Homemade Falafel

I am super excited about today's recipe post because I have worked really really hard to master this one. I. Love. Falafel. I love anything with chick peas, really. It probably sounds like a lie, but chick peas have always been one of my favorite foods. I eat them by the handful and they seem to end up in nearly every meal I make, and falafel are basically ground chick peas with lots of cool spices, usually fried (so obviously yummy).

Several months ago I decided I wanted to master the falafel. I started researching recipes and first tried making them with canned chick peas. TOTAL FAIL! They were just mush. Then I came across a great recipe on a blog I've mentioned before, Dirty Kitchen Secrets.  In her falafel recipe, the author uses dehydrated garbanzo beans soaked overnight, but not cooked. Works like a charm :)

The first several times I made these falafel I fried them. The past couple of times, however, I baked them just to see how they came out, and it worked great! I actually think my favorite method is baking them on a greased baking sheet. The oil gives the falafel a nice crispiness and they seem to have greater longevity as leftovers than the fried falafel.

This recipe makes about 24 golf ball sized falafel which can feed a big group or just you for a week! I eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner just dipped in hummus all alone, on top of salads or in the classic pita pocket. I just can't get enough!

Ingredients:
1 c. dried garbanzo beans
2-3 garlic (depending on size)
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 c. packed parsley
1 tsp 5 spice powder (salt free)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp zaatar
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 tsp garbanzo flour
Olive oil
Paper towels (optional)
Parchment paper (optional)

Instructions:
1. Soak the dried garbanzo beans overnight (minimum of 8 hours) and then drain them very well.
2. In a food processor blend the rehydrated garbanzo beans, garlic, onion, parsley and spices into a finely ground mixture.
3. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and add the garbanzo flour, mixing until well blended.

If Frying:
4. Fill your frying pan with a quarter inch of olive oil and heat the pan over medium-high heat.
5. With your hands mold the falafel mixture into golf ball sized balls and then place them into the heated oil.
6. When the side in the oil becomes golden (3-4 minutes) turn them over to cook the other side (about another 4 minutes or until golden).
7. Carefully remove the falafel from the pan and place them on paper towels to drain the excess oil.

If Baking:
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Brush the parchment paper with olive oil.
6. Form the falafel mixture into golf ball sized balls and line them on the baking sheet.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes turning halfway through.


Helpful Tips:
* After draining the rehydrated garbanzo beans lay them on paper towels to absorb any extra liquid.
* When turning the falafel be VERY VERY gentle so as not to crumble the ball! I highly recommend using a pair of rubber tipped tongs (like I mentioned last week, these come in super handy!).
* If baking the falafel, before turning the falafel over halfway through, slice between the base of the falafel and the parchment paper to separate it nice and cleanly which will make turning them much easier.
* The falafel mixture can be stored in the fridge for several days so don't feel pressured to make them all at once!


How do you like to eat your falafel?

The Weekly Plan: Feb 14-Feb 21

Here we are again, another Sunday, another rundown of the food eaten in the past week and the plans of what to eat in the week ahead!

As a refresher, my planned meals this past week were veggie burgers, recipe by Bon Appetit, and Lindley Chicken. If you want to hear about Lindley Chicken check out last Thursday's post!

The burgers came out great!. I was a little nervous because, to be honest, they didn't have the best comments on the Bon Appetit website. I really thought they were amazing and my family did also. First, it was fun working with wheat berries. They were super easy to cook and provided a nice chewy base to the patty. Second, it was chock full of mushrooms - porcini, shiitake AND some of the reserved liquid used to rehydrate the porcini mushrooms!

A main comment I read about this recipe before making it was that the patty didn't hold together well. No, it doesn't hold together as well as a beef hamburger patty, but it also doesn't just crumble apart. A key is melting the cheese on top which gives it that extra adhesion. Another key is to remove as much of the extra liquid as possible before blending. Do this by letting the wheat berries fully cool after cooking spread out on a baking sheet. I also dried the canned garbanzo beans on a paper towel before blending to remove their extra liquid.

In the future, to reduce even more moisture I will try using dried garbanzo beans instead of canned. What I'll do is rehydrate them overnight in water, rinse, and then add them rehydrated, but not cooked, to the mixture! Does this sound crazy to you? Just wait for the falafel recipe coming later this week :)

Meal Plan for the Week:

So, what's planned for the week ahead? Monday night my friend Sam, who I haven't seen in almost ten years is coming to dinner! I am going to make us a middle eastern smorgasbord which is probably one of my favorite meals to cook. I'm going to make homemade falafel (not yet decided if I am going to fry or bake), quinoa tabbouli and homemade tzatziki sauce served with pita, hummus and veggie slices.

Additionally this week I have planned to make two recipes from one of my favorite blogs, Poppies and Papayas. The author is a registered dietician who writes about holistic nutrition and cooking whole food plant based recipes.  I've tried a couple of her recipes and they've been delicious, and she goes into the details of the nutrition of the recipes she writes which is really interested to read. This week I am going to make her Spiced Coconut Dal (which I've made before and YUM!) and her Spiced Quinoa Patties (I'm on a veggie burger kick, can you tell?).

What exciting recipes do you have planned for the week ahead?

Lindley Chicken

The SMACKdown:
I'm happy to bring you a brand new recipe today! This recipe is not of my own creation, but was passed on to me by my friend Brittany. Let me tell you the story of how I first came to taste the yumminess of Lindley Chicken.

When Maggie and I adopted Levi my amazing coworkers organized to bring us meals for the first couple of weeks so that we could spend our time falling in love with our new baby and not have to worry about cooking meals. This was an incredible gift and we felt (and still feel) so lucky to have such awesome people in our lives, especially during this exciting, magical and sleepless time.

Let me tell you that all the food that was delivered was scrumptious, but one meal really knocked my socks off! My lovely friend/coworker Brittany brought us what she called Lindley Chicken. It was savory, salty, scrumptious, comforting and a wholesome dish that I couldn't get enough of! I of course asked her for the recipe which she gladly passed on, along with the history of its origins.

Lindley Chicken is Brittany's mom's recipe and it gets its name from Brittany's childhood friend (last name Lindley) who always wanted Brittany's mom to make this specific chicken dish when she ate over. Thus, this homemade meal received its name, Lindley Chicken, and the rest is history.

Aside from Lindley Chicken being absolutely delicious, it's also super duper easy to make (only 5 ingredients total!), quick to make and it's nutritious. Also, it introduced me to the world of braising!

When Brittany gave me the recipe I was so excited to see that one of the ingredients was Bragg's Liquid Aminos! My mom cooked with this stuff all the time and I hadn't seen it or even though of it in years! Bragg's can basically be substituted for soy sauce or tamari sauce in any recipe. I am happy to have this as a staple in my pantry now.

I've made Lindley Chicken in two different ways - with chicken thighs (the way Brittany cooked it) and with chicken breasts. I will provide instructions on how to cook it both ways because the instructions are slightly different. Brittany served Lindley Chicken over steamed white rice which I highly recommend.

Also, I want to highlight a kitchen utensil that I use every day (no hyperbole here) that comes in handy with this meal... rubber tipped tongs! Get some. You'll thank me :)



Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs (bone-in with skin) or 1 full chicken breast cut into quarters
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/4 c. Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 1/4 c. orange juice
• 1 TBSP olive oil

*If you are cooking chicken thighs, unless you like really salty food (which I do) reduce the amounts of Bragg's and orange juice that you use b/c the thighs absorb more of the liquids than chicken breasts.

Instructions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium to medium-high heat.

2. Add the crushed garlic and let it heat up for 30 seconds, stirring it around in the pot.

3. Place the chicken in the pot and let them cook 3-4 minutes until browned.

NOTE: If using thighs, you will want to cook the skin side down first!

4. Using your tongs, turn the chicken over to cook another 3-4 minutes to brown the other side.

5. Add the liquid aminos and orange juice to the pot, cover with a tight fitting lid and turn the heat to low.

6. Set your timer for 20 minutes and when the bell rings, BAM you're done! (told ya it was easy)

Let's all thank Brittany (and Brittany's mom) for this awesome meal and let me know if you try it out!

What have you been braising lately?

The Weekly Plan: Feb 7-Feb 13

It's Sunday! I used to dread Sundays. This is something that carried over from primary school days knowing that Monday would mean going back to school (not the best attitude, I know). Sunday was the definitive end to the weekend. I would wake up with a pit in my stomach and be in a grouchy anxious mood all day. The minute I'd roll out of bed Maggie would only have to take one look at me to know that I'd been hit by "The Sundays.'

About 3 or 4 years ago, Maggie and I worked together to turn this Sunday attitude around. "Why waste HALF of your weekend being sad that it is going to end,? Maggie rationalized. And, by this time in my life, "The Sundays" was just habit - something engrained in me, not even necessarily grounded in my actual feelings about Mondays (I liked my job! All my friends were there!). It was time to take back Sundays!

The first thing we did was initiate Mindful Weekends. Maggie and I are planners and doers. It's rare that we have a weekend where we aren't booked (a show, a camping trip, hanging with friends, errands, projects around the house, etc.). This is actually something that I LOVE about us. We have lots of fun. But our planning also used to incite anxiety in me. I would anticipate our plans and just freak out about them from the moment I woke up. Mindful Weekends was about actively forcing ourselves (ahem... myself) to experience the weekend moment by moment. This was revolutionary - and in time it dissolved "The Sundays."

So, now I love Sundays, and one of the great things about Sundays in Austin are the farmers markets. This morning I took Levi and one of our dogs, Jetta, to the Mueller's Farmers Market. It was a beautiful and breezy morning and we enjoyed the walk to the market from our parking spot which winded around a small pond. Levi chased ducks for a long time and Jetta whined anxiously on her leash as the ducks ate bread crumbs just feet away.

I intended only to get some parsley, but it's hard to go to a farmers market and not walk away with more than you planned. In line to make our purchase a couple told me how they grill sweet potatoes. GRILL! I snatched one to grill up tonight... because tonight is the Super Bowl!

Now, let me set things straight. I'm "Meh" about football, but I am "Woot Woot!" about snacks and Super Bowl Sunday is allllllll about snacks. Maggie is cooking up something along the lines of cornbread BBQ chicken pie (she's cooking it right this minute and it smells amazing).

I am going to throw together some homemade falafel, black bean dip, Pinch of Yum's Magic Green Sauce and GRILLED sweet potato wedges!

Meal Plan for the Week:

Veggie Burgers (recipe from Bon Appetit)
I am all about veggie burgers right now and I'm really excited about mastering a recipe that I can make regularly, make in bulk and freeze for later. What interests me about this recipe is that the base is wheat berries, which I've never cooked with before! Also, they are packed with mushrooms (porcini and shiitake) and I've been on a real mushroom kick recently. I look forward to seeing how they come out.

Lindley Chicken... AGAIN!
I'm telling you this dish is so tasty you'll want to make it every week also. Later this week I'll be posting the recipe so you can add it into your weekly rotation as well :)

Hope you all got through your "Sundays." Have you planned any delicious meals to get you excited about the week ahead? 

The Weekly Plan: 1/31-2/6

A few years back Maggie and I started meal planning for the week ahead before venturing off to the grocery store each week. Before that we'd just show up at the store and pick things willy nilly that looked yummy without thinking too critically about what we were going to eat when or how much we needed to get. Meal planning was a game changer. Not only did it help us streamline our time in the grocery store, but it forced us to sit down together each week to discuss what our lives looked like in the week ahead. This is a nice thing.

Another reason I love meal planning is that I get to research recipes! I love finding new recipes to cook - it gets me jazzed Jazzed JAZZED! Sometimes I forget there's other things to look at on the internet aside from food blogs :)

Anyhoo, this post is coming a bit late seeing that it's already the end of the work week and the meal plan was made last Sunday. This week I was only in charge of two dinners and I planned  Black-Eyed Pea Chili Verde, a recipe I found in the most recent Bon Appetit magazine, and Lindley Chicken (a friend's family recipe, to be featured in a future recipe!) with Lemon Cashew Rice from Joyful Belly.

Black-Eyed Pea Chili Verde (Bon Appetit)
Last minute I decided to make this meat based meal vegetarian because when I got to Whole Foods to get the ham hock I saw the hoof and couldn't bring myself to buy it. I did a bit of research on how to substitute for ham hock in veggie recipes and learned that you can use smoked sea salt. Lucky for me I was gifted delicious salts from Rainbow Harvest Farms, one of which was a chipotle smoked sea salt. I added a teaspoon of this to the broth and it totally gave it the smoky flavor I was trying to recreate. Another change I made to the recipe was that I omitted the cilantro. Maggie can't eat cilantro so what I did was I made a cilantro drizzle (a bunch of cilantro, olive oil, water and salt blended) and added this to my own personal bowl. Also to note, the recipe says it makes 4 servings, but it easily made at least 6.

This recipe came out yummy, but it was missing something that would push it over the edge to "oh my gosh, yummy!" I definitely want to keep playing with my vegetarian version of Bon Appetit's chili verde because I think I can get it to where I want it to be.

Lemon Cashew Rice (Joyful Belly)
I came across Joyful Belly while researching Ayurvedic recipes recently. I've been on a personal quest to make rice dishes more interestingly flavored and this recipe sounded fun! The recipe itself isn't super clear. For instance, if you take a look at it you'll notice that the instructions tell you to pan roast the cumin and mustard seeds separately but never indicate when to add them to the rice. Also, turmeric is included in the ingredients list but there isn't instructions to add it to the recipe. I added the roasted cumin and mustard seeds straight into the pot of rice once it was done roasting and added the turmeric at the same time. Additionally, I didn't use basmati rice, but 50/50 blend of Rice Select Royal Blend rice and Central Market brand farro. I liked the blend and felt good about the increase of fiber to the meal :)

Surprisingly this dish came out kind of bland. Considering the roasted spices I really thought this rice would pop with flavor, but it didn't. I did halve the amount of fresh lemon juice that was supposed to be added after the rice was finished, but honestly, more lemon would not have done the trick. I really liked the roasted mustard seed/cumin combo in addition to the nuttiness of the cashews. I think I can work on this recipe and make it the savory dish I imagined.

Do you meal plan for the week ahead? 

The Smack is Back!

Whao, it's been a while since I've entered this space! The last time I posted was over a year ago. I didn't know if Wholly Smackerel was going to see the light of day again after I made a conscious decision to put it away for a while. In 2014 I set a goal for myself to write one blog post a month which was formed out of total excitement. One post a month seemed totally doable! But, each month I found myself stressing out about getting a blog post together and so in a life decision to reduce unneeded stress in my life and to streamline my hobbies, I decided to put it away... permanently? I wasn't so sure at the time, it was an open ended decision.

On the sidelines the cooking didn't stop and the food love/eating didn't stop. I've been trying new recipes (like coconut rice and zucchini bake) and using new ingredients (like miso and farro) and every once in a while I'd be inspired - "Hey, I should post about this on Wholly Smackerel!" - but other things took precedent.

A couple of months ago, however, I made a big decision. I am going to begin working towards becoming a Registered Dietician (RD)! This is a decision looooooooong in the making. I have been headed this way for years, but I am a slow decision maker so actually beginning this process is a big deal to me. I was Humanities major in college which means that I have lots of science prerequisites to complete before I can apply to a Master's program (2 years if I'm going part-time).

This semester I am enrolled in my first prereq, Nutritional Biology, at Austin Community College. Even though it's super basic nutrition I am already LOVING it! I feel like that's a good sign that I'm on the right path :)

So, where does Wholly Smackerel fit in? I feel like it will be a good place for me to process what I am learning in class and a way to apply things that I am learning to my life. Also, learning about all this stuff is getting me really jazzed about food and nutrition and this is what Wholly Smackerel is all about!