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I love salads that can double as main courses. Sometimes I really crave fresh vegetables, but I’m also really hungry, so I end up eating salad, plus a bunch of other stuff (PB&J, muffins, cookies, etc…). I love it when I can just scarf down a salad, and it’s good enough and satisfying enough that I’m shoveling it down my throat and don’t need anything more… This Chickpea Veggie Salad is that kind of salad. Definitely shovel-down-the-throat material.
This salad is just plain GOOD! The combination of flavors is bright and fresh, but earthy and nutty at the same time. I forgot how good chickpeas are, even just from a can. The nice thing about this recipe too, is how easy it is to throw together. You don’t need a lot of exotic ingredients; in fact, you probably have everything you need to put this salad together right now.
And of course, you could doll it up a little more. Add some olives and feta for a Mediterranean slant, or some more spices (I feel like a sprinkle of cumin would go well in here) for extra kick.
Chickpea Veggie Salad
Serves 2 as a main, or 4 as a side
1 can chickpeas
1 English cucumber, chopped (seeded if necessary)
1 ½ cups halved grape tomatoes
3 tablespoons thinly sliced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped mint (optional)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons good olive oil
salt and pepper
Mix together vegetables (chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, onion). Toss with cilantro and mint (if using). Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.
Whisk together lemon juice, cider vinegar, and ½ tsp salt. Add olive oil and whisk until emulsified. Toss with salad. Taste for seasoning and adjust (you may want to add more lemon juice or vinegar depending on how acidic you like it).
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I felt like scones this morning (my husband would say, “But you don’t look like one!”), but I didn’t want to use the recipe I normally use, which is for a sweet scone with currants. I was craving something more savory. Half an hour of experimentation in the kitchen, and I came up with THESE!
Now, not to toot my own horn, but these are, I think, the best biscuits I’ve ever made (by the way, what’s the difference between scones and biscuits? I have no idea.).
Using buttermilk instead of milk made the biscuits more tender and moist, and the addition of the Gouda cheese and rosemary satisfied my salty cravings and (in my opinion), upped the “foodie factor” as well. Finally, using baking soda as well as baking powder (baking soda needs to react with an acid, so I could use it since there was buttermilk in the dough) seemed to make the biscuits lighter and fluffier.
The resulting biscuits were rich, tender, and as savory as I could desire. Try them and let me know what you think!
Rosemary and Gouda Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 8 biscuits
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2/3 cup buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to 2/3 cup milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes)
1/3 cup Gouda cheese, finely diced or grated
1 1/2tsp dried rosemary (double the amount if you use fresh)
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp milk for brushing
Preheat oven to 400 F (about 200 C).
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour using your fingertips, until the mixture becomes a fine crumble, like cornmeal.
Crumble the rosemary needles in your hand and add them to the mixture. Add the cheese and toss to combine.
Pour in the buttermilk and fold in gently with a spatula until mixture forms a sticky dough. Divide roughly into 8 and drop onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for about 12 minutes until golden on top or a toothpick comes out clean.
These are best fresh out of the oven of course, though I suppose you could reheat them gently later in the day. Definitely best when the cheese is bubbling and melted though!
Check this out. No, that is not some weird oval shaped avocado up there. That, my friends, is an emu’s egg.
What, you may ask, were we doing with an emu’s egg? Well the story goes like this: my brother-in-law and his wife were taking care of their neighbor’s backyard pets while they were away on a vacation. These “pets” included a chicken coop full of chickens, and yes, an emu (it’s a big backyard). The emu lays an egg once or twice a week, and since each emu egg is about the same volume as 10-12 regular chicken eggs, they had plenty to share with us.
My husband drilled a hole in each end of the egg, and painstakingly blew out all the insides. That’s a whole lot of egg! The total volume came to about 600 ml, about 2 1/2 cups.
My brother-in-law told us that although the flavor is very similar to chicken eggs, the white of the emu egg doesn’t set quite as well as a chicken egg, so if you end up scrambling or frying the whole thing, you end up with slightly slimy fried eggs. So we decided to use it in a quiche instead, where the cream and cheese and other ingredients would compensate even if the white didn’t completely set.
Actually, we made a couple.
The result? I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between this quiche and any other normal chicken egg quiche. And the quiche itself isn’t a bad recipe.
So next time life gives you emu eggs…make quiche!
Yes, we made a broccoli/goat cheese one too, but I don’t have room to share both recipes.
Emu Egg Leek and Canadian Bacon Quiche
Williams-Sonoma Breakfasts and Brunches
1 pie crust pastry
6 slices Cdn bacon, cut into strips
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 leek, washed and cut crosswise into slices
2/3 cup beaten emu egg, or 3 normal eggs
1 ½ cups half and half
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
6 oz Gruyère or Jarlsberg, grated
1 ½ tsp cornstarch
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Roll out pastry and press into 9 inch tart pan. Trim pastry edges. Prick pastry all over with a fork. Line pastry with foil and pie weights (opt). Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil, bake another 4 min. Reduce oven temp to 325 F (165 C).
Sauté bacon until slightly browned, 2-3 min. Drain on paper towels.
Melt butter in pan, sauté leeks until tender, about 10 min. Set aside.
Beat eggs until frothy, add half and half, salt and pepper. Toss cheese with cornstarch. Add cheese, bacon, and leek to the liquid and stir well. Pour into pastry shell.
Bake 35-40 min until middle is set.
Cool 15 min and serve.
Bulgur wheat is an easy substitute for rice or couscous in many dishes, and it’s really easy to cook. Just simmer it in some water for about 15 minutes, and then leave it while it absorbs the rest of the water. Bulgur wheat is a whole grain that has been parboiled, dried, and the bran partially removed. It’s higher in fiber and vitamins than white rice or couscous, so I guess it’s pretty good for you too.
Last night I simmered some bulgur wheat in vegetable broth, added some seasonings, then sautéed a yellow and red pepper, some mushrooms and an onion, and mixed them all together for a satisfying, though still quite light, dinner. We had it with some baked chicken nuggets as well, but I could very well have gone without the chicken.
Bulgur Wheat with Sautéed Vegetables
1 heaping cup bulgur wheat
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 large yellow bell pepper, diced
1 large red bell pepper, diced
½ red onion, diced
6 medium mushrooms of your choice, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp granulated garlic
½ tbsp dried basil
salt and pepper
Simmer the bulgur in the broth, uncovered, for about 15 min, mixing occasionally. Add granulated garlic and basil and stir thoroughly, then set aside so bulgur can absorb any remaining liquid.
Sauté the onions and mushrooms in 1 tbsp of the olive oil until onions are softened and starting to turn translucent. Add bell peppers and continue to cook until peppers are crisp-tender. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the bulgur wheat to the pan with the vegetables and toss to combine, breaking up any lumps. Drizzle with remaining olive oil (or alternatively, stir in some butter). Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Serve immediately while hot.
 hirekatsu / sxc.hu So I finally picked up an issue of Bon Appetit the other day, curious to see how it would compare to the now defunct Gourmet (sob). And I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were quite a few in-depth articles similar to what I would expect in Gourmet. One of them was about buckwheat.
Now, am I the only person here who assumed that buckwheat was just some form of wheat? Well apparently, buckwheat is a whole other plant, and the “grains” of buckwheat are actually the seeds of the buckwheat plant. The buckwheat recipes in Bon Appetit led me to do a little research of my own, and it turns out that buckwheat is really good for you. As in, it’s rich in fiber, minerals, protein and antioxidants. Oh – and buckwheat is gluten-free. What’s not to love?
So expect some experimentation with buckwheat in future recipes. In the meantime, here’s an article I wrote for HealthyTheory.com about the nutritional benefits of buckwheat.
Buckwheat: A Healthier Starch
Please post a comment if you’d like to share a great way to cook buckwheat!
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We are a Canamerican (Canadian-American) couple living in China. Join us on our culinary adventures both in the kitchen and in the fascinating country where we live.
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