Tabouli with Mango?

I love tabouli!  Especially when it is made with quinoa to make it more nutritious.  So I was feeling like some tabouli, but I had no tomatoes, parsley or mint, which to me are essentials in a classic tabouli.  So I decided to improvise and make tabouli with mango in place of the tomatoes and basil in place of the mint and parsley.  I threw in a few pine nuts as well...since this was becoming a non-traditional tabouli anyhow.  What resulted from my throw together tabouli was a super refreshing summery salad which I will definately be making again until the cool weather comes back in the fall.  Try it out if you would like a little different take on the classic grain salad!

Mango Basil Quinoa Tabouli Salad

2 cups water

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 large mango, diced small
1 large cucumber peeled, seeded and diced small
2 scallions, sliced
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, minced
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 large garlic clove, minced
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Place quinoa and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed about 15 minutes, or when all the grains have turned from white to transparent, and the spiral-like germ has separated. Drain, and let cool. When quinoa is cool, combine with the mango, cucumber, basil, scallions, and pine nuts. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, and sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Toss dressing with salad, and chill.

Drunken Strawberries

What could be more refreshing on a warm day than a fruity little drink?  A fruity tall drink!  When I got home from work today I decided that I needed a fruity tall  drink, so I decided to create one.  Since strawberries are in season right now where I live in Minnesota, and I have been buying them by the case, I thought they would be perfect in a drink!  I combined them with a bit of tequila, and framboise as well as some lemon for tartness and vanilla and agave nectar for sweetness.  I served it on the rocks and topped it off with a bit of fizz for fun!  This drink is a great cure for a long day at work!

Strawberry Smash

1 cup strawberries, hulled and halved

2 oz silver tequilla
2 oz Framboise
juice of one lemon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp agave nectar
ice cubes
sparkling water
strawberry for garnish
 
Combine Strawberries, tequila, framboise, lemon juice, vanilla, and agave nectar in a blender and process until strawberries are liquified and all ingredients are well combined.  In a large tall glass, place a few ice cubes, and pour strawberry mixture over.  Top off with a bit of sparkling water and garnish with a strawberry...enjoy!

Feta Lemon Dressed Butter Lettuce Salad with Little Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives and Zucchini

When it gets to above 70 degrees, I hate to heat up my house with the oven...so sometimes I feel like non-cook items for dinner. This was the case tonight, so I thought a nice cool and crisp salad would be just the thing. I had some feta in the fridge that needed to find a home, so I came up with a dressing combining it with lemon and olive oil to dress my salad. Since this dinner was taking on a Mediterranean direction, I thought some cherry tomatoes, and kalamata olives needed to join the party...as well as some zucchini for variety. Butter lettuce was my green of choice, and I sprinkled a little alfalfa sprouts on top of the finished salad because I love them! The salad was refreshing and perfect alongside a piece of grilled fish!


Feta Lemon Dressed Butter Lettuce Salad with Little Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives and Zucchini
Serves 4

1/2 cup crumbled feta, divided
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried dill
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

2 heads butter lettuce washed, dried well and torn into bite sized pieces
2 cups cherry tomatoes
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced into half moons
1 cup Kalamata olives
a few alfalfa sprouts

To make dressing, combine 1/4 cup feta, lemon juice, olive oil, dill, and salt and pepper to taste in a food processor, and process until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and olives and toss with enough dressing to coat. Divide salad between 4 plates, and sprinkle a Tbsp of feta and a few alfalfa sprouts on top of each.

My kind of burgers...

For some reason, I decided that burgers sounded good for dinner tonight. Not ones with beef...or turkey...ones with beans, nuts and cheese! I love a good non-meat burger. These are not tveggie burgers however, since they are mostly made of proteins, but they sure were satisfying! The burgers I came up with were a clean out the fridge composition of ingredients. I had some leftover white beans, some roquefort, and some toasted walnuts, so I thought they would be good as the base of my burger. I also threw in some flour and eggs for a binder, as well as some garlic and basil for flavor...no breadcrumbs surprisingly, since I don't have any bread on hand at the moment. I had a few cherry tomatoes and basil so I thought I would roast the tomatoes and top them with basil as a nice compliment beside the burgers. The burgers baked up wonderfully, and were super easy to make. I don't think I will ever miss meat burgers...especially with ones like these instead!


White Bean Walnut Roquefort Burgers with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

1 cup cherry tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans
1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts
4 oz crumbled Roquefort cheese
1/4 cup flour
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp sea salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

2 Tbsp fresh basil, cut into chiffonade

1/2 cup vegannaise
1 Tbsp dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Toss cherry tomatoes with 1 Tbsp olive oil, and spread out on one of the sheets. Roast for about 15 minutes, or until tomatoes have burst and are soft. Remove from oven, place in a bowl, and sprinkle with sea salt, and freshly ground pepper as well as 1 Tbsp balsamic vineger. Meanwhile, puree 1/2 cup beans in food processor. Add bean puree to bowl along with remaining beans, walnuts, roquefort, flour, garlic, egg, basil, sea salt, and pepper, and mix until well blended. Make the mixture into 4 patties, and place on other prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly brown. Meanwhile, mix vegannaise with dijon and set aside. To serve place burger on a plate, and spoon some tomatoes over the top, with a little basil on top. Spoon a dallop of the dijon mayo on the side, and serve!

Chili Lime Yam and Black Bean Hummus

I am in a southwestern food kind of a mood right now, so when deciding what type of flavor to give my hummus today I went for the black beans, limes, and chili powder.  I happened to have some leftover yam puree, so I decided to throw that in as well, since I love to add extra veggies to my hummus.  I didn't really feel like using tahini, so I grabbed the almond butter instead...as well as the almond oil instead of regular old olive.  Some cilantro and garlic joined the party in the food processor as well as some cumin...this was turning out to be anything but the usual hummus...but when it was all blended together the taste test would be the final say in whether or not this was a recipe worth sharing.  I scooped up a huge dallop with a tortilla chip, and it was wonderful!  It was unlike any boring black bean dip I have had...tons of flavor!  This hummus would be wonderful on a southwestern wrap...and I have to warn you it is very addictive with chips!

Chili Lime Yam and Black Bean Hummus

3 cups cooked black beans (canned is fine)

1 cups yam or sweet potato puree

1/2 cup fresh cilantro
juice of 3 limes
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup almond oil
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp dried chipotle pepper or cayenne (depending on how spicy you like it)
3 garlic cloves

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until smooth. Serve with chips or veggies for dipping!

Garlic Hummus and Feta Pizzas with Little Tomatoes, Carmelized Onions, Summer Squash, and Olives

I had leftover pizza crusts in my fridge from the pizza I had made last night, so I thought I would make some more tonight.  I guess you could call this pizza the smorgasboard pizza...because I was basically using the leftover ingredients from the week's dinners.  I had some garlic hummus, some olives, zucchini, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes...all a perfect combination for a pizza with Mediterranean flavors!  Although I usually skip the sauce or spreads on my pizzas below the toppings, I decided that the hummus I would allow tonight, in favor of it's garlicy goodness...and it wasn't spread on too thick afterall.  The pizza turned out marvelously and was devoured very quickly!  If you have hummus, you should try it on a pizza! 

Garlic Hummus and Feta Pizzas with Little Tomatoes, Carmelized Onions, Summer Squash, and Olives


Makes 2 10 inch pizzas
2 whole wheat pizza crusts (see my recipe in previous blog post)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus more for crust
1 small red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup garlic hummus, home made or store bought

1 zucchini, sliced
about 20 cherry tomatoes, halved and insides blotted dry with paper towel
10 kalamata olives, sliced
5 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

a bit of fresh oregano, chopped

To make the perfect pizza, you need a good quality pizza stone. Place the stone on the highest rack in the oven, then crank up the heat as high as possible (500 degrees) at least an hour before baking the pizza. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and onions. Saute until very soft and translucent, then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir to coat onions. Remove from heat and set aside. To assemble pizzas, place the dough on a piece of parchment paper, spray rolling pin with non-stick spray and roll out as thin as possible (about 10 inches is best) repeat with other crust. Brush the crusts with a small amount of olive oil, over the entire surface.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over crust, spread hummus thinly over each, then scatter onions, zucchini and olives over crust, followed by the mozzarella and feta. Scatter the tomatoes over the top. Using a pizza peel, or an upside down sheet pan, carefully slide the dough (keeping it on the parchment) into the oven. Bake for about 3-5 minutes, or until crust is starting to brown and cheese is bubbling. Carefully slide the parchment onto a sheet pan or pizza peel to remove from oven. Scatter the oregano over the pizza and serve!

My favorite pizza...

One of my favorite things to make at home is pizza.  Ever since I recieved a pizza stone for Christmas about 5 years ago, I have been experimenting with pizzas and their toppings. Pizza stones give you that amazingly crisp crust that you get from restaurants. I am from the school of cracker thin crusts that serve to showcase the toppings...with no sauce and lots of veg and sparing amounts of cheese.  Most Americans would not consider my pizza to be a pizza...I guess you could say it is in it's own class.  I guess where I got the idea to make my pizzas as they are is from a restaurant that is now closed, but which used to have fabulous upscale food in Minneapolis, Auriga.  They used to serve pizzas with grapes combined with roasted peppers and pecorino romano and interesting toppings like that.  So I thought I would create my own combinations of ingredients and see how they turned out on a pizza.  This also became a way for me to sample new cheeses...since I made pizza every week, and tried to change it up every time. I always use a bit of mozzarella though, as a base cheese, because I feel that it serves as a blank canvas that melts the flavor of the other chosen cheese and toppings together.  I have used everything vegetarian imaginable on my pizzas...mangoes, beets, fennel, leeks, squash, every kind of nut and cheese...with some successes and some failure.  The failure mostly coming from discovering which cheeses don't melt, or which veggies emit too much water.  My favorite combination of toppings though has to be the strawberry and carmelized onions with toasted walnuts, roquefort and mozzarella cheeses.  I thought I would share the recipe so you all can enjoy the deliciousness that is this pizza.  Even skeptics that I have served this to have been won over...

Amy's Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Makes 8 10 inch crusts

Crust:
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Pkgs rapid-rise yeast
2 cups warm water

To make the dough, in a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Make a well in the center, pour in the water and then dissolve the yeast in the water. Gradually stir the flour into the water mixture, until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface, then knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Oil a large bowl with olive oil, then place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm area, such as near the oven, and let the dough rise until doubled in bulk. When dough has risen, punch down and divide into 8 pieces. You can either freeze the dough in individual portions (just place in ziplock bags and take out the night before you want to use it, then it will be ready to use the next day), or set aside to use right away.  If making the recipe below, you will need two crusts.

Strawberry and Carmelized Onion Pizzas with Toasted Walnuts, Roquefort and Mozzarella Cheeses

Makes 2 10 inch pizzas

2 whole wheat pizza crusts (see my recipe above)

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Sea salt

freshly ground pepper
2 cups strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and broken into large pieces
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz crumbled roquefort cheese
about 4 fresh large basil leaves

To make the perfect pizza, you need a good quality pizza stone. Place the stone on the highest rack in the oven, then crank up the heat as high as possible at least an hour before baking the pizza. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and onions.  Saute until very soft and translucent, then add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add the balsamic vinegar and stir to coat onions.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

To assemble pizzas, place one piece of the dough on a piece of parchment paper, spray rolling pin with non-stick spray and roll out as thin as possible (about 10 inches is best)Repeat with other piece of dough using another sheet of parchment. Sprinkle salt and pepper over crust, then scatter over the strawberries, onions, walnuts and then the mozzarella and roquefort. Using a pizza peel, or an upside down sheet pan, carefully slide the dough (keeping it on the parchment) into the oven. Bake for about 3-5 minutes, or until crust is starting to brown and cheese is bubbling. Carefully slide the parchment onto a sheet pan or pizza peel to remove from oven.  Scatter the basil over the pizza and serve!