falafel and yogurt sauce!

last week i thought it might be fun to make some falafel, and i got the recipe from mark bittman, once again.

this recipe is different from any others i've come across in that you don't cook the chickpeas. as in, they are kind of raw until you cook the patties. you start out the day before, by soaking a couple cups of chickpeas in a bunch of water. like this:

24 hours later, they look like this:

sometime in the middle of these two pictures, i made some sort of tzatziki / raita / yogurt sauce hybrid. you grate some cucumber...

and add it to some greek yogurt along with lemon juice, dill, and minced garlic. mmm.

while the yogurt is chilling...you turn back to the chickpeas. drain them and put them in a food processor with things like onion and cayenne and cumin and spices...

and parsley. forgot the parsley...

food processors are genius inventions. i tasted things at this point and had mixed feelings about the texture.

but it did not stop me from making little falafel patties and putting them in the oven to bake.

mmm. cooked falafel.

look! fixin's!

this was good. i think the homemade falafel was a success, but next time i might try a cooked chickpea version. also, i was a bit garlic-happy in my yogurt sauce. must remember that stuff is extra strong when its raw.

roasted veggie broth!

i've been meaning to make my own veggie broth for a while. like, years. i spend way to much money for it in stores, and its theoretically more economical for me to just make the stuff. i've had dreaded celery sitting the veggie bin in the fridge for a week - since the only time i will touch it is to add flavor to a broth and then toss it - and i knew it was time. oh yes, it was time.

also, i'm trying to be healthier and eat more veggies. so...i went with a slightly adapted version of the roasted veggie broth in 'how to cook everything vegetarian.'

to begin with, i roasted veggies. a bunch of them - drizzled with oil, for 45 minutes. here we have about half a bunch of celery, three onions, a couple parsnips, a turnip, a bulb of garlic, about seven carrots, and the world's largest sweet potato. i think that's it.

it was all too much for this pan, so we had a sous pan:

during those 45 minutes, i turned them, which was not a pretty enterprise. i also drank this tasty beverage, which you should buy should you get the chance.

ok. here they are coming out of the oven. mmm. roasted.

careful readers will notice that there are suddenly mushrooms in the amongst the other veggies that weren't there before. this is because i initially forgot them, and they were added halfway in.

the veggies went into the soup pot. and then, what's this? why, yes, i am deglazing the roasting dishes.

here you see the veggies, the 'glaze,' a whole bunch of parsley, some fancy soy sauce (i know!) and some salt and pepper. i would have put some wine up in there, but i forgot. at this point, something very sad happened. i put the two roasting dishes in the sink and began to fill them with water to soak for a bit. and then, about 30 seconds into soaking, the smaller dish randomly and spontaneously cracked and broke in three large pieces. i have no clue why. we will now have a moment of silence for my broken glassware that held many a batch of brownies. sigh.

but life must go on. and so, i added about 20 cups of water to the mix, and let the whole thing boil before i turned down the heat and partially covered the pan as it simmered.

for two hours...

at this point, i decided it was done - a slightly concentrated broth. and i had to get creative with the whole straining thing. i put this lovely pasta strainer on top of another cooking pot and started to pour straight broth.

everything was lovely until the cooking pot began to fill up.

so i moved on to cooking pot #2.

i mashed the veggies left in the big soup pot to release some of the broth, and them dumped them through the strainer. this time the weight in the strainer may have been a bit much and slipped into the pot multiple times, while i said very bad words.

and then i dumped the leftover veggies in the trash, and all of the broth back in one of the pots. again.

there it sat for a few hours, to cool down. then i ladled it out into freezer bags - ended up with around 15 cups. this was actually more work than i thought. but then again, i also went all fancy and roasted everything, which i wouldn't be doing if this was just veggie scraps. which, by the way, i have officially resolved to begin saving.

i started tonight - there is, as we speak, a piece of carrot in a gallon bag in my freezer.

along with these babies - what i will end up making with them is yet to be seen...

snobby joes!

i made snobby joes from veganomicon. what's nice is that, even though its from a book, isa is also kind enough to post it on her blog, the post punk kitchen, so i can also link you to the recipe (if you click here).

snobby joes are like sloppy joes, but different. you have to admit, there's something about sloppy joes you have a fond memory of. maybe its a recent memory. my sister, for example, is an omni and requests sloppy joes on her birthday every. single. year. this is partly because she loves them and partly because she loves the old 'manwich' commercial. i agree with her that sloppy joes can be fun and that its a catchy commercial, although i find the name of the product rather sexist and disturbing.

i think the 'snobby' part comes in because these are non-sexist and healthy, and because they are filled with lentils:

i, myself, am working my way up to loving lentils. this is a great recipe for that. because, you cook them and set them aside as you are also chopping up things like onions and peppers...

look! they change colors when cooked!

then you add the cooked lentils, some tomato sauce, tomato paste, various spices, and cook it up with a bit of maple syrup and yellow mustard. sadly, the pics of the cooking snobby joes were blurry and too embarrassing to post. i know - i was doing so well. oh well.

i'll have to make do with a pic of my finished plate. i served them with a baked sweet potato and some roasted broccoli, which was tossed with some olive oil, lemon juice, and a little minced garlic. i will say that i got full mid-way through and didn't touch the potato. lunch today will be the potato topped with left-over snobby joe(s ?), and i have no doubt it will be fabulous. this is excellent comfort food.

tomato-rice soup with roasted garlic and navy beans!

yesterday i was still feeling kind of blah, and i wanted soup. the kind of soup that can be made without having to drive to the supermarket, that i could make out of the pantry.

i ended up with tomato-rice soup with roasted garlic and navy beans from veganomicon.

and, lucky you, i also happened to find one person who posted the recipe online - you can (click here) to get to it.

to begin with, i should probably point out that i made some alterations, based on the whole 'no supermarket' thing. the first being that i didn't have two bulbs of garlic to roast. so, i went with the alternative directions of taking around 6 cloves...

and throwing them in a soup pot with the finely diced onion.

after it cooked a bit, i threw in the rice...

and the rest of the spices and stirred things around for a couple minutes.

next came the tomatoes. a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes went in the pot...

as well as a 15oz can of crushed tomatoes and a few chopped fresh tomatoes lurking in the fridge. altogether, this is almost what the recipe called for.

and i don't care if this is now going to be called 'chunky' tomato-rice soup.

in fact, because i'm so crazy, i decided to add one of my organic veggie broth starburst creatures to the mix after i added all the water and it came to a boil. after this, i turned it down and it simmered for 45 minutes.

and then i added the beans and let them warm up:

and then i ate it. i should probably mention that, while all this was cooking, i did walk 1 block down the road to the panera to get a baguette to eat with this. this has happened pretty much every time i've cooked something that a baguette might go with - i've just never mentioned it or taken a picture. and, keeping with tradition, i forgot to take a picture last night. oh well - we'll have to make due with this: