Tabouleh

Sorry, I could have posted this on Monday, buuuut, I didn't.

I made some tabouleh! (Also spelled tabouli) We've had a lot of bulgar sitting on the shelf for quite a while, and it's never been used, and I decided that I wanted to use this unusual grain. And what's the first food that comes to mind when you think of bulgar? Well, at least for me, it's tabouleh. I'd never made it before, so I looked at a couple recipes, and mixmatched them together, and made some tabouleh!

Tabouleh: (Make a big serving bowl, I'd suggest halving it, probably)

3 cups bulgar

3 cups boiling water

1 cucumber

A few handfuls of cherry tomatoes

A good sized handful of fresh mint

Handful of fresh parsley

A few green onions

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Put the bulgar in a large bowl and add the boiling water. Let sit for a while, stirring occasionally until the water is all absorbed.

Meanwhile, chop the cucumber, quarter the tomatoes, mince the herbs, and slice the green onions.

Once everything is chopped, and the bulgar has absorbed all of the water, and is cooled, (If the bulgar is fully cooked, you can drain any excess water) toss the vegetables into the bulgar, add a generous drizzle of olive oil, and season to taste with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

I also made three kinds of hummus!

For hummus, I always just throw chickpeas (Warmed through!), tahini, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, and olive oil together in a food processor, and adjust to your taste. And for some variations, you can add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, or roasted red peppers.

I made regular, olive, and sun-dried tomato.

And then I had some sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, with some olives, to go on top of the bread spread with hummus! Sorry the cucumber looks pretty yucky, it's just the lighting, the cucumber was perfectly healthy.

The whole spread. Bread, hummus, veggies, and tabouleh!

Catching up on the last two months...

Okay. Sorry for not posting for two months. At first I was just too busy to really post, and then as the photos and catching up increased, I just wanted to do it less and less, and procrastinated it. But I'm finally in the mood to blog, so lets hope I can keep up somewhat.

So, since it's been two months, I've got tons of food to post. Unfortunately, I did not get photos of all of it.

Oh, and guess what! I've had my blog for a whole year now! I don't think a little over a hundred posts in my first year of blogging is too bad.

Raw wraps from who knows when. Some kind of nut pate, marinated mushrooms, grated carrots, tomato, red bell pepper, and avocado wrapped in collard greens. Yum! Very fresh and yummy.

(New birthday present plate)

Mushroomy soup. Mushrooms, leeks, onions, kale, garlic, and barley. WIth homemade vegetable broth! (More on the broth later) Delicious! Earthy and comforting.

Tomato soup with onions and leeks. On the side is toasted bread filled with avocado. Mmm!

My birthday cake. It was a lemon pound cake with an almond-lemon glaze. The glaze was great, but, well, the cake tasted pretty bad. Lets just say there was too much baking powder... Luckily, I have a friend who really like baking that happened to make me one as well! That one was a delicious chocolate cake with a chocolate-mint frosting.

Gena's DELICIOUS lentil-walnut pate (WIth extra onion and garlic!) with veggie sticks (Carrots, red bell pepper, zucchini). DELICIOUS DELICIOUS DELICIOUS.

(New squiggly three-sectioned plate thing)

Mushroom-lentil soup. Lentils, mushrooms, onions, carrots, yam, zucchini, bell pepper, and spinach.

This reminded me just how much I love lentils. And why I should eat them constantly.

Tomato soup with chickpea "Tuna" salad sandwich on toasted bread.

The "Tuna" chickpea salad is made of chickpeas, kelp powder, shredded nori (Optional), vegennaise, and whatever else you like in your tuna salad. I like sweet pickles! Based off this recipe.

Vegan frittata! Somewhat based on this recipe.

Potatoes, onions, spinach, zucchini, olives, and probably some other veggies I don't remember at the moment.

Just blend a block of extra firm silken tofu, half to a full block of extra firm tofu (Not silken this time), pepper, nutritional yeast, turmeric, and soy sauce pureed in a blender. Meanwhile saute whatever veggies you want in it in a castiron pan, then add olives, or whatever, and pour in the tofu mixture, sprinkle with more pepper, and bake at 400 degrees F for about an hour.

And I got a late birthday present! A WAFFLE IRON!!!! I've been wanting one so much for so long! I've had so many waffles in the few weeks since I got it. I've even memorized the recipe.

This one has a strawberry compote. Just some hand-picked frozen strawberries, a little sugar, and cornstarch. Simmered until thickened and not very chunky. (If you use frozen, mashing is not necessary. If they're fresh you might want to get a food processor to help you out)

More strawberry compote, this time with fresh strawberries. The reason they're not as red is because the other ones I picked myself. These were from the store.

Getting fancy now. Strawberry-Marionberry compote, a few chocolate chips, and powdered sugar.

And here's lunch today. I'm not totally sure what to call it. Sauteed carrots, onions, mushrooms, and chickpeas with a sauce of peanut butter, curry powder, basil, ginger, soy sauce, maple syrup, and rice vinegar. All on a bed of quinoa. Not the most attractive food ever, but certainly tasty!

That's it for a the photos, but I've also made the following:

Lentil balls

Kind of like meatballs, but if you know me well, you'll know that I make "Meat replacements" but by that, I don't actually mean that it will taste anything like what it's "imitating". I just want something tasty to put in similar dishes. But anyway. I made them with cooked lentils, vital wheat gluten, mushrooms and spices. You can use absolutely any spices you want. I used sage, thyme, oregano, cumin, soysauce, and balsamic vinegar. Then just slowly cook them in a pan for as long as possible. Baking them might even work better. They were great!

Homemade vegetable stock

I just collected cooking scraps (Thoroughly washed skins, peels, tough bits, stems, tops, and bottoms of onions, carrots, yams, celery, leeks, herbs, mushrooms and potatoes. No greens, squash, peppers or broccoli, because they'll get yucky tasting after boiling for a while) in a plastic bag in the freezer until the bag is filled up. Then just add in some garlic, bay leaves, and let it boil for a good while. Then drain it thoroughly after it's cooled, and there you go!

Potato leek soup

I had actually never made potato leek soup before. and didn't even look at recipes. I just boiled some potatoes, and pureed that. Meanwhile, sauteed some leeks and red onions in plenty of margarine. Then mix them up, add some vegetable broth, sage, thyme, and lot of pepper. I think that was it. It was really, really good! Buttery, potatoy, savory, and delicious!

That's all I remember right now.

For a very vague recipe for any of this, just ask! All of it was just stuff I threw together, so I didn't post recipes for most of them.

Okay, goodnight everyone! Have a great week! I should be back within a week.

And maybe, in honor of my blog being a year old, I'll play with the layout a bit.