Lentil Fritter Pitas with Red Cabbage Slaw

Did summer fly by for anyone else? There are about 18 million summer things that I never got around to. Farmers’ Markets that went unvisited, rivers that did not get kayaked, nights that we did not sit out on the patio talking, meals that did not get grilled (in part because our grill was confiscated by the fire marshal). June was a haze. Nothing happened in July since Joe was working nights and was either at the hospital or asleep. August was finishing CPE, and now it’s September with fall just around the corner.

Football has started, and there are cans of pumpkin in my pantry that never were used last year. But it’s still 90-something degrees and unbearably humid. I’m not ready for fall because I didn’t really get a summer, even though I love fall. It’s the best running season This is a great summer meal: colorful, light flavors like cilantro and lemon. So if you want to cling to summer for a few weeks longer, or if you’re forced to by the weather, go ahead and sneak this one under the line. Before chunky sweaters and boots, before tailgating, before apples and pumpkin and butternut squash and chili, have some red cabbage and lentils and parsley.

Lentil Fritter Pitas with Red Cabbage Slaw
adapted from Real Simple
Yields 4 servings

Ingredients

3 cups cooked lentils
1/2  cup  fresh cilantro leaves, plus more for serving
1/2  cup  fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1  clove garlic, finely chopped
2 eggs
1/2  teaspoon  ground cumin
1/2  cup  bread crumbs
kosher salt and black pepper
1/4  head red cabbage, shredded (about 1 1/2 cups)
2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
3  tablespoons  olive oil
1/2  cup  low-fat Greek yogurt
1/4  teaspoon crushed red pepper, plus more for serving
4  pocketless pitas, warmed

Preparation

1. In a food processor, puree half of the lentils with the cilantro, parsley, garlic, and cumin until nearly smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the bread crumbs, the remaining lentils, the eggs, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Form into sixteen ½-inch-thick patties.
2. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, lightly mash the cabbage with the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and black pepper; set aside. In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, crushed red pepper, and a splash of water. Adjust consistency to preference. 
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches, cook the patties until browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side, adding the remaining tablespoon of oil to the skillet for the second batch.
4. Dividing evenly, top each pita with the patties, cabbage mixture, yogurt sauce, and the additional cilantro and crushed red pepper.

Quinoa Tabbouleh

While trying to decide what to instantly stream on Netflix one night last week, Joe and I discovered that the first season of Glee was available. Like most of the television shows I enjoy, I usually get into something about the same time everyone else has grown tired of it. But people, how had I not watched Glee before now? I went to an arts boarding school. I was in show choir and musicals in high school and college. Joe played piano in the show choir band in high school. Why didn’t someone take me hostage and force me to watch it? I absolutely love this show because it reminds me of my musical glory days and all of the awkwardness of high school. It’s also light and comic, perfect for unwinding to at the end of a long day.

Like watching Glee, I know I should be eating more quinoa. It’s a great vegetarian protein source and surprisingly filling, but even though I have a big Costco-sized bag in my pantry, I always feel like quinoa is a little overrated. But when quinoa replaces another grain in a hearty salad like this one, I am tempted to sing its praises. And after a toasty weekend like we just had, something that doesn’t heat up the kitchen is a nice change too.

The red onion, even after soaking, can be a little powerful, so omit it or decrease it if you’re allium-averse. I also added the mint back in since I had some laying around. This is a refreshing dish and can be served cold or at room temperature making it perfect for upcoming picnics, cook-outs, or other outdoor get-togethers.

Quinoa Tabbouleh
source: The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Ingredients

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
½ red onion, diced fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced ⅛-inch thick
1 bunch parsley (about 2 cups), minced
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
8 ounces feta, crumbled
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Rinse the quinoa well under cold water. Put it in a medium saucepan with 2 cups of water and ½ teaspoon salt. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes. Transfer the cooked quinoa to a large bowl to cool slightly.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, cover the diced onion and a pinch of salt with water. Let the onion soak while you prepare the other ingredients.

3. Drain the onions; add them to the bowl along with the garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, and feta; stir to combine. Add the lemon juice and toss to coat. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Egyptian Edamame Stew

Aaaaand I’m back. Went to Texas, passed my ordination exams, attended a friend’s ordination to the priesthood, visited my older brother and my adorable niece, ran 7 miles around Ladybird/Town Lake, and enjoyed some delicious Tex-Mex food, including a fantastic veggie chile relleno. I also failed to take a single picture. I figured that me sitting in a room all day, writing essays and taking oral exams in yoga pants and eating camp food wasn’t that photogenic. I am so glad that I’m back home where I have a little bit more control over my food. Now that I’m eating pescetarian, I need to do better planning for when I travel.

Today was momentous for several reasons: It marked the beginning of classes of my last semester. It snowed quite a bit overnight. And I started training for the Oak Barrel Half Marathon. Of course, Monday’s schedule is Stretch & Strengthen, so my first half marathon-training workout was Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred plus some extra stretching. A little anti-climactic.

But the snow had me craving something warm and comforting with just a hint of spice and a lot of vegetable protein. Much to my surprise, this meal was all of that, plus it tasted so light and fresh. I think the lemon juice and cilantro was what really tied everything together and made this special. I doubled the cayenne pepper and served the stew over whole wheat couscous. Let me just say that they don’t serve food like this at Camp Allen.

How do you deal with limited food choices when you travel?

 

Egyptian Edamame Stew
source: Eating Well
Yields 4 servings, about 2 cups each

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 10-ounce packages frozen shelled edamame, (about 3 cups), thawed
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, or mint
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add edamame and cook until tender, 4 to 5 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and cook, covered, until the onions are starting to brown, about 3 minutes more. Add garlic, cumin, coriander and cayenne and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the edamame and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and stir in cilantro (or mint) and lemon juice.

Shakshuka (and Hauerwas)

Remember when I threatened to share with you more of my life, like what I’ve been reading (for fun, not just in school), drinking, and thinking about in addition to what I’ve been eating? Well, the time has come to talk about this book, even though I haven’t finished it yet.

Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir by Dr. Stanley Hauerwas. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know who Stanley Hauerwas is, though Time magazine named him America’s Best Theologian in 2001. I don’t know how you become the best theologian, but I am certainly not in the running for that category. Dr. Hauerwas teaches at Duke Divinity School and is close friends with the Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral here, which is why Dr. Hauerwas was in Nashville this past weekend, where he preached and spoke at the adult forum.

Sometimes a book comes into your life at just the right time, and that’s how reading this book has been for me. Being in seminary myself, I appreciated his thoughts on theological education, and we also share the home state of Texas. He’s very charming, both in person and in the book. As he explained in the forum this weekend, he wrote this book in response to people asking him how he came to think the way he does. To that end, he does a lot of theologian name-dropping, which might turn off people who haven’t read or studied much theology or ethics. For example, one of the parishioners at the Cathedral I was talking to about the book admitted that she finally had to Wikipedia who Karl Barth was, since Hauerwas sure seemed to bring him up a lot. But I would certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in moral theology and ethics or who wants to be more familiar with an important living, American theologian.

What do Stanley Hauerwas and shakshuka have in common? Um, I don’t know, a funny name? And I like both of them. Other than that eggs poached in a spicy tomato broth and America’s best theologian are pretty strange topics to share a blog post.

This dish should be in every quasi-vegetarian’s back pocket, ready to be thrown together at a moment’s notice and provide a warm, satisfying meal. Jen over at Bakin’ and Eggs says this is traditionally served as a breakfast item. So to try it out, I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning, and it makes a pretty satisfying breakfast as well. I served it with some warm pita bread and got the thumbs-up of approval from Joe. I’m so glad that I finally made this because it always slips my mind as something I want to try, and now it will go on my regular rotation when I don’t know what to make.

Shakshuka
adapted from Smitten Kitchen via Bakin’ and Eggs

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 jalapeño chiles, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon paprika
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
Kosher salt, to taste
4 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Warm pitas, for serving

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a 12-inch skillet with a lid over medium-high heat. Add jalapenos and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric, cumin and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands or place in food processor and pulse a few times. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce, cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5-7 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.

Clean Eating Moussaka

A few weeks ago I won Tosca Reno's book The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged on Fit Bottomed Girls. I don't read a lot of diet books, but this one makes a lot of sense. Out with processed foods, white flour, and sugar; in with vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean protein. It's a way of eating that appeals to me because, well, I like to eat. 5-6 smaller meals a day instead of 3 large meals? Awesome. It means I'm hardly ever hungry. Summer is a great time to eat like this because of the proliferation of fresh, flavorful fruits and vegetables. If you couldn't tell from my most recent posts, we're eating a lot of eggplant, and last night, Joe requested "something with meat". I had come across this recipe for moussaka and had almost everything on hand except for potatoes and evaporated skim milk.

The last time I ate moussaka was at the local Greek Festival, and it was a tasty, cheesy, greasy mess of eggplant, tomato, beef, and bechamel. This is a very different animal from that moussaka, but it's still delicious. The tomato and ground turkey (or beef, if you prefer) mixture is seasoned with cinnamon, oregano, and bay leaf, which gives it a lot of warmth. This meal takes a while; I started cooking dinner at 4 pm, and we sat down to eat at 6:15. But if this meal is what eating right tastes like then I don't want to be wrong.

Clean Eating Moussaka
source:  Proceed with Caution (originally from Clean Eating Magazine)
Yields 8 servings

Ingredients

2 lbs white potatoes, peeled, left whole
1 lb ground turkey or 12 oz extra-lean ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 t minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
2 cups tomato puree (I pureed fresh tomatoes in a food processor.)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 t oregano
1 bay leaf
olive oil cooking spray
1 large eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/3 inch slices.
1 cup low fat sour cream (or greek yogurt)
1/4 c evaporated skim milk
1 egg
2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425. Fill a large pot halfway with water, cover and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add potatoes, lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until firm but not fully cooked. Strain and set potatoes aside to cool.

2. While potatoes are cooking, brown meat with onion and garlic in a 2-qt pot over medium heat, breaking up meat into little pieces for about 4-5 minutes, until vegetables are tender and meat is no longer pink. Pour in tomato puree and 1 C water. Mix in cinnamon, pepper, oregano and bay leaf. Lower heat to simmer and cook, covered, 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cover 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil and mist with cooking spray. Lay eggplant slices on sheet and lightly mist again with cooking spray. Bake in oven about 8 minutes. While eggplant cooks, slice potatoes into 1/4-inch slices. Remove eggplant, transfer to plate, raise oven temperature to 475, re-spray foil and lay potato slices on cookie sheets. Lightly mist potatoes with cooking spray and bake in oven for 8 minutes. Remove. Lower oven temp to 350.

4. Make bechamel sauce: In a separate bowl, mix sour cream, milk and egg until blended; mixture should be thick.

5. Spray a 12x9-inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Arrange 1 layer of potatoes in dish, top with layer of eggplant, then pour all of turkey mixture over top. Top again with layer of potatoes and then eggplant. Finish with bechamel. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake in oven for 45 minutes, until set and lightly brown. If not brown, raise temp to 400 and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Easy Paella

For our honeymoon, Joe and I went to the Excellence Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic. It was absolutely perfect, but one of the things that really struck us was the food. One night, at the Spanish/Mediterranean-themed restaurant, Joe ordered paella and subsequently fell in love. Whether it was the dish itself or the atmosphere, any other paella that he has ever had has not been able to measure up. This was no exception, but it was easy to throw together and tasty. There are no mussels to scrub or expensive scallops to buy, hence "easy" paella. Heck, it doesn't even have saffron in it. But it did help me use up some shrimp and peas that were in the freezer. And it was very good. I liked the flavor and color of the turmeric. I used brown rice, so the cooking time was slightly longer.

Easy Paella
source: Everyday Food via Joelen's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp
1 package chicken sausage, (12 ounces), sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic , minced
1 1/2 cups long-grain rice
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 can diced tomatoes, (14.5 ounces)
2 cans reduced-sodium chicken broth, (14.5 ounces each)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Preparation
In a heavy 12-inch saute; pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp until just pink on both sides, 4 to 5 minutes (do not overcook). Transfer to a plate.

Add remaining tablespoon oil and sausage to pan; cook over mediumhigh heat until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and rice; cook, stirring to coat, until rice is translucent, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in paprika, turmeric, tomatoes, and broth, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover, and cook until rice is tender and has absorbed almost all liquid, 20 to 25 minutes. Stir in peas; cook 1 minute. Stir in cooked shrimp; serve immediately.

Chicken Gyros

When we lived in Houston, one of our favorite places to eat was a Greek place called Niko Niko's. The parking situation was atrocious, and quite often, there was a line out the door. The reason for the line out the door was obviously the food, and you could see all kinds of people in that line waiting for a piping hot plate of gyros or spanakopita. However, I tend to find the food at Greek restaurants on the oily side, so when I found this recipe, I looked forward to making it at home.

After Joe's first bite of the chicken, he wailed, "How come this is the first time you've made this?" It was definitely a hit. Joe devoured the chicken, and I ate the rest of the tzatziki sauce and pitas for lunch the next day. A tip that I got from Annie regarding the cucumber: shred it in your food processor, and then wrap it in paper towels to squeeze the liquid out. It works like a dream. My garlic press also got some use!

Chicken Gyros
source: Elly Says Opa via Annie's Eats

Ingredients
For the tzatziki sauce:
16 oz. plain yogurt (not nonfat, if possible) (I used Greek yogurt.)
1/2 hothouse cucumber or 1 regular cucumber, peeled and seeded
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press (or finely minced)
1 tsp. white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken:
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping tbsp. plain yogurt
1 tbsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 lbs. chicken pieces (I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

To assemble:
Pita bread
Fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
Red onion, sliced thin

Preparation
To make the tzatziki sauce, strain the yogurt using cheesecloth over a bowl. Let strain for several hours or overnight, if possible, to remove as much moisture as possible. (Not necessary if using Greek yogurt.)

Shred the cucumber. Wrap in a towel a squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Mix together the strained yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

To prepare the chicken, combine the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Cook the chicken as desired, either in the skillet or with the broiler. (We grilled them.) Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into strips.

Heat pitas (I wrapped them in some paper towels and microwaved them). Top with chicken, tzatziki sauce, diced tomatoes and sliced onions. Serve immediately.