Yep, it is best when life is a series of experiments, and I hope that you are planning and/or implementing your next experiment right now. Remember one of my last posts about searching for meaning? Well, experiments are the approach of this search.
My experiment today is modest and not too impressive: I will prepare a Christmas Eve dinner that is VEGAN. That is right, according to my ethnic background, on Christmas Eve, we do not eat any meat or any animal products.
So, I am planning on: red peppers stuffed with spicy chickpeas, roasted walnuts, potato-onion salad, homemade high-fiber bread, and baked apples. Here are the details:
1. Stuffed peppers. The peppers are coming roasted and peeled from a jar. The chickpeas are from cans, I already made them crispy and spicy in a pan with olive oil, garlic, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, mint, and winter savory. I crushed them a bit. (If the bean mixture is too dry, add a bit of salsa or cut tomatoes.) Later on, I will stuff the peppers and bake these quickly (just to warm up) in a pan with olive oil.
2. Potato salad. I will boil some red potatoes (cleaned and cut) with the skin and mix them with one sweet onion. The onion will be cut thinly, crushed with salt and covered in olive oil and apple cider vinegar before the potatoes are ready.
3. Spicy walnuts. I will mix the walnuts with spicy Buffalo wings sauce and bake. The sauce sticks to the nuts better if it is thicken with starch or arrowroot powder.
4. Bread. I will use my recipe for fried dough. In this case; however, I will divide the dough into fist-sized balls and baked them on an oiled cookie sheet to have individual breads for everyone. The breads are usually baked at 350 F for 35-40 minutes.
5. Baked apples. I will cut these in two halves, remove the core with the seeds with a little teaspoon, then arrange them in a spayed pan, sprinkle with cinnamon, and bake at 400F. I usually cover the apples with foil for most of the baking time. Depending upon the type of apples, baking time differs, so I would recommend to try for readiness by piercing an apple with a fork. If the fork goes in easily, the apple is ready.
This weekend we experimented with three new recipes. I love finding recipes online, but almost never follow the exact cooking instructions - either because I do not have all ingredients or because I believe that the recipe could be healthier with substitutions.
Almost "hummus"
Today my daughter and I made some hummus for the coming workweek. Despite the fact that we did not have tahini (sesami paste), the result was amazingly delicious, so we decided to share the recipe.
We used two cans of garbanzo beans (15 oz), the juice of one lemon, three cloves garlic, salt to taste, and olive oil (approximately 5-6 Tbsp). Everything was blended in a food processor, but I had difficulty with this step. After preparing the spread, I read a few recipes online and found out that I should have reserved the liquid from the beans and use it to ease the blending. Oh, well - next time I will know, but I am not eating store-bought hummus anymore.
Veggie burgers
I also prepared veggie burgers (with a recipe from Internet). The recipe calls for 1 green bell pepper, 1 medium onion and a few cloves of garlic. All of these vegetables are blended in a food processor and mixed with 2 cans of mashed black beans (14-15 oz), 2 cups of bread crumbs, 2 eggs (beaten), salt, 2 Tbsp of dry summer savory, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. I prepared the mixture the day before, and kept it in the refrigerator prior to baking the patties on oiled cookie sheets at 375 F (20-25 minutes on each side). The material was sufficient to form 14 big patties. If the mixture is too liquid-y, add more bread crumbs. Also, you can add any spices of preference. The online recipe recommended cumin, chilli powder and hot sauce. I used summer savory, as this herb goes usually in meat dishes and it alleviates flatulence (therefore, it is great when coupled with beans).
Rice with red peppers
I love the taste of stuffed peppers; however, the hands-on work is way too much and the fresh peppers are usually expensive. So, I created a stove-top recipe that replicates the taste of peppers stuffed with rice, but it is faster to prepare. I used a jar of baked and peeled red peppers (from Sam's Club). First, I softened one big chopped onion in olive oil and water. Then I added the rice (1 cup), a can of tomatoes (peeled, chopped,15 oz), some water, and boiled the rice until almost ready. At the end, I added the chopped peppers, salt, hot pepper flakes, paprika, and peppermint. You can add as many peppers as you like, The Sam's jar is over 2 lb, and I used half of the jar. A love this rice dish with a scoop of plain yogurt on the side.
