Fasoulia is simply Arabic for beans. Many different dishes go by this name, sometimes there’s meat included, sometimes a splash of pomegranate molasses. But the base of beans and tomatoes with Middle-Eastern spices stays consistent. I used kidney beans here, but other beans (including green beans) would also work, and my dad says black-eyed peas are what’s usually used in Lebanon. Traditionally, this dish would be cooked with baharat, a Middle-Eastern spice mix, but I didn’t feel up to making a new spice mix when cooking this, so after looking at the ingredients typically included in baharat (paprika, black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom) settled on using a mixture of curry powder and paprika to come close to the same flavor.
Tag: vegetarian
Homemade Graham Crackers
This is probably not shocking to anyone who’s perused this blog, but I can be really ambitious with my cooking projects sometimes. Which is how I found myself in a bind with these graham crackers. I’d committed to making s’mores on an early Saturday afternoon to be the grand finale for the first grill session of the year; I had already invited a couple friends to join and made homemade marshmallows, and I was absolutely determined to make homemade graham crackers for the perfect s’mores. Somehow I easily envisioned myself making the dough on Friday night and baking the crackers on Saturday morning.
Tuscan Three Bean Soup
One of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned about cooking is to be adaptable. Being able to read a recipe and then adjust it to the ingredients you have on hand and to your taste preferences will help you enjoy cooking more and yield some amazingly delicious results in the kitchen (even if there are a few disasters now and again). Take this soup, for instance. When I set out to cook it, it was intended as a chickpea soup. While I’m normally quite good about gathering all my ingredients before starting to cook (another valuable lesson), I somehow didn’t realize until halfway through cooking this that I didn’t have enough chickpeas.
Lentil Sloppy Joes
I’ve long been a messy eater. When out at a nice restaurant or eating with someone I’m trying to impress, I do my best to keep myself neat. But usually I manage to make a complete fool of myself by staining my white shirt (when will I learn to wear darker colors?) or somehow getting sauce on my nose. So it’s nice sometimes to eat something that’s supposed to be messy. With sloppy right in the name, these lentil sloppy joes give me the perfect excuse for getting food everywhere. I’m feeling strangely suspicious of ground beef these days (although I do still find it hard to resist hamburgers), so I opted to make a vegetarian (vegan even!)
Blood Orange Curd
I feel pretty lucky to have friends who are wholeheartedly enthusiastic about food. Nothing reminds me of this quite so much as when we get together for brunch; we pull out the leaves on the table just so we can have as much space as possible to load down with food. Bagels with cream cheese and lox, omelets, hash browns, biscuits, scones, bacon, curried vegetables, fresh fruit, crepes… and the list goes on. Sometimes it’s a chance to get creative, sometimes an excuse for a feast, and always a welcome time to relax and chat with friends.
For our most recent brunch, I decided I wanted to make a blood orange curd to go with the crepes that my boyfriend was cooking.
Roasted Pepper and Mushroom Paprikash
Paprikash is a Hungarian stew, usually made with chicken, where the spicing comes entirely from paprika. As a paprika lover, this stew is naturally a favorite of mine. I’ve made a more traditional version using chicken before, but was recently inspired to try out this vegetarian version. The sweetness of roasted peppers and earthiness of cremini mushrooms is a great match with the paprika (I think I’m going to start adding both to my chicken paprikash!), and I tossed in some lentils to make it a little heartier.
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… Read the restWest African Peanut Soup
Despite my love of bacon, I’ve recently found myself cooking a surprising amount of unintentionally vegan food. Meat is sadly quite pricey (especially if you’re like me and have qualms about eating factory-farmed meat with hormones and antibiotics), so I’m turning more and more to filling meals using fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans, and lentils. And I’m surprised at the great flavors I can develop using these ingredients. Take, for example, this West African peanut soup. Mostly basic ingredients, but somehow combining peanut butter and tomato paste with aromatics and curry powder yields a nearly irresistible soup. Vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters alike rave about this soup.
Maple Peanut Butter Energy Bites
These energy bites are my new favorite snack. A little sweet and packed with protein and fiber, they’re perfect for staving off mid-afternoon hunger pangs (a constant problem for me) and rife with possibilities for customization. Nearly every ingredient here can be swapped out; the peanut butter can be replaced with your favorite nut butter, the ground flax seed can be replaced with more chia seeds and vice versa, any of the dry ingredients can be partly replaced with cocoa powder for a chocolate version, and the maple syrup can be replaced with honey. You can even add in some chocolate chips, chopped dried fruit, or chopped nuts.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup
I’ve been really enjoying red lentils lately. They fall apart when cooked which can help thicken soups and stews, and they’re great at absorbing flavors. They’re a fundamental piece of this Turkish red lentil soup which tastes amazingly complex for a dish with so few ingredients. I haven’t eaten a lot of Turkish food, and I was skeptical at first of the combination of paprika, cumin, mint, and sumac, but the flavors work perfectly together. Rich and hearty but with a freshness from the herbaceous mint and tart sumac, this soup would be a great start to a meal or a filling meal in and of itself.
Blood Orange and Candied Walnut Salad
I was lucky enough to recently receive a nice bottle of grape must as a gift. Having never even heard of this ingredient, I set about doing some research on it (and, of course, taste testing). Grape must, as it turns out, is essentially freshly pressed grape juice before it’s made into wine. Thick and sweet with just a little tartness, the taste is more reminiscent of raisins than your grocery store grape juice. In some countries, grape must is cooked down to form a thick syrup (called saba, pekmez, dibs, or grape molasses), and in fact, I even recall having eaten this before when in Lebanon (as a dessert with a soft mild cheese and whole wheat bread).