Baked Falafel

Falafel! Very good, but not always very healthy. I found a recipe for baking them, and it worked great! They were really delicious. 

Baked Falafel

1 can chickpeas
3 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley (we just left this out and it was fine)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 garlic scape (what we used) or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper

Form into 12 slightly flattened golf-ball-sized patties and bake at 375 for 13 min, then flip and bake for another 13 min.

Before blending everything, it looked like a little terrarium in the food processor.

    

The little blobs waiting for the oven.

And the finished falafels!

Michael just ate a plateful plain (very tasty) and I wrapped mine up in a lettuce leaf with a little of the light chive-mayo spread I sometimes make. It would also be really good in a pita pocket with fresh, crisp veggies, or slathered in hummus (you know, for the true chickpea fan), or topping a fresh chopped salad.

Next time I will definitely make a double or triple batch and freeze a bunch of these little guys before baking. If you're cleaning the food processor anyway, you might as well. The only thing that stopped me from doing so this time is that our can opener was broken and even opening one can was pretty laborious.

Lemon Parmesan Pasta with Sauteed Green Beans and Garlic Scapes

The combination of cooked vegetables, pasta, and some seasonings/sauce is a really classic standby for me. It only takes the creativity of looking in your fridge but there's pretty much endless variations.

Step 1: Boil a package of pasta (I've been getting more into whole wheat pasta lately, but whatever floats your boat).
Step 2: Heat up a teaspoon of oil in a big skillet and toss in whatever veggies you have on hand. We had garlic scapes and green beans. Saute until everything's soft and browned.
Step 3: Drain the pasta. Put a little in each bowl and toss with a capful of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of Parmesan.
Step 4: Top with the sauteed veggies and a little more Parmesan.

I thought this was a pretty good, filling dinner. The garlic scapes that were SUPER potent raw mellowed out a lot with the cooking—they almost even tasted like asparagus once they were done.

Chilled Avocado Basil Soup

We made this chilled avocado basil soup with a languishing avocado that was lying around getting squishy and all the overgrowth from our huge basil plant.

Um, just for future reference, it was yucko. Admittedly, I've never been a real big avocado fan (although I don't hate them or anything), and also, I used green beans instead of radishes. But still, I could barely choke down a few bites before I was done. Michael finished his bowl, but he agreed that it was not very good. It probably would have been a lot yummier to make a quick basil dressing to go over cubed avocado or something. Alas.

Oregano Butter Zucchini

!!!!!!! New favorite zucchini dish! I've done a lot of nice things to zucchini--roasting, grilling, sauteeing, steaming, and with the right seasonings, it always turns out great. These, however, are AMAZING. There is something so wonderful about using butter instead of olive oil, and the way the zucchini and onion get soft and sweet, and the tender freshness of fresh oregano instead of dried. Soo good.

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp FRESH oregano, chopped
• 3-4 zucchini, chopped into half-moon slices
• salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion in butter until it is starting to soften, then add the garlic and oregano and saute for a minute or two, until it's all fragrant and yummy. Then add the zucchini, about a third of a cup of water, and the salt and pepper, and cover. Cook until everything's tender.

The butter and the fresh oregano work so well with this semi-stewed way of cooking it. New favorite side dish!

 We enjoyed it with our Olive Garden leftovers (btw, best strategy there: fill up on salad and breadsticks (make sure you ask for a breadsticks refill), eat about a fourth or a third of your entree, and get enough leftovers for at least two more meals; boom).

Black Bean Tacos with Cilantro Lime Rice

Pretty quick dinner. For the taco filling, I microwaved two cans of black beans with a packet of taco seasoning. It actually made a really tasty and easy taco filling! I will have to remember that little trick. Then we topped with salsa, cheese, green onion, and avocado.

For the rice side dish, I followed this recipe for cilantro lime rice, except that I used lemon juice instead of lime juice (use what you got) and I chopped up the cilantro and stuff and stirred it in instead of trying to make a pureed dressing in the blender, which is what the recipe actually calls for. Anyway, it was a pretty good way to use up the cilantro from our herb garden.

Garlic Scape Pesto and Skillet Tortilla Pesto Pizza

These, friends, are garlic scapes. They are weird, alien vegetables that happen when you chop off the tops of garlic bulbs. They are very potently garlicky, but they come in this bright green, curly/stalky form. I always read about how much people love them in the spring, so I picked some up at the farmer's market last week.

And, this, friends, is what I made with them. Well, first I made a garlic scape pesto. Recipe from A Farmer in the Dell.

1 bunch of garlic scapes (about 7 scapes)
1 bunch of fresh basil (about 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup walnuts or almonds
3 tbsp lemon juice1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Blend it all up in the food processor and put it on stuff.

This makes an intensely garlicky pesto. It will give you very strong breath if you eat it raw. It is also very delicious and it calms down a lot if it gets cooked (like on top of these little pizzas, or in the microwave). We made little pizzas in a skillet with a tortilla, a spoonful of the garlic scape pesto, a sprinkle of mozzarella, and a handful of chopped snow peas. Just put them in the skillet (covered) long enough for the bottom to get a little crispy and the cheese to melt. These are a really, really good and easy dinner, and depending on the size of your tortilla and how much cheese you use (we used 6-inchers and about two tbsp cheese), about 150-200 calories each. I loved them and I plan on making a lot more variations on skillet tortilla pizzas.

Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayo

I can't include one of my own pictures with this because I was too lazy to make it look that pretty. And the buns we had were too small and squished, and we didn't put any beautiful lettuce or tomato or avocado on the burgers, and they were "charmingly" misshapen, and overall, they didn't look that great. BUT! They were really good and supa healthy. We got the recipe from Skinnytaste.  I won't bother re-writing the recipe; the only change we made was leaving the hot sauce out of the burgers.

I thought they were really tasty black bean burgers, and they held up well during cooking (I've made some egg-free versions that just fell apart before). They're also pretty easy to make if you have a food processor. The chipotle mayo was awesome and really, really easy. Just get a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce from the Hispanic section of the grocery store, scoop some of the sauce out, and mix it with mayo. That stuff is incredibly flavorful, and if you make the chipotle mayo with lite/fat-free mayo, it's a really low-cal topping/dip. Yay! I give this my thumbs up.

Michael was a little disappointed by the texture—it was undeniably mushy, even though it held together. I wasn't bothered by it being squishy, but (a) I've had a lot more black bean burgers than he has so I'm used to it, and (b) I wasn't comparing it to a meat burger like he was. Anyway, we both agreed that the flavors were good and that the chipotle mayo was a really fun substitute for ketchup and mustard, but I guess the texture of the burgers isn't for everyone (especially not die-hard meat lovers).

Creamy Vanilla Rhubarb Bars

Creamy Vanilla Rhubarb Bars
Inspired by this recipe

Mmmm. These were delicious. Prior to this, my one experience with rhubarb was an unpleasantly stalky strawberry rhubarb pie. And so, for many years, I had a pretty strong bias against it, despite all the food bloggers I follow raving about what a wonderful beacon of spring rhubarb is. But a few weeks ago, I stumbled across this recipe and I saw that the rhubarb in it was actually pureed. Perhaps this would allow me to enjoy the flavor of rhubarb without having to endure its stalkiness?

I changed a few things from the recipe, but this ended up being very tasty indeed. I would definitely be delighted to make this again. The filling gets whipped and fluffy, and the crust is just a great shortbread, made a little more flavor-rich with brown sugar and ginger in it. I'm thinking if I make it again, I might sub out some of the flour in the crust for some finely ground nuts, just for a little extra crunch and flavor. Mmm.

3 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 + 1/3 c sugar (divided)
1 tsp vanilla extract (if you have any of the fancy Mexican stuff, this is the time to use it)

1/2 c butter, softened
1/3 c brown sugar
1 c flour (or half-and-half with finely ground nuts)
1/2 tsp ginger

2 tbsp lemon juice
3 eggs
1 tbsp corn starch

1. The filling needs to be started before the crust. Mix the chopped rhubarb and 1/2 c sugar together in a medium saucepan. It will look too dry but the rhubarb will release lots of juice quickly. Cook about 10-15 minutes, or until everything is fully softened and falling apart. Take off the heat and add the vanilla.

2. Let the filling cool to room temperature (or in the fridge overnight) or you'll curdle the eggs in the next step. Meanwhile, make the crust: preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the butter and brown sugar, then mix in the flour and ginger until it's fully incorporated. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a square pan. Take a little bite; it's basically eggless cookie dough at this point. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350, or until it's set and golden-brown around the edges.

3. If the rhubarb mixture is cool enough at this point, then proceed. Otherwise chill out for a little while until it is.

4. Add the lemon juice, eggs, 1/3 c sugar, and cornstarch to the rhubarb. Stir it around just enough to loosen up the rhubarb; it's not critical that it be mixed evenly at all.

5. Pour all the stuff from the previous step into a blender and whir it up until there's no more stalks left and it just looks like a creamy pink milkshake. Using the blender for the entire filling instead of just the rhubarb is what makes it all so creamy, light, and delicious. Pour the "milkshake" over the baked crust and bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until top is set.

Let it continue to set before diving in. When I made the first cut into it, I was worried it hadn't set, because the knife came out so wet. However, the slices held together beautifully even while it was a little warm. I enjoyed this most when it were chilled in the fridge.

Another thought: this would actually be really, really good as a pie. Genius!