My Legume Love Affair #85 - July 2015

Jagruti kindly provided to host MLLA for July. Sadly, every so often life throws us rocks and alas she is not able to complete the roundup. I am doing so on her behalf. Best wishes to her and her circle of relatives.

We have six submissions this month. Thank you to each person who contributed this time round. Without your continued help, we wouldn't be at #eighty five happening #86 this month. Thanks to dearest Susan for starting MLLA. Legumes are essential part of my eating regimen and specifically beneficial for vegetarians and vegans. This event started out in 2008 and I've been the administrator considering the fact that 2013. A unique thank you also to our guests hosts. Please observe that I am looking for hosts for 2016. If you are interested, please electronic mail me or depart a remark.

Now onto the submissions.

Chickpea Chips

from Jen of Chardonnay and Samphire. These crispy delights are on my listing of things to make soon. The exceptional aspect is that you could make the batter up a head of time and freeze it till it is time to fry up or bake this scrumptious snack.

BBQ Lentil Sandwich

courtesy of Janet of The Taste Space. This is a first-class way to provoke a brand new grill and a unique tackle veggie burgers. Seasoned lentils and veggies loaded on a bun crowned with coleslaw is a amazing best summer season meal certainly.

Red Lentil and Cauliflower Tomato Pulao

from Lisa's Kitchen. I cooked up this colorful and nourishing lentil and rice dish with tangy tomatoes and clean gentle cauliflower seasoned with Indian spices. One-pot food are constantly an awesome choice while there is little time or inclination to cook dinner and this dish truely become pleasurable and a deal with for the tastebuds.

Yellow Lentil Cr?Pes

courtesy of Sadhna of Herbs, Spices and Tradition. This suitable cr?Pe was featured in a magazine and a photographer even visited Sadhna's home to file the system. I'm a huge fan of Indian-style cr?Pes and this one additionally happens to be loaded with masses of veggies and served with homemade chutney and ketchup.

Berbere Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Chickpeas

provided up with the aid of Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen. Berbere might be one among my new preferred spice blends as I even have these days been exploring Ethiopian delicacies, and this dish is some thing I surely need to attempt. The lentil stew is filled out with potatoes and chickpeas and served up with rice. This balanced meal is warming and inviting.

Black Bean and Cornmeal Patties

from Emily of Cooking for Kishore. I adore little bites, specially while legumes are the focus. Add some cornmeal, warm sauce and herbs and you're set. Served with Spicy Sour Cream (Spicy Crema), that is a terrific and satisfying summer season meal that I could experience every time of year.

And the concludes the July 2015 roundup. Short but sweet. Shaheen is website hosting the August 2015 edition of MLLA. Be sure to share a favorite legume recipe to be protected within the roundup.

Raw Peanut Butter Fudge

Raw protein treats are an appropriate snatch-and-move manner to start a busy morning ? Especially for my husband who regularly has to fly out of the house at the way to work. Loaded with uncooked unprocessed herbal protein assets, some bites move a protracted way and help begin the day with power. And because they're raw, they may be smooth to make ? The most laborious part is cleansing up afterwards.

Fudge might not sound like a healthful deal with, however this mixture of natural peanut butter and coconut oil sweetened with pure maple syrup and uncooked honey whizzed up in a food processor and cooled in a pan is simply that ? Guilt-free nourishment and a creamy, fudgy delight except. The addition of cocoa makes those a peanut butter and chocolaty deal with. These are specially a deal with within the warm summer months once they can be stored within the freezer and pulled out for a fast, cooling and healthy chunk.

Note: If you're a vegan who refrains from honey, genuinely omit it and use extra maple syrup in this recipe.

More healthy peanut butter treats to revel in from Lisa's Kitchen:

Raw Peanut Butter Chocolate Nut Squares

Raw Peanut Butter Truffles

Raw Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites

Cauliflower and Spinach Simmered in a Coconut Milk Sauce with Black Pepper

This creamy curried vegetable dish just is probably a brand new preferred. It's one of those dishes that tastes so divine that after sitting right down to enjoy it, one might suppose it become complicated ? However it is now not! In truth, this dish of soft cauliflower and clean spinach simmered in a aromatic coconut milk curry sauce comes together in hardly ever any time at all, and it is at the moderate facet in terms of spicing. It smells and tastes just pretty as first rate as it seems served up at the dinner table.

Take care now not to overcook the cauliflower because that little bit of crunch adds a stunning texture mixed with the coconut milk and creamy spinach. Serve as a facet together with rice, a legume dish and your favored Indian flat bread for perfect meal that requires little fuss. You may additionally need to serve it over rice noodles.

Other cauliflower recipes to explore from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Mixed Vegetable Coconut Curry

Chickpea Mixed Vegetable Poriyal

Rice and Cauliflower Pilaf (Gobi Pulau)

Thai Red Curry Vegetable Soup

Vegan Caesar Salad

I do not follow a strictly vegan food plan, however lately I had been leaning that manner due to the fact I find dairy-unfastened food are less complicated on my digestive gadget. Though I've lengthy mastered a vegetarian Caesar salad, I desired to discover if a vegan model became just as tasty, and it become! What I did right here become to make a cashew-based dressing with some almond milk, garlic, olive oil, mustard, dietary yeast for a few cheesy taste, and a few clean lemon juice for a chunk of zesty zing. Don't neglect the black pepper both. The aggregate of kale and romaine labored properly right here and you may add croutons or now not ? It is not required, but it fills out the salad properly.

Other salads to experience from Lisa's Kitchen:

Beetroot, Leek and Walnut Salad

Creamy Vegan Coleslaw Dressed with Avocado

Creamy Herbed Potato and Green Pea Salad

Lazy Summer Cottage Cheese & Fruit Salad

Chickpea Flour Cubes in a Spicy Madras Sauce

For now, I'm following an essentially dairy-free food regimen. That's no longer sincerely a drastic trade for me as I've been a strict vegetarian for over twenty years now and dairy has't made up a massive part of my daily food for quite a while now. It's not going I could follow a strict vegan weight loss program, but for digestive motives, this seems to be the proper technique for me in my view in the interim.

The aspect is, a number of my favorites occur to be not so dairy-free. Like cheese! That's the unhappy part. The amusing part is locating alternatives that carefully mimic my favorites, whilst nevertheless that specialize in actual and nourishing meals. So a long way, I've been quite glad with vegan variations of a few classics together with coleslaw and Caesar salad. It's a fresh task and my flavor buds and frame are virtually content.

When it comes to cheese, paneer is a particular weakness of mine, if you could call it that. A succulent soft and mild cheese with a high melting point, it is perfectly suited to curries as it takes on the flavors of the dish it stars in, and adds a unique chewy texture. And then I found a recipe for "chickpea tofu" from Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen . Without soy and containing only chickpea flour, some spices, and my own addition — nutritional flakes for a bit of a cheesy flavor — these cubes are not only easy to make, but delicious as a snack. I had to restrain myself from snacking too much, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough left over for this tomato-based curry that I also adapted from Richa's book.

This dish jogged my memory of very much of mattar paneer, one in all my all time favorite North Indian classics featuring cubes of paneer simmered in a spicy tomato gravy with green peas. As an analogy to my addiction of ordering mushroom dishes on those events after I manifest to dine out to check the prowess of the chef, likewise I appear to judge the excellent of Indian restaurants from the paneer dishes provided up and am constantly locating new methods to make it in my very own kitchen.

Here chickpea flour cubes as opposed to paneer cheese are smothered in a smooth, wealthy and fiery tomato gravy with green peas. The heat builds with every luscious chunk. The cubes turned out to be a amazing alternative to paneer too. They held their form properly, adding a pleasing chewy texture to the curry and some legume goodness too. This simply is probably one among my new favorites.

I'm sharing this recipe with Jacqueline's weekly Meat Free Mondays occasion. I'm additionally sharing with My Legume Love Affair, a month-to-month event celebrating the goodness of legumes, began via Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook, now administered with the aid of me and kindly hosted this month by Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen.

You may additionally experience:

Classic Mattar Paneer

Butter Paneer Masala

Aloo Mattar

Aloo Gobi

On the top of the reading stack: And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov

Sweet Potato Falafel

Anyone who often frequents this space will understand I adore little bites, specifically whilst they are baked because it cuts done on oil content material and time too. I have baked falafels on multiple occasion and this time I wanted to strive falafel with sweet potato together with the chickpeas which might be the traditional base for falafels. I sincerely wasn't dissatisfied with the end result.

They were virtually smooth to make, which is right when it is warm out of doors and the preference to spend a prolonged time frame within the kitchen isn't the primary priority. The falafels were barely crisp at the outside with a melt-in-your-mouth indoors. They may be served up as an appetizer, or for a mild meal together with your favourite chutney or, as I did, with a creamy and tangy yogurt and tahini sauce. I desired a grain factor to the meal and also decided to serve up a few brown rice on the side. These truly might be super served in a pita pocket along with a few diced tomato or anything else that fits your fancy.

Other little bites to revel in from Lisa's Kitchen:

Baked Quinoa Falafel Bites

Spicy Baked Chickpea Koftas

Potato Patties Stuffed with Spiced Green Peas (Aloo Matar Tikki)

Vegetarian Samosa Cakes with Tamarind Chutney

On the top of the reading stack: The Holiday Kosher Baker: Traditional & Contemporary Holiday Desserts by Paula Shoyer

Audio Accompaniment: sweet silence

Mali Kofta (Potato and Paneer Kofta in a Rich Tomato Cream Sauce)

Mali kofta is a traditional north Indian dish of potato and paneer cheese dumplings served up in a highly spiced cream-based totally tomato gravy. If that doesn't sound attractive, I don't know what's! But it is a wealthy dish so one which you can need to reserve for unique activities or surely when you need to pamper your self. Although I have honestly have reduce down my consumption of dairy, paneer cheese continues to be quite an awful lot irresistible to me.

The sauce may be made in advance of time and reheated lightly before serving. If it thickens up an excessive amount of, add a few water. Alternately, if it's too watery, whisk in a piece greater corn starch (or arrowroot flour). As this dish is wealthy sufficient as it's far, I determined to bake the koftas rather than deep-frying them after which delivered the koftas to the gravy afterwards in order that the smooth koftas did no longer smash apart. It is absolutely an addictive dish, and one which I could be revisiting in destiny, as this recipe went over thoroughly with my diners.

Other delicious kofta recipes to attempt from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Spicy Baked Chickpea Koftas

Chickpea Potato Koftas with Ricotta Cheese

Baked Chickpea Kofta Tacos with Avocado and Harissa

Vegetarian Samosa Cakes with Tamarind Chutney