BEST HUMMUS EVER

When I went to the Middle East I seriously thought my vegetarian-ness would be challenged. Not so-- how could I forget the mother of all wonderful vegetarian dishes: awesome authentic hummus!

My Lebanese friend claims that this is the best hummus recipe out there. And who am I to argue? So without further ado, here's the recipe, courtesy of Ms. Rachel Gabriel:

BEST HUMMUS EVER
Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 can of chick peas (keep juice)
2 heaping spoonfulls of tahini
Lemon Juice
Salt

Instructions:
Blend together the garlic chickpeas (keep the juice!) and two heaping spoonfulls of tahini. Half the retained amount of chickpea juice, and replace with lemon juice (I find it's easiest to keep the can and eyeball the measurement). Pour into blender. Add a spoonfull of salt. Blend.

Take out of blender, and pour a circle of olive oil in the center. Eat and be merry!


Allison claims that she has made this recipe without the garlic and heavy on the tahini and it's pretty amazing. I tend to add more lemon juice and less tahini. And if you're low on tahini, you can always use peanut butter! :)

TOFU: THE OTHER WHITE “MEAT”

My sister says that our cooking blog has too much “weird food.” I guess she’s right that some people have a hard enough time boiling Kraft macaroni and baking pre-cut cookies, so quinoa and vegan brownies are a bit daunting. Sadly for her, my next recipe isn’t going to prove her wrong as again I have chosen what some circles would classify as more alternative food.

So let’s talk TOFU. Here’s the thing about tofu. If you’ve tried it and hated it, then you just didn’t like the way it was cooked. Trust me. When I spent a semester living in the North Carolina woods, our program had vegetarian cook who introduced me to tofu for the first time. His secret to cooking it, which isn’t much of a secret, is that tofu is all about what you cook it with, otherwise it’s essentially flavorless.
So why use tofu anyway you ask? Well, I personally enjoy the variety from other meats. Additionally, it’s packed with protein (like meat) but has almost no saturated fats (unlike meat). Not that I’m anti-meat (though my co-blogger, will probably give you her thoughts on animals eventually), and not that I promise this will replace your hankering for a medium rare steak… but I promise if you learn to cook it, tofu can be delicious.

So this recipe I made up this evening (so please excuse the lame title), but was inspired by this delicious peanut sauce that I bought at a local farmer’s market this weekend. I had peanut chicken last night, and with a small tub remaining decided to try it with tofu this evening. Now since you all cant go get this peanut sauce I am also including a mini-recipe for a peanut sauce I typically make for all of my other Asian inspired endeavors. Let me know what you think. I think you’ll be surprised how easy and quick this is to prepare.

Peanut Veggie Tofu
Musical Accompaniment: I Like It by Enrique and Pitbull
Ingredients:
½ sliced cucumber
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 handful of bean sprouts
1 package of extra firm tofu (cut up if not done already)
2 ‘twigs’ of cilantro (chopped)
4 scallions (chopped)
soy sauce
olive oil

Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or habanero pepper (optional if you like things spicy)

Instructions:
So I forgot I was going to cook tofu until I arrived home from work late so it slipped my mind to marinade. However, if I could do it again I would have put a bit of soy sauce/ or a teriyaki sauce and some olive oil in with the tofu to sit for a few hours before cooking.
I started cooking the sliced pepper, cilantro and scallions in some olive oil before adding the tofu. Since I hadn’t prepared a marinade before hand, I improvised and put some soy sauce and a bit of teriyaki sauce in the pan as it was cooking. It doesn’t take long for tofu to “cook” I just like to keep it in the pan long enough to absorb the flavors of the veggies. After maybe 10 minutes of cooking I added the sprouts and sliced cucumbers. After another minute on the stove I poured the peanut sauce (literally take the ingredients above and blend well) over everything and left it on the stove only long enough to heat.