Pinto bean dip recipe

From   https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/234081/pinto-bean-dip/?print

I tried cooking a pound of beans in my slow cooker.  After 5 1/2 hours, I turned it off because the beans were cooked and starting to fall apart.  I cooked them with 1/2 large onion and some spices, but no salt, as that might interfere with how they cook.  I only needed about 2/3 of it for a soup I was making (note - one bag is probably the equivalent of 4-5 15oz cans of beans).  So I found this recipe as a way to use the rest.

It can use a bit more taste - I didn’t have peppers so I added a spice blend I had from another recipe that probably didn’t make up for the heat.  I did cut down on the salt, as was suggested and only used 1/4 tsp.  I added cumin and coriander, and now I’m letting it set for a while to see if I need to add anything else. 

Pinto Bean Dip

Just like the bean dip you buy in the store but a lot less expensive. The heat can be easily controlled.

Submitted by PRESIDENTJIM

Prep Time:

 

5 mins

Total Time:

 

5 mins

Servings:

 

6 

Yield:

 

6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 tablespoon white vinegar

• 3 slices canned jalapeno pepper

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon white sugar

• ¼ teaspoon paprika

• ¼ teaspoon onion powder

• ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder

• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Place pinto beans, vinegar, jalapeno pepper, salt, sugar, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper in a food processor; blend until smooth.

Nutrition Facts 

           

calories44
total fat 0g
saturated fat 0g
sodium 567mg
total carbohydrate 8g
dietary fiber 2g
total sugars 0g
protein 3g
vitamin c 1mg
calcium 23mg
iron 1mg
potassium 129mg

Eggplant recipe

Recipe from Tali - dish she brought to postcard party today.  Delish with crackers/ pita chips.

 Here is the eggplant recipe. I'm not sure I can call it a recipe since it's just throwing things together. How does one teach kids to cook with "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that?" 

- sauté diced eggplant until they are really soft and browned. 

- add fresh or canned dices tomatoes and tomato paste (see photo below) 👇

- add cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, salt, and sugar to taste 

- I like it cold. I mentioned to Holly about my clever neighbor who put feta and egg on it, like shakshuka!

Baba Ganouj

From https://www.loveandlemons.com/baba-ganoush/

It’s easy to include the eggplant on the grill with whatever else you’re preparing.  You might get bitten by the bugs but you’ll keep your kitchen cool. 

Made this with eggplant grilled for ~ 20 minutes - just brushed with oil and pierced in a few places.  After cooling, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the innards.  Then proceed with making the dip.  There is enough liquid involved that I was able to use my Magic Bullet - no fuss, no muss. 

Ingredients

• 2 medium (or small) eggplants, pierced with a knife or fork
• ¼ cup tahini
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
• 2 garlic cloves
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• Finely chopped fresh parsley
• Smoked paprika
• Red pepper flakes, optional - used Aleppo flakes from Shafa in Rockville
• Pita bread, for serving
• Veggies, for serving

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F and wrap the eggplants in foil. Roast for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they are soft and collapse to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside.
• Once cool to the touch, peel the skin from the eggplants, removing any big clumps of seeds. Place the flesh in a strainer set over a bowl and let stand for 20 minutes to remove excess water.
• Place the eggplant flesh, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and salt in a food processor and pulse until smooth. 
• Transfer the baba ganoush to a serving dish and sprinkle with parsley, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes, if using. Serve with pita and veggies.

Notes

Note: For a more traditional, smokier baba ganoush, cook the eggplant on the grill (no foil), until the eggplant is very soft and charred all over. Remove the charred skin and continue with the recipe instructions.

Tahini Sauce

From Loveandlemons.com

Tahini Sauce

Prep Time: 5minutes mins

Total Time: 5minutes mins

Serves 4

I 

This easy tahini sauce is versatile and delicious! Drizzle it over grain bowls, salads, falafel, and more. Find my favorite variations in the post above. All keep for up to 1 week in the fridge.I tried this in an effort to duplicate Sababa’s tahini sauce on roasted cauliflower.  This is good, but not the same.  I think next time I’ll add a little  maple syrup or honey.  Also, theirs had golden raisins, which definitely go well with this.

Ingredients

Basic Tahini Sauce

• ½ cup tahini*
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons water, plus more as needed
• 1 small garlic clove, grated or pressed
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• Try adding golden raisins and some maple syrup or honey. 

Instructions

• In a small bowl, stir together the tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic, and sea salt. Season to taste. If you find the tahini sauce too bitter, add ¼ to ½ teaspoon maple syrup or honey to balance the flavor. If it’s too sharp, add ½ to 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil to mellow the flavor. If it's too thick, add water, as needed, to reach your desired consistency.

  See the blog post about for the turmeric, beet, and green tahini sauce variations.

Notes

*I prefer these brands of tahini: Cedar’s, Seed + Mill, and Soom.

 

Beet Hummus

https://www.loveandlemons.com/beet-hummus/

Beautiful bright red color and great taste, perfect on thin  whole wheat pita.

5.0 from 10 reviews 

Beet Hummus

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

I love the bright pink color of this slightly sweet beet hummus! Serve it as an appetizer with crackers or crostini or with veggies as an afternoon snack.

Author: Jeanine Donofrio

Recipe type: Appetizer, snack

Serves: 1½ cups

Ingredients

• 1 medium or 2 small red beets
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1½ cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 to 3 tablespoons warm water
• ½ teaspoon each of cumin and coriander (optional)
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serve with:

• 1 small baguette, sliced and toasted
• Radishes, sliced in half (or other raw veggies)
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts

 DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Drizzle the beet with olive oil and then wrap the beet and garlic together in foil. Place on the baking sheet and roast 30 to 40 minutes, or until the beet is fork-tender.
2. When cool enough to handle, peel the beet skins under running water using your hands. Chop the beet and place it in a blender. Add the roasted garlic, chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and water and blend until smooth. Add cumin and coriander, if you like. Chill until ready to use.
3. Slather onto baguette and garnish with sesame seeds, pine nuts and parsley (all optional), or serve with crispy raw veggies.

Melón Gazpacho

José Andrés’ Melón Gazpacho

I made this recipe with a sweet cantaloupe, and it turned out great, but I did a lot of seasoning at the end.  The recipe below, as written, was a KindSoups recipe for feeding a crowd. Cut recipe in 1/4 for 4-6 appetizer servings.  

4Tbsp Fresh Mint leaves chopped

2 Honeydew Melons, peeled and roughly chopped (or cantaloupe)

2 Green Bell Peppers, cored, seeded and chopped (I had one red bell pepper and three small mild green pepper, ? Maybe jalapeño?)

4 Garlic Cloves, chopped

4 Cups of Fresh Filtered Water

4 cups of crustless bread torn into 1in pieces - this helped to give it some body/chunkiness)

1/4 cup Sherry Vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper - a lot, as well as grated red pepper flakes. 

Additional Mint for Garnish

*1 Yellow Bell Peppers, cored, seeded and chopped - yes, add

*2 Large Cucumbers, peeled and seeded, and chopped - yes, add (used one cucumber for 1/4 recipe).

(*not originally part of Jose Andres’ recipe)

Chill, then re-season as needed. 

 

Put all the ingredients including the bread pieces, and sherry vinegar in a blender (work in batches if necessary) and blend until very smooth. With the blender running, slowly add the olive oil, blending until emulsified. Refrigerate until well chilled. Taste chilled gazpacho and add salt & pepper as needed. Add fresh mint as garnish. 

Humble Potato Leek Soup

From The Heart of the Plate by Mollie Katzen

Simple and tasty - I had mushrooms and scallions that I wanted to use up, so I added those too.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb russet potatoes, peeling optional, into 1 inch chunks

4 cups water

up to 1.25 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 packed cups (~2 lbs) cleaned leek rings, short of 1/4" thick

    (plus ~ 1/2 - 1 cup sliced mushrooms, and one large scallion)

Black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the potato chunks, water and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium-large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the potatoes are very soft, about 15-20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place another saucepan over medium-low heat for 1 minute.  Add the OO and swirl, then add the leeks and another 1.2 tsp salt and cook.  Stir for a minute or two, then lower the heat and continue to cook, stirring for 5-8 minutes.  Cover and cook over low heat for another 5-8 minutes, or until the leeks are very soft. 

3. Add the potatoes and all their cooking water to the leeks, along with black pepper to taste.  Cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let the soup sit for about 15 minutes to develop the flavor. Somewhere in there, taste to adjust the salt. 

4. You can now reheat the soup and serve as is or puree some of it with an immersion blender and reheat.  Serve hot.  Note - I didn't  care for the way it looked, so I blended all of it, in batches, in my Bullet, then seasoned with salt and pepper.

Pomegranate, Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip / Muhummara

From Amy Riolo’s. The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook 

“This piquant sweet and sour dip has origins in Persia and is now popular across the Middle East and in Turkey.  Recently touted as a ‘beauty dip’ by American magazines for the skin enhancing qualities found in its three main ingredients - red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate - this recipe is quick to become a favorite of those who try it for the first time.”

Pomegranate juice and seeds were used in natural medicines for curing a wide variety of ailments; they appeared in records back to 1550 BCE.  They made their way to America with Spanish settlers in 1769, and are now grown in California and Arizona.  

INGREDIENTS: 

7 oz roasted red peppers, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup fresh bread crumbs or almond flour

1/3 cup walnuts

4 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of 1 lemon

4 Tbsp pomegranate molasses (I used ~2)

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt

1/4 cup EVOO

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the all the ingredients except the oil.  Pulse on and off until a thick paste forms.  Then, gradually pour EVOO into the running food processor.  Taste the purée and adjust the salt as needed.  Serve at room temperature. 

Curried lentil, tomato and coconut soup - Ottolenghi

From Ottolenghi Simple

I made this for the first time and it was delicious.  You can adjust the heat with more or less curry or red pepper flakes.  I usually cut down the curry from directions in a recipe, but I had a mildish curry (from Abdul) and used just about 1 Tbsp.  Topping it with cilantro was good.  I used lite coconut milk, about 1/2 - 2/3 of a can, and didn't use any to top it off.  Seemed good to all of us that way.

Per the book, you can blend it if you like, but I prefer feeling the textures of the lentils, cilantro stems...

INGREDIENTS: 

2 Tbsp sunflower oil

1 onion, finely chopped (1 1/4 cups)

1 Tbsp medium curry powder

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 garlic cloves, crushed or minced

2" piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped (? 1/4 cup per book)

3/4 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained

1 can (14.5 oz) chopped tomatoes (used fire roasted)

1 1/4 cups cilantro stems, roughly chopped, plus 1/4 cup leaves to garnish

2.5 cups water

salt and black pepper

1 can coconut milk (or less)

Can serve with lime slices - I didn't see this until after the fact

DIRECTIONS: 

1) Heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and fry for 8 minutes, stirring frequently until soft and caramelized.  

2) Add the curry powder, pepper flakes, garlic and ginger and continue to fry for 2 minutes, stirring continuously.  

3) Add the lentils, stir through for 1 minutes, then add the tomatoes, cilantro stems, water and 1 tsp of salt and a very generous grind of pepper.

4) Pour the coconut milk into a bowl and gently whisk until smooth and creamy (lite milk doesn't really get creamy).  Set aside 1/4 cup for serving; add the remaining milk to the soup.  Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat to medium and simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the lentils are soft but still holding their shape.  Add a little bit more water (~7-10 Tbsp) if needed to thin. 

5) Divide the soup among 4 world, drizzle with the reserved coconut milk, sprinkle with cilantro leaves and serve. 

basil pesto

From Loveandlemons.com   https://www.loveandlemons.com/pesto-recipe/

I had a lot of fresh basil that I wanted to use up quickly.  I didn't have pine nuts so I used sunflower seeds and chopped walnuts, and I used nutritional yeast instead of Parm.  The recipe was very good and extra lemony before the nutritional yeast was added.  I'd probably add just a teaspoon or so of the yeast, if any.  

I ended up plating tomatoes (Camparis cut in half) with a dab of pesto on each, and it looked like it could make a great appetizer.  (11/8/22)

Ingredients

Basic Basil Pesto:

• ½ cup toasted pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 small garlic clove
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups basil leaves
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for a smoother pesto
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, optional  (or 1 tsp nutritional yeast)

• Instructions

• In a food processor, combine the pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper and pulse until well chopped.
• Add the basil and pulse until combined.
• With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil and pulse until combined. Add the Parmesan cheese, if using, and pulse to briefly combine. For a smoother pesto, add more olive oil.

 

Baked Zucchini Chips

 

These crispy baked zucchini chips are a delicious summer snack or side dish! I love them on their own, but they're also yummy with dipping sauce. See the recipe below or the post above for suggestions.  Served this at happy hour and it was a big hit

• 1 egg* (I used 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed and 1/4 cup non-dairy milk)
• ½ cup panko bread crumbs (I only had matzo meal - it worked)
• ½ cup almond flour  (I used cassava flour)
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese or Vegan Parmesan (I used Nutritional Yeast)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt - more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper - more to taste
• I also added dried basil and oregano, a lot of extra salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 medium zucchini, sliced into ¼ inch rounds (used 1 huge zucchini; might cut larger slices in half)
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

• Romesco, Tzatziki, or Marinara

  , optional for serving -  great with marinara

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, whisk the egg. In a medium bowl, combine the panko, almond flour, Parmesan, salt, and several grinds of pepper.
• Dip the zucchini slices into the egg and then into the panko mixture. Place onto the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and bake 17 to 20 minutes, flipping halfway, until golden brown.
• Serve immediately while they're still hot (they’ll become less crispy as they sit). Serve with a dipping sauce, if desired.