Zucch-Alors!

Why vegetables are cool....

This recipe is dedicated to Chef James, who inspired me last weekend to to use my zucchini in a whole new way. This week: zucchini "noodles". Perfect "green" dish for our happy "green" day tomorrow.

Super easy...and SO. DAMN. GOOD. I even made my roommate taste it and she agreed and immediately demanded that my recipe be posted on our fridge. I'm too cheap to buy ink for my ridiculously expensive printer so I promised I'd put it up here and send her the link. So now you all get to enjoy.

Alright, so in this recipe we are making "noodles" out of shredded zucchini. A healthier twist on pasta. The best thing is it's super easy, and super quick, and requires no "special" equipment - except a carrot peeler, which is not even remotely complicated. So no complaints (eric!).

You need:

1 large zucchini

2 tbs olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, sliced (I used leftover roasted garlic from last night's pizza)

rosemary

thyme

basil

oregano

5-10 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chickpeas

lemon juice

S&P

Directions:

1. Clean zucchini well. Use carrot peeler to make long, thin, fettucine-sized shreds of the zucchini. Keep shredding it out, until you hit the core with the seeds. If you want to make it prettier try and get a little bit of the green on each shred. They obviously don't have to be perfect, but it is fun to see how much you can get it to resemble pasta. I went about half-way around my zucchini. For a large appetite, or for 2 peoples, use the whole zucchini (just toss the core and seeds).
2. Add olive oil to a small saucepan, and heat to medium-low. Add in sliced garlic, and sautee a few minutes until the oil has soaked up some of the garlic flavour and you can smell the delicious garlicky aroma in the air :) Add in your zucchini "pasta", season with the herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano - as much or as little as you want) and sautee a few more minutes, until it starts to heat up, soften, and the white part turns ever so subtly translucent. Try not to overcook the "noodles" as you don't want them to get mushy. Transfer all to your plate/bowl.
3. In the same saucepan, add chickpeas and halved cherry tomatoes. Add enough lemon juice to cover the bottom of the pan (probably a couple tablespoons worth). Sautee the chickpeas and tomato for a few minutes, until all of the lemon juice is absorbed.
4. Top your zucchini "pasta" with the sauteed chickpeas and tomato. Season with extra oregano, and S&P. If you are not vegan (that would be...lets see, all of you), a sprinkling of parmesan would also be enjoyable with this.

Stay tuned to see how I use my zucchini in a whole new way next week.

Nomnomnom. :)

Peace 'a' Pizza

El Delicioso "Rustic Roasted Vegetable Pizza"!




I never thought vegan pizza could be remotely tasty..... blah blah blah, I was surprised how good it ACTUALLY is.

Here's your recipe. As far as the toppings go, you can basically improvise and put on whatever sounds good to you. But here's what I did, and it was delicious!


Crust:
Option A: Buy One
Option B: Make it yourself (this is what I did, with a recipe very similar to this one, except I used 1/2 whole wheat flour)

Now the fun part...

Toppings:
Roasted Veggies:
5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 green pepper, sliced into smaller pieces
1/4 red pepper, sliced into smaller pieces
3 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/4 to 1/3 garlic bulb (depending on how much you like garlic)
handful of pine nuts
rosemary, oregano (or italian herb mix) for seasoning

Base:
pizza/pasta sauce (homemade, storebought, whatever)
pesto (homemade, storebought, whatever)


Directions:

1. Crust: Make/buy your crust. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
2. Roast the vegetables: First, place your sliced veggies into a medium-sized bowl. Brush or drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle on some rosemary and oregano to season. Next, toss them, or spin them around in the bowl so that they are coated with a then layer of the oil and herbs. Put them onto an oven-friendly dish or tray, and bake them on the *top* rack in your HOT oven for 10-15 minutes (maybe more), checking every few minutes, until they begin to brown and soften up. Feel free to get in there with a spatula or a spoon to move them around a bit to cook them more evenly. The peppers may even get a couple dark, burnt spots - this is okay. After you feel they are sufficiently roasted, remove the tray and transfer the veggies to a new plate or bowl.
3. Make your pizza: First, the preliminary pizza sauce slathering - you know how that goes. Next, put a few large dollops of pesto sauce randomly onto the pizza. Layer on your roasted veggies. Top with pine nuts, and season with rosemary and oregano, and S&P if desired. Bake all this in your 500 degrees oven for about 10 minutes, until the crust begins to brown.
4. Remove from oven, cool for a few minutes on a cutting board, slice away...and enjoy!!! If you have a small-normal appetite this will last you 2 meals :)
   

Corn & carrot pancakes

I completely bastardized a recipe from "1000 Vegetarian Recipes From Around the World" for these - it's a great cookbook!

1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
3 teaspoons ground flaxseed
6 or 7 teaspoons flour
1 carrot, finely grated
some chopped onion
1 egg yolk
2 egg whites
shake of salt
sprinkle of brown sugar
couple shakes of toasted sesame seeds
shake or so of each:
cinnamon
coriander
cumin seeds
chili powder
ground turmeric

cooking oil of your choice

***

Blend up half of the corn in a food processor or blender ( I used my Bullet - so handy!).
Put all of the ingredients except the eggs and the oil into a bowl and mix them up well.
Mix in the egg yolk.
Whip the egg white into peaks. (I failed to whip mine into proper peaks, but they seemed to still work ok).
Fold half of the egg whites into your mixture, then do the same with the other half.

Put some oil into a pan and heat it up. Drop some spoonfuls of mixture into the oiled pan. Cook for about 3 minutes on one side, then flip them and give them another 3 minutes or so. Rinse and repeat, you get the idea. I put the cooked goodies onto some paper towel on a plate to soak up any excess oil.

I think my little culinary bastards are pretty healthy, other than the oil! So just go light on the oil. These recipes always tell you to use too much oil, in my opinion.

Enjoy! I ate mine with some hot green salsa & sour cream, but get creative! Tell me about it if you try it.

PS: I'm sorry I can't get a better photo - that will have to do. I do promise they're tasty! :)