Chickpeas Romesco + Garlic Saffron Rice

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20130419-DSC_8320Today’s post is inspired by one of my favourite sauces – Romesco sauce. Originating in Spain, Romesco sauce is a blend of nuts (generally almonds), roasted red peppers, garlic, oil and chilies. Roasted tomatoes, red wine vinegar and onions may also be added to the sauce to enhance flavour. Although Romesco sauce is traditionally served with seafood in Spain, it also makes a really nice condiment for vegetables. For this dish, chickpeas are cooked in a rich romesco sauce and served over top a bed of garlic saffron rice. The garlic saffron rice added a whole different element to the dish. Wow. So much flavour. The recipe made a bit more stew than there is rice. So, for leftovers the next day, Jesse and I ate the remaining chickpea romesco with some crusty bread. Sopping up the delicious sauce with the bread was perfect!

Wishing you all a wonderful, relaxing Sunday. Our Sunday will be pretty quiet and likely spent indoors. It’s snowing YET again. Seriously…this has got to stop. *haha* We’ve had snow since October. I’m ready for some warm weather! Tonight, we are going to my parents’ place for a pizza party and to watch the Juno awards. The Junos are Canada’s televised music awards. Michael Buble will be hosting the awards tonight.

I’ll be back in a few days with a new recipe post :) Wishing you all a happy Sunday! xo

Chickpea Romesco Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup of ground almonds
  • 1 (28-ounce) can of diced tomatoes (fire-roasted if possible)
  • 2 roasted red bell peppers, homemade or store-bought
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil or canola oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
  • 2 shallots, finely minced
  • 1 small chile, seeded and minced finely (ex. red serrano chile) (optional)
  • 1/4 cup of white wine or vegetable broth
  • 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary, crumbled
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • chopped fresh mint or basil for garnish

Garlic Saffron Rice Ingredients

  • 1 and 3/4 cups of vegetable broth
  • 1 pinch of Spanish saffron
  • 2 tablespoons of canola oil or olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 cup of basmati or jasmine rice
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • sliced almonds

Garlic Saffron Rice: Heat vegetable stock in a small sauce pan and add saffron. Allow the saffron to infuse the vegetable stock. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until translucent (about 5 minutes). Add garlic and sauté another 3 minutes. Add the uncooked basmati or jasmine rice to the garlic + onions. Toast rice for 1 minute then add the saffron vegetable broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, stir and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover the rice and allow it to cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove rice from heat and allow it to sit, covered, for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add in sliced almonds.

Chickpea Romesco Method

1. Working in two or more batches, purée the tomatoes and roasted red peppers together until smooth in a food processor or with a hand immersion blender. Pour the tomato/pepper mixture into a large bowl and set aside.

2. Preheat a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, shallots and chile in the olive oil until the shallots are slightly golden (about 4 minutes). Pour in the white wine or vegetable stock to deglaze the pan. Simmer for 1 minute.

3. Add the tomato/pepper purée, vinegar, sugar, thyme, and rosemary. Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a summer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the ground almonds and stir the mixture until they are completely combined. Fold in the chickpeas and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes – or until the sauce is slightly reduced and the chickpeas are nice and tender. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Serve over top of Saffron Garlic Rice. Garnish with sliced almonds.

Yield:  6 servings

Source: adapted from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

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Mediterranean Layered Dip

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20130409-DSC_8249-2Recently, I hosted a book club meeting for my wonderful book club “The Wormies”. In our book club, whoever chooses the book for the month will then host the meeting/book discussion. For my selection, I chose Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. I had really high hopes for this book. The premise sounded fascinating, but in the end, I feel that it fell a bit short.  And I thought it would have much more to do with cooking than it did. *hah* I think it was a well-written book and a lot of my book club members enjoyed it. For me, it was just too different from what I had expected when I read the synopsis. Sometimes high expectations can be a bad thing, hey? :)

Our book club meetings always involve a lot of great conversation, tons of laughs and….lots of food! For the meeting I hosted recently, I made my favourite cookies (Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Nut Cookies) and this delicious Mediterranean Layer Dip. Normally I bring my go-to favs –  jalapeño popper dip or taco dip. But this time I decided to try something a little different. I layered hummus with some marinated artichoke hearts topped with some tzatziki. Then I loaded the dip with some veggies (red peppers, tomatoes and diced cucumbers) followed by a little bit of feta cheese and some olives to top it all off. I served the dip with some whole gain tortilla chips, but I think pita chips would have been ideal. I just could not find any at the store the day I was to serve this dip. Oopsie!

Feel free to use any of your favourite Mediterranean-inspired ingredients in this layer dip. You could add some roasted red peppers, diced red onion, some fresh chopped spinach or some fresh chopped herbs. Depending on time constraints, you can opt to make your own hummus and tzatziki (or vegan tzatziki) or use your favourite store brand. This dip is fantastic for parties and would be great to bring to a picnic or BBQ…if picnic/BBQ season ever arrives! *hehe*

Finally, I would like to thank you all so very much for your kind words of congrats on our engagement. It means a lot to us. xoxo

Print
Mediterranean Layered Dip

Yield: enough for 6 to 8 people

Ingredients

  • 1 and 1/2 cups of hummus
  • 1 cup of tzatziki or vegan tzatziki
  • 1 cup of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
  • 1 cup of diced cucumber
  • 1/2 cup of diced red pepper
  • 1/2 cup of diced tomato
  • 1/2 cup of feta cheese, crumbled (omit if vegan)
  • 1/4 cup of pitted, sliced kalamata olives

Method

  1. Spread hummus into a glass serving dish. Top with marinated artichoke hearts.
  2. Dollop tzatziki over top of the artichokes hearts. Sprinkle with diced cucumber, red pepper, tomato, kalamata olives and then the crumbled feta cheese.
  3. Serve with pita chips or whole grain tortilla chips.

Source: adapted from Whole Foods website

Caribbean Bean Stew + Exciting News

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20130414-DSC_8313-2Monday…..we meet again. Back to work after a quiet weekend with family. Hope you all had a nice weekend. Yesterday, I was finally able to get out and enjoy a nice walk at the park without freezing my butt off. The sun was shining and the warmth felt wonderful. We are supposed to get more snow this week, but hopefully it does not last. I am DONE with winter!

Yesterday evening, I decided to use up the last of the sweet potatoes I have had in the pantry. After seeing a recipe for coconut rice in one of my favourite cookbooks, Chloe’s Kitchen, I decided I needed to make something with a Caribbean flare. I love Caribbean flavours – cumin, cinnamon, lime, coconut, mango, cayenne….delicious! I decided to roast the sweet potato with some homemade jerk seasoning. (Note: I’ve included a recipe for jerk seasoning below) Then to add some protein to the dish, I opted for some stewed black beans. I cooked the black beans slowly and infused them with some lime and cumin. To serve, I layered some creamy coconut rice (yum!) with the cumin-lime black bean stew topped off with some jerk spice roasted sweet potatoes and  homemade mango salsa. The end result was a fantastic, filling dish with a ton of flavour. I love a one-dish meal loaded with protein, fibre and veggies.

And now for some exciting news!!! In my last post, I alluded to some exciting news that I then proceeded not to post the next day as promised. Oops! Sorry! :) So, without further ado….Jesse and I have decided to get married ^_^ We have booked our wedding ceremony and reception for this upcoming October. 6 months to plan a wedding! Can it be done!? :) We are very excited. I’m not a huge fan of jewelry (odd…I know!), so we have decided to do an engagement trip to England this upcoming summer instead. I am a huge fan of travel! :) Lots of look forward to. Any wedding advice to share? We’ve got the venue booked and my dress so far. What’s next?

Coconut Rice Ingredients

  • 1 and 1/2 cups of Basmati or Jasmine rice
  • 1-14 ounce can of coconut milk
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Cumin-Lime Black Beans

  • 2-15 ounce cans of organic black beans
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
  • 1/2 tablespoon of canola oil
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Jerk Seasoned Roasted Sweet Potato

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 tablespoon of canola oil
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of jerk seasoning (store bought or use the recipe below)
  • salt and pepper

Garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375’F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the sweet potato cubes, canola oil and jerk seasoning. Toss with hands to distribute spice over all sweet potato cubes. Spread the cubes onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Roast sweet potatoes for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tender.

3. Meanwhile, combine the coconut milk, rice, water and salt in a medium sauce pan. Bring mixture to a gentle boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow rice to sit, covered, for another 15 minutes. Set aside.

4. While the rice is cooking, heat canola oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sauté for a minute or so. Sprinkle cumin powder over the garlic. Add black beans, 1/2 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Allow beans to simmer while the rice is cooking.

5. To serve, layer a scoop of rice with a scoop of the cumin-lime black beans. Top with a helping of jerk roasted sweet potatoes and garnish with some fresh chopped cilantro and mango salsa.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Source: adapted from Chloe Coscarelli (Chloe’s Kitchen)

Jerk Seasoning

Combine 2 teaspoons of paprika, 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of ground all-spice, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg,  1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder. Store in an airtight container.