Beet, Chickpea and Almond Dip

No, this is not a recipe for hot pink play-dough. On the contrary - it's a recipe for a sophisticated, yet simple and healthy dip. This is a great one for parties, as people will scratch their heads trying to figure out what on earth is in that mysterious pink dip.

It's beets, people. Beets. The much-maligned root vegetable that has recently become trendy in upscale restaurants. It's no wonder that beet juice is used to add color and sweetness to other dishes, when you see what happens to it in a food processor.

Even people who think they don't like beets will probably like this dip. It is like a garlicky hummus, only instead of tahini, you have beets and almonds! It's spicy and sweet at once, with a very pleasing smooth texture just waiting to be slathered on a crunchy pita chip.

Beet, Chickpea and Almond Dip
adapted from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook
makes 2 cups

INGREDIENTS:

salt
1 large beet, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 cup rinsed and drained canned chickpeas
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more if needed)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
4 small garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat. Salt it and add the beet chunks. Cook until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain and add beet chunks to food processor.

2. Add chickpeas, olive oil, almonds and garlic to food processor and process until smooth. If it's too thick, stream in a smidge more olive oil. Add red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Process again until smooth. Serve with pita chips or fresh pita bread wedges.

Enjoy!

Brownies

Sometimes you just feel like a brownie. Nothing else will suffice. You want good quality chocolate in a portable cakey form, with melty chocolate chips. And this hunger can only be satisfied one way. By baking them yourself.

I found myself in this predicament last night. So I made these brownies with the best quality chocolate I could get my hands on. They're good, people. Really, really good. Rich, soft, and decadent. The chocolate is the key. And take your time melting it with the butter. Enjoy the magic of cooking alchemy. It's a lovely experience, really.

Please make these. Right away.

Brownies
adapted from The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook
makes 9 brownies

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or Smart Balance
3 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, sifted
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking pan. In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine butter and unsweetened chocolate. Cook, stirring often, until melted, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and a pinch of salt. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until well blended.

2. Sprinkle the sifted flour over the mixture and stir until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared dish and spread evenly.

3. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Do not overbake. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting into 9 even squares.

Enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy again. Nine times, to be precise.

Corn and Kale Confetti

All sorts of new things are taking place in my culinary world. The biggest of them all is my new subscription to a CSA (community supported agriculture) program. I've been wanting to join one for about a year now, and I finally found one that fits my lifestyle, at Southern California CSA. I got my first bag on Thursday and have been swooning over all of the contents, each of which tastes about a million times better than its supermarket counterpart.

Tonight's simple meal is in honor of this CSA. It's comprised of beautiful kale and sweet corn that came in my first bag. The corn is the sweetest, juiciest corn I've ever had, and the kale is pretty phenomenal as well. If you don't belong to a CSA, you can still visit your local farmer's market and pick up some high quality seasonal produce to replicate this in your own kitchen!

This meal can be served as a main course, a side dish, or cold as a salad. It could even work as a salsa of sorts. However you serve it up, it's delicious. Sweet, tangy, and a little bit spicy all at once. And it's incredibly good for you in every sense of the word.

Corn and Kale Confetti
serves 3 as a main course

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 bunch kale, stems and tough ribs removed, chopped
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
kernels of 2 ears sweet white corn
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until just starting to turn golden, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the kale and the water, and put a tight lid on the skillet. Shake the skillet a little bit and keep it covered for about 2 minutes. Remove lid.

2. Add the red wine vinegar and toss. Cook until kale is fairly wilted, but still firm, about 3 more minutes.

3. Add corn kernels and season with salt and pepper. Toss everything to combine and cook for about 3 more minutes, until corn is just barely cooked. Season with cayenne pepper and serve (hot or cold).

Easy, healthy and delicious! Enjoy.

Chicken and Smashed Broccoli-potatoes with Gouda Gravy

My entire culinary world expanded by about a trillion the day I first made home-made gravy. It was so easy, so delicious and rich, that suddenly a universe of possibility opened up before me. I've mentioned many times in this blog my love of the pan sauce, and really gravy is in the same genre.

Here we have a luscious, slightly cheesy gravy that serves as a blanket of flavor for simple pan-sauteed chicken breast and a healthy potato-broccoli mash. It doesn't feel overly decadent or rich, it just feels fantastic.

Make sure you use some quality gouda cheese for the gravy, and the rest of it will fall into place. This makes an excellent end to a long weekend.

Chicken and Smashed Broccoli-potatoes with Gouda Gravy
adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray
serves 2 (with some leftover mash)

INGREDIENTS:

1 large baking potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
salt
1 small head broccoli, florets & stems cut into 1-inch pieces
2 chicken breast cutlets, lightly pounded
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped and stems discarded
pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon flour (pref. whole wheat)
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup shredded gouda cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saucepan, cover potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil and salt the pot; simmer for 8 minutes. Add broccoli pieces and cook an additional 8 minutes. Drain and return to the pan.

2. While the veggies are cooking, season chicken with thyme, salt and pepper. Heat EVOO in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for 5 or 6 minutes per side, until golden-brown and cooked through.

3. In a small, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, then whisk in chicken broth and 1/4 cup milk and cook until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the cheese, using a figure 8 motion to incorporate it evenly until melted. Remove from heat.

4. Add remaining 1/4 cup milk to the broccoli and potatoes, and mash with a potato masher. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Serve chicken alongside a heaping scoop of the mash and top with gravy.

Enjoy!

Vegan Caesar Salad

Normally when I make a vegan recipe I don't actually call it "Vegan So-and-so," as the term "vegan" is apt to turn some people off. But in the case of caesar salad, I think it is relevant. So many people happily eat caesar salads their whole lives without thinking about what is actually in that mysterious, tangy dressing. Well some of us are perfectly happy to eat it, even knowing what's in it. I, for one, am not afraid of anchovies. Where I draw the line, however, is the raw egg.

I know, I know. I'm sure it's perfectly safe. And it's never stopped me from tasting cookie batter. But the idea of eating salad with raw egg dressing...well, it just doesn't appeal to me. And my husband is vehemently anti-anchovy. Hence, the vegan caesar salad to keep everyone happy.

I was really happy with how this recipe came out - creamy, tangy dressing with none of the guilt or fear of salmonella. The flavors are fabulous, and with the quality romaine and asparagus that I used from my CSA bag this week, the salad just had that extra special something.

We had this for our 4th of July dinner, and there's an ice cream sundae with my name on it as soon as I finish this blog entry...if there are typos, you'll know why.

Vegan Caesar Salad
adapted from Veganomicon
serves 3-4 (you'll have leftover dressing)

INGREDIENTS:

Dressing
1/3 cup slivered or sliced blanched almonds
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3/4 pound silken tofu
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon capers
4 teaspoons caper brine
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

Croutons
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 slices whole wheat bread
salt

Salad
cooking spray
1 bunch thin asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make the dressing: pulse sliced almonds in a food processor until crumbly and set aside. Blend garlic, tofu, and oil in the processor until creamy and smooth. Add lemon juice, capers, brine, sugar, and mustard powder, and pulse until blended. Pour into the container with ground almonds and whisk to combine. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.

2. Make the croutons: Preheat toaster oven (or oven) to 400. Whisk together the olive oil, minced garlic, and lemon juice until well combined. Cut the bread into cubes and toss the cubes in the oil mixture until fairly well coated. Place bread cubes on foil-lined baking sheet and bake until crispy and brown, about 12 to 14 minutes, tossing a couple of times during the baking process. Set aside to cool.

3. Heat a small skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Saute the asparagus pieces until just cooked, about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

4. Assemble the salad by putting lettuce and asparagus in a large bowl. Pour on about 1/3 cup of dressing (or however much you like) and toss well. Add croutons and toss again. Serve.

Yes there are a lot of ingredients and a few complicated steps, but it's actually really easy, and will please even the anchovy and raw-egg haters in your family. Enjoy!

Breakfast Cookies (CEIMB)

Today I'm pleased to announce a new feature on this blog. You see, I am now a proud member of Craving Ellie in my Belly, a blog made up of a group of food bloggers paying homage to the lovely and talented Ellie Krieger every Thursday. Each week a different one of Ms. Krieger's recipes is chosen, and the food bloggers all post about it on Thursdays and compare notes.

This week is my first week participating, and the recipe was Ellie's Breakfast Cookies. The idea of cookies for breakfast sounds somewhat unorthodox, but think about it people - we eat croissants, muffins, scones, and even donuts and call them breakfast. This cookie is far more nutritious and excusable! Just wait until you see the ingredients.

I tweaked it a bit to make it even *more* healthy, if that's possible - I substituted honey for the refined sugar, and used all whole wheat pastry flour instead of part whole wheat and part regular. I made a couple of other changes that were just matters of preference. What results is the version of the recipe that I've posted below, which produces gorgeous, soft oatmeal raisin cookies with a hint of spice and a whole lot of wholesome goodness.

Breakfast Cookies
adapted from Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger (2007)
makes 12 cookies*

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened, all natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
1/3 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350, and line a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat liner.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine butter, oil, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds.

3. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, and raisins and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of batter per cookie onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a couple of inches between cookies. (An ice cream scoop filled about halfway is a good measure for the batter).

4. Bake for 12 minutes, until fragrant but still soft. Let cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I made only 9 cookies because I was greedy with the batter.

Enjoy!

No-Cook Pizza Sauce

"No-cook" is a slight misnomer, since of course when you bake the pizza that this sauce graces with its presence, there will inevitably be some cooking. But a sauce that looks this gorgeous, tastes this vibrant, without simmering on the stove even in the slightest? Yes, please.

If you like your pizza really saucy, you will like this sauce. If you're secretly disappointed when you go to one of those "gourmet" pizza joints and the slice you order has tomato rounds instead of sauce, you'll like this sauce. Come to think of it, whoever you are, you'll like this sauce. It's rich, it's tomato-laden, it's zesty - look no further.

Grab one of those whole wheat pizza doughs from your market, slather on this sauce and some fresh mozzarella, and you've got dinner.

No-Cook Pizza Sauce
adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
makes 2 12" pizzas worth (or 1 extremely saucy one)

INGREDIENTS:

5 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, mostly drained
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk. Put on a pizza, bake it, and eat!

Enjoy!