop. Add the cooked onions to the food processor and pulse several more times until the mixture is coarsely ground. Season to taste with salt. Store in a sealed glass container in the fridge for up to several weeks.

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Falafel is kind of a health-food poser. Sure, it has nutritious ingredients like chickpeas and herbs, and healthy fast-food chains like Pret a Manger and Sweetgreen put them on top of salads, but really, eating falafel feels kind of indulgent. It’s certainly better for you than a grilled cheese sandwich or pasta carbonara or fried dough or a lot of other things, but at it’s heart, it’s fried street food. Delicious. Just not that good for you.

However, falafel can be easily transformed into something healthier – just nix the oil and trade the soft, floury pita for a crunchy cabbage wrap, and your craveable Middle-Eastern snack has become downright virtuous. David and Luise of Green Kitchen Stories have done just that with their Baked Herb and Pistachio Falafel, a flavor-and-nutrition-packed recipe from their book, Vegetarian Everyday (one of my favorites). These falafels are about 50% chickpeas and 50% pistachios, a combo that gives them a wonderful and unexpected creamy sweetness. Baked instead of fried, nestled into a crisp leaf of cabbage, drizzled with lemon-honey tahini sauce, and topped off with bright pink beet and turnip pickles, they make a filling and delicious meal that’s vegan and gluten-free. And you’d never know from the taste how much your body will thank you for giving it all those good things.

P.S., one of my first posts ever was about falafel, too. 2010! So many years ago! Does having been a food blogger for four years mean I’m getting old? Also, reading that post reminds me that those polka dot plates that I kind of hate are also four years old, and it really would not be a crime if I got some newer, more attractive ones. They have been used well, and served their purpose. I’m totally just trying to justify that I might spend a good portion of my snow day online shopping for kitchen things. I mean working.

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Baked Herb and Pistachio Falafel

Recipe adapted slightly from Vegetarian Everyday. Makes about 24-30 falafels, serves 4-5.

• leaves from 8 sprigs of mint
• leaves from 8 sprigs of parsley
• 2 c. shelled raw pistachios (8-1/2 oz.)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 medium onion, peeled
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 2 c. cooked chickpeas (or drained, canned chickpeas)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 TBS buckwheat flour (or another gluten-free flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• sea salt
• 1 small head green cabbage
• lemon-honey tahini sauce (recipe below)
• quick spicy beet-and-turnip pickles (recipe below)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the mint and parsley leaves in a food processor and process for about 30 seconds. Add the pistachios, garlic, onion, and olive oil and process until all ingredients are well minced and combined, about 30-60 seconds. Add the chickpeas, cumin, flour, and baking soda and blend for about 15 seconds at a time, stopping to scrape the mixture down the sides of the processor as needed, until the mixture is fairly uniform but not smooth – you want the mixture to still have some chunks of chickpea and pistachio in it.
2. Remove the mixture from the processor and season to taste with salt. Form the mixture into 24-30 small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the falafel balls on the sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, using tongs to turn the balls over every 5 minutes so that they brown evenly.
3. Slice off the end of the cabbage with a sharp knife. Remove the large outer leaves and rinse them individually. Pat them dry, then fill with the baked falafel. Serve with lemon-honey tahini sauce and spicy beet-and-turnip pickles. Baked falafel balls are also delicious tossed with a green salad with some avocado and feta cheese.

Lemon-Honey Tahini Sauce

• 3 TBS tahini
• 1 TBS honey
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 c. water

1. Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Quick Spicy Beet and Turnip Pickles

Technique adapted from Eating Well and Cook for Good. Makes two 1-pint jars of pickles.

• 1 medium turnip, peeled
• 1 medium beet, peeled
• sea salt
• 1/2 medium red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
• 1 jalapeno, stem and seeds removed, thinly sliced
• 1 c. white wine vinegar
• 1 c. water
• 1 TBS sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 20 whole  black peppercorns

1. Cut the turnip and the beet into quarters, then slice each quarter as thinly as you can (use a mandoline if you have one). Layer the slices in a colander, with a sprinkling of sea salt between each layer. Place over a bowl and let sit for 10-15 minutes, then toss and squeeze with your hands to remove some of the excess liquid. Repeat this process until the vegetable slices feel a bit limp, about 30-45 minutes. Rinse the slices under cold water to remove the salt and then drain.
2. Toss the beet and turnip slices with the sliced red onion and sliced jalapeno. Divide the vegetable mixture between two clean glass pint jars.
3. In a small pot, mix vinegar, water, sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and peppercorns. Heat over medium-low heat, bringing just to a gentle simmer. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt, then remove from heat and pour through a funnel into the two veggie packed jars. Cover the jars with lids and shake a few times to distribute the brine. Put the pickles in the fridge and let sit for at least 3-4 hours. Will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.

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As soon as I publish this post, I will be heading out the door to the airport for a ten day vacation in Italy. A ten day vacation in Italy! I am beyond excited. We’ll be in Rome, then Florence, than a beautiful part of the Tuscan countryside called the Maremma. When we booked the tickets in January it felt like the end of April was years away, but now it’s here and this month has been such a whirlwind that I’ve barely had time to daydream. I can’t wait to be spending entire days outside, dressed in anything that’s not a black suit, eating delicious paninis and pastas and soaking it all in. And when I come back, I’m sure I’ll have loads of pictures and stories to share with you.

Before I go, I wanted to leave you with the last of the birthday party recipes – this roasted vegetable Mediterranean pasta salad. I made a huge bowl of the salad ingredients – spinach, roasted red peppers, roasted broccoli, roasted spiced chickpeas, and feta cheese – for the night of the party, to offset all the cheesy, boozy, cakey goodness of the rest of the menu. I didn’t even get around to eating any that night, but I had mounds of leftovers, so the next day I tossed them with hot pasta and parmesan cheese for a simple and satisfying lunch. It’s not an earth-shattering combination, but it was good, easy, packed with veggies, and it seemed like an appropriate Italian-ish send-off reicpe. I’ll be taking a break from blogging while I’m gone, but I have a few posts (including two guest posts from my favorite bloggers) already ready to go. I hope you enjoy them!

Ciao!

Roasted Vegetable Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Serves 6.

Note: 1) This also works on it’s own as a green salad, just omit the pasta and parmesan cheese. 2) Since there’s multiple ways to roast red peppers – in the oven, on a grill, under the broiler – I’ve simply linked to one oven method, but roast them however you normally would. Alternatively, they’re equally as tasty bought already roasted and preserved in oil.

• 4 heads broccoli, washed
• 4 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt
• 2 c. cooked or canned chickpeas
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground paprika
• 2 fresh red peppers, roasted and sliced into strips (or jarred roasted red pepper strips)
• 5-oz baby spinach (1 standard clamshell package)
• 6 oz. crumbled feta cheese
• 1 lb. pasta, prepared according to package directions
• parmesan, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the florets from the broccoli heads and toss with 2 TBS olive oil and a generous sprinkling of sea salt. Place in a single layer on a roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes, or until broccoli is tender and beginning to char. Flip the broccoli once, halfway through cooking. When done, remove to a large bowl.
2. Toss the cooked chickpeas with the cumin, paprika, salt, and the remaining 2 TBS olive oil. Add to a roasting pan (you can use the same one you used for the broccoli without washing it in between), and roast for 20-25 minutes, until chickpeas are beginning to get crunchy, flipping once halfway through cooking. When done, add to the bowl with the broccoli.
3. Toss the roasted red pepper strips, spinach, and feta cheese with the broccoli and chickpeas. Taste, and add additional olive oil or salt if necessary. Serve on it’s own as a salad, or toss with the hot, prepared pasta and sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.

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I took today off, not to do anything in particular, but just to have a whole day to myself, to catch up on things, clean, get organized, write, etc. A one day staycation, if you will. I love days like this. It helps that the temperature got up to 50 (50! Spring! I can feel it!) and that after a full week of sneezing I’m finally feeling better.

I wanted to ask – how were everyone’s Valentine’s Days? Mine was just right. Trevor brought me flowers (yellow, my favorite) and chocolate and 9 little airplane bottles of booze with 9 accompanying packets of hot chocolate – boy knows how I like to drink. We had planned on going ice skating, but I got home from work too late. Instead, we meandered downtown just to see if we could find space at a bar for a few drinks. We ended up at Saloon, a very hipster-esque underground bar/restaurant. They were having a singles Swing Dance night, and it was fun to drink our fancy cocktails and nibble on sliders and watch people. It was even more fun to be with my favorite person and just talk and laugh. I feel so lucky to have that.

Sorry, enough schmaltz, back to my staycation. No day at home is complete for me without a little bit (or a lot) of cooking, and today was no different. I made another batch of these grapefruit and ginger thumbprint cookies (note to self, always make extra dough so you can whip up a batch of these in 10 minutes!), I worked on a spring salad feature for an online magazine (which you’ll have to wait to hear more about), I’m in the process of testing out Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil‘s new book, Breakfast for Dinner, and I made this roasted carrot and tahini soup, the perfect healthy and tasty treat for an afternoon lunch at home. I’ve tried a lot of different carrot soups over the past years, and never found one that I liked, until I realized that the trick was in roasting the carrots first. Now, I use this technique with most vegetable puree-type soups that I make. This particular soup was inspired by Smitten Kitchen – I used slightly different amounts and spices, I roasted the carrots instead of boiling them, and I went for a yogurt-tahini sauce instead of a thinner tahini-lemon sauce, but the gist of the two recipes is basically the same. The flavors are lovely and bright, the puree smooth and the crunchy spiced chickpeas addictive. I might just have another bowl for dinner.

Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas

Inspired by Smitten Kitchen. Serves 3-4.

• 1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch slices
• 4 TBS olive oil, divided
• coarse sea salt, to taste
• 1 small onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 c. chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas, or canned chickpeas, drained of their liquid
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 6-oz. container plain Greek yogurt
• 4 TBS tahini

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss the carrots with 2 TBS of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast the carrots for 25 minutes, flipping once, after 15 minutes of cooking.
2. About 5 minutes before the carrots are done, heat 1 TBS of the remaining olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion, and saute for 3 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add the minced garlic, coriander, and red pepper flakes and saute for 2 minutes longer, until the garlic and spices are fragrant. Add the roasted carrots to the pot along with the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the cooked chickpeas to the same roasting pan you used for the carrots. Add the last 1 TBS of olive oil, to the chickpeas, then sprinkle with the cumin, paprika, and sea salt. Toss to coat evenly, then roast for 15 minutes.
4. Blend the soup in a blender until it is a smooth puree. If it is too thick, add more broth to the blender. Add the lemon juice to the hot soup and pulse a few times to incorporate. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon or salt if necessary.
5. Spoon the soup into bowls. Top each with a large spoonful of yogurt and 1 TBS of tahini, as well as a handful of the roasted chickpeas.

The post A Day Off // Roasted Carrot and Tahini Soup with Chickpeas appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

It seems as though we’ve entered flu season. I actually haven’t been sick yet, but I’ve seen several co-workers, a few family members, and lots of blog-friends succumb in the past week or two. I just want to send everyone a big bowl of chicken soup, but that seems unfeasible, given, you know, the logistics of shipping chicken soup around the country, so I made this lovely, thick, Greek-inspired bowl of avgolemono with chicken to inspire health in all of you (and I’m also hoping that eating it myself will help stave off illness a while longer). In particular, Grandma Joyce – I hope you’re feeling much much better!

This is another recipe that’s inspired by Maria‘s Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. I really love this cookbook, but I’m always tinkering with the recipes, which sometimes gives me cooking guilt, as I know it’s not a fair test of the recipe (and that a lot of work goes into recipe-testing for cookbooks to get them just right)! I set out to make this one exactly as written, but realized as I started cooking that I didn’t have any scallions, and that I didn’t have any par-boiled rice on hand, and that I really needed to use up the chickpeas that have been sitting in my fridge. So I sighed, and adjusted here and tweaked there, and made it my own. I promise, I’ll make the next recipe from Maria’s book the way it says to!

As you might have guessed, this is another one for my winter cleanse. It’s great cleanse food – the avgolemono, a Greek technique that involves adding an egg and lemon mixture to thicken hot broth, makes it thicker and more substantial than your average soup, without adding a lot of extra calories. With chicken, chickpeas, and brown rice, it’s filling and warming and lovely. Give it a try… and feel better to all of you who are under the weather!

Greek Egg and Lemon Soup with Chicken, Brown Rice, and Chickpeas

Inspired by Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. Serves 2.

• 4 c. chicken broth
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, fat trimmed (about 8 oz.)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed or finely minced
• 1/4 c. brown rice
• 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 egg, separated, at room temperature
• 2 TBS fresh lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)
• 1/4 c. chopped dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Add the chicken broth, chicken, minced/crushed garlic, and brown rice to a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and simmer for 35-45 minutes, or until both the rice and the chicken are fully cooked – the rice should be tender and the chicken should be cooked through, with no pink in the middle when you cut into it.
2. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, tear into bite-sized pieces, and set aside.
3. Beat the egg white with a whisk in a medium bowl until it is white and thick. Lightly beat the egg yolk, then add the egg yolk to the beaten egg white and whisk together. Slowly pour the lemon juice into the egg mixture as you whisk. The mixture should be pale yellow and fairly thick. Slowly add a thin stream of the hot broth-rice mixture to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so, to temper the eggs. Use about half of the broth mixture in doing this. Pour the tempered egg-lemon mixture back into the pan, whisking the soup as you do so. Continue to stir, and add the chicken pieces, chickpeas, and dill to the pot. Cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring, to heat all ingredients through and slightly thicken the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve hot.

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At 902 pages, I think that Gran Cocina Latina may be the only cookbook I own that can truly be referred to as a tome. It’s massive, exhaustive, focused – and incredibly exciting.

I won’t lie, I’ve been a little bit daunted by this cookbook. It sat on my bedside table for a few weeks, teasing me, during which time I opened it four or five times, flipped through it, drooled  a little bit, and then got nervous. I’ll save it for when I have more time, I kept telling myself, for this is a cookbook that clearly needs time. When I received my copy of Home Made Winter, I spent a lovely sunny Saturday morning in bed with it, drinking coffee and taking notes. Three hours later, I felt like I really knew the cookbook – I had bookmarked all the recipes I wanted to make, read every word Yvette had written, and absorbed the style and message of the book. I was satisfied. This book would take 3 dedicated weeks, if not more, to feel the same way. But I don’t want to scare you off! This book deserves the time. And besides, it’s the kind of cookbook you’ll have on your kitchen shelf for the next 20 years, so you don’t have to rush things.

Maricel Presilla is not your average cookbook author – she’s a scholar. And so, this book is not your average cookbook. It’s not about pretty pictures and glossy pages – it’s about learning. Learning how to cook truly authentic Latin American cuisine from the ground up. It’s literally packed with information – from how to select and prepare quintessential Latin ingredients such as plantains, yuca, and passionfruit, to the difference between avocado varieties, to deconstructing the infamous mole type sauces in order to master the technique for making them. Beyond the kitchen, there are legends and histories of the various countries as Maricel takes you from country to country, from the past to now. As a testament to the thoroughness of the education that this book will give you: the first 200 pages of the book barely make it through the flavor-building essential sauces and condiments that authentic cooking requires; every recipe is given a thorough head note, is broken down into manageable steps, and is clearly written; when an ingredient may be unfamiliar or a technique difficult to explain, simple black and white sketches serve to illustrate the process. Clearly, this book has been a long time in the making, and it shows.

The recipes themselves run the gamut, from the simplest of the simple, such as Simple Boiled Quinoa, to well-known classics, like Tres Leches Cake, to exotic and enticing recipes that would be a reach in difficulty for even a seasoned home cook, like Quinoa and Broccoli Rabe-Stuffed Calamari with Panca Pepper and Pisco Sauce. You’ll find almost every country and island on the continent well represented – Peruvian Purple Corn Punch, Brazilian Feijoada, Argentinian Beef Empanadas, Ecuadorian Shrimp Cebiche with Peanuts, even Puerto Rican Salt Cod Fritters. You could easily cook your way up and down the continent several times over, and probably find several new favorite meals along the way.

To get over my intimidation of this book, I opened it to the middle, read through 20 pages of recipes, and started cooking the recipe that inspired me the most. (Please note, this is extremely unorthodox for me. I like list-making and being methodical. Don’t expect such brash behavior from me in the future.) The recipe? Rice with Corn, Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Chorizo. Yes, I kind of just picked a recipe with five ingredients that I love in the name. This recipe also happened to be a two-fer, since you had to prepare the Green Beans with Bacon recipe separately to be included in the rice dish. Two done, 998 to go. (I made that up, but I wouldn’t be surprised…). Both recipes were solid – well-balanced flavors (and nutritional profiles), simple techniques, easy to execute quickly and well. The kind of things I’d make on a weeknight when I wanted something warm and filling and delicious but without any fuss. And these two are just a start… I can’t wait to cook my way through the rest of this book.

The bottom line: Gran Cocina Latina is an authoritative, exhaustive, and incredibly educational cookbook – think of it as The Joy of Cooking for Latin America. If you enjoy cooking or eating Latin food, this is a book that will likely be close at hand in your kitchen for the next 20 years. Typically I recommend cookbooks I like to a particular audience I think will enjoy them. This book is an exception – if you cook at all, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It’s a great resource for any level of cook and the information and recipes you’ll find within are more than worth the $25 you’ll pay on Amazon.

Disclaimer: W.W. Norton provided me with a review copy of this book free of charge, but as usual, all opinions are my own!

Rice with Corn, Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Chorizo

Recipe from Gran Cocina Latina. Serves 6-8 as a side.

• 2 c. long grain rice
• 3 TBS achiote-infused olive oil [I subbed regular olive oil this time around]
• 6 oz. Spanish chorizo, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped
• 4 medium plum tomatoes, fresh or canned, peeled if fresh, drained if canned, and finely chopped either way
• 1 c. fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 2 c. plain cooked chickpeas
• 4 oz. Green Beans with Bacon [see below]
• 3 1/2 c. chicken broth

1. Rinse the rice in cold water, swirl with your hand, then drain in a sieve. Repeat several times, until water runs clear. Set rice aside.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chorizo and saute until golden brown, about  5 minutes. Then add the onion, green peppers, and garlic, and saute until the onion is translucent, another 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, green beans, rice, and broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is mostly absorbed. At this point, fluff the rice gently, cover, lower the heat, and cook on the lowest possible setting for an additional 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, still covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the rice again before serving.

Green Beans with Bacon

Recipe from Gran Cocina Latina. Serves 4 as a side.

• 3 tsp salt
• 1 lb green beans, trimmed and sliced on a bias into 1 inch lengths
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 8 oz. bacon, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 medium plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped [I used drained canned whole San Marzano tomatoes with good results]
• 1 TBS minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Add 2 tsp of the salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the green beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes, until bright green. Drain, and immediately place the green beans in ice water to stop the cooking process.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the bacon and cook until golden brown and crispy. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, parsley, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook for a few minutes just to meld the flavors. Stir in the green beans, then season with remaining tsp of salt. Serve immediately, or use in other recipes as required.

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Recently, a good friend of mine sent me an email asking for a few recipes she could use for a dinner party she was hosting with friends.  She wanted two to three recipes, preferably with a theme, and easy enough to prepare with friends on the spot.  She and her friends wanted to use the party partially as a way to learn to cook better, as well as just a chance to catch up and eat good food.  A simple enough plan.

Two catches – one, she’s one of the least kitchen-savvy people I know – cooking is just not really in her interest set.  (Illustration: she once asked me if sauteeing onions in olive oil was one of those fussy things that only I did while we were making soup.)  Two, she’s a health nut.  Like, super fit, eats primarily superfoods, drinks only green tea and water, will only eat one bite of dessert ever kind of healthy.  Actually, I’m a little bit jealous of her self-control and love for vegetables – if I loved leafy greens like she does, I’d probably be 3 times as energetic as I am now.  Anyway, knowing that nothing could be too fancy and that I couldn’t sneak any cheese or butter or cream or bacon (all my favorite ingredients, noooooo!)  into the meal made it a bit more challenging to come up with recipes for her.

As I thought about it, I realized that this was the perfect situation for a Greatist post.  Greatist is all about trying to make making healthy choices easier and more fun, and dinner parties are pretty fun, right?  I imagine there are plenty of people out there looking for simple, healthy recipes to use when entertaining that will still impress their friends.  So, as I was sending recipes back to my friend, Greatist Dinner Party was born.

For this first dinner party, I chose Middle Eastern recipes as the theme, partly because many Middle Eastern recipes manage to pack tons of flavor into a dish with very little fat – that’s the beauty of herbs and spices!  Also, the recipes I chose – baked chickpea burgers with tzatziki, traditional tabbouleh, and strawberry-rosewater-buttermilk lassis – are all dishes that are easy to make ahead and stash in the fridge until go-time.  In terms of health, it’s a super balanced meal – tons of herbs and veggies, protein from the chickpeas and the Greek yogurt, a manageable amount of carbs from the tabbouleh and pita/burger bun, and fruit and cultured dairy from the lassis.  Even though I wasn’t having friends over, I prepared everything as if I was and sat down to a very delicious lunch Sunday afternoon, so I can attest to the fact that this menu is easy and relatively quick to prepare and super, super delicious.  My favorites were the chickpea burgers (so flavorful, and baked to boot!) and the tzatziki (the garlic really kicks it up a notch).  Got leftovers?  Crumble a chickpea burger into a tupperware with leftover tabbouleh and drizzle with tzatziki and you’ll have a filling to-go lunch that will give you something to look forward to all morning.

Head on over to Greatist for the chickpea burger recipe, and see below for all the yummy accompaniments, as well as a little schedule I put together if you need help planning out your prep time!

P.S. My friend reported back that the dinner party was a success – they made and enjoyed all of the recipes.  So maybe she’s not as kitchen-impaired as I thought :-)  Next time, you’re getting a challenge, girl.  xo.

Greatist Dinner Party – Middle Eastern

Dinner party plan of attack (I think I’ve been fairly generous with the time you will need as a single person preparing the meal – with friends, you could easily divide and conquer and take less than an hour overall.  As far as cooking implements, you will need – 1 cutting board, 1 knife, blender, food processor, 1 saute pan, 2 large bowls, fine-mesh colander, 2 medium bowls, utensils/measuring implements):

• 5:00 – peel, chop and salt cucumbers, leave to drain in colander.
• 5:05 – prepare tabbouleh ingredients: slice/chop/mince tomatoes, scallions, parsley, mint, mix together with spices, lemon juice, and olive oil.  Set aside in a large bowl.
• 5:20 – make smoothies: wash, hull, and quarter strawberries, blend with other ingredients, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• 5:30 – remove cucumbers from colander, pat dry, and add to food processor with dill, garlic, and lemon juice.  Process until smooth, mix with yogurt, season to taste, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• 5:40 – rinse bulghur in colander, let drain 5 minutes, fluff with fork, then add to other tabbouleh ingredients.  Mix together, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• 5:45 – preheat oven.
• 5:50 – clean up break: wash blender, colander, and various utensils/measuring items.  Rinse out food processor.  Rinse off cutting board and knife.
• 6:00 – peel and chop onion.  Saute in pan with olive oil for 5 minutes, then place in large bowl.
• 6:10 – prepare chickpea burgers: peel and chop carrot, peel garlic, pulse remaining ingredients in food processor.  Mix with breadcrumbs and spices.  Prepare baking sheet, form into patties, brush with olive oil.
• 6:30 – cook chickpea burgers.  While waiting, clean up remaining dishes, wipe down counters.
• 6:45 – remove other items from fridge.  Toast hamburger buns.
• 6:50 – dinner is ready!

Traditional Tabbouleh

I’ve shared a tabbouleh recipe before (actually, it was another Greatist post…), but it was a souped-up all-in-one version with lentils and feta cheese to make it a complete meal on it’s own.  This version is a more traditional version, heavy on the herbs with just a bit of bulghur wheat – although I chose to use a bit more than David recommends to make it a more substantial salad.

Adapted from David Leibowitz.  Serves 4 as a side.

• 1/4 c. bulghur wheat
• 20 grape tomatoes, finely diced
• 4 scallions, roots and dark green tips removed, thinly sliced
• large bunch parsley – about 3 c. packed leaves
• 20 large stalks of mint – about 3/4 c. packed leaves
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• kosher salt, to taste

1. Wash herbs, shake or spin dry, and remove leaves from stalks, leaving as little stalk as possible attached to leave.  Discard stalks.  Gather herbs in a bunch and finely slice into thin slivers, working with a handful at a time.  Add to a large bowl, along with diced tomatoes and sliced scallions.
2. Place bulghur wheat in a fine-mesh colander and rinse under cold water for about 1 minutes.  Let drain over a bowl for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.  Sprinkle bulghur wheat over salad.  Stir in cinnamon, allspice, lemon juice, and olive oil and check for seasoning.  Salt to taste.  Refrigerate until serving.

Tzatziki

This is hands-down the best tzatziki I’ve ever tried.  Usually, I go the lazy route and just toss some cucumbers and a bit of dill into a bowl of yogurt, but the slight extra effort required for this recipe is 100% worth it – the finely blended garlic, lemon juice, dill, cucumber, and salt makes this a totally addictive and healthy dip.

Recipe adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen.  Makes about 1 cup.

• 1/2 small cucumber, peeled, and seeds scooped out of center with a spoon
• kosher salt, to taste
• 1/4 c. dill fronds, thick part of stems removed
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• black pepper, to taste

1. Finely chop cucumber, and place in colander over bowl.  Sprinkle with a small amount of salt, and let sit for half an hour.  After half an hour, pat cucumber dry with a paper towel, and add to food processor with dill, garlic, lemon juice, and a bit of black pepper.  Process until smooth, then stir into yogurt.  Season to taste with salt, and additional pepper if needed.  Refrigerate until serving.  Will keep in fridge for a few days.

Strawberry and Rosewater Lassis

Adapted from Pairs Well With Food.  Serves 4.

• 1 1/2 lbs fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 1/2 c. cold buttermilk
• 3-4 TBS honey, depending on sweetness of berries
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 1/2 tsp rosewater
• 1/2 c. ice
• chopped pistachios for garnish (optional)

1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and frothy.  Taste for sweetness and add more honey if necessary.  Serve cold, with chopped pistachios if desired.

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This is the kind of meal I make all the time, when I don’t feel like cooking for more than 15 minutes but I want something hot, hearty, and wholesome.  I almost always have all of the ingredients on-hand, so it appears frequently on weeknights when I get home late, days before I go to the grocery store, and lazy Sundays when I don’t want to leave bed for too long.  For something which takes so little effort, the flavors in this are fantastic.  When cooked properly, the chickpeas develop a crunchy, garlicky outside that give way to a soft creamy interior as you sink your teeth into them, with little hints of lemon and chili-powder spicing up the experience.  The yogurt sauce is sweet and cooling, with a refreshing hit of mint, and combined with the hot savory chickpeas, absolutely perfect.

I initially started making fried chickpeas because of this recipe on 101 cookbooks.  Later I tried these fried chickpeas, and this chickpea and spinach salad, and since then I’ve morphed all of these experiences into my own favorite way of combining these flavors, and feel safe in calling this particular recipe my own.  Isn’t that really how all recipes are created, anyway?  The final recipe definitely plays strongly off classic Middle-Eastern flavor combinations, and would make a great side dish for a Middle-Eastern lamb dish, or mixed with couscous for a more complete meal.

I included this recipe as part of my winter cleanse rotation – you can find the rest of the recipes for week one here.

Fried Chickpeas with Orange-Mint-Yogurt Sauce

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original.  Serves 2.

• 2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seed
• 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 TBS minced garlic
• 1 6-oz. container of plain greek yogurt
• 2 small oranges or clementines
• 10 large leaves fresh mint, finely diced
• 1 TBS honey

1. Slice one of the oranges in half.  Squeeze the juice from the orange halves into the yogurt container, and stir.  Add the honey and diced mint and stir until evenly combined.  Taste for sweetness and flavoring, and add more of any ingredients you feel necessary.  Set aside.
2. Peel remaining orange and separate segments, cutting into bite sized pieces if necessary.  Set aside for topping the chickpeas.
3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan for about 1 minute, then add the cumin seed and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to turn brown.  Add the onion, chickpeas, and cayenne powder and cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until onions are soft and chickpeas are golden-brown and burnt in places, with a crunchy exterior, about 15 minutes.  Add sea salt, lemon juice, and minced garlic, and cook for another minute (the lemon juice and garlic should sizzle quite a bit when added to the pan), then turn off heat and serve, hot, with dressing spooned on the top and orange segments placed on top of dressing.

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I’ve been on a bit of a beet kick lately – I made beets for Thanksgiving, I’ve made this incredible beet and chickpea salad twice in the past week, and I have recipes for beet keftedes and beet soup and beet-bulghur pilau shortlisted for the next two weeks.  This isn’t such a bad thing – beets are packed with health benefits.  I mean, their vegetable family also includes spinach, chard, and quinoa – superfoods much?  Beets are full of something called betalains, which have got all that antioxidant, pro-eyesight, anti-cancer stuff going on.  Plus, they’re filling and delicious and even eating them roasted in large amounts of olive oil makes me feel good about myself.  However, I suppose there can be too much of a good thing, even when that good thing is related to lots of superfoods.  So if there’s any blame to be laid for the perhaps excessive amount of beets in my diet recently, I’m laying it on the Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market and the super gorgeous, super sweet, potato shaped beets they have every week.  They’re so pretty and pink and shapely, I just can’t help myself!

This salad is, as Trevor would put it, “flavor-exciting.”  There’s a lot going on in this dish, and all of it is good.  Roasted beets, chickpeas cooked in spiced broth and fried with cumin, ricotta cheese, kalamata olives, parsley, and a simple dressing of red wine vinegar and lemon juice give you pretty much every flavor and texture you could want in a single dish.  For me, the chickpeas are the star element of this dish, and the key to getting them just right is patience.  Now, I’m not usually that patient in the kitchen – think slightly undercooking the pasta, turning the heat up on an omelette to get it to cook faster and burning it in the process, etc.  But these chickpeas are worth the wait.  After cooking to a firm-tender bite in the beautifully spiced broth, you have to wait even longer for them to fry.  And fry.  And fry.  It takes a long time (a good 15 or 20 minutes) for these little beans to get to that golden-brown chewy-crunchy magic spot, but don’t let yourself toss them into the salad until they’re just right.  With under-fried chickpeas the salad will be good… but with perfectly fried chickpeas you won’t be able to stop eating it.  Promise.

Roasted Beet and Fried Chickpea Salad

Recipe adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Makes 3-4 meal-sized servings.

For the chickpeas:

• 1 c. dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
• 2 TBS oilve oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 aji amarillo chile or chile de arbol, crumbled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

For the salad:

• 4-5 large beets, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1/4 c. + 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 TBS red wine vinegar (optional)
• 1 TBS lemon juice (optional)
• 1/2 c. kalamata olives, halved
• 1/2 c. fresh flat parsley leaves, chopped
• 1/2 c. fresh ricotta

1. Make the chickpeas: In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and smashed garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown.  And chile, bay leaf, spices, and chickpeas and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat chickpeas with spices.  Add just enough water to cover chickpeas and cook at a low simmer for 1/2 an hour.  Add 1 tsp salt, then continue cooking until chickpeas are tender, another 15-30 minutes.  Take off heat and set aside, leaving in cooking liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Place peeled beet wedges in a 9×13 glass baking pan, toss with 1/4 c. olive oil and salt and pepper – beets should be well coated with oil.  Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 40-50 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.
3. In a large frying pan, heat remaining 2 TBS olive oil over medium heat.  Add cumin seeds and toast for 1 minute.  Add chickpeas (drained of their liquid but including chile and onion bits – I use a large slotted spoon to scoop them from the saucepan to the frying pan) and fry, stirring every 2 minutes or so, until golden-brown and crunchy on the outside, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Mix roasted beets, fried chickpeas, kalamata olives and parsley leaves until combined.  Drizzle vinegar and lemon juice over salad if using and toss to combine.  Serve warm, and dot with fresh ricotta after plating.

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I came home from Andover with a lot of produce on Tuesday night – besides a giant bag of apples, I also had an armful of eggplants, a bunch of kale, and fresh herbs, all scavenged from the Andover garden.  Now, free produce is free produce, and I was as excited about it as I always am about free food (or free anything, really), but I was a little perplexed by what to do with 8 eggplants.  My rate of eggplant consumption is generally about 1 per month, not because I don’t like it, but because I only have one or two ways of preparing it – the first being roasting it and tossing it with pasta and feta, the second being baba ghanoush.  These are both delicious, but I don’t like cooking or eating the same thing too frequently (except when it comes to breakfast, where my weekly repertoire of recipes never exceeds two), so I wanted to try something new with my bounty.

Turns out, I actually had several eggplant recipes already bookmarked (it’s hard to keep track of the recipes you have bookmarked when you have over 500 of them, and it can be so exciting to rediscover them), so I set about trying a few.  Eggplant cream sauce, vegetarian eggplant meatballs, baked eggplant chips, Turkish eggplant phyllo pies – where to start?  It was Saturday afternoon, I was extremely hungry after a 6 mile run, I wanted to blog and use up some of my produce, but I only had an hour before I had to leave to catch a train.  So, I decided to try these quick Indian eggplant snacks – called Beguni.  They’re just thin slices of eggplant, dredged in a gently spiced chickpea batter, and fried hot until the batter is golden brown and the eggplant is tender.  Having never been to India, I can’t personally attest to this, but from what I’ve read, they are an extremely popular street food item sold mainly during monsoon season.  (It rained a lot yesterday – does that count?)

They ended up being the perfect solution.  Super easy to both prepare and cook, I had a hot, tasty snack within 15 minutes of deciding to make these, and I even had time to snap a few photos, and make sticky figs (coming soon!).  This may not be the healthiest way to enjoy eggplant, but it’s definitely delicious, and certainly a departure from my standard eggplant recipes.  If you’re looking for a new way to prepare eggplant, a quick afternoon snack, or a tasty appetizer to an Indian themed dinner, these are definitely worth trying.  And be sure to fry up any extra batter as a treat for yourself rather than dumping it – it’s super yummy by itself, although not as good as with hot, creamy eggplant inside!

Beguni – Bengali Eggplant Fritters

Adapted slightly from Ecurry.  Serves 1.

• 1 small Chinese eggplant, 6-8 inches long
• coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. chickpea flour
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 c. water
• canola oil
• fresh mint leaves (optional)

1. Slice the eggplant into rounds about 1/2 inch thick.  Lay out on a tray or plate and sprinkle with salt, and let sit ten minutes.  Rinse off salt and pat dry.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together chickpea flour, turmeric, chili powder, and baking powder until thoroughly combined.  Add water and beat until batter is smooth.  Batter should be thick but still fluid, so that it stays in a thin layer on the eggplant when dipped in it.  Add more water or chickpea flour as necessary to get the right consistency (after frying a test fritter, I found that the batter needed a bit more water than the original recipe called for, which is reflected in the recipe above).
3. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  When it is shimmering, dredge the eggplant slices in the chickpea batter and place in the pan, leaving space between the fritters.  Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip and cook another minute and a half.  Fritters should be golden brown on both side, and eggplant should be tender in the center.  Sprinkle with sea salt and serve hot.  I really enjoyed eating them with a fresh mint leaf pressed on top of each fritter, but I doubt that this is traditional.

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