Papri Chaat

So, here's a little Indian food education coming-your-way.  Chaat is a Hindi word for snacks that derives from a Prakrit word that means "to devour with relish, eat noisily."  And, my friends, I'm not ashamed to say that I did exactly that with this lovely dish.  I devoured it and completely forgot my table manners.  It's called papri chaat, and even though it's a snack, we had it for dinner.  In the non-traditional way that I make it, it's basically a vegetarian layer dip with tons of spice and flavor.  And bonus, if you have it with whole wheat pita, it's totally healthy.


Bascially, it consists of a layers of potato, chopped up chickpeas, yogurt and a generous dose of tamarind and cilantro chutneys, topped with a bit of salt and pepper.  I've served it with tortilla chips, pita chips, or just plain pita though if you can get your hands on some actual papri, do it.  


So, here's the recipe:

Mexic-esque Caramelized Corn and Black Beans

In the words of my new favorite video-blogger over at My Drunk Kitchen (It's decidedly PG-13, language wise, and obviously includes drinking. Warning over), I'm pretty much in a constant state of desiring Mexican food.  I'm obligated to tell you that the dish I'm presenting to you isn't really like anything I've eaten while in Mexico.  It's Mexic-esque, or Mexic-ish.  Mexinspired.  It's full of black beans and onions and chiles and onions.  Now, it's also sweet corn season here in the midwest, so we added some Indiana sweet corn to the mix, and the result was delish.

For this dish, we caramelize both the onions and the sweet corn to get some deep sweetness to counteract the starchy beans and the spicy chiles.  This can be served with a sprinkle of cheese over the top or some sour cream or omit both and just slather with some hot sauce (Cholula is my favorite).  Either way, serve it with some tortillas or chips and enjoy!

And now, on with the recipe!

Pizza with CASHEWS

Pepperoni pizza is my weakness.  Even when I was a strict vegetarian, I could not resist the siren call of pepperoni pizza.  So, lately on Pizza Night at home, we've been alternating between good vegetarian pizza (Like this gem: Spinach Pizza) and pepperoni.  Now, a certain Bengali gentlemen suggested that we mix it up a bit and add something different to the meatatarian pizza night we had planned.  So, I went hunting for new and interesting combinations.

Turns out, in California, there was apparently a restaurant called Dave's Fabulous Gay 90s Pizza Parlor (more information here) that had a special pizza that had cashews on it.  Jackpot!  We had a new pizza topping to try.

So this particular pizza is made with a bunch of shredded mozzarella, spicy red sauce, caramelized onions and cashews.  And, it's even better than just regular pepperoni pizza.  Let me tell you, it was approximately the best pizza EVER.  I can't even write about it without feeling hunger pangs, so I'm just going to get right down to the recipe:

Rhubarb Raspberry Sauce

I was introduced to the lovely taste of rhubarb by a friend in Butte, Montana in 2006.  We were at a Farmer's market, and she bought some.  We decided to munch on it while we were walking around, and I was immediately hooked.  All this, despite the fact that my Mom grew rhubarb in her garden probably every year.  I have tried to make up for all the time I spent not eating rhubarb by consuming it en masse every summer.

This go-round, we've taken some rhubarb and boiled it up with some raspberries in a simple syrup and then pureed it to serve over ice cream.  It was amazing, and (bonus!) it took about 20 minutes.  You can easily use fresh or frozen rhubarb and raspberries.  It's tart and sweet and tastes like summer.  You also get the benefit of saying that you ate vegetables for dessert.  Wins all around.

This particular recipe was located and immediately appropriated from Gourmet Magazine, by way of Epicurious.

Power Granola Bars

So, you can make granola bars at home. And they are going to be better than store bought ones. And you can even put coffee in them so that they have a bit more of a kick than the ones for the kiddies. No, really.

These lovely power bars are full of whole grains and unrefined sugars and, although they contain some ingredients that are only available at the Hippie grocery store here, they are totally worth the effort. And, they have coffee in them. I mean, comeonpeople. It's like the perfect mid-afternoon snack. I have a habit of making these for car trips or picnics because they are really filling and give you a bit of hitch in your giddyup. They are also a great lunch when you have to grab and go.

These beauties are adapted from Heidi's recipe over at 101 Cookbooks. I really can't recommend that website enough for lovely pictures of food and totally delish vegetarian food.

So, on to the recipe:

Spinach Pizza and/or Flatbread

Pizza versus Flatbread.  What the heck is the difference?  I have no idea.  I just know that I love the entire category. You could even call me an enthusiast.  I'm also kind of a pizza snob.  As a native Chicago Suburbian, I grew up with some fantastic pizza.

Once a week in our house, a certain Bengali gentleman and I have pizza night.  We try all sorts of different permutations and combinations, but this spinach pizza is particularly tasty.  It's got two delicious kinds of cheeses for twice the delicious and some nice spinach to keep the green veggies in our diet, and decrease the guilty-pleasureness of pizza.  I tend to like to make it spicy (no surprise there!), but you don't have to.  You can also add some cherry tomatoes if you have them on hand.  That's the great thing about homemade pizza, it can be whatever you want!

Okay, so here we go with the recipe:

Tortellini Soup

So, I know that August isn't exactly full of what I would call Soup Weather (cold, possibly rainy, and generally dreary weather), but I'm telling you, this soup is a winner even in the summer.  Besides, let's be honest with ourselves, there's no such thing as Not-Tortellini-Weather.

So, this soup is another awesome go-to weeknight dinner, full of lovely vegetables, as well as some cheese, which is good for the soul (unless you are a vegan, in which case, butternut squash or artichoke stuffed tortellinis are good for the soul too).  The other nice thing about this lovely dinner is that you can have the stuff on hand all year round, because you can use fresh or frozen spinach and fresh or canned tomatoes and artichokes.  Hooray for versatility!

This recipe is taken and adapted from a lovely little blog called the Well-Fed Newlyweds.

So, here goes nothin' (recipe-wise):

TVP Tacos

Obviously, I've been a very bad blogger.  But, the good news is, I'm really going to try and get back on the blog-wagon.  The other good news is that I really love some of the recipes I've stored up to share with you all and the one pictured above has recently become a real favorite chez moi.  It's taco filling (or Nachos or enchilada filling) made from a vegetarian meat-substitute called TVP.

About a year ago, I was gifted with a bag of Bob's Red Mill Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP).  It was from a lovely fellow Bloomingtonian who had purchased it on a whim and never knew what to do with it.  I have to admit that it sat in my cupboard for about 9 months without being touched.  Textured Vegetable Protein?  Is there any name that sounds less appetizing?  Finally, I was cleaning out my food storage and (with the Eye of the Tiger playing in the background), I resolved to make use of this alien ingredient.

And what did we make?  TVP tacos!  These tacos are spicy and delicious and way more calorie-conscious than your average meatatarian taco.  These come together in a snap once the chopping is all finished and make a great weeknight meal.  Also, they reheat well as leftovers.

The recipe above is ground-meat free but you could do a TVP/meat combo to make it a bit richer, or you can make it vegan by omitting the cheese.  Fantastic!  Let's get down to it.