Coucous Cakes with Salsa

As I believe I've mentioned that I made a New Year's resolution to myself to make at least one new recipe every week. This usually means that on Sunday, when I'm making up my weekly menu (yes, I actually do that), I end up flipping through one of my cookbooks for something that I haven't made before and that sounds intriguing. So recently, I was flipping through Better Homes and Garden 365 Vegetarian Meals and came across this recipe. I thought it sounded interesting, and worth a try. I ended up being happy with how it came out. I wasn't expecting couscous to go well with a Mexican-flavored salsa, but it did! This is a nice, light meal and great for summer. It has a couple components to it, so bear with me.


Recipe
Makes 4 servings
1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teapsoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk or sour fat-free milk*
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 recipe Black Bean Salsa
Nonstick cooking spray


*To make 3/4 cup sour fat-free milk, place 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup. Add enough fat-free milk to make 3/4 cup total liquid; stir. Let stand for 5 minutes before using.


1. In a medium bowl combine uncooked couscous, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl beat egg with a fork. Stir in buttermilk and oil. Stir buttermilk mixture into couscous mixture. Let stand for 20 minutes (batter will thicken as it stands).


2. Meanwhile, prepare Black Bean Salsa; set aside. Preheat oven to 200 degree F.


Black Bean Salsa: In a medium bowl stir together 3/4 cup frozen whole kernel corn, thawed; half of a 15-ounce can black beans (3/4 cup), rinsed and drained; 3/4 cup salsa; 1/2 cup chopped, peeled jicama; 1 tablespoon snipped fresh cilantro; 1 tablespoon lime juice; and 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.


3. Lightly coat an unheated griddle or large nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Preheat over medium heat. For each cake, spoon 2 slightly rounded tablespoons of the couscous batter onto the hot griddle or into the skillet; quickly spread to 3 1/2-inch cakes. Cook about 4 minutes or until brown, turning once halfway through cooking or when bottoms are lightly brown and edges are slightly dry. Remove bean cakes from griddle or skillet. Keep warm in oven while cooking remaining cakes.


4. To serve, top couscous cakes with Black Bean Salsa.

roasted tomato feta scones.

I spend a lot of time on a website called Etsy, which allows seller to sell their handmade and vintage goods online. It's a fun site and I've enjoyed selling some of my handmade cards over the last few months. Anyways, the website also posts articles, which I honestly don't usually read because a lot of them are weird or pointless, but when I saw the picture of these scones, I had to click on the article. The recipe for these savory scones is from the blog Savory Sweet Life, which you should also check out. There are some good-looking recipes on there. It's not exclusively vegetarian, but there are several veggie-friendly recipes, and many that I think would not be difficult to substitute ingredients.

the recipe

Makes 8 scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 4 oz package feta cheese

1/2 cup roasted red tomatoes, chopped

2 green onions, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the flour, baking powder, garlic salt and butter in a food processor. Pulsate everything in 3-second intervals until the mixture resembles coarse meal. If doing this by hand, use 2 knives, a pastry blender or your fingers.

Transfer everything to a large bowl. Stir in heavy cream and egg, mixing the dough by hand until it comes together. Add feta cheese, roasted tomatoes, and green onions. Gently mix the ingredients by hand until the savory ingredients are evenly distributed. On a floured surface, form a big dough ball. Flatten the dough in a 1 inch disk and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Bake for 15 on a baking stone or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Remove scones from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

substitutions

First of all, I cut this recipe in half because I knew it would take me ages to finish off an entire recipe of these things myself. Additionally, I didn't have the roasted tomatoes, so I just seeded some regular tomatoes and used that instead. I also didn't have green onions, which is a shame, because I think it really adds some of the color to it. I just used some sweet onions instead, for flavor.

great with

Considering that you could eat these for pretty much any meal, your options are wide open. I had two for dinner, accompanied by a salad. I also brought one to work for lunch, along with an apple and some greek yogurt. 

the review

Let's first take a moment to marvel at how much mine do not look like the picture featured with the original recipe. Seriously, how hilarious is that? No matter--these were still really good. Mine definitely do not look as pretty, and I'm thinking that had something to do with not having exactly the right ingredients. Like I indicated before, I think the green onions and the dark red of the roasted tomatoes would really make a nice color combination in food. Honestly though, even with the substitutions, I thought these were really good and I enjoyed both making and eating them. I think next time, I'm going to use green onions, and possibly sun-dried tomatoes. I don't know, I just think that sounds really good.

greek cheese and potato patties

About two weeks ago, I was preparing to donate blood for the first time. I was nervous, so I was just trying to do everything that I was told--drink lots of water, eat a hearty breakfast the day of, and intake lots of iron in the days leading up to the donation. I do the first two on most days anyways, so I began focusing on the third one, especially since I know vegetarians can sometimes have difficulty keeping their iron levels up. Every day the week before I donated blood, I made sure I ate something that contained spinach. 

Therefore, when I found the following recipe, another one from The Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, I decided to add spinach and see what happened. 

the recipe

serves 4

1 1/4 lb potatoes

4 oz feta cheese

4 spring onions, chopped

3 tbsp chopped fresh dill

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg, beaten

flour for dredging

3 tbsp olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins in lightly salted water until soft. Drain, then peel while still warm. Place in a bowl and mash. Crumble the feta cheese into the potatoes and add the spring onions, dill, lemon juice and egg. Season with salt and pepper (the cheese is salty, so taste before you add salt). Stir well.

2. Cover the mixture and chill until firm. Divide the mixture into walnut-size balls, then flatten them slightly. Dredge with the flour. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the patties until golden brown on each side. Drain on kitchen paper and serve at once.

substitutions

Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin. I only had one potato, so that made things interesting right from the beginning. I added spinach--not sure exactly how much, I just broke off part of a block of frozen spinach. Since I didn't have enough potatoes, I added a little bit of flour to help with the consistency, since I was noticed that mine was clearly too runny. And I know this is going to sound ridiculous--probably because it really is ridiculous--but my family has a strange vendetta against dill that's a little hard to explain. Anyways, I ditched that particular seasoning and went with some oregano and pepper instead. As you can tell, there was a certain point where I just started ignoring the cookbook and basically started doing whatever I wanted.

great with

If I'm remembering correctly, I had some of this with a Morningstar Farms Chicken Pattie one night. I had the leftovers another night with just a salad. Both dinners were good.

the review

So this is one of those recipes that, once I got into it and realized just how much of the recipe I was not following, I was sure it was going to taste awful once I was done. I was surprised. These didn't taste awful. In fact, they tasted pretty good. I really liked being able to taste the lemon juice, although it was subtle. I also usually love anything with feta in it. Overall, the taste reminded me of something that I've had before, but can't quite place. Perhaps a spinach souffle (but only because I added spinach--I have no idea what it would taste like otherwise). Anyways, I look forward to making these again, hopefully with a little less stress.

And maybe I'll get over that thing with the dill. We'll see.

frittata with sun-dried tomatoes.

Once again, I bring you another fantastic recipe from The Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook. It really is the best-ever cookbook, and this recipe has quickly become one of my favorites.

the recipe

serves 3-4

6 sun-dried tomatoes, dry or in oil and drained

4 tbsp olive oil

pinch of fresh thyme leaves

6 eggs

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Place the tomatoes in a small bowl and pour on enough hot water to just cover them. Soak for about 15 minutes. Lift the tomatoes out of the water and slice them into thin strips. Reserve soaking water.

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick or heavy frying pan. Stir in the onion and cook for 5-6 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the tomatoes and thyme and continue to stir over moderate heat for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Stir in 3-4 tbsp of the tomato soaking water and the grated Parmesan cheese.

4. Raise the heat under the pan. When the oil in sizzling, pour in the eggs. Mix them quickly into the other ingredients and stop stirring. Lower the heat to moderate and cook for 4-5 minutes on the first side, or until the frittata is puffed and golden brown underneath.

5. Take a large plate, place is upside down over the pan and, holding it firmly with oven gloves, turn the pan and the frittata over on to it. Slide the frittata back into the pan and continue cooking until golden brown on the second side, 3-4 minutes more. Remove from the heat. The frittata can be served hot, at room temperature or cold. Cut into wedges to serve.

substitutions

I don't usually have thyme leaves, so I use a little bit of oregano instead. Also, I usually make this recipe a little smaller, usually using 3-4 eggs, and adjusting the rest of the items accordingly.

great with

Honestly, this is something that is pretty filling, so it can stand pretty well on its own, depending on what size frittata you make. I sometimes just have a salad or some snap peas with it.

the review

This...is so good. Seriously, I cannot emphasize how good it is. It's filling and hearty, and the sun-dried tomatoes, onions and cheese are just such a great combination. I will warn you that flipping the frittata can be a little messy--I usually have some egg on the flipping plate, but I'm not concerned, because the picture in the book does too. This recipe is in the "light lunches" section of the cookbook, but I make it for dinner all the time. It also makes fantastic leftovers--I'm the envy of my co-workers when I have it for lunch.