Mediterranean Grain Salad

The second installation for Operation: Expand Horizons is a simple dish from the folks at Martha Stewart's magazine Everyday Food called Mediterranean Grain Salad.  The original version is slated as a vegetarian main serving one, but I decided to serve it as a side dish in my pregnancy-related craze to pack more veggies onto my plate at every meal.

As are all of the creations of the folks at Everyday Food, this dish wasn't difficult or ground-breaking.  It's a basic riff on classic tabouli salad, sans cucumber- soaked bulgur wheat, tomatoes, fresh parsley, and a simple vinaigrette of minced shallot, red wine vinegar, and olive oil, with the nontraditional inclusion of goat cheese. 

Being a fan of tabouli, I knew I'd like this one.  My husband, as expected (not a tabouli fan), passed, but 4 year old Eva enjoyed it.

I made one small adjustment in my preparation- leaving out the goat cheese.  First, I knew I'd be serving this as a side instead of a main, and didn't want to add more fat to my plate.  Second, goat cheese is freakin' expensive, and part of my adventures in the kitchen is to make good food on a reasonable budget.

All in all, a modicum of success was achieved.  I will make this simple salad again when I have some lovely garden-grown tomatoes this summer.

Note the sunny yellow tomatoes- sweet and lovely in salads.

I ate the salad as a side with grilled pork chop, steamed green beans, and mashed potatoes.

Hummus and Veggie Wrap

In an attempt to atone for last night's dinner of Philly cheese steaks with fried potatoes, I decided to make a super healthy lunch of hummus and veggie wraps.  Thankfully, it was also kid-friendly, which for my über-carnivore child is a big deal.

Hummus is widely available in grocery stores, but homemade is so much better.  You can better control the content of the salt, for one, and you can also customize it to your tastes.  Some places add too much tahini (sesame seed paste) for my liking, which can add unwanted bitterness.  Others make theirs the consistency of baby food- I like mine free of chunks, but I don't mind a little texture.

I blogged about the simple joys of hummus once before, and you can find my recipe here.

I made myself a wrap with a generous schmear of hummus on a small tortilla and piled it high with an assortment of vegetables- cucumber, tomato, carrot, and alfalfa sprouts.  I sprinkled a little kosher salt on the tomato slices before closing it up. 

My kiddo had a dollop of hummus on her plate with some carrot and cucumber slices and wedges of tortilla for dipping.  She also used her finger to get up the last few bits!  :D

Day Seven: Falafel with Hummus

Day seven of Operation: Expand Horizons offered my first ever vegan meal, and it was singularly delicious. Bon Appétit's Falafel with Hummus was easy, healthy-ish, and super good. The recipe calls for using purchased hummus, but come on! Hummus is easy to do yourself, and I've made it numerous times, so this time was no exception.

For the uninitiated, falafel is a Middle Eastern dish of fried chickpea patties, often served over rice or on pita bread with a drizzle of tahini sauce, which is made from ground sesame seeds. "Oh, wow, delicious," you sarcastically snort. Snort not until you've tried them!

I'd had falafel once before at a local Lebanese restaurant, and they were dry and bland. Knowing how ubiquitous this dish is among Middle Eastern cuisine, I thought that certainly there must be a better version. This recipe is it.

I ate a couple of the falafel patties plain, and made a wrap sandwich with 3 of them using a lavash wrap (a square flatbread that is like a combination of pita and tortilla), a schmear of hummus, cucumber, lettuce, and tomato. Perfect!

Since I was making this for my own lunch, I halved the falafel recipe and used the other half of the can of chickpeas for the hummus. Normally, I use a whole can of chickpeas for hummus. Here's how I make mine.

Hummus

Makes about 2 cups

1 - 15 oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained, liquid reserved

2 small cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed of root ends, smashed

extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1-2 tbsp. tahini sauce (ground sesame seed paste), to taste

fresh lemon juice from half a lemon, to taste

1 tbsp. Italian (flat leaf) parsley

Place the drained chickpeas, about half of the reserved liquid, garlic cloves, parsley, and tahini in the bowl of a food processor. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the lemon half over, and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh pepper. Process until smooth, scraping the bowl down with a rubber spatula halfway through. Make sure the garlic cloves have not remained whole. If the mixture seems too thick, add more of the reserved chickpea liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional tahini, lemon juice, salt, or olive oil if desired.

Serve as a dip with fresh veggies and pita wedges.