Bulgur Display of Power

Brown Sugar Banana (corn)Bread Muffins arose like most of my recipes tend to:  centering around something fresh I wanted to get rid of but not waste (ripe bananas) and by making use of whatever else was already in the pantry.  But isn’t that always how banana bread comes to be?

Makes about 40 mini-muffins (or probably 11-12 dozen regular-sized muffins, or a little more than one loaf of banana bread).

Dry Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 Flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flax meal + 6 tbsp warm water)

2 ripe bananas, well mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used rice milk)

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  In a medium bowl, prepare Flax egg by vigorously stirring together ground flax meal and water with a fork and let this sit for about 5 minutes, or until thickened and egg-like.  Add other wet ingredients to flax egg and mix well.  Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and add in the wet ingredients.  Stir with a spatula until cohesive.  Add a tad more non-dairy milk if the mixture is too thick to stir (it will be rather thick).  Pour into greased (or lined) mini-muffin pan and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly browned.

Saffron-Scented White Bean & Sweet Potato Stew 

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight and drained

3 cups cubed sweet potato

1 large carrot, chopped

4 celery sticks, sliced

1 small-medium head cabbage, cut into chunks

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, with juice

4 cups vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

2 pinches saffron

1/2 tbsp dried basil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground thyme

1/2 tsp ground paprika

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Lightly sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil and add to the slow cooker.  Add all other ingredients except for white wine vinegar.  Cook on low for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.  Add white wine vinegar and stir.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of parsley, and some cracked black pepper, if desired.

Two-Bite Whole Wheat Coconut Oil Biscuits (adapted from Happy Herbivore‘s biscuit recipe)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup cold coconut oil

1/3 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)

Preheat oven to 400F and grease a cookie sheet.  Put flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor a pulse few times to combine.  Add cold coconut oil in chunks and run the food processor to incorporate into the flour.  Pour mixture in a medium-large size bowl and add milk.  Stir with a spatula until combined and resembling a dough.  Break off ping-pong ball-sized biscuits and gently roll up, place on cookie sheet, and bake 6-9 minutes, or until lightly browned.

The idea for this recipe was spawned as my recipes usually are:  by trying to think of a way to highlight some delicious seasonal local veg, while using up other staples in the pantry, and if at all possible, avoiding a trip to the grocery store.  If there’s one type of vegetable that is always in abundance in the summer, it’s squash variety.  Admittedly summer squash is not one of my favorite vegetables, so usually I try to find a way to hide it in recipes, like for instance in baked goods similar to zucchini bread.  I figured the same could be done for a savory main dish and came across this recipe for a zucchini socca.  Socca, or farinata, is a thin, unleavened, French pancake made from chickpea flour and baked in an oven.  The version I made was a lot thicker than the traditional version (hence the title “cake”), but was delicious and helped me use up the 3 huge crookneck yellow squash that were staring at me from my fridge.  If I had to do it over again, I’d halve the recipe so it would be thinner and so it didn’t take so long to cook, but since I haven’t experimented with that, here’s the recipe for the full one and you can do with it what you like.  Feel free to use any shredded summer squash in this recipe.

Chickpea and Summer Squash Skillet Cake with Roasted Lemon Garden Tomato Sauce || bulgerdisplayofpower

Chickpea and Summer Squash Skillet Cake 

serves 8 as a side or 4 as a main course

2 cups chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp white pepper (or black is fine)

2 cups lukewarm water

1/3 cup olive oil

3 large summer squash, finely shredded

Whisk together chickpea flour, salt, nutritional yeast, basil, paprika, turmeric, and pepper in a large bowl.  Add water and combine until the mixture resembles a thin batter.  Let batter sit at room temperature while your oven preheats (at least 30 minutes).  Place a large cast-iron skillet in the oven and preheat oven to 450F.  Meanwhile, begin preparing the Roasted Lemon Garden Tomato Sauce (recipe below).

When oven is preheated, carefully remove the hot skillet and add enough olive oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan (I listed this as 1/3 cup but in reality I didn’t measure, just coated the skillet).  Place the skillet back in the oven to allow the oil to heat.  Add shredded squash to the chickpea batter and stir with a spatula until the squash is well incorporated.  Again, carefully remove the skillet from the oven and pour in the batter.  It should sizzle as soon as it hits the oil.  If the squash made your batter pretty thick, spread it out over the entirety of your skillet using the spatula. Place back in the oven and cook for 30-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  If you notice the bottom starting to burn, reduce the heat to 400F.

When done, allow the cake to cool a bit, then cut pizza-style into 8 slices.  Serve topped with Roasted Lemon Garden Tomato Sauce, or other sauce of your choosing.

Roasted Lemon Garden Tomato Sauce

makes ~1 cup

A great way to use some ripe summer tomatoes, and roasting takes these fresh flavors to a whole new level!!

Roasted Lemon Garden Tomato Sauce || bulgurdisplayofpower

3 ripe medium tomatoes, thickly sliced

1/2 yellow onion, sliced into rings

5 cloves garlic, quartered

1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded

1 lemon, sliced and seeded

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt (or regular salt)

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 450F.  Place sliced tomatoes, onions, lemon, jalapeno, and garlic on a large baking sheet, drizzle generously with olive oil, and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Roast in oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the onions are a little charred, the garlic is caramelized, and the tomatoes and lemons have released most of their juices.  Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and place all but lemons in a blender or food processor.  Pick up lemon slices with your hands and squeeze as much pulp as you can from the rinds in with the other ingredients.  Take a spatula and scrape as much oil and juice from your baking sheet as possible into the mix.  Add white wine vinegar and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.  Serve over skillet cake, over pasta, with garlic bread, or however you like!

Sometimes I think I owe my successes to breakfasts that can be made ahead.  I’ve tried many different flavor combos for overnight oats, chia puddings, and mixtures of the two, but this one is a home run.

The recipe includes ground maca root (or maca powder), which gives a wonderfully malty flavor, but can be omitted with no problem– the stuff’s expensive!   Also, I used frozen cherries in this, but I’m sure fresh or frozen will work, just depending on what’s available and what’s easier for you.  And instead of doing plain almond milk + vanilla extract you could probably also use vanilla-flavored almond milk instead if that’s what you buy.

Ok, now what are activated almonds?  Activated almonds are raw almonds that have been soaked in water for about a day and then dried either in a dehydrator or in a 200F or less oven until crunchy again.  I like to treat my almonds this way as I find it really brings out their wonderful flavor and natural sweetness.  This method is also purported to rid the almonds of “anti nutrients” like phytates which bind up nutrients and make raw almonds harder to digest.  Regardless of whether there’s much merit to that, they taste great.  However here I think you can use any almonds you like, as long as they’re not too salty.

I will usually put together 2 or 3 of these at a time in the evening and then store in the fridge until I’m ready for them.

Vanilla Cherry Almond Overnight Oats

Serves 1

1/2 cup pitted cherries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup oats (I like thick-cut rolled oats)

1/2 tbsp maca powder, optional

2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

heaping 1/4 cup activated almonds, or almonds of your choice

Add cherries, oats, maca (if using), almond milk, and vanilla to a jar or bowl with a lid.  Stir well, cover, and let sit at least 6 to 8 hours, or up 3 days.  Remove from refrigerator and stir again.  You can consume immediately but I usually let mine sit at room temp for about an hour to take the chill off a bit.  Alternatively you could also heat in the microwave or on the stove if you want a hot breakfast.  Coarsely chop almonds and add to oat mixture.  Mush the cherries up a bit with the side of your spoon.  Consume and go on to conquer your day.

Well this week was “Spring Break,” which in grad school means “a great time to get a lot of work done without other distractions.”  Here’s some of what fueled me through.

This week’s spread:

For breakfasts I had Cinnamon Apple Chia Pudding.  I diced 2 gala apples and sautéed them in coconut oil with a cinnamon stick.  Once well cooked, I divided this between 5 jars and to each jar added 4 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut, extra cinnamon, and 1 cup unsweetened almond milk.  As an experiment I was trying to lower carbs and up protein/fat this week and because of this I don’t think I put enough apple into this to make it all that great.  If I were to do it again I would try this recipe from Oh She Glows.

This week for lunch I tried my first hand at to-go soup.  I don’t mean just taking some soup that you’ve made to go, but slicing and dicing raw quick-cooking veggies, adding flavoring elements, and pouring boiling water over the whole thing at work before consuming; you know, like one of those cup o’ noodle things.  Well there were no noodles in this one but I didn’t miss them.  The first photo shows how I transported everything and below is the product.  These had chopped local kale, thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, spring onions, Thai basil, white miso paste, homemade Furikake, miso-horseradish kimchi, soybean sprouts, roasted peanuts, and local tofu baked in sriracha and hot chinese mustard.  Just add hot water, let steep about 5 min, and enjoy!

After two of the above combinations, I decided to simplify the ingredients to kale, shiitakes, miso, furikake, kimchi, and tofu, as well as adding gochujang and toasted sesame oil.  Delicious!!

With the beautiful weather this week, I was happy to enjoy a dinner on Tuesday night that was reminiscent of summer:  cast-iron panfried okra with lemon and nutritional yeast, boca vegan burger with ketchup, mustard, and vegenaise on whole wheat toast.  Also loving that I still had some natural light for this photo.  Thank you daylight savings!!!

Thursday’s dinner was simple:  Imagine’s Sweet Pea Soup; coconut oil-panfried haricot verts (from frozen) with black pepper, smoked paprika, turmeric, thyme, and nutritional yeast; Dr. Kracker Klassic 3 seed crackers, Miller Lite.

Sunday was a gorgeous day for a morning run, followed by this brunch of Tomato and Dijon Lentils with local Kale, Panfried Peppery Haricot Verts (from frozen), and Upton’s Naturals Seitan Bacon.  It was my first time trying the “bacon”– I was amazed how crispy it got and loved the smoky flavor!  Delicious!