Just your basic hummus

This is another post in the Frugal Eats series, meant to help you save money in the kitchen.

First off, a confession – I am not a big fan of hummus. But more specifically, I am not a fan of bland hummus. It has to have flavor, preferably through the incorporation of lots of fresh garlic, and it has to be as smooth as possible, meaning it should spend some quality time in the food processor. Hummus overall, though, has grown on me over the last year or two. It used to be that I disliked it entirely, but my husband has made some good batches, and I’m learning how to improve it each time I make it, too.

Even though I still have to perfect hummus, I can tell you that if you’re looking for a good base recipe, this is it. It is also super cheap to make, which is a bonus for both hummus lovers and recession haters alike. The most expensive ingredient is tahini (if you use it – there are hummus recipes out there that do not use tahini), and olive oil which is optional.

Basic Hummus
This recipe makes about four cups of hummus. If thinned, it will yield a larger batch.

• 2 cups dried chickpeas or garbanzos (this is the same thing)
• Lemon juice from 1 or 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2-4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons salt or to taste
• Paprika (optional)
• Olive oil (optional)

Sort and rinse the dried chickpeas, and place in a large pan and cover with water about an inch or inch and a half above the chickpeas.

Chickpeas, also known as garbanzos

Boil on the stove for approximately two minutes, then turn off the heat and let it sit for two hours. (Alternatively, you can soak the chickpeas overnight. Boiling just speeds up the process if you want to make a batch the same day that you use them in a recipe or meal.)

Boiling chickpeas for two minutes

After the two hours is up, drain and rinse the chickpeas, then put them back on the stove and cover with about an inch of water and let simmer for two or two and a half hours on low to medium heat. You will want to check it periodically to see if you need to add more water, but if you keep a lid on your pan your water should not boil away as fast. Alternatively, if you have a slow cooker, you can put the chickpeas in there and let them simmer for two and a half hours on high.

Cooking the chickpeas or garbanzos in a slow cooker

Once the chickpeas are finished cooking they should be tender. Drain and rinse them and put them into a food processor and start to blend.

Starting to blend the chickpeas

You’ll want to blend for a couple of minutes, but it will be difficult to get everything well blended at this point. Add in the juice of one or two lemons, and blend again.

Adding in lemon juice

Add the tahini and salt, and blend some more.

In case you have never used sesame tahini before, it resembles peanut butter, but I’ll warn you – it is very bitter, so I wouldn’t recommend using it on its own outside of recipes. Unless you like bitter. A lot.

Sesame tahini

Add in the fresh garlic and blend until smooth.

Adding some garlic to the food processor

You’ll find that the hummus is quite thick at this point, so I would advise taste testing and determining if you should add more lemon juice. You may also want to add just ordinary water to thin it out, but I wouldn’t do more than a few tablespoons at a time. You don’t want the hummus to be runny, but neither do you want it to be too thick.

I would also recommend dividing this into a couple of batches and playing around with adding spices and other flavors. Of course, if you like just plain hummus then you can serve with a little paprika and olive oil on top, and provide raw vegetables, chips or pita to dip. You can also use hummus as an alternative to vegan mayonnaise on sandwiches.

Fresh hummus served with paprika and olive oil

Like I said in the beginning of this post, this is very inexpensive to make. If you find that you rely on store-bought hummus you will discover that you will save yourself a lot of money if you make your own. Not convinced? Let’s price it out. (Note that I am using grocery store prices from stores which list their prices online. You won’t necessarily pay the same price for the hummus you purchase, so this should be used as a general guide for how much money you may be able to save if you were to make your own hummus. My apologies if my math is wrong. I was the kid who cried in math class because it just didn’t make sense to me.)

So let’s say that you typically purchase either an 8-ounce container of plain or classic hummus or a larger 16-ounce container. You could be spending anywhere from $3.99 for the small to $8.99 for the large, and if you buy some of the other flavors, the price could fluctuate. But instead, you decide to purchase a 16-ounce bag of dried chickpeas for $1.65, and a 16-ounce jar of tahini for $11.15. You also choose to purchase lemons which can run for about $0.33 a piece. We’ll assume that you already have olive oil, salt and paprika on hand, and I won’t include the price of garlic since it is typically inexpensive. How much could you save if you made it instead of purchasing it at the store?

In this particular price breakdown you are spending 495% more for 16 ounces and 418% more for 8 ounces if you purchase it at the store vs. making it at home. Add up how frequently you purchase hummus and you’ll see how beneficial making it at home could be for your budget. I admit that we still purchase hummus from time to time, so we still pay more than we ought to, but if we have the time and the ingredients we almost always prefer to make it ourselves.

Do you make your own hummus? Do you have a favorite way of making it?

Not all vegans eat the same things, but just like everybody else, we’ve got our own common meat and potatoes items. One thing that eventually winds up on a vegan’s plate is tofu scramble (or scrambled tofu, depending upon your preference), and we vegans are known for making it a variety of ways. Even my husband and I make it two different ways, but I’ll share my preferred method here.

Tofu Scramble
Since I don’t follow a recipe when I make Tofu Scramble, this recipe is only an approximation, and should be used more as a rough guide (although feel free to follow exactly, too).

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 package extra firm tofu, drained
• 2 teaspoons chicken or beef style seasoning I use McKay’s
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon spice blend of your choice I use McCormick’s Smoky Sweet Pepper Blend

Chop up a medium to large onion.

After slicing off the ends of the cloves of garlic, slice down the middle and remove the center stem. This part can taste a little bitter, so it is sometimes best to remove it, although it’s no problem if you leave it in. Chop the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat.

One package of tofu should suffice for two people, but if you are feeding more people you can do more (and you may want to increase the other ingredients as well to make sure the dish is still full of flavor).

Once the onions and garlic have sauteed for a few minutes, push them to one side of the pan and then add the block of tofu to the bare side of the pan.

Grab a potato masher and begin mashing the tofu starting on one edge and working your way through the entire block.

Before you incorporate the onions and garlic with the mashed tofu, first add the spices to the tofu. I usually start off with the chicken or beef style seasoning.

Then the nutritional yeast – you can add more or less depending upon your preference; not everyone likes nutritional yeast.

Finally I just sprinkle the pepper spice until I think I’ve added enough.

Mix everything together now and let it saute without stirring for a couple of minutes.

After a couple of minutes, the tofu should start browning.

It’s up to you how long you let it brown. I usually stir, then let it sit for a couple of minutes, stir again and let it sit – I do this for probably up to six to eight minutes.

Once it’s done it will have a nice texture that reminds me a little bit of hearty scrambled eggs (sorry – not of the taste, though).

Aside for making it differently, my husband and I usually eat it two different ways, too. He normally eats his on toast with ketchup, vegenaise, and sometimes hot sauce.

I tend to have my tofu scramble on it’s own, and then a slice of toast and jam (in this case marmalade!).

Tofu scramble is such a versatile recipe. We sometimes make it with sliced mushrooms, green and/or black olives, and other spices. It’s great for breakfast burritos or pita sandwiches, too. Really, you can eat it much the same way as you would scrambled eggs. That’s kind of the point, I think, for vegans.

How do you make yours? And do you eat yours any differently than we do?

As I have said before, I love potatoes and can hardly resist them when either thought about or put in front of me. What’s really nice about potatoes is that they are incredibly versatile, so there are countless ways to prepare them. Lately I have been seeing armadillo potatoes on my web surfing journeys, and I finally decided I needed to try these myself.

Aside from finding the best shape and size of potato for these, you have to choose what you want to stuff them with. I’ve seen a myriad of stuffing from pesto to bread crumbs, but since I also have a love of garlic I decided to keep it simple and stick to something I knew for sure I’d like.

Armadillo Potatoes with Garlic

• 4 medium-sized potatoes (I used Idaho potatoes), scrubbed and bad parts cut away
• 3 – 4 cloves garlic (or more or less depending on your taste)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover a pizza or cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

Clean your potatoes and cut away any bad parts.

Take a potato and slice partway through the top of it, but not all the way.

Do this every 1/4 inch or so depending on the size of your potatoes, as well as how much stuffing you will have.

Unfortunately, I noticed that one of my potatoes had a bad spot right in the middle, but I decided to salvage it. I tore away the slices that were bad and just sliced around the middle, so only a small part of the potato was lost.

After each potato has been sliced, rinse them off and then wrap halfway in foil. This ensures that the stuffing will continue to flavor the potato even if it drips out.

Take your cloves of garlic and give thanks that they exist. Many many yummy thanks…

While I love garlic, I don’t really like the green shoot in the middle (it’s a bit bitter), so after taking the garlic skins off I cut off the very bottom and then cut it down the middle so I can take out the green part.

Crush the garlic into a small bowl, or chop it finely and put it into a small bowl.

Add the olive oil and salt and mix. With a spoon insert a little bit of the stuffing in between each slice of potato. Note that you may have to increase the garlic and/or the olive oil to ensure that you have enough for all of the potatoes.

After you have stuffed all the potatoes, place them in the oven and bake for half an hour. At this point check them by poking with a knife to make sure they are done. If you’re like me and consistently wind up with underdone potatoes you should probably leave them in for an additional 10 or 15 minutes and check again.

Once they are done, bring them out of the oven and let them cool a few minutes before serving.

I felt these were really good, but I think that they could have used more garlic and olive oil. I was really generous with the first potato, so I probably should have paced myself. What can I say, though? That first potato had the most flavor.

These did take a while to prepare. Ideally this would be a lot faster, but because this was my first time I wasn’t completely organized. I also think that these potatoes would have been easier to deal with if I had sliced them completely in half, then slice those halves with the 1/4 inch slices (maybe even baking faster or more thoroughly?). As it was, since potatoes are generally not flat, half the time I was trying to keep them still while I sliced.

Still, though, I may try these again and experiment with the stuffing. Any ideas?

This morning I thought I’d check in on the Daring Bakers website to see how much time I still had to make this month’s challenge. I discovered that today was my deadline! I had actually hoped to get this one created earlier in the month, but we had family over, then I was sick last week – and sadly I’m still sick. I am on the verge of wellness, so I figured that I could still make and post these lavash crackers and dip today. And hooray! Here we are!

I was very pleased to see that this month’s challenge was vegan. Usually every month I wind up doing some sort of science experiment by changing this ingredient to that and trying to get the ratio of the new ingredients to make sense. I’ve had a lot of interesting results, mostly good, but I was still so glad to see that us vegans and gluten free bakers can take a break and just make a recipe without having to think too hard.

I’ve made crackers before, but not of the lavash variety. This recipe, which I am posting mostly word for word, also has a gluten-free option which is great for people who have celiac disease. Note that I did not make gluten-free crackers – next time! :)

Lavash Crackers
Thank you to this month’s hosts – Shellyfish of Musings From The Fishbowl and Natalie of Gluten A Go Go

• 1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
• 1/2 teaspoon (.13 ounces) salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (.055 ounces) instant yeast (Note from Samantha – I used 1 full teaspoon because I’ve had this yeast for a while. It worked perfectly.)
• 1 tablespoon (.75 ounces) agave syrup (a.k.a. agave nectar) or sugar
• 1 tablespoon (.5 ounces) vegetable oil
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (3 to 4 ounces) water, at room temperature (Note from Samantha – I used about 1/3 cup water, and that was plenty.)
• Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter.

Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see WikiHow for a description of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

or

For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), and slightly tacky. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour.

Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down.

Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

or

For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt – a little goes a long way.

Quick note from Samantha – I used a variety of spices to vary the flavor. On some crackers I used garlic and salt, and on others I used dill. I also used this McCormick seasoning, Smoky Sweet Pepper.

If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

Note from Samantha – I found that 10 minutes worked pretty well. My suggestion would be to check this every five minutes and rotate the cookie sheet to try for evenly distributed baking. It all depends on your oven.

When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Final note from Samantha – I wound up dividing the dough into three sections, so I had three batches of crackers. Making the dough “paper thin” made it kind of impossible to fit on one cookie sheet, and two batches still didn’t seem quite right. It all depends on how much space you have in your oven, too. Our stove is one of those narrower ones, so we can only put our cookie sheets in the oven one way, and there’s most certainly not room for two cookie sheets on one rack.

I had hoped to create a soy-free dip for those of you who are anti-soy as well as for those of you who don’t have Tofutti where you shop, but it just didn’t happen. The nice thing about this recipe is that it is extremely flexible – so if you eat dairy, you can use regular cream cheese or if you’re vegan, you can probably create a creamy base with nuts like cashews or use tofu instead.

Artichoke and Sundried Tomato Dip

• 1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package Tofutti cream cheese, Plain

Check to see if there are any tough pieces of your artichoke hearts that need to be cut away. The tough areas will be on the outer leaves, and unless you blend the dip well then you’ll still run across tough pieces when eating it.

Put the artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, garlic cloves and salt into a food processor and pulse the ingredients until they are chopped.

Add the Tofutti cream cheese, and blend together for about 10 – 15 seconds.

Taste test at this point to see if you need to add any other ingredients or balance out the ones you have in there.

The end result will be a creamy and flavorful dip that goes well with these crackers.

These crackers turned out really well. I don’t make crackers very frequently, but it is definitely good to have another reliable recipe on hand for future use.

The dip was also a great accompaniment. Both my husband and I scarfed down a few crackers and quite a bit of dip before restraining ourselves so we’d still have some for later. That’s always a good sign. ;)

A few weeks ago I made a batch of orzo with basil pesto. The recipe had originally been inspired by a recipe in a food magazine that used dill instead of basil. The recipe continued to eat at me because I was terribly curious if dill pesto would be as tasty and satisfying as basil pesto.

One day at the grocery store I grabbed one bunch of dill and decided I’d find out, for better or worse, if dill pesto is all that magazine cracked it up to be. The recipe from a few weeks ago remains the same, just the dill is different.

Dill Pesto

• 1 cup fresh dill, washed
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 package pasta

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, prepare your pesto ingredients.

Put fresh dill, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt into a food processor or blender, and as it is blending pour olive oil into the blender. Once it is done blending it should look similar to this (and yes this is the basil, but same concept).

When the pasta has finished cooking, drain and rinse it under cold water, then mix the pesto and pasta together.

Verdict? I was surprised, but the dill was not as overpowering as I thought it might be. In fact, I realized how much the other ingredients really influence the taste of pesto. I have tended to believe that the primary flavor has been the basil, but the truth of the matter is that you’re tasting the pine nuts, olive oil and garlic just as much.

You can still taste the dill, but honestly, it didn’t taste tremendously different than the basil pesto. I’m sure if you were to put the two side by side and do a taste test you’d see – ah yes, that is basil, this is dill. But the dill did quite well as a pesto, and I’d recommend it to those of you who haven’t forayed into the realm of other herb pesto possibilities.

Hmmm… Now this makes me wonder what other herb pestos I should try. Any recommendations?

For the last three years or so we have done container gardening. It isn’t quite the same as doing regular gardening where you have your own land, but it is a decent substitute. We usually grow about a million tomatoes (slight exaggeration), and a few other random items. This year we’re trying to grow artichokes, have successfully grown radishes and turnips (more on that in a future post), and strawberries.

Another thing we grow, but never manage to use all of, is basil. It is probably one of the absolute easiest things to grow, but we rarely take full advantage of it since there is so much of it.

A couple of weeks ago when I was looking through a food magazine I ran across a recipe for an orzo dish with dill pesto. Since it has been a while since I’ve had orzo, and since we had all that basil growing on our back porch, I decided to try to make it with our basil.

Orzo, if you have never heard of it, is a pasta that looks similar to rice.

It tastes like other pasta, so the only real difference is its shape.

Orzo with Basil Pesto

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, washed
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pkg. orzo pasta
• 1 lb. fresh or frozen asparagus spears

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, prepare your pesto ingredients.

Put basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt into a food processor or blender.

And start your blender.

As it is blending, pour olive oil into the blender.

Once it is done, it should look something like this.

When the orzo has finished cooking, drain and rinse it under cold water.

Cut the asparagus into one-inch pieces and steam or cook for a few minutes until the desired tenderness. Put the orzo, pesto, and asparagus into a large bowl and stir it all together.

I am usually not big on pesto, but I liked how this turned out. The pesto wasn’t too overpowering and the asparagus was a nice touch. I also liked the orzo. Its size and shape give this dish a nice texture.

I will say though that I probably should have increased the amount of basil or cut down on the olive oil. It was still quite good, but the ratio of oil to basil was a little off.

I also think that this is a dish that can most certainly be played around with. Instead of pine nuts you could most certainly use walnuts or even possibly pecans. Instead of basil, you can use fresh spinach, green beans, or dill. You could also use other oils, but I would probably leave that the same. Olive oil gives such a rich and smooth flavor that I wouldn’t trade that for a lighter oil.

Have any of you used dill as a base for pesto? I am really curious to know if the dill is too strong of a flavor or if it is similar in intensity to basil. I may try it at some point, but would love to know your experiences with it in the meantime.

Ah, summer. It seems that we’ve finally gotten there. With 100+ degree days in spring, it kind of makes wonder what to expect for the next few months. If it’s anything hotter than what we’ve had so far, I am not sure that I want to be turning on the stove – or at least for very long.

One of my favorite things to have during the summer is pasta salad. It’s both flavorful and filling, plus if you stick it in the freezer for a few minutes it can be really refreshing. We used to make it all the time, but somehow got out of the habit. I knew I had to revisit it, and now we’re both saying that we have to have some more.

Summer Pasta Salad

• 1 pkg. of pasta (I used tricolore farfalle, or three color bow-tie pasta)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 – 3 large cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 – 2 pickles, diced
• 1 can black olives, chopped or sliced
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, chopped
• 5 pieces sundried tomatoes, diced
• 1 small can mushrooms, diced
• 3 – 5 Tbsp. Vegenaise
• 1 Tbsp. mustard (I used horseradish mustard)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. dill
• 1 tsp. salt

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking revert back to your childhood and throw some olives on your fingers.

Unfortunately, now that I am slightly bigger than a small child it doesn’t work so well. I probably should have put this one on my pinky.

Go back to being an adult, and prepare your other ingredients.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse it with cold water, and put it back into the pan you cooked it in or a large bowl. I personally like to not dirty extra dishes so I usually just put it back in the pan.

Dump the rest of the ingredients on top of the pasta and mix. Taste test it and adjust the seasonings and other ingredients like Vegenaise.

Once it is at a good combination of flavors, put it in the refrigerator for at least a half hour or more and then serve.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much dump whatever you want into it. We like ours with these ingredients, but we also like to play around a bit. Sometimes it is nice to add an extra kick with diced banana peppers (or pepperoncini), add green olives, or try other spices.

Happy summer…gotta go come up with some other recipe ideas now that it looks like it might start heating up again.

If I were to list my favorite foods, Mexican would likely not make it. This is an unfortunate dilemma for my marriage, however, as it tops my husband’s list of favorite foods. If it were up to him we would eat burritos every day or at least every week. When he says, “What do you feel like having? We could have Mexican,” I usually respond with “I don’t really feel like Mexican.”

“But you never want Mexican.”

“Because it’s not one of my favorite cuisines.”

“You suck.”

“You suck.”

“That’s it. I want a divorce.”

“Whatever you want, dear. I’m here to make you happy.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Okay, well, maybe not exactly like that, but it does come close sometimes.

The thing is, is that I do like Mexican – sometimes. There are *some* decent dishes. But most of the ones I really like have cheese, and I decided two or three years ago that cheese would no longer be a part of my diet. And let me tell you, my favorite Mexican dish, a quesadilla, happens to not be that good vegan. (I’m willing to be contradicted, however.)

One dish I do like, even vegan, is enchiladas. In a way, enchiladas are like baked burritos, but I don’t know – it’s just not exactly the same as a burrito. And today I made enchiladas the lazy way, because I was lazy and my enchiladas always fall apart.

Vegan Enchiladas
Adapted from Paul McCartney’s Vegan Enchiladas recipe

Sauce

• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 4 tablespoons water

Filling

• 1/2 or 1 whole can of Vege-Burger
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder or 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 regular-sized can (not large) crushed or sliced tomatoes
• 1 8-oz. pkg. frozen spinach, thawed
• 14 +/- corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all the sauce ingredients, except for the cornstarch, in a small pot and cook over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch and cook until the sauce thickens.

In the meantime, prepare the filling. Mix the Vege-Burger, onion, chili powder, cumin, garlic, pepper, and can of tomatoes.

In a large baking dish, cover the bottom with several tortillas (I used 4).

Spread half of your spinach over the tortillas.

Spread half of your filling mixture on top of the spinach.

Add another layer of corn tortillas, spinach, and filling, then top with a final layer of tortillas. Spread the sauce on the very top.

Put the dish into your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

This recipe originally called for tofu instead of Vege-Burger, but we already had a can open from a few days ago that I wanted to use.

In case you don’t know what Vege-Burger is, it is basically TVP (textured vegetable protein) that’s already ready for you to use. TVP is usually dry when you purchase it, and you have to reconstitute it with water, as well as add seasonings. The Vege-Burger is not terribly flavorful, but it does add a meaty texture. A lot of people use it for sloppy joes or pasta sauce. It really is a versatile product.

Note that the can says “Vegan”; I believe that they also make a non-vegan kind, so you have to make sure it says “vegan” on it.

Here’s a picture of it in the can:

Anyway, these enchiladas turned out pretty well. It’s definitely more like a casserole since I didn’t make them into individual enchiladas, but it tastes pretty much the same. One thing I will say that is lacking is cheese or some sort of creaminess. Tofutti Sour Cream or Vegenaise could both come in handy. Otherwise, tasty. Maybe my marriage will last another week. :)

“Here you are, Messere!” The host’s voice took his mind off his worries. The man placed a wooden platter in front of him, containing slices of dark bread soaked in a reddish slop. On top were two slabs of cheese with a thick, moldy rind. “And here is some wine, true nectar of Saint Dennis!” he exclaimed, setting down a moist earthenware jug.
“Dionysus,” Dante muttered.
“Saint Dionysus?”
“No, Dionysus the god.”
“By God, Messere, you are right; the other was Saint Damian.”
The prior dismissed him with a nod and looked around for a spoon. He resigned himself to using his fingers, and after having rolled up his sleeves, scooped up and swallowed a dripping mouthful. Not so bad, aside from the mold on the cheese, and not too different from what the kitchens of the Priors’ Palazzo dished out, he thought as he fell upon the wine.

-The Mosaic Crimes by Giulio Leoni, Anne Milano Appel

There are some books which sound good in the description, but wind up being disappointing to me. Sad to say, this is one of those. I typically enjoy reading books that are along the lines of The Last Cato, The Da Vinci Code, or Labyrinth. They are not exactly what I would call fine literature, but they are entertaining and keep me on the edge of my seat.

This book, centered around Dante Alighieri and his quest to solve a handful of mysterious crimes, never swept me into the story. Dante was portrayed not as a hero, but more as a self-centered jerk and in the end did little that was impressive. The only real impressive thing was how often he managed to be in a tavern and seem to only subsist on wine. The above quote is the only mention of food in the entire book (at least that I recall).

I was so uninspired that I had a hard time coming up with something to make. I wanted to stay true to the book and make some kind of red Italian soup with bread, but I just couldn’t do it. I finally decided upon a creamy Italian white bean soup, which was justified because it says “Italian” right in the name. So there you go, Dante – hopefully a better meal than the slop you had earlier.

Creamy Italian White Bean Soup

• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 pound white Great Northern beans, already cooked (1/2 pound dry makes about 2-3 cups cooked beans)
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 cups water
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a large saucepan, heat oil. Cook onion and celery in oil for 5 to 8 minutes, or until tender. Add garlic, and cook for 30 seconds, continually stirring. Stir in cooked beans, vegetable broth, pepper, thyme and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and then simmer for 15 minutes.

With slotted spoon, remove 2 cups of the bean and vegetable mixture from soup and set aside.

In blender at low speed, blend remaining soup in small batches until smooth, opening up the center piece of the lid so the steam can escape. (If you have a blender like a VitaMix, you can probably get away with doing it all in one batch like I did.) Once blended pour soup back into stock pot and stir in reserved beans.

Bring to a boil, occasionally stirring. Stir in spinach and cook 1 minute or until spinach is wilted. Stir in lemon juice, remove from heat, and serve.

I liked this soup, but I cannot say that I loved it. It definitely was creamy, and the spinach was a good addition to give it a contrasting flavor, but it seemed like something was missing. I couldn’t place my finger on it though. Maybe it needed to be more hearty, or different beans. I used Great Northern, but perhaps I should have gone with a white bean with more flavor.

Sorry Dante, maybe this wasn’t your kind of soup after all.

Weekend before last we went to the year-round farmers market in Union Square. Since we are now in the winter months farmers are mainly selling root vegetables. There are other goods to be had – fresh meats and eggs, wines, cheeses, and assorted odds and ends. My mission was to obtain some fingerling potatoes, which I have never had before, and prepare them for our Christmas meal. It was a success – although I had a hard time figuring out which varieties to buy. I settled on three, but I’ll admit that I forgot which ones they were.

I wasn’t entirely sure how I would prepare the potatoes. I didn’t think that I had a sufficient amount for mashed potatoes and turnips, so I decided to figure out something else.

I finally decided on roasting them. Normally when I roast potatoes I have to leave them in the oven for much longer than the recipe usually advises. It was no different this time. Many of the recipes I found said to leave them in the oven for 45 minutes or until tender, but they were in a similar firm condition to all other types of potatoes I have roasted in the past.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

• 3 lbs. fingerling potatoes, chopped into good sized pieces
• 4-5 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• salt and other desired spices to taste (suggested spices – thyme, oregano, rosemary)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl mix together all of your ingredients, then pour them into a large baking dish. Place the dish in the oven for one hour, going back once or twice to stir. After one hour, check the potatoes to see if they are done. If they aren’t done (which is usually my plight), leave them in the oven and continue checking them every 20-30 minutes until they are at the desired tenderness.

I typically roast my potatoes with other ingredients like onions and mushrooms, but this time around I felt like these potatoes could do with just garlic and a few spices. This simplified version was delicious and satisfying. The taste of these fingerlings was probably a little nuttier and more delicate than your standard store-bought potatoes.

Now that I’ve had fingerling potatoes I am interested in possibly going back and experimenting with other ways of making them – perhaps potato salad or a potato soup. I’m sold no matter what, and nothing is more delicious to me than eating a locally grown veggie.