Middle Eastern Grilled Eggplant with Lemon Tahini Sauce

Some days, I am paralyzed with indecision of what to cook, so I cook nothing at all. For example, I have loads of zucchini. I could make a ratatouille, throw them in a minestrone, confit them, grate them into little zucchini fritters. Instead, I do nothing with them, putting off the decision for another time. I turn into a grazer, eating a little bit of this, a little bit of that, until I feel satisfied. It may be some leftovers + avocado toast with an egg + a sliced tomato with sea salt + a cup of yogurt with nuts and chocolate + some leftover brown rice with cheese... it can go on. I tend to keep whole and nutritious foods on hand, so it is not like I am grabbing bags of processed this and that, but it is a lot less satisfying, a lot less satiating to graze and assemble than it is to sit down to a composed meal.

Ideally I would use the weekend and decide what to make for the week ahead, go to the farmers' market and grocery store and only buy those ingredients and get started on my cooking. This is something I am working on, and I know it can be done- my older sister and her husband have this whole menu planning thing down to an art and have for several years. Instead, what usually happens is I go to the farmers' market and grocery store and buy ingredients I happen to be in the mood for, that are looking rather pretty, or are on sale. Then I go home and eventually figure out what to do with them. While I certainly like the spontaneity of this sort of wing-it style, planning and organizing would help me avoid many of those indecision-induced grazing sessions.

A solution to my moments of indecision is to have a third party decide for me what I am doing with all of my ingredients, or rather, narrow my options of what to do with them. This is where Foodie Dice comes in. I saw them in a magazine last year and knew I had to order them. They could get me out of my decision ruts and spur me into action. The idea behind Foodie Dice is that you roll 6 dice, each with a different component to make a full meal. The categories are: protein, starch/ carb, herb, cooking method, bonus ingredient, and seasonal vegetable (there are 4 dice for this category). You roll and voila!...your dinner template is revealed. You obviously can re-roll any dice for which you do not have the ingredient on hand and see if something else comes up. What is wonderful about the dice is that you are still in charge of executing the dish and bringing the whole thing together, but the main parts are chosen for you. Fewer options for the win.

I had a bounty of summer vegetables that I purchased from the local farmers' market. Everything was beautiful- zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, but I just stared at it all when I got home. I could not commit to a dish I wanted to make, so I pulled out my little bag of dice and decided to leave dinner's fate in the dice's roll. And the results were... lamb or beans, rice, oregano, grill, garlic, and eggplant.

I had chickpeas on hand and a multi-grain/ brown rice mix that I had cooked a few days earlier. I did not have any fresh or dried oregano, but I did have a jar of Middle Eastern za'atar which contains dried oregano, thyme, and sesame seeds which I decided would work beautifully with the eggplant. I had a grill, garlic, and a gorgeous deep purple eggplant from the market. I added in some lemon, fresh cilantro, and tahini to tie it all together, and the result: a beautiful, summer dish inspired by the flavors of Israel, from where my little jar of za'atar had come.

This dish can easily be made ahead of time without the extra tahini sauce on top. Just reheat in the oven. When you remove it from the oven, the heat will help the tahini sauce get into all of the nooks and crannies. Sprinkle with a little extra cilantro or parsley, and you will be ready to serve. I used a brown rice/ grain mix here, but plain brown rice, quinoa, millet, etc. would work, and another white bean or even lentils could serve as a chickpea substitute. Have fun with it!

Middle Eastern Grilled Eggplant with Lemon Tahini Sauce

Grilled Eggplant:
1 large eggplant, top removed, and cut into 1/4" slices, lengthwise
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained (canned are fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons za'atar spice mix or dried oregano
1 large handful of cilantro or parsley, washed and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

Lemon Tahini Sauce:
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 1/2 tablespoons tahini paste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Grill eggplant. Heat grill to high heat. Drizzle eggplant slices with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle evenly with salt. Grill eggplant slices, turning once, until softened, about 5-8 minutes total. Remove from grill and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix lemon zest and juice and garlic clove. Allow to sit for 5 minutes for garlic to mellow. Whisk in tahini paste, extra-virgin olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

In another bowl, combine rice, chickpeas, za'atar, cilantro, salt, and 1/2 of the lemon tahini sauce. Stir until well-combined.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lay out eggplant slices on a cutting board or counter-top and place a heaping spoonful of filling on one end of each slice. Roll each slice up. Tuck away in a baking dish, seam side down. If any filling remains, you can sprinkle it around the edges of the dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and drizzle remaining lemon tahini sauce on top and sprinkle with remaining herbs. Enjoy! Serves 4.

Corn and Coconut Chowder

This soup has only 6 ingredients...corn, onion, garlic, a chile, coconut milk, and a squeeze of lime juice. I am excluding the salt, pepper, and water of course, and yes, so I added a little basil oil, but even without the basil oil, this soup sings summer. The secret to coaxing such a rich corn flavor with so few ingredients is to make a quick corn stock. Just like you can make chicken stock from chicken bones, shrimp stock from shrimp shells, and vegetable stock from vegetable scraps, you can make corn stock from corn cobs. You can use the liquid yellow gold that results into a base for a soup like I did here, or into a risotto, or even a summer polenta dish.

The chowder is completely dairy free, but the coconut milk combined with the sweet corn makes for a match made in heaven. The chile's heat and lime's tartness cut the sweetness of the corn and coconut, snapping it back into savory territory. I reserve some corn kernels to briefly cook at the end to give the chowder texture, but you could puree everything together if you would like.

The basil oil is a breeze to make, and once you can make, you can find a lot of excuses to use it. Drizzle it on tomatoes and mozzarella, bread and cheese, on pasta or rice. You puree basil with olive oil and a little salt and voila! basil oil. I blanched the basil to keep it bright green before blending it with oil, but you could skip that if you did not mind the color change.

Corn and Coconut Chowder

4 corn cobs, husked with silk removed
1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red chile, seeded and chopped
1/4 lime, juiced
1/2 cup coconut milk (I used homemade which is full-fat, but lowfat could probably work too)
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
sea salt and pepper to taste
Basil oil, optional (recipe below)

Remove kernels from 4 corn cobs and set aside. Break corn cobs in half. I find this easiest to do with my hands.

Make the corn stock. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5-8 minutes or until softened. Add chile to onion mixture and and cook 30 seconds. Add corn cobs and 2 cups of water, snuggling corn cobs under water as much as possible. Bring to boiling, then reduce heat to simmer. Allow to cook for 30 minutes.

Remove corn cobs from stock and discard or compost. Reserve 1 cup corn kernels and set aside. Add remaining corn kernels and salt to pot and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Allow mixture to cool briefly and then add to blender. Add lime juice coconut milk to blender and blend mixture until mostly smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile cook remaining corn kernels in now empty pot with a splash of water until just cooked, about 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Ladle soup into bowls and spoon reserved cooked corn kernels over top. Drizzle with basil oil, if desired. Enjoy! Serves 2-4.

Basil Oil:
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste

Blanch basil oil for 10-20 seconds in boiling water. Cool immediately in ice bath. Drain and pat dry. Add to blender or food processor and add extra-virgin olive oil. Blitz until desired consistency is reached. Add a pinch or two of salt to taste. Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
*You can skip the blanching step, knowing that the basil oil will not be quite as bright green due to oxidation. The flavor, however, will not be affected.

Grilled Corn and Zucchini Toss

So you want to know one of my favorite things about summer? Those sheets of corn kernels that fall off the cob when you run your knife down alongside it. There is something so satisfying about their texture. Sure, eating corn right off the cob is pretty fun too, but it can be messy, and kernels get stuck in your teeth inevitably on the day you run out of floss. Corn kernel sheets take the cake for me. If only there was a foolproof way to maximize the number of kernels in a sheet.

This corn and zucchini number is pretty awesome. I put a lot of pressure on myself for making the most of these corn sheets other than just nibbling them up by themselves, and I think I did them justice. I toss sweet corn, tender zucchini, and a spicy chile with zingy red wine vinegar and buttery walnuts. Simple, beautiful, and really delicious. I promise.

Grilling corn, if you have never done it, is so easy. It beats boiling it or even sauteing it because it caramelizes the corn's sugars in the most perfect way. If a grill is not accessible, broiling it is always an option, just be sure to turn it every so often to prevent burning.

Grilled Corn and Zucchini Toss

2 ears of corn, husks and silks removed
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 large zucchini, washed and cut into 1 cm dice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 red chili, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat grill to high. Alternatively, turn your broiler on high. Rub each ear of corn with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Grill or broil, turning occasionally for about 10 minutes or until lightly charred all around. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, slice corn off the cob, preserving as many corn sheets as possible, and set aside. I use a small bowl turned upside down in a larger bowl to help catch any rogue kernels (see photo).

Meanwhile, heat a skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium- high heat. Add diced onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened and slightly golden, about 5-8 minutes. Add zucchini and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for another 5 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Add sliced red chili and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.

Carefully combine corn and zucchini mixture. Sprinkle in toasted walnuts and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy! Serves 4.

Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Millet and Black Beans

One summer, my older sister and I decided it would be a good idea to try to make the real, deep-fried chile rellenos ourselves. We were feeling ambitious. This was going to be our first foray into the deep-frying world, and we were going to go all out. We roasted the poblanos, peeled away the blackened skin, stuffed them with cheese, tooth-picked them together, dipped them in batter, and then plunged the first one in a pot of oil with bated breath, ready for it to puff up to a spectacular golden brown. What we got was a blackened blob and an apartment full of smoke. Her husband walked in at about this same time and despite the door being fifteen feet from the kitchen, we could not see him and he could not see us. The oil was clearly too hot and the pepper had completely incinerated, and we were bowled over in tears- partially from the smoke and partially from laughing so hard at our failed attempt. With all windows and doors opened and a new pot of oil, we tried again, this time doing a little batter fry-test before wasting another precious pepper. The end result was pretty delicious, but it was an afternoon's worth of work for what is essentially some deep-fried cheese disguised in a pretty green pepper.

These stuffed peppers are just as comforting, but lighter and even more flavorful than Mexican chile rellenos. And they are most definitely easier. You do have to have a cooked grain on hand (I used millet), but you could certainly use leftover rice or even quinoa. Another fantastic option would be leftover grits or polenta. Yum. I mixed in some black beans and a sharp cheddar, but if you have pepper jack on hand or tossed in some feta, you could jazz it up a little more.

Poblano peppers are everywhere at the farmers' market right now, and because their flesh is much thinner, they cook right in the oven without any parboiling needed. Another win. But the real winner here is the sauce. It is based on a sauce that I often use when I make enchilada casserole. I sometimes use different chili powders or add a little cayenne and maybe a little smoked paprika, but this is the base I riff off of. I have made some delicious sauces with dried chilies, soaking and pureeing them or toasting them and grinding them with other spices, but this sauce is way more flavorful than its ingredients suggest and much friendlier for a busy cook. Feel free to double the sauce and use it on just about anything. It also freezes well if you are the make-ahead type. 

I garnished everything with a drizzle of local goat yogurt from Shellbark Hollow Farm. Most goats' milk yogurts contain a number of stabilizers, but this one does not so it is quite runny- prefect for drizzling. It gives the most subtle tang which works so well on these peppers, but sour cream or another yogurt would pair nicely with this, too. Enjoy!

Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Millet and Black Beans

Peppers:
4 poblano peppers, washed, sliced in half lengthwise, and seeds removed
1 1/2 cups cooked millet or other grain
1/2 cup cooked black beans, drained
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, divided (I used Cabot extra sharp cheddar)
handful of cilantro, chopped, plus more for garnishing
yogurt or sour cream for garnishing (I used a local goat's milk yogurt which is a bit runnier but delicious!)

Mexican Spiced Tomato Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder (I used a mix of chipotle and regular chili powder)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
3/4 cup water

Prepare sauce. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic cloves, and cook for 5-8 minutes or until softened and slightly golden. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt, and stir and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add tomato sauce and water. Stir to incorporate and turn heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare filling. In a medium bowl, stir together cooked millet, cooked black beans, 1/2 cup grated cheese, and handful of chopped cilantro. Spoon mixture into poblano pepper halves. Extra filling will probably remain, so just spoon it around the pepper halves after placing them in the sauce.

When the sauce is done, layer 1/2 of the sauce in the bottom of oven-proof dish. Nestle pepper halves in the sauce (sauce should come up half-way up the sides). Spoon a little sauce over the top of each pepper half and sprinkle peppers with remaining grated cheese. Cover pan with foil and place in oven to cook for 30 minutes.

Remove foil from pan after 30 minutes, turn broil to high and broil for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is a little toasty. Remove from oven, top with yogurt or sour cream and additional cilantro. Enjoy! Serves 4.

Barley and Quinoa Herbed Summer Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes

I take my tomatoes seriously. I will wait from late summer to late spring- what feels like an eternity- for their return to the farmers' markets. I resist buying the tomatoes from the grocery store from some place far away. And when I taste that first one in late June, I am reminded that the wait was worth it. Summer cherry tomatoes, still slightly warm from the sun, are too irresistible to not just pop right into my mouth, completely unaltered. But they can also bring a welcome acidity to so many summer salads, especially to those loaded with herbs.

I originally made this recipe as a dish to carry to a family potluck. I had grains and lentils stored in the fridge that I had cooked a few days prior and a new bounty of the first summer tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs from the local farmers' market. The dish was so delicious, I made another batch when I got home. It is a delicious salad served alongside grilled foods or even with a hard-boiled egg. It may seem daunting to make two grains for a salad, but the texture you get from the chewy barley and nutty, almost crunchy quinoa combination is pretty awesome.

Barley and Quinoa Herb Summer Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes

1/3 cup cooked beluga lentils*
2/3 cup cooked pearl barley**
2/3 cup cooked quinoa***
2 English cucumbers, sliced lengthwise and then thinly sliced cross-wise in half-moon shapes
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup crumbled feta (I used goat milk feta which I highly recommend)

Herbed Arugula Dressing
1 cup loosely packed arugula
1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/2 teaspoon of salt, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Combine barley, quinoa, lentils, cucumbers, and tomatoes in a large bowl.

Make the herb dressing: Add all dressing ingredients to a mini food processor and blitz until mostly smooth.

Pour the dressing over the ingredients in the bowl and stir gently to combine. Sprinkle with pine nuts and crumbed feta. Stir until mixed. Taste and adjust salt. Enjoy! Serves 4-6. 

* To cook beluga lentils: Use the ratio 1 part beluga lentils to 4 cups water. Rinse the lentils under running water and drain. Add lentils and fresh water to pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, checking the texture around 15 minutes. You want a firm but not crunchy lentil. When lentils reach desired doneness, drain lentils, and set aside. 1 cup uncooked lentils yields about 2 cups cooked lentils.
** To cook pearl barley: Use the ratio of 1 part pearl barley to 3 parts water. Bring the water and barley to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow to cook for 30-35 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes before removing the lid. 1 cup of uncooked pearl barley yields about 3 cups of cooked pearly barley.
*** To cook quinoa: Use the ratio 1 part quinoa to 1.5 parts water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the quinoa, stir, and cover pot. Reduce heat to low, and allow to cook for 25 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes before removing the lid. 1 cup of uncooked quinoa yields about 3 cups cooked quinoa.