Gingery Chickpeas with Carrots: Wholesome, Yummy, HealthyBy foodjoyaGingery chickpeas and carrots are spectacular! Just imagine chickpeas soaked in a nectar of tomato sauce with carrots, ginger, parsley, and caramelized onions. All sugar-free, of course! This healthy treat is a perfect combination of warm flavors: carrots + ginger, chickpeas + tomatoes, parsley + lemon zest. And though ingredients are few, the dish is richly flavorful, but not spicy. Ginger and lemon zest add just the right amount of flare, without overtaking. This delight is neither sour nor sweet - perfect to the last bite.
This plant-based delight also shows how versatile garbanzo beans are. For most of us, they usually mean hummus. In reality, you can cook them with anything. They combine well with a whole medley of spices and herbs and vegetables. In my previous posts, for example, I combined chickpeas with butternut squash and eggplant mash -- and the dishes were delicious! Another example is FoodNetwork's Moroccan chickpea soup when made without sugar, of course.
Thinking back to that soup recipe, I decided to combine this wonderful legume with tomato sauce. Tomatoes, of course, are quite acidic. To reduce their acidity, I included plenty of carrots and a generous amount of ginger. Inspired by chef chef Michael Chiarello's recipe, I added lemon finely grated zest and chopped parsley. The result is the recipe below, and it's glamorous! Indeed, Gingery Chickpeas and Carrots are more than yummy. They are neither acidic nor sweet - just a perfect combination of flavors, with a ginger and lemon zest flare.
Lastly, note that, again, I recommend changing water when you cook beans. This step helps make them easier to digest.warm butternut chickpea salad: destined to be loved!By foodjoyaThis Warm Butternut Chickpea Salad makes a lovely meal or a satisfying side. Chickpeas and butternut squash combine perfectly together to create a nourishing, comforting salad. Because of its plentiful quantity, it is also perfect for your holiday table. You will see that this dish calls for plenty of mild curry powder and quality cinnamon. If you are working with a smaller squash (about 3 lbs), you can reduce the amount of curry powder for the squash to 1.5 tablespoons and cinnamon to 1.5 teaspoons. I would not recommend tinkering with the curry power for the chickpeas, however, because they benefit from a greater flavor. As you will also see, the Warm Butternut Chickpea Salads wants you to pour plenty of olive oil. While I've tried using less, butternut squash and chickpeas are quite dry and bland without it. Put simply, these two vegetables soak up the healthy olive oil. Note also that the recipe asks you to dice butternut squash quite finely, in half-inch cubes. To accomplish that, we used Breville Sous Chef Peel & Dice Countertop Food Processor.
If you are working with pre-cooked chickpeas, the entire dish will take about 50 minutes. That includes passive cooking time. I strongly recommend, however, that you use dry chickpeas. And if do, I would add onion, 3 garlic cloves and 1 bay leaf to the dry chickpeas. When the chickpeas are ready, you can discard these additions.
Once again, I found the idea for the combination of chickpeas and butternut squash in Food & Wine's recipe by Melissa Rubel. My recipe, however, uses completely different proportions of the ingredients and adds cinnamon. Vegan Ash: Persian soup with unforgettable flavorsBy foodjoyaThis Vegan Ash, or a thick Persian soup, derives its flavor from a bounty of herbs. In this version, we used two bunches of parsley, two bunches of cilantro, and fresh mint. Traditionally, ash is served with lamb meatballs. See, e.g., a Persian cuisine blog. For our vegan version, we use walnut-mint pesto instead of meat. To highlight the nutty flavor, we use black wild rice (from Canada) instead of regular short-grain rice. We adore how the flavors from walnuts, herbs and black wild rice dance together in this soup. In addition, black wild rice is exceptionally rich in antioxidants and low in carbs. Research has shown that a spoonful of black rice bran contains more anthocyanins (a powerful antioxidant found in blueberries) than a spoonful of blueberries. See Dr. Andrew Weil.
Nonetheless, if that's what you prefer, you can make Vegan Ash with just a regular long- or short-grain rice. Our version of this soup is inspired by Naomi Duigud's recipe "Pomegranate Ash with Meatballs" published in Taste of Persia 107 (2016), also available on Kindle: Taste of Persia (Kindle version). Finally, note that Vegan Ash involves largely passive cooking. This soup will happily simmer while you are working from home or spending time with your family. vegan black lentil soup: how to make it zesty and flavorfulBy foodjoyaAs I am sharing with you the Vegan Black Lentil Soup recipe, I wish to thank my Mom. She discovered or conceived many recipes on this blog. She enjoys bountiful flavors found in the Middle Eastern cuisine and searches through myriads of books to find the right inspiration. Mom discovered the prototype for the Vegan Black Lentil Soup in a German cookbook by Ali Güngörmüş. See Ali Güngörmüs, Das Kochbuch (German) (Oct. 20, 2008); see also a Wikipedia article about Mr. Güngörmüş. And she was right on! This hearty and comforting soup is infused with subtle flavors from ginger and orange zest. Before bringing this recipe to you, we've substantially modified it. Most importantly, we cook our black lentils (beluga lentils) separately and thoroughly before adding them to the soup. (The original recipe would have you sauté the lentils with onions and tomatoes for about 15-18 minutes.) To add more flavor to our Vegan Black Lentil Soup, we use a high-quality tomato sauce in place of the diced tomatoes. Rather than the starchy conventional potato, we use the Japanese sweet potato. We also omit sugar, brown butter, and Crema di Balsamico. Finally, we double the amounts of orange zest and our favorite, incredibly versatile herb - thyme. this mung dal will delight your sensesBy foodjoyaWhat if your dinner was a superfood? How about an aromatic, spicy, finger-licking superfood? We invite you to make this recipe for your wholesome dinner or lunch. Even if you've never cooked a dal before, this one will surprise you with its ease and simplicity. And you will see for yourself that carefully selected spices make all the difference. Though our mung dal is spicy, that too is beneficial for your health. According to multiple sources, an ingredient found in black pepper (piperine) increases absorption of turmeric's curcumin by 2000%. E.g., University of Massachusetts article. Without piperine, the benefits of curcumin are difficult for your body to unlock. Coupled with ginger, these herbs form a magic potion that protects your body from inflammation, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. See study published in the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. So savor mung dal by spoonful, nourishing your senses -- and your body. Note: You can make this dal with red lentils. Just be sure to add an extra cup of water. Easy Ratatouille Recipe: Delightful Vegetable MedleyBy foodjoyaOur easy ratatouille recipe uses diced tomatoes and a delicious tomato sauce. This dish is perfect for the vegetables from your prolific summer garden. Do you know what "ratatouille" means? According to one source, this vegetable stew likely originates from Provence and has become most popular in Nice. Dating back to 18th century, it means "stir up." Ratatouille usually consists of various vegetables, such as eggplant, onion, zucchini, pepper, tomatoes and garlic, cut in bite sizes. Some chefs cook all ingredients together, while others separately sauté each vegetable. A similar dish exists in other countries in Southern Europe and Mediterranean. Thus, for example, a close relative of ratatouille in Moldova (where we were born) is a "ghiveci," often made with cauliflower. Our easy ratatouille recipe can be used for making a side dish or main dish with grains or, better yet, with grain-free, flourless Simple Mills crackers.
