Green Falafel

I love falafel, I really do. But.... I hate to say that I am "allergic" to pulses like chickpeas/garbanzo beans and lentils, but they do make me very sick, so I guess that counts. And chickpeas are so in right now. Some bars serve them crisped and spiced in place of peanuts, and they are all over the place in Middle Eastern food. Thank goodness really yummy hummus can be made from pretty much any kind of bean (believe me, I've made most of them), because otherwise I'd be missing out on a really fab and simple dish. Falafel is another thing entirely. It's really difficult to make good, fluffy, falafel with beans. Traditional recipes call for soaked--but still raw--chickpeas. I'm not sure that beans like black beans or cannellini beans can be used raw like that. At least, I've never found a recipe that calls for soaked raw beans. Every non-garbanzo falafel recipe I've seen calls for cooked or canned, and I'm not about to torture my digestive system by experimenting with a recipe using raw beans. I may as well just eat garbanzos.

So what to do when I want to eat falafel? Use canned beans. (sigh)

Mr Minx bought some fresh green beans and I thought perhaps they could add the necessary texture and green flavor to non-garbanzo falafel. They're fine to eat raw, so I whizzed them up in the food pro, added a can of white beans, cumin, lots of herbs. They made a pretty green dough that tasted great, and pan frying little patties of the mixture made something that tasted fairly akin to falafel. They were a little softer, yes, but that was to be expected. In a pita with cucumber sauce, they were terrific. I am not a fan of pocket pitas - the ones in the grocery store always seem stale, and the pockets seldom cooperate and rip in inconvenient places. So I used puffy Greek-style pitas. You may use whatever you want. Slider buns would work fine, too. Or make them hamburger-sized and eat them like veggie burgers.

Green Falafel

For the falafel:
1/2 lb green beans, washed, trimmed, and roughly chopped
1 (15-oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch scallions, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons flour
Up to 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Soybean or vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce:
1 medium cucumber
1 cup 2% or full fat Greek yogurt
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch cumin

To serve:
Pocket or Greek pitas
Chopped tomato
Hummus, if you like (I used edamame hummus)
Cilantro

To make falafel: Place the green beans in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped but with some texture remaining. Remove and set aside. Add the cannellinis, scallions, herbs, garlic, salt, and cumin to the food processor and pulse until well combined but not pureed. The mixture will be quite wet. Add the baking powder and the flour and pulse until combined. Add the panko a bit at a time and pulse, until the mixture seems dough-like. Fold in the green beans. Scrape into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.

Form dough into small patties. (The dough will be somewhat sticky; don't worry if they're not perfect). Heat several tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Add patties a few at a time and cook on both sides until golden brown. Drain on paper towel-lined plates. Add a bit of salt while they are still warm.

To make the sauce: Peel the cucumber. Shred it with a mandoline or box grater. Put the shredded cuke on a tea towel and squeeze the moisture out over the sink. Place cucumber in a medium bowl and add the yogurt and the red pepper and stir well to combine. Stir in the salt and cumin. Cover bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

To serve: Pile a few falafel patties on a pita. Top with tomatoes, cucumber sauce, hummus, and cilantro. Serves 4-6.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Green Gazpacho

I love gazpacho and can eat it every day in the summer. There are very specific and authentic ways of making this Andalusian dish, and not-so-authentic ones as well. I like all of them. As long as there are cucumbers and peppers of some sort in the mix, I think almost any fruit can be used in place of the tomato. I've made versions with watermelon and strawberries, and have eaten both mangospacho and cantaloupespacho. I've made it both with and without bread, and seasoned with champagne, balsamic, rice, and apple cider vinegars as well as the traditional sherry vinegar (basically I use whatever is in the front of the cupboard). When I got the email from Bon Appetit touting their latest version, made with tomatillos and Greek yogurt, fortuitously received the day we planned to go grocery shopping, I decided we'd be eating it for dinner on the weekend.

Of course I can't follow a recipe to the letter. I'm a tinkerer.

The original had too much Greek yogurt in it for my taste. I don't think gazpacho should be creamy. However, I did have a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt in the fridge, left over from another cooking project, and threw it in. It didn't make much of an impact, but I got to use up something that otherwise might have been wasted. The Bon Appetit recipe also called for a green bell pepper. I'm with Nigella Lawson, green peppers are "an abomination." Instead, I used a yellow pepper, which I roasted first to remove the belch-inducing skin. Roasted poblanos would be good too, I think. And then there was the method. The original recipe calls for tossing all of the ingredients together and allowing them to macerate before pureeing. There's not enough room in my fridge for a bowl full of veggies and soggy bread. I say just bang it all in the blender and put it in the fridge to allow the flavors to develop.

I did, and it was delicious.

Green Gazpacho (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1 yellow bell pepper
1 1/2 medium cucumbers, chopped roughly
12 ounces of fresh, raw tomatillos, husked and quartered
4 ounces ciabatta or country-style bread, crust removed, bread torn into 1” pieces (about 2½ cups)
4 scallions, roughly chopped
1 jalapeño, seeds removed, chopped
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more

Place whole pepper over gas flame on stove or on a grill. Turn regularly, until pepper is charred all over. Place pepper in a bag to steam/cool off. When cool enough to handle, rub off skin. Remove stem and seeds and cut pepper into chunks.

Place roasted pepper, cucumber, and tomatillos in a blender and process until smooth. Add the bread, scallions, and jalapeno, and process again until smooth. Season with the vinegar, lime juice, yogurt, and salt. If your jalapeno wasn't spicy enough, add some hot sauce (we used green Tabasco).

Refrigerate for several hours until cold and to allow flavors to meld.

Makes 1 quart.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Greek-ish Pasta

Sometimes, when I get something stuck in my head, I just can't shake it. This is especially true of recipes. I'll come up with a combination of ingredients and obsess over it until I can get into the kitchen and create the dish.

Things don't always work out the way I plan.

My original concept for this dish involved ground lamb. I figured I could pick some up at Weis on our regular grocery day, but they didn't have any ground lamb in stock. I visited the local Giant, which has had ground lamb in the past, and found no lamb of any kind. Poo. I didn't want to drive all over town looking for one product, so I made a substitution. My dish was inspired by the flavors of Greece, and Greeks eat shrimp, which also goes well with feta and garlic and pasta and all the other good stuff I planned to use. So I bought a pound of shrimp.

Overall the dish was pretty good, but I still want to try it with ground lamb someday.

Greek Shrimp Pasta

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined, shells reserved
1 pound pasta of your choice
1 cup chopped onion
olive oil
salt
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch red pepper flakes
1 cucumber, halved, seeded, and sliced into crescent moons
2 tablespoons finely minced dill (divided use)
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
chopped toasted walnuts
finely chopped mint
lemon juice

Heat a few teaspoons of oil in a saucepot. Add the shrimp shells and cook, stirring, until they turn pink. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes, pressing down on shells to extract flavor. Remove from heat and strain out the solids. Season with a pinch of salt. Refrigerate stock until ready to use.

Cook the pasta al dente in well-salted water, according to package directions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water for the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat, add bit of olive oil, the onion, and a pinch of salt. Cook until onion is translucent. Stir in the garlic and the red pepper flakes. Add the cucumbers and cook for about three minutes. Stir in one tablespoon of the dill.

In a bowl, combine the remaining dill, feta cheese, and yogurt.

Add the shrimp to the skillet. Cook until just pink. Pour in about half a cup of the shrimp stock. Add the pasta and toss to coat, adding pasta water if the mixture seems dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve pasta in bowls with a dollop of the yogurt sauce. Garnish with chopped walnuts and mint and squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top.



Posted on Minxeats.com.