Chickpeas, please.

Ever since I began making chickpeas from a dried state, I have been obsessed with them.  I eat them by the handful like they are popcorn.  They’re delicious, nutty, versatile, freezable, and CHEAP (check them out at a Supermercado near you).

Here’s a super quick, frugal recipe to laugh Asian take-out prices right out the door.  It keeps well in the fridge for about a week and tastes AWESOME inside of a flour tortilla too.

Island Chickpeas

Adapted from Happy Herbivore

• 4 C chickpeas
• 1 1/2 C teriyaki sauce, use your fave from a bottle or better yet, make it
• 2 T Szechuan sauce
• 4 C cooked brown rice
• 2 bunches Kale
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil
• lime wedges
• canned mango salsa

Combine chickpeas, teriyaki sauce, Szechuan sauce in large frying pan or wok.  Allow to marinade for 5 minutes.  Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.  Remove from heat.

In  a saute’ pan, heat oil and garlic until sizzling, add the kale.  Saute’ until bright green and just wilted.

To plate, take 1/2 cup of brown rice, top with some kale a scoop of chickpeas and a squeeze of lime.  I also put a dollop of leftover mango salsa on mine.  Delish.

Pictured under the chickpeas is a Boca chicken patty as well.

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Soup’s ON! Yellow Split Pea.

I’m wild about soup.  Instead of talking you to death, I’ll just hit you with the recipe pronto.  This is a good intro to Fall or kick in the ass to Winter to usher in spring.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

Adapted from Heidi Swanson’s 101cookbooks.com

• 2 cups dried split yellow peas, picked over and rinsed
• 6 cups water
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• 3 cups water
• 1 7-ounce container of greek yogurt (omit if vegan)
• 1/2 cup shredded unpeeled cucumber, (deseed before shredding)
• 1 clove garlic, mashed and minced
• scant 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
• big pinch of salt
• chopped olives
• more olive oil to drizzle (I use Fustinis Meyer Lemon for topping)

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Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, add the yellow split peas, and cook for 20 -30 minutes, or until tender. Drain, salt to taste and set aside.

Add olive oil to a big pot over med-high heat. Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two. Add the cooked split peas and stock/water. Bring to a simmer and let cook for a few minutes. Now remove from the heat. Using a large cup or mug ladle half of the soup into a bowl and set aside. Using a hand blender (or regular blender) puree the soup that is still remaining in the pot. Stir the reserved (still chunky) soup back into the puree – you should have a soup that is nicely textured. If you need to thin the soup out with more water (or stock) do so a bit at a time. Give the soup a taste, if it needs more salt, add more a bit at a time until the flavor of the soup really pops.

In the meantime make the yogurt topping by mixing together the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, mint, and salt. Set aside.

Ladle soup into bowls or cups, and serve each with a generous dollop of the yogurt, a drizzle of olive oil, a touch of chopped mint (any that was left on the cutting board), and a sprinkling of black olives.

Veg Tortilla Soup

It hasn’t exactly been soup weather here in Michigan (thank goodness)!  Yesterday it was 82 degrees, I’m sure we will pay for that later.  I love soup so much, that I couldn’t wait until it was cold to make some tortilla soup.  Heidi Swanson from 101cookbooks.com has some of the most simple and delicious soup recipes one could ask for, however, when I have extra delicious ingredients on hand or in the freezer…I like to embellish on her deliciousness.  Here is my version of Veggie Tortilla Soup.

• 6-8 corn tortillas, cut in half and then into matchstick-thin strips
• a big splash of extra virgin olive oil
• fine grain sea salt
• 20 small yellow or red cherry tomatoes
• another splash of extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cayenne or other spicy red chili powder
• 1 tablespoon chipotle en adobo
• 1 small can diced green chiles
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
• 2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 6 cups vegetable broth (or water)
• a few sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup of goat cheese, crumbled (omit if vegan)

Gently toss the tortilla strips with a glug of olive oil and salt. Turn them out onto a baking sheet, arrange them across the pan and bake in a 350F degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden and crispy. Set aside.

I usually do this whenever I have tomatoes that have to be used up in a hurry.  I call them “crack tomatoes”.  They have so many uses…limitless really as a fridge staple.  To make:  halve (or quarter) the tomatoes lengthwise and put them in a small roasting pan, oven proof dish, or rimmed baking sheet. Toss with a bit of olive oil and a pinch or two of salt. Bake in a 350F degree oven for 40-45 minutes (less time if you use smaller cherry tomatoes), or until the tomatoes are shrunken and golden around the edges. The tomatoes keep nicely in a jar for days (refrigerated).  If you are going to keep them for a little longer, douse them in olive oil and store them under the oil in an airtight container, I use a Ball glass canning jar.

For the soup itself – in a big pot over medium-high heat cook the garlic and onions in a splash of olive oil along with a couple pinches of salt for just a minute or so. Stir in the spices and then the tomatoes, chiles, chipotle en adobo. Cook down for about five minutes or so, it should thicken a bit. For a smooth soup don’t add corn or beans then remove from heat, add one cup of the broth and puree with a hand blender (or puree in a traditional blender). Add the remaining 5 cups of broth and puree until smooth. Bring the soup back up to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes.  If you like chunkier soups to mop up, don’t puree, and add the corn and black beans.  Serve as is.

Serve the individual bowls topped with plenty of tortilla strips, the roasted and sun-dried tomatoes, and some crumbled goat cheese. Alternately, as I mention up above, you can finish with sliced avocado, cilantro, white onions, and a squeeze of lime. If you like a creamier soup base add a splash of half and half, or stir in some extra goat cheese.

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Sausage Patties – Vegan Style

I felt like experimenting a little today.  I grabbed up some Gimme Lean Sausage and combined it with some cooked quinoa I had sleeping in  my freezer after I forgot to pack it on a camping trip this summer.  Poof.  Breakfast Sausage Patties – Vegan Style.

Vegan Breakfast Sausage Patties

adapted from Happy Herbivore’s Breakfast Sausage Patties

• 1 C cooked red quinoa
• 1 14-oz tube Gimme Lean Sausage
• 2 T pure maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp liquid smoke
• 1/2 tsp Penzeys Breakfast Sausage Seasoning
• 1/4 cup peeled & shredded Granny Smith Apple

Super simple prep.  Combine all ingredients into a bowl, smash around to combine.  Use rounded scoop to get similar sized (walnut size) balls, smash into small patties, fry up on a griddle. 

I’m storing mine on parchment paper, in layers with half in the freezer in a Ziplock container in layers pre-formed and the other half into the fridge for consumption during the busy weekday.

Mr. Wonderful says, “these taste like breakfast sausage.”  Yes, dear…they do.

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Simple Solution – Veg Broth

It has been a busy few weeks at the nonprofit I work for, so mostly dinner has been take out or warming up stuff out of the freezer, and plenty of veggie burgers (on buns, on tortillas, on naan), not a ton of creativity going on in the kitchen.  With that in mind, my CSA share and Doorganics delivery look limp and sad, but not rotting in my fridge, I decided to get ahead of the game and make veg broth to store in my freezer for the upcoming soup season.  Making your own veg broth is cheap, and a good way to use up items that are unsavory for cooking at face value but are still wonderful for a broth base.  During the summer, I keep a freezer bag full of items that would make good broth like the stems of mushrooms, the tops of radishes, celery greens, washed carrot peels, the ends of onions, parsley and the like then when I get a few extra seconds, I dump it in a soup pot cover it with water, add whatever fresh herbs I have in the fridge if any, and let it boil away.  I store it in 2-cup measures in freezer bags marked with the date and freeze flat, that way whenever I need a quick base for soup, I have a lightly flavored, sodium free, cheap alternative to store-bought broth.   Since the consistency of the veggies doesn’t make a difference in the taste of the broth, the freezer step doesn’t hurt, I promise.

My current batch of broth has in it:

• celery greens
• celery
• portobella mushroom stems (trimmed and washed)
• red bell pepper (seeds and all)
• carrot shavings (cleaned)
• turnips, quartered
• onion ends & parts
• garlic cloves
• peppercorns
• rosemary
• thyme

Put all the items into a soup pot, cover with water and let it simmer away for an hour or so.  Remove from heat, let cool for hours and hours, then pour into labeled freezer bags (label them before you pour into them) and freeze flat. Remember this will not have salt added as is, so when you add to soups be sure to season well.

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