Category Archives: Grains

Protein Power Goddess Bowl

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This was fun to try! Lentils, barley, zuchinni (substitued for spinach which went yellow), orange peppers, and tomatoes. Dressed with a tahini-lemon dressing and lots of coriander. The dressing was super lemony when I first made it and tasted it, but mellowed out when mixed in with the other ingredients. Quite good, however I am really not that big of a barley fan, I just need to admit it and move on to another grain.

The recipe is from here. (I made a half recipe and it was more than enough for lunch the next day too.) BTW the blog, oh she glows is a great vegan blog that I love, check it out!

Carmelized Onions with Rice and Lentils aka Dahl

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Oh the sky.

So I found this recipe in Veganomicon, which claimed to be super-simple and super-delicious and super-healthy. Sign me up! The recipe looked rather similar to dahl as we know it, but the carmelized onions are the new kid on the block.

The method is to roast the onions in the oven, and cook the rice and lentils together in pot on the stove with cumin and cinnamon.

It did turn out very delcious, but it was really the dahl we have grown up with. I do recommend the onions, they were delicious, but next time I will do it in a pan on the stove in 15-20 minutes rather than roast in the oven for 45 minutes (at least in the summer).

And here’s the sunset.

 

A little pep in my step

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My very own first bottle of Tabasco

I bought myself a bottle of green Tabasco! I know, I can hardly believe it. I found some corn tortillas on sale, I had a half avocado in the fridge, and was thinking Mexican food. However, as you all know, the salsa here is not good. Not spicy as a salsa should be. More Ketchup-y than Salsa-y if you know what I mean. So as I was perusing the hot sauce section, I took a closer look at Tabasco. The green variety (still jalapeno mind you) is labeled as mild in comparison to real Tabasco, so I decided to be brave and give it a go.

 

 

 

HELLO! Yes, that will put a bit of pep in your step (at least in mine, because I am sensitive to overly spicy hot sauce). But it definitely added the necessary spice to turn this into at least a sort of Mexican burrito, as opposed to a veggie wrap or something. I like the sauce because it is more in the direction of Frank’s red hot sauce – adds some pep, but doesn’t light anything on fire.

The burrito was delcious by the way – quinoa, sauteed zuchinni / bell pepper / green onion, tomato and avocado. And Tabasco. And now I am sweating.

Something new and glad I tried it!

Farro Perlato

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We picked up some farro perlato on our trip to Italy, and it is amazing! Pearled farro cooks in 20 minutes, in comparison to regular spelt (which is either the same thing or a very close relative) which takes over an hour. Both are yummy, although the pearled variety was obviously way more convenient. I made this into a salad inspired by Heidi Swanson (I love her “Super Natural Every Day”) and Yottam Ottolenghi (his vegetarian cookbook called “Plenty” was my bday gift to myself.), using what I got at the Bonn market. Because I am writing about this a month after the fact, I forgot how I made it! Luckily I took photos and kept my “brainstorm list” so I can sort of explain it. This proves how helpful the blog can be, as long I post the recipes in a timely fashion This obviously didn’t happen in May.

Because I was really making an effort, and because the celery was huge, I de-stringed (de-strung?) it.

I sectioned an orange and used the juice run-off for the dressing, along with some lemon juice, spring onion, olive oil and sea salt. I wanted to give it some time “for the flavors to meld” while the farro was cooking.

Don’t mind the tofu, that was a side dish along with the bottomless supply of spinach.

Tossed  together the cooked (and cooled) farro, oranges, celery, sliced spring onion, avocado, citrus zest and dressing. Sprinkled with some parmesan.

I was slightly curious how this would turn out, but I liked it, and so did Milo. Buono Appetito!

Millet on Monday

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Millet… it’s what is for dinner. And it is super delicious! I purchased Millet for the first time last July (!) to make these millet-lemon-honey muffins from my Heidi Swanson cookbok.

 Baked into muffins, the millet was crunchy and gave sort of a corn-bready taste. Yummy, but I didn’t know what else to do with Millet and so the grain has just been sitting in the cupboard. On Monday I was in a crunchy-vegetable-grain-salad mood, so I decided to see what sort of non-expired grains I had on hand. Low and behold MILLET. And the best part is, it cooks faster than cous-cous! Twice as much water as grain, cook 5 minutes, let sit 10 and it’s done. I couldn’t even chop the veg that fast! And I wanted a cold salad, so I put the millet outside on the deck to cool (it snowed 3 flakes that day- April 16!) while I got my chop on. Cucumber, kohlrabi, orange bell pepper, carrot, and tomato. Mixed up with balsamic/oliveoil/sea salt dressing.

This was quite a pleasant surprise. Millet looks a lot like cous-cous, but it is actually a grain (or a seed?) and it has sort of a nutty flavor and is a bit more al-dente. I have been having a problem with mushy cous-cous lately, so I really appreciated the texture of the millet. Milo liked it so much he made a millet-remix the next day with cooked up veg and tofu. We have a winner! You should try it too! Or maybe you already have, and I am the one that is late to the party. PS: I got that plate in Morocco last July, and finally put it to use. Another first =)

On Sunday we ate these awesome artichokes that we got on Friday as we were heading back from our spring-break road trip. Let me just make it known that Italy has awesome food and produce – better than France possibly. Milo made a couple dipping sauces, but we decided that they tasted the best simply with some olive oil and sea salt. Ciao!