Falafel and Indian Food

I really want to make falafel. I tried once before a while back, when I had a surplus of garbanzo beans and no desire to eat them..but it was a failed fry-fest. And a pain in the ass to clean up.
My next falafel quest will hopefully be with a little less oil, a few other people, and a lot more success! Maybe make a nice platter out of it with tahini, tomatoes, cucumber, etc etc. yum.

To avoid grease-land, I've found a few recipes that bake them instead. Seem to have good reviews.
Next cooking-adventure party, perhaps?

1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans (dried beans are better)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. Put in a medium sized bowl and smash with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Form into small balls, about 1 1/2″ in diameter and slightly flatten. Place onto an oiled baking pan.

Bake for 15 minutes on each side, until nicely browned (since it’s baked, only the part actually touching the pan will be browned and crispy).

The other thing I've been wanting to make/eat lately is Indian food. I love Indian food. Probably will involve coconut, spiceyness, and lentils (surprise!) More on that later.

Eggplant sautee w/ Black Beans

I've never really understood why we don't see more eggplant used for vegetarian-sandwich choices, when there's all kinds of mushroom-based options floating around.

Forget about the mushroom. When it comes to "meatiness", it's all about the eggplant.
Why exactly is eggplant so awesome? No idea (for one thing, it's not a fungus).
Maybe it' s just my association with fried goodness in eggplant Parmesian (back when I could/would actually eat it) that really makes it appealing; but really it's just so darn satisfying that I can't pass it up when I'm looking to make something tomato-ey and hearty. So that's basically what I did. Freakin awesome.



I don't really measure when I cook...so here are the estimates. (It makes a lot, about 4-6 servings)

1 large onion (I love onions, okay!)
3 cloves garlic (or lots of garlic powder)
olive oil to cover bottom of pan
1 small eggplant
handful of asparagus, cut into small pieces
small zucchini
handful of spinach

1 tsp paprika
1 Tbs basil, oregano, thyme (season to taste i guess)
pinch of crushed red pepper
salt/pepper to taste
can of diced tomatoes

Get pan hot, cover bottom w/ olive oil. Put in garlic and chopped onions, and let sit until onions get soft. add chopped asparagus and cubed eggplant, let that cook for a while (asparagus takes a little while). Add some salt to help it along.
Add zucchini and seasonings. Don't be shy w/ the garlic people!
Let that simmer on low for a while, then add the canned tomatoes. Once everything looks cooked (around 3-5 minutes), add the spinach and turn it off. Squeeze a little bit of lemon to bring it all together.

I added black beans to this and put it over rice. So good.

Lentil Dish

I was looking for something to do with lentils other than a soup, so I found this recipe online for lentil salad:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/mediterranean-lentil-salad/Detail.aspx

It says that you should cook the lentils with the carrots and onions at the very beginning, but I would recommend cooking the lentils and other stuff separately, and then combining them all together at the end to make the salad. Sadly it just turned out as a soup for me, although the dish was still tasty.

Roc Restaurants

Here's a list of Vegan-friendly restaurants, though not sure how comprehensive it is

Eggplant Buckwheat Crepe

a.k.a magic on a plate.



I wish I could tell you that I was the one to make this. That would just be a flat out lie. It was a nice old Belgium man who directed me toward this gem of a meal (and I guess a different Belgium man to actually make it?).
I could'nt resist posting this here. 1) because I actually got a somewhat decent picture of it (food photos are hard to take!). And more importantly, it was just that good. In fact, I actually MISS that crepe.

That's all I'll ever remember you by, Brussels. I'm so sorry.

Anyway, for the sake of this blog...Later I'll think of some schnazzy things to do with eggplant. It's a great vegetable.

Yay food!

Man, starting a blog is exhausting. Luckily, I am a huge food-geek, and I've been really excited about getting a collection of recipes going. Still tinkering with the format, though..

I'm pretty much always looking online at recipes and recipe-sites, but I never really keep track of the things I see/have tried. Maybe you've had the same dilemma? Well, here's the place to start!