Mediterranean Zucchini Salad

This is the first time I've made something involving zucchini "noodles". It's a fresh and easy salad, and is great for raw and cooked lovers alike. Perfect flavor combinations and not too salty!

Mediterranean Zucchini Salad
adapted from Keep it in Kind
makes 3 large servings or 4 smaller servings

Ingredients:
1-2 regular-sized zucchini
salt to toss zucchini
1 - 15 oz. can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
15-20 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size
4 canned artichoke hearts, drained and diced
1/3 cucumber, halfed and sliced thinly (mandoline medium size)
2 Tbs. capers
1/4 cup basil chiffonade (<- wiki)
3 Tbs. fresh dill, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar

Instructions:
1. Make pasta into ribbons using the grater plate on your food processor (alternatively use a box grater's large holes, a spiralizer, or a mandolin). Toss with salt in a colander, and set over the sink to drain.
2. While the zucchini is draining, combine the rest of the ingredients and toss to combine. Refridgerate for 10 minutes.
3. Divide the zucchini between plates, and top with a large amount of the chickpea salad. Serve immediately.

Black bean chickpea mango salad

The original recipe calls for basil instead of cilantro, but I think the cilantro works perfectly in this (and is less expensive : D). 

Bean Corn and Mango Salad
adapted from Stylish Cuisine

Ingredients:
1 ripe mango, chopped small
1 red bell pepper, chopped small
1 - 15 oz. can black beans
1 - 15 oz. can garbanzo beans
1 - 15 oz. can corn, drained
2 limes, zested and juiced
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro (or 1/2 cup basil)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. In a colander, place together black beans and garbanzo beans and rinse until foam doesn't form, then sit to the side to dry.
2. Whisk together lime juice and zest, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cilantro, cumin, and salt and pepper.
3. Once beans have dried, combine corn, bell pepper, beans, and mango in a bowl with a lid. Combine with vinaigrette, cover, and refrigerate for an hour. Toss again before serving.

Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs
from Food Network UK
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 - 15 oz.can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 - 15 oz.can red kidney beans
1 - 15 oz.can white beans (cannellini)
15 g. fresh cilantro
salt, pepper
125 g. flour (seasoned with additional salt and pepper)
1 egg, beaten
125 g. bread crumbs
1 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. chilli powder (or paprika)
oil for deep frying

Instructions:
1. Get a pot of water boiling, place in eggs, and boil for 6.5 minutes (do more if you prefer harder-boiled). Peel after done cooking.
2. Drain all beans and chick peas, and rinse well in cold water. In a bowl, mash them all together to get a coarse mix. Add ginger and chilli powder and salt and pepper to taste.
3. In a small pan, heat about 3 inches of oil until you can drop a bread crumb in, and it becomes golden brown.
4.  In a bowl, place the flour and season with salt and pepper. Put the beaten egg next to the flour in another bowl,  and the bread crumbs in 3 third bowl next to the egg, creating an assembly line.
5. Split the bean mixture into 4 equal parts. Using a 1 ft. by 1 ft. square (about) of cling wrap, flatten one portion of the mixture until a large oval so that it can completely encircle an egg. Take one of the peeled boiled eggs, put it in the middle of your bean-mixture oval, and pull the cling wrap over so the egg gets encircled by the mixture. Push it around with your fingers (outside of the cling wrap) to try and seal cracks)
6. Peel off the cling wrap, roll the egg around in the flour until it's completely covered, then the egg, then the bread crumbs. Pop into the oil, and cook until all sides are golden brown (turning once the bottom is golden brown, unless you used enough oil to completely cover the egg. Take out with a slotted spoon to drain the oil, and place on a plate with folded paper towel to take off some of the oil. Repeat with the remaining eggs.
Serving suggestion: Serve with sour cream or creme fraiche.

Mexican Rice

I made this to go with taco night. Tasty! I forgot the tomato sauce, but it was still very good with out it. Next time I might not rinse the rice before hand, so it might toast better.

Mexican Rice
adapted from Simple Comfort Food

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 c. uncooked long grain rice, rinsed
2 c. vegetarian chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped yellow onion
4 c. garlic, minced
1/4 c. plain tomato sauce (optional, I omitted)
1 Roma tomato, diced
1 t. cumin powder
1 t. hot spicy powder (if desired)
1/4 cup peas (frozen, canned, or fresh)
salt to taste

Instructions:
1. Heat oil in a pot on medium heat. Add the uncooked rice, and stir frequently until golden-browned.
2. Add garlic and mix for a minute. Then mix in the rest of the ingredients, minus the peas.
3. Reduce to a simmer, cover leaving a crack, and cook for 20 mins.
4. After it's done cooking, fluff rice, and toss in peas and stir to mix.

Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad

Surprisingly delicious, and healthy because the spinach is raw! Unfortunately I added way too much spinach, so it wasn't evenly proportioned. I'll come back to this recipe one day and fine tune it. Definitely want to make it again.



Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad
from Heather's Dish

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 cups loosely-packed spinach
1/2 onion
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
juice of 4 limes
3 T. sugar
2 T. dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic
1/2 T. chili powder
1/2 c. olive oil

Instructions:
1. Put spinach into the food processor, and pulse until it's a consistent texture.
2. Combine chickpeas and spinach in a large bowl.
3. Mince onion in the food processor, then add to bowl with the chickpeas.
4. Combine remaining ingredients, and pulse together until evenly combined.
5. Pour dressing over chickpeas and stir to combine. Let sit for 10 mins to over night, to let marinate.

Falafel

This was a delicious recipe for falafel that I found in my new Moosewood cookbook. They didn't stick together well, but that's okay. It was tasty regardless.




Falafel (she spells it Felafel in Moosewood)
from The New Moosewood

Ingredients:
2 15-oz. chick peas
1/3 cup flour
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. cumin
1 t. turmeric
1 t. salt
1/2 cup minced onion
1/4 c. minced parsely (packed)
1/4 c. water
1 T. lemon juice
few dashes of cayenne
oil for frying (peanut, olive, or another high smokepoint oil)

Instructions:
1. Pour enough oil into a fry-safe pan (not Teflon) to reach an inch. Heat until when you drop a bit of batter into the oil, it starts to bubble, and slowly turn golden-brown, but so it doesn't turn black instantly or the oil isn't smoking.
2. Drain chickpeas, and combine all ingredients except flour and oil into the food processor. Process until uniform consistency.
3. Scrape batter into a bowl, add flour, and stir in until combined.
4. Drop a few tablespoons of batter into the pan, and flattening each slightly. Fry until each side is golden brown. If you don't flatten the patties out throughly, the centers will cause them to fall apart. You want the thickness to be consistent throughout.
5. Place cooked falafel on a plate lined with paper towels.