Lunch Break: Falafel Wraps

Abbey and I are big fans of Anthony Bourdain, and we're ecstatic that Netflix has added his CNN series Parts Unknown. Last night we watched, well, more than one, but most importantly, the Tangiers episode. First revelation: now I know how to make a Spanish Tortilla, Tangiers style (which we had for breakfast- including the ketchup and mayo on top, which was delicious). Second: apparently everyone in Tangiers really is stoned, as according to the stereotype. The third revelation was the heavy use of fresh herbs and wild spinach. I've been in a Tangiers kind of mood all day, and I just had to do something middle eastern inspired for lunch. I don't have any wild spinach, but I do have a decent amount of fresh herbage available at the moment.

I decided to make falafel the base of my meal, and since I was running short on time, I wanted it to be portable. Rather than use the more cumbersome pita, I grabbed the fresh wheat tortillas in the fridge for this project so I could wrap it up tightly and take with if needed. Of course, since this is Morocco-inspired, I had to listen to some Master Musicians of Joujouka while cooking and wash it all down with some a thick shot of espresso.

Ingredients

2 tbl light olive oil
box of Falafel mix
1 tomato, sliced
1 small carrot, peeled and shaved with the peeler into strips
a couple of inches of cucumber, sliced, then cut at least in half
red and/or yellow and/or orange bell pepper. I used small ones , you can cut big ones into squares.
fresh wheat tortillas (I like Tortilla Land brand)
plain Greek yogurt
dill pickles
whatever olives you like, I used a mix of Greek green and calamatas

For the sauce
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
a handful of cilantro, leaves, stems, etc
a small handful of fresh mint (tsp of dry if no fresh is available), leaves, stems, etc
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
commercially prepared harissa sauce (or make your own from one of the many recipes on the interwebs)
salt and pepper (if you have Turkish pepper and spice mix, use it!)



Prepare the falafel and let it sit according to the instructions. In the meantime, heat a couple of tablespoons of light olive oil in a shallow pan over medium-high heat.

While that is heating up, chop up the cilantro and mint, then mix in a bowl with the garlic and a small dollop of the harissa. Taste it- if it's not hot enough, add some more. salt it, then add a couple grinds of pepper. I used a Turkish pepper mix with fennel and coriander, but that's not necessary at all. Add the extra virgin olive oil and stir.

When the oil is hot,  use an ice cream scoop and toss in dollops of falafel. Add  the peppers.  In about three minutes, the falafel should be ready to flip, but check for brownness first. Turn the peppers no more than once or twice so they char a little. After you've flipped the falafel, break it up a bit.

I used one pan for this: remove the falafel and peppers, then toss a tortilla into the hot pan. Check it in a minute and flip if it's starting to get dark brown spots. When nothing on the tortilla looks translucent, it's done.

You probably don't need my instructions on how to proceed from here. Put some sauce on the wrap. add a few chunks of falafel, layer in the strips of carrot, slices of cucumber and tomato. For the sake of efficiency, I roughly diced the olives and pickles together and spooned some on. follow up with the plain yogurt and more sauce. Roll as you might a burrito or spring roll: fold up the ends, then roll the whole thing forward, carefully tuck in the rolled ends as you go. Look what a nice roll it made!

And that's how simple it is. Delicious, too.

Could you have made your own falafel? If you possess that kind of magic, absolutely, do so. My falafel making skills are middling at best, so I normally just grab one of a couple different mixes I like at the store.

This is what I listened to while making it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Superlunch: Coconut fried tofu and rice

Lunch today was a festival of superfoods. I fried some drained tofu (anti-cancer isoflavones, lower-cal than meat) in virgin coconut oil (fights viruses, regulates thyroid, burns fat and lowers cholesterol), added onion (inhibits cancer and atherosclerosis), brown rice (rich in minerals and makes you regular) and yesterday's salsa which had mango (fights cancer, lowers cholesterol, alkalyzes the body), cilantro (lots of antioxidants, regulates sleep cycles, prevents diabetes) and bell pepper (excellent source of carotenoids and vitamin C). I seasoned it with curry powder (anticancer, regulates cholesterol, detoxifies the body), Himalayan salt (contains over 80 trace minerals and, unlike many salts, contains naturally occurring iodine), and black pepper (anti-congestive and healing properties). Not one bad ingredient in the whole dish, and it was delicious.

(Mostly) Vegan Megapost

Phew, it's been a whirlwind start to Autumn around here. This is the time of year that family birthdays kick in, and once October lands the school events start hitting. Can you tell I'm feeling slightly bruised? Only a little of this fall's bounty was bruised- most of it has been perfect and delicious. Pumpkins have been robbed of seeds and are queued up for carving, tomatoes melted into amazing sauces, and herbs have added just the right kick to savory dishes and provided a lovely bouquet to the air around the house.

Abbey started the season off with a traditional carrot cake and cream cheese frosting for her mom's birthday, which was decadent and delicious. The cake itself was vegan, consisting of oil, spices, flour, carrots and sugar. No eggs or dairy. Though Abbey made a traditional cream cheese frosting for her mom to enjoy, I'm sure a tasty frosting could be made with Earth Balance and Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese. Next up was my mom's birthday. That day we had a blackberry cake (it had buttermilk, but still amazing) and two appetizers. The first was crostini topped with pesto and fresh tomatoes. The pesto was not vegan- there was a small amount of parmesan- but again, it easily could have been, either omit the cheese entirely or substitute a combination of almond meal and nutritional yeast. Although I've made quite a few pestos with no cheese and they were all fine.

Next, we had veggie meatballs in sweet and sour sauce. I modified the traditional recipe found over at About.com's Chinese Cooking pages, substituting pineapple juice for the water. after heating the sauce and letting it thicken, I tossed in thin slices of baby carrots, diced onion and green pepper, and some nice off-the shelf veggie meatballs from Veggie Patch. I poured that into a crock pot a little in advance so the vegetables would cook a bit.

Most of our weekday meals this week have been noteworthy. Abbey has made creamy soups with white beans before, and we got to enjoy one this week made with spinach and nutritional yeast. that's a piece of ciabatta doused with olive oil parked in there. We cooked the beans in a heavy dutch oven to the point that they were falling apart; all we had to do was stir and they instantly made a creamy base. She tossed in a thawed chunk of spinach and it was practically done.

Here's the third dish we made with pesto this last week- a pasta salad (high fiber Piccolini penne from Barilla) composed of cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, vegenaise and a drizzle of olive oil. Abbey topped it with shreds of basil, salt and pepper.

Many years back, Abbey and I had a favorite Chinese spot near the campus where we worked. They had some pretty good dishes, but the one the towered above was their rendition of Lo Han Jai. Also known as Buddha's Delight, it's a savory vegetarian combination of Chinese vegetables such as lotus root, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and cloud ears; bean thread; tofu and soy sausage of some sort. It's a like a festival of healthy things in a bowl; traditionally eaten on Chinese New Year's, presumably as a sort of toast to the diner's health. Hankering for that flavor, Abbey found a recipe which we adapted according to available ingredients. We baked cubes of tofu, then stir fried snow peas, sliced baby bellas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, napa cabbage, bean thread, and added a simple sauce of soy sauce and vegetable broth (Imagine's Organic No-Chicken Broth was delicious for this purpose). It was fantastic.

Finally, Abbey came to the rescue for lunch the other day- I was trying to squeeze physical therapy and lunch into one hour; if it weren't for Abbey, I would have gone back to work hungry. She took some locally grown tomatoes and made a Spaghetti Pomodoro with them. The pasta was Racconto whole wheat spaghetti, the sauce consisting of tomatoes, whole black olives and olive oil. Nothing else was needed or desired.

I guess that's it for now! At least it is according to my camera. Abbey just whipped up an amazingly healthy granola that might be popping up here pretty soon as it has an impressive list of healthy ingredients, including buckwheat groats, flax, oats, pumpkin seeds and cashews.

Two super quick lunches

We so often struggle to stick with our lunch plans, mostly because it's so hard to throw something together in our alotted hour.  Sandwiches, soups, and salads are the typical format for lunch at home--and this format serves us well for the most part.  Sandwiches, like the above turkey bacon BLT, are usually quick to assemble.  Michael layered Swiss cheese onto a few slices of Ancient Grains bread from Columbia's Uprise bakery, and stuck them under the broiler for a couple minutes.  He sauteed some turkey bacon in our cast iron pan, drained it, and assembled the sandwich with some sliced tomatoes and bib lettuce.  It was fab--and maybe just a teensy bit lower in fat and carbs than the original BLT.

The pinto bean soup above came together in record time.  I sauteed half a diced yellow onion in broth (we'd just run out of olive oil), added a 15 oz can of pintos, 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, a few tablespoons of salsa verde, some garlic powder (yes, I cheat sometimes), a couple tablespoons of cumin, salt, pepper and a few squeezes of fresh lime juice into the simmering pot.  If you like a little kick to your quasi-Mexican food, add a pinch of cayenne.  I would say, from start to finish, this soup took about 20 minutes. Not bad at all.  Michael and I loved it.  I garnished mine with a little cilantro.  He packed some more for his afternoon snack, 'cuz the boy loves him some beans.

Amazing Lunch

Snow! I figure if it's gonna be cold, it might as well be snowing. But there are repercussions, especially for the family with school-aged children: the snow day! Alas, I have no vacation time, otherwise I would have played hooky today. As I had to work, and the boys, who go to school in Columbia, had to taken up there before the big snow hits later,  I had to do the lunch hour shuffle today. Abbey, who was at home staying with Olivia enjoying the day off, hit me with a delicious to-go lunch to enjoy in my office.

Just look at this lunch!  Wedges of revamped farinata, more the consistency of flatbread than a pancake (Go Abbey! one step closer to Phase one pizza!); cubes of pan-browned Hallumi; a delicious baba ghanouj, and a spinach salad with a spicy vinaigrette. As we agree, the secret authentic flavor in this mediterranean-inspired lunch is the sumac, sprinkled on the farinata whilst still warm which gave it an aroma straight out of my favorite Lebanese eatery. I'm really enjoying it. Thanks, honey!