I’ve been bugging my friend Mariela for awhile to teach me how to make her famous empanadas (or pastelitos, whichever). She is Ecuadorian and therefore knows what she’s doing. Unfortunately this weekend our plans fell through, but my always adventurous friend Gloria and my sister Meg and I decided to forge ahead anyway and try our hand at it. The results were delicious, and we had a lot of fun muddling through!
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Kale chips were pretty trendy last year; I finally got around to making them and all I can say is what in the world took me so long?! Yum! They couldn’t be easier to make and they really are as crispy and delicious as everyone promised they would be.
To give credit where it’s due, I referenced the recipe on Smitten Kitchen, adding a chaat masala zing.
Zoeya loved them as you can see. We munched on them last Friday evening, a complete treat for her – snacks…on the couch (yay! Eating on the couch is fun!)…watching a movie (Coraline!)…staying up late!
1 bunch kale – the curly kind
olive oil to lightly coat
sea salt
chaat masala (optional)
Wash the kale and dry thoroughly. Trim away the stalks and rip into “chip-sized” pieces. Arrange in one layer on a couple of cookie sheets, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake at 300° for about 20 minutes or until crispy.
I sprinkled mine with chaat masala (a little spicy, a little tangy) and left Zoeya’s plain.
It’s springtime, and I’m definitey in the mood for fresh green veggies. These green beans are cooked al dente and dressed with a lovely tangy vinaigrette. It’s Monday night; I made this as lazily as humanly possible and you can barely call this a salad, but you can call it beautiful in it’s simplicity.
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp honey
salt & pepper
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Combine shallot with vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Let sit and pickle for at least 20 minutes. Add dijon mustard and olive oil, mix well.
Meanwhile, blanche green beans in salted boiling water. Drain and cool to room temp on a tea towel. Toss with vinaigrette and serve.
Take this up a couple notches by adding red potatoes and cherry tomatoes – fit for a dinner party!
I have ventured back to the kitchen and am very much enjoying cooking again. Unfortunately, my morning-sicky reluctance to cook meat persists. I tried to bake my normally delicious chicken shawarma in the oven so I didn’t have to look at it, and it spitefully turned out dry and tasteless.
Fortunately, the accompanying hummus and cucumber and tomato salad more than made up for it, and the three together tucked inside a warm whole wheat pita made for a tasty meal. I know for sure this little stinker enjoyed it:
I’ve made hummus forever, lazily, from chickpeas in a can. This is the first time I made it from dried chickpeas, and I am never going back. NEVER! So creamy! So flavorful! And with the help of the crockpot, even though they take a lot more time to cook they don’t take a lot more effort.
Note: This made an enormous batch, we will be eating hummus with every meal for a week. Next time I’ll probably split this recipe in two.
2 cups dried chickpeas
To cook:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
water to cover by several inches
To season:
juice of 2 lemons
2 cloves of garlic, grated or finely chopped
2/3 c water, more if needed
1/2 c tahini (sesame seed paste)
salt to taste
1/2 c olive oil, plus more to garnish
Combine the dried chickpeas, water, salt and baking soda in the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours, turning up to high in moments of impatience.
Drain and transfer to a food processor. Combine with lemon juice, garlic, water, tahini and salt, thinning with more water if your food processor is having a hard time. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while blending. Serve with warm pita, crisp veggies, as a spread for sandwiches, etc.
This salad is so summery, crisp and refreshing. Sumac is a lemony Middle Eastern spice and can be found in Middle Eastern markets, but if you don’t have any you can substitute the juice of half a lemon or a little extra vinegar.
1 large cucumber
3 roma tomatoes
small handful of mint
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp sumac
salt
Slice and combine cucumbers and tomatoes. Toss with chopped mint (reserve a little for garnish). Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, sumac and salt and dress salad.
This is the little black dress of salads, the salad I so often go to because it goes with everything – Italian, Spanish, but don’t stop there – and is perfect for every occasion. It’s very simple with a couple of snappy tricks I love.
(or…Little Black Dress Salad)
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons balsamic or sherry vinegar
1 tsp honey
salt, pepper
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
one red pepper
spring greens
handful sliced almonds, toasted
Go ahead and do two things early: wash and dry your red pepper and pop it in the oven, straight on the rack, at about 450°. Then thinly slice your shallot and mix with vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl or coffee cup. Go about preparing your main dish while the pepper is roasting (flip once as the skin gets black) and your shallot pickles.
When the pepper is nicely roasted, partly blackened and blistered, remove it to a plate to cool. Whisk olive oil into your vinegar and shallot mixture. Fill a large bowl half full with greens, and toss with your vinaigrette – save the shallot to spoon on top. Remove the skin, seeds, and stem from your red pepper, thinly slice, and arrange on top of greens. Sprinkle with almonds.
