Hummus with smoked paprika butter and za'atar

I love recipes like this that take something standard (hummus) and elevate it to a new level by adding something unexpected that I never would have thought of (smoked paprika butter!). Also, although I usually focus on vegetable recipes for this blog, it's nice to sometimes make something with pantry ingredients. Especially because I was out of town over the weekend and didn't make it to the farmers' market. I do wish I had fresh summer veggies (especially corn and tomatoes) around, but this hummus definitely distracted me from their absence! I really loved this - the hummus is super creamy, the smoked paprika butter adds richness and spice, and the za'atar adds wonderful flavor. I found this recipe in Food & Wine, and according to the headnote, the chef that created it (Sameh Wadi) makes several other hummus variations at his restaurant Saffron. After tasting this one, I definitely want to try them all!

Moroccan spaghetti

I might have a slight obsession with cookbooks. I just counted my cookbooks for the first time, and I have 54. That's not too many...is it? True, they no longer fit in the bookcase, but that doesn't mean it's an excessive number. It just means the bookcase is too small. Anyway, in all seriousness, even though I love cookbooks and have 10 more on my Amazon wish list, I almost never buy those wish list books for myself. The cookbooks I buy myself are usually from yard sales or the library book sale, and cost around $2 each. Usually these are books that I hadn't heard of before, but end up loving after flipping through them. And it's hard to beat such bargains! A perfect example is The Accidental Vegetarian, which I picked up at the Somerville library book sale a couple weeks ago. As soon as I got home, I went through it cover to cover and tagged about 10 recipes right away. This Moroccan spaghetti was particularly appealing to me because with the exception of the herbs, it uses all pantry ingredients. Perfect for that time before the summer produce really hits the farmers' market shelves.

This recipe jazzes up a basic tomato sauce with cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, parsley, cilantro, and mint. Chickpeas and almonds bulk up the dish and add protein. It's a pretty simple recipe that makes a nice change from the standard weeknight spaghetti dinner. I can't wait to try more recipes from this book, especially with all the great local produce that is going to be arriving soon!

Salad with tahini-sriracha dressing

My Ph.D. thesis defense is in 2 weeks. Needless to say, this is pretty much the only thing occupying my mind these days. I've even been dreaming about my thesis at night. Like literally, dreaming about specific paragraphs in the actual document. Today I told one of my labmates about a recent dream, and he just looked at me for a minute and said "Maybe you need a break. Have you been cooking much lately?" And well, the truthful answer to that is no. Ever since I returned from Singapore & India last week (hopefully I'll be posting some recipes inspired by the trip at some point), I haven't had much time or energy to spare. But my friend is right. I do need to clear my mind. So today, I went for a nice run to take advantage of this ridiculously great weather, and then started thinking about dinner. I was in the mood for a hearty salad and I decided to try creating a new dressing inspired by this recipe on Eat, Live, Run. I started with the flavor profile in that recipe and made a dressing with tahini, white wine vinegar, sriracha, and a bit of yogurt. It was delicious. I used it to dress a nice big salad of spring mix topped with chickpeas, artichokes, hard boiled eggs, and roasted sweet potatoes. Substantial enough for dinner and very healthy - the perfect meal to fuel me up to dive back into that thesis tomorrow!

What are your favorite ingredients for main dish salads?

Salad with tahini-sriracha dressing
This dressing recipe makes enough for about 3 dinner-sized portions. Salad ingredient amounts and proportions can be adjusted to your taste.

Salad greens (I used Olivia's Organics spring mix with herbs, which I love)
Frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
Chickpeas
Hard boiled eggs, chopped
Roasted sweet potato cubes
2 tbs tahini
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1/2 tbs sriracha sauce (or more if you want)
1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbs yogurt
3 tbs water

Put salad greens on a plate and top with artichoke hearts, chickpeas, eggs, and sweet potato cubes. In a small bowl, whisk together tahini, vinegar, sriracha, olive oil, yogurt, and water. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.

Beet and chickpea salad

With the hot weather in Boston, we've been eating cold dinners more often. We usually do a green salad along with a more substantial salad that includes some protein. The other day, I was trying to come up with a main dish salad including beets that I could serve cold for dinner on a hot summer night. I thought chickpeas would work well with the beets and would help make the salad more filling. I like beets best roasted and tossed with vinegar, so I decided to stick with that idea. I got some inspiration from this recipe, and decided to add some cumin to the dressing. And with some chopped onion, parsley, and mint, the salad was complete.

I loved the way this salad came out. It was very flavorful and made a great light dinner. And the leftovers were even better at lunch the next day! 

Beet and chickpea salad
Serves 3 as a dinner portion

1 pound beets
1 can chickpeas (15.5 oz)
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup (packed) parsley leaves, chopped
2 tbs chopped mint leaves
Heaping 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, divided
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Wash beets and trim stems to 1 inch. Place beets in a baking pan or oven safe dish, add enough water to cover the bottom, and cover the dish tightly (use aluminum foil if the dish doesn't have a cover). Roast beets in preheated oven until they can be pierced easily with the tip of a sharp knife. This could take 30-60 minutes or so, depending on the size of the beets. When beets are tender, remove them from the dish and cool.

When beets are cool enough to touch, slip off their peels. Cut beets into approximately 1-inch pieces. Place beets in a large bowl, and toss with onions and 1 tbs vinegar. Refrigerate until cool.

Stir cumin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until they are lightly toasted and turn a shade darker, about 2 minutes. Coarsely grind cumin seeds with a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Whisk cumin together with olive oil and remaining 1 tbs vinegar. Add chickpeas, parsley, and mint to the beets, and toss with dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. Salad can be served immediately or refrigerated for 1-2 days before serving.

Swiss chard with tomato sauce and chickpeas

Swiss chard is one of the first vegetables to appear in the markets around here in the spring. Chard is always appealing to me because of its brightly colored stems, and the fact that it is easy to prepare, with big wide leaves that make removing the stems easy. Chard works well in all kinds of dishes, with its relatively mild flavor that has a slight earthiness reminiscent of beets (which are closely related to chard). I bought a bunch of chard at the market last week, and decided that I wanted to make a main dish with it, using both the stems and leaves. I thought about combining it with garlicky bread crumbs and cheese, or raisins, nuts, and olives...but none of those ideas seemed quite right. Then I remembered the tomato sauce in the fridge that needed to be used, and decided to combine the chard with chickpeas for protein. I thought some smoked paprika would be a nice flavor addition, and decided at the last minute to add some fennel. I loved the way the dish came out -  it had a nice mix of textures and the flavors of the seasonings really came through. It was delicious served on top of some brown rice.

Fried chickpeas

Over the weekend, Andrew and I went to one of the closing Borders stores. The cookbook section was pretty cleaned out, but I managed to snag a copy of Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen With a Good Appetite. I had been hearing great things about this book on other food blogs and I'm so glad I came across a copy on sale. The book is a delight to read! Each recipe is preceded by a short essay with anecdotes from Clark's life, describing the inspiration for the dishes and the ways the recipes have evolved. I haven't been able to put it down - I've actually been taking it with me on my commute to work so that I can read it on the bus.

I've bookmarked many recipes to try out, but these fried chickpeas beat out all the others for me to try first. Andrew and I have been doing some dinners recently "tapas-style", making several small dishes in a night. It's a great way to use up random ingredients that need to be finished, especially if there isn't enough of the ingredient for it to be part of a larger dish (e.g. half a tomato, a couple of small corn tortillas, half cup of cooked spinach). These chickpeas were the perfect addition to one of those tapas-style meals. They are delicious and addictive, salty, crunchy, and flavorful. They would make a fabulous party snack - I imagine that they would pair perfectly with beer. Be careful though - make sure you have others around to help eat them, or you will finish them yourself before you know it!

Fried chickpeas
Adapted from In the Kitchen With a Good Appetite

I tossed the chickpeas with a bit of chickpea flour after drying. This step is optional, but it does give the chickpeas a slightly rougher surface, which results in some extra crunchy bits. They should come out fine without it though.

1 (15.5 oz) can of chickpeas
Chickpea flour or all-purpose flour (optional)
Oil for frying
Kosher or sea salt
Hot smoked paprika

Drain chickpeas, rinse, and then drain again on a triple thickness of paper towels, patting with an additional paper towel to dry as much as possible (they probably won't get 100% dry so just do the best you can). Toss chickpeas with a spoonful of flour (optional). Heat oil in a deep pot or saucepan until it reaches 375 deg F. Fry chickpeas until they are golden brown and crunchy on the outside, but still soft on the inside, about 5 minutes. Remove chickpeas with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Sprinkle immediately with salt and paprika to taste and toss well - Clark recommends starting with about 3/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp smoked paprika. I used at least 1/4 tsp paprika and will use even more next time, because the smoky flavor didn't come through as much as I wanted. Serve warm or at room temperature.

About storage: we ate the whole batch within a couple hours so I can't give you any information about longer-term storage...I suspect yours won't last long either though.