Lentils and Basmati Rice with Caramelized Onions and Spiced Pita

My new iPhone finally arrived in the mail. Can you believe the camera on it? I love how many different uses the iPhone has and the camera might be my favorite part on the new one. The camera has facial recognition technology on it which is nothing new but I loved how it kept finding faces in the rice. Do you see a man’s face to the left of the center onion ring? I didn’t see it at first until I realized my phone was trying to tag him as a person. The phone is almost too smart.

This Middle Eastern dish is often called Mujadarah which is a fancy way of saying “rice, lentils and onion.” I adapted this dish from Veganomicon, the excellent cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The one downfall of this cookbook is the lack of pictures. When I first made this dish, I thought, “No wonder there are no pictures… This looks like kitty litter.” With a little garnish, this dish ends up looking as delicious as it tastes.

Ingredients for rice, lentils and onion:

• 3 large red onions, peeled and sliced into thin rings
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup long-grain basmati rice (brown or white), rinsed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
• Basil leaves for garnish

Directions for rice, lentils and onion:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Lay the onion rings flat and separated in a large roasting pan. Toss in olive oil. Roast for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes until translucent and slightly burnt.

3. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add rice, cinnamon, allspice, and cumin. Return to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Uncover and gently stir in the lentils. Bring to a boil again then lower heat, cover and simmer. Cook until all water is absorbed. For me, this takes 12-15 minutes. Allow the dish to cool for 10 minutes then fluff with a fork.

5. Fold in the caramelized onions, garnish with basil leaves and serve with pita bread.

Ingredients for spiced pita:

• 4 whole wheat pitas
• 4 Tbsp olive oil for brushing
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Directions for spiced pita:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Slice the pita bread into 1/8ths like a pizza.

3. Combine olive oil with the seasonings. Brush the mixture onto the insides of each pita crisp.

4. Spread the pita crisps out on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown.

Serves 4-6

Slightly adapted from: Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

Virtual Vegan Potluck: Hummus Pizza

Sidenote: I was supposed to fly out to New York City today to visit a couple of my friends. Unfortunately, I had to reschedule my trip due to unforeseen weather complications. Perhaps you’ve seen the weather reports. Honestly, how should I have known that a hurricane would strike Manhattan shortly before my November trip? I decided to make this pizza long before the hurricane appeared on weather radars but I like to think that a pizza dish is very fitting for New York. Of course, the weather affected many locations and I hope everyone reading today is safe and unharmed. Now, on to the main course…

It’s every vegan’s fear. You are hanging out with your non-vegan friends and someone suggests you all order pizza. Doesn’t everyone know that there is no mainstream pizza that vegans can eat? Your friends try to order cheese pizza for you and you politely pick off the cheese and lick the tomato sauce off the crust. Mmm… dinner of champions.

I’ve found hummus to be the “cheese” of my vegan life. It’s my replacement for cheese on sandwiches, chips, and, yes, now pizza. The concept of vegan pizza seemed like a loss to me until I discovered a delicious hummus pizza dish from a local restaurant named Thr3e Wise Men (ask for it without the feta!). The concept of using hummus on pizza is brilliant. Too often, veganized dishes overuse fake vegan products as substitutes. The dishes end up tasting… fake. I love using something completely different instead of trying to replace cheese. Allow me to profess my love for hummus in the form of one fabulous pizza.

Ingredients:

• 1 package (roughly 14 ounces) of store-bought vegan pizza crust or your own favorite homemade pizza dough
• 1 cup roasted red pepper hummus (homemade or store-bought)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped
• 1 portobello mushroom cap, stem and gills removed
• 1/2 large zucchini
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
• 4-5 large basil leaves, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray a 14-inch round pizza pan with cooking spray.

2. Roll out pizza dough on your pizza pan. When oven has heated up, bake the pizza dough for 8-10 minutes.

3. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a skillet and add minced garlic and red onion. Cook until onion is translucent and fragrant.

4. Cut up mushroom, zucchini and red pepper into thin slices and place into a collander. Toss with salt, pepper and 1/2 Tbsp olive oil.

5. Add mushroom, zucchini and red pepper to the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes.

6. Remove the pizza from the oven and brush crust with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Spread onto the pizza crust an even, thin layer of hummus. Add the toppings: garlic, red onion, mushroom, zucchini, red pepper, tomatoes, and basil.

7. Bake pizza for 10-12 minutes until crust is golden brown.

8. Slice and enjoy!

This meal is part of the fabulous Virtual Vegan Potluck created by Annie and hosted at Vegan Bloggers Unite. Continue your journey or go back to the previous post using the links below. Bon Appétit!

Quinoa Mango Tabouleh

Is it just me… Or is the name of this recipe something Jay Z and Beyonce would name their child? I think Blue Ivy and Quinoa Mango Tabouleh would get along well except during long road trips. But Jay Z and Beyonce don’t take road trips so we’re fine there.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
• 1 Tbsp fresh mint
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 mango, chopped into small cubes
• 5-6 thick slices of cucumber, cut into fours
• Black pepper and salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. I suggest rinsing the quinoa and combining it with 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Allow it to boil then simmer for 12-15 minutes until a little germ ring forms around the grain (like in the picture above).

2. Toss all ingredients with the quinoa and serve chilled.

Yields: two servings

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Red Pepper Hummus      Falafel

Falafel with Tahini Sauce

It’s official. I’m never eating falafel from a box or a restaurant ever again. This recipe yields the freshest and tastiest falafel I’ve had. And I’ve had a lot of falafels in my day. I like to think of a falafel ball as a more flavorful chicken nugget. Of course, it doesn’t have the fleshy interior of chicken (yay) but the seasoned and fried deliciousness reminds me of a nugget. A much, much better nugget.

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash pepper
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Pour the vegetable oil into a small saucepan until it is about 1 inch deep. Heat the oil over medium heat.

2. Rinse the chickpeas in a strainer and place in a food processor with chopped onion, parsley, garlic and olive oil. Process until smooth.

3. Add the mixture to a bowl and mix in the cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, lemon juice, baking powder and flour. Combine ingredients thoroughly in the bowl. Form the mixture into small round balls about 1 inch wide.

4. Drop a small amount of the falafel batter into the oil. If it quickly starts to bubble and sizzle then the oil is hot enough for frying. Slowly add the falafel balls to the oil and fry a couple at a time until they are tan in color. Set the fried falafel balls on a paper towel to dry.

5. Add the falafel to pita bread and top with tahini sauce (mix together 1 Tbsp tahini, 1 Tbsp water, 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice, dash of salt and pepper).

Yields 12 falafel balls

Adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/seans-falafel-and-cucumber-sauce/

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Red Pepper Hummus

Creamy Red Pepper Hummus

When my friend Lauren and I lived together last year, we dedicated our lives to perfecting hummus. And to work, and friends, and stuff, but mainly hummus. We ate it often and eventually decided to start making it at home. It was a fabulous idea. We could make it taste better at a cheaper cost and without wasteful packaging. Win. Win. Win. With just a food processor and ingredients that we typically had on hand anyway (had to purchase the tahini!), we were able to make hummus whenever we ran out. And we ran out often. After each delicious batch we licked our fingers clean. Meanwhile our other roommates (the two who never helped with rent) licked each others’ ears. To each their own.

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas
• 1/3 c tahini
• 1/4 c lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 tsp parsley
• paprika for garnish

Directions:

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas.

2. Add the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, oil, and pepper to a food processor. Process until smooth.

3. Garnish with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of paprika.

Hummbuzz

First off, Welcome to the Sweet Sixteen, Indiana! First time in like ten years but whatevs. Secondly, I’m watching a show right now on Animal Planet about kittens and it’s adorable and I want kittens now.

And now on to the real post. Anyone who knows Bloomington well knows Bloomingfoods well. It’s like Whole Foods but you’re not supposed to say that aloud because Bfoods would be offended. Whole Foods will *probably* never set up shop in Bloomington because of Bloomingfoods. It is a fantastic local chain of grocery stores and the community would riot in the streets if the stores’ existence was threatened. However, Bloomingtonians also once rioted in the streets when we got our first Starbucks and that had a huge impact on the mega chain for about ten minutes. Six Starbucks coffee shops later, Bloomington has mellowed out a bit over big chains hampering our local stores.

Bloomingfoods has a wide variety of pre-made food items such as salsas, salads and cookies. Every time I visit I pick up an item called Hummbuzz. It is delicious but I’ve never really understood what’s in the bottom of it. It has hummus and cucumber stuffed in the pita which is easy enough to figure out. At the botttom is a red-colored grain. The label refers to it as bazarghan. Quick googling doesn’t give me much more information about it. I know it’s an Israeli-inspired dish and it tastes good and that’s about all I need to know. Here is my interpretation of the dish. Bazarghan is historically made using bulgur but doesn’t everyone like quinoa more than bulgur?

Ingredients:

• 4 pita pockets
• 20 cucumber slices
• roasted red pepper hummus

Ingredients for bazarghan:

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 cup parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the quinoa according to the package directions. I suggest adding the 1/2 cup quinoa to a 1/2 cup of boiling water in a medium saucepan. Lower the heat and cover. Simmer for roughly 20 minutes.

2. Once the quinoa is cooked, add the remaining bazarghan ingredients to the saucepan.

3. Split the bazarghan evenly amongst the pita pockets. Add 5 cucumber slices to each pita. Top with hummus.

Serves well with sweet potato fries and an Israeli salad.