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Kosher Vegan Southwest Falafel

I love being an American! We get the best of everyone's foods. Let's take a little bit of Mexico, a little bit of Texas, and a little bit of Persia and throw them all in a blender. It turns out they play very nicely together.

As I've said before, you really can't go wrong with chickpeas. They're crazily versitile. Any time I start wondering what to do with a new spice blend or random vegetable I find in the fridge, somehow chickpeas creep into my improvised meal.

Therefore, I unwittingly turned an experiment with southwest spices into what I later realized was just fancified falafel. Ah, well. It felt so creative at the time. Somtimes it's fun to throw a couple different kinds of cuisine together and see what happens. This southwest falafel is just as easy as classic falafel but with a little fun for those of you who can't put the chillies down.

I suspect these would be even better in a deep fryer, but they're pretty darn tasty pan fried.

• 2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 four oz can diced green chilles
• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• 1 tsp hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup olive oil

In a large skillet, bring the oil to a medium heat. While the oil is heating, throw the chickpeas, chilles, onion, bell pepper, garlic, parsley, cilantro, paprika, oregano and cumin into a blender or food processor. I like to leave mine a little bit gritty, but you're welcome to blend it until it's completely smooth.

Mix the flour and baking powder. Now scoop everythign out of the blender or food processor and combine it with the flour mix. You should end up with a stiff dough. If it's too wet or falls apart in your hands, add another 2 tbsp of flour.

Make the dough into balls about the size of a silver dollar, then squish them slightly flat in your hands. Basically, you're trying to make sure the oil will cover most of the falafel patty. Don't mash it paper thin. Then you just end up with a confusingly crunchy crust.

Try one patty first to make sure it comes out alright. If the first one falls apart in the oil, add another 1 - 2 tbsp of flour to the batter. Once you're sure they're a texture you like, feel free to fill your pan with as many as it'll take.

Fry the patties for 2 - 4 minutes per side - basically until they're golden brown. Drain them on a few paper towels to cut back on any greasiness. If you have a deep fat fryer, try making the falafel into balls and cooking it for about six minutes. I'm guessing here, so if you try this, please let me know.

SERVING SUGGESTION

Since these are southwestern flavored, I recommend making sandwiches with tortillas instead of pita bread. Pile the patties with your favourite salsa, some corn relish, lettuce, and soy pepperjack cheese.

Kosher Vegan Lentil and Onion Soup

I love onions. When I lived in Germany, I'd sometimes saute a sliced onion with a couple cloves of garlic and eat it on a toasted baguette. My roommates thought I was The One Poor American, and therefore kept trying to kindly slip meat into my food for fear I'd starve to death.

• 1 pound brown lentils
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 small red onion
• 1 cup peeled pearl onions
• 2 leeks
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp olive oil

In a very large soup pot, bring the vegetable broth and bay leaf to a boil.

Meanwhile, dice the onions into different sized chunks for texture variation. Personally, I dice the red onion pretty fine, the yellow onion into larger chunks, and the white portion of the leeks into broad strips. Throw away the green portion of the leeks.

Bring a skillet to medium heat. Add the olive oil and all your onions (including the peeled pearl onions). Saute until the the onions start to turn translucent. Now press or dice all the garlic and add it in as well. Stir heartily and continue to cook until some of the onions just start to caramelize. Don't worry that a lot will still be translucent. They're different sizes and types. They're supposed to cook at different rates.

Now add the rest of the spices. Stir well so your onions are thoroughly coated.

Hopefully, your stock is now boiling. (If not, take the onions off the heat until the vegetable broth boils.) Add your pound of lentils to the boiling broth and stir well. Now dump in your onion mix. Try to scrape any lingering spices and such out of your skillet.

Once the mix is boiling again, give it another good stir. Now cover the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. If your pot is prone to boiling over, leave a tiny crack for steam to escape.

Stir once every half an hour. It should take about 2 hours for the lentils to fully cook.

Serve with a hearty brown bread. On the second day, it'll be thick enough to serve on top of cooked rice for a complete protein in one meal.

Kosher Crockpot Herbed Chicken

I whipped this up for a Chicago themed Murder Mystery Party where one of my guests didn't like garlic. Tragic, I know, but it happens. I wanted a crockpot main dish with a nice sauce to put on pasta and a vaguely Italian-American flair without that most stereotypical of Italian spices.

• 6 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 medium onion
• 2 bell peppers (your choice of red, green, or yellow)
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 3 tbsp oregano
• 3 tbsp thyme
• 2 tbsp basil
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• 1/2 tbsp marjoram
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Mix all of the spices, salt, and pepper together in a bowl.

Dice the onions into small pieces and pile them at the bottom of your crockpot. Trust me on this. If you put the meat straight on the bottom, the part touching the crockpot will end up tough and overcooked.

Sprinkle about 1/4 of the spice over the onions. Top them with a single layer of chicken. Now sprinkle half the remaining spice mix on top of the chicken. Add another layer, then add more spices - it's kind of like making an all meat lasagna at this point. If it looks like you'll need more than 2 layers of chicken, just make sure each layer gets a roughly equal amount of spicing.

Once your crockpot is full of onions and chicken, add the bell peppers. For this, I like them cut into large square pieces - perhaps 2 inches on a side. You're welcome to cut the peppers into strips if you prefer. Either way, spread them on top of the chicken. Now open the can of diced tomatoes and dump it on top of the whole mess.

Put the lid on your crockpot and turn it to "low" for 4 - 5 hours. Resist the urge to peek. When you take the chicken out, the breasts will probably fall into 2 - 3 pieces. You may have to be extra careful with the bottom ones. Oh, the juicyness.

If you're serving this with pasta, polenta, or rice, scoop the chicken out carefully, give the rest a good stir, and use it as a topping. Otherwise, I recommend a hearty bread to help soak everything up.

If you'd like a chunkier sauce, add another can of diced tomatoes after you remove the chicken. (I'd recommend a can of the basil, garlic, and oregeno spiced ones.) Stir well and use the sauce as a topping.

VARIATIONS

If you're making this for a seder meal, I recommend switching to bone-in chicken breasts with skin. They keep their form better when left overnight at a low heat. Rub a generous amount of the spice mix under the skin and coat the outside of the skin with the rest. Pile in as many breasts as you can squeeze into your crockpot. Shove the onions, tomatoes, and peppers in around the breasts. Set the crockpot at "keep warm" just before sundown and you should be in good shape for a hot meal at lunch the next day. I haven't tried this personally, so if you do, please let me know how it works out.

Unsurprisingly, I happen to believe this recipe would benefit greatly from 4 - 6 cloves of minced garlic.

A can of diced chile peppers added when you add the tomatoes could spice this up nicely as well.

Kosher Vegan Pan Fried Basil and Herb Carrots

These were a happy accident. I wanted to make some lightly pan fried fingerling potatoes as part of a Hanukkah dinner. Oh, yes. While the rest of the country is dressing their dogs up to have photos taken with Santa, I'm indulging in the sinful delights of fried foods. The festival of lights is my excuse to enjoy donuts for breakfast, latkes and applesauce for dinner, and delicious experiments with oil.

On a whim, I decided to peel some carrots and throw them in alongside some herbed heirloom potatoes. At the end of the meal, the incidental carrots had been eagerly consumed while the allegedly main course potatoes sat lonely and accusing on the plate, wondering why they weren't loved.

• 1 pound carrots
• 3 - 4 tbsp basil oil
• 1 tbsp Herbs de Provence
• 1 tsp salt

Peel the carrots and cut them into 1.5 - 2 inch chunks. If you cut them on a diagonal, you'll have more surface area. This means more of the carrots natural sugars will be caramelized by the heat. Caramelization means tasty goodness.

Bring 3 tbsp basil oil to a medium heat in a large, sturdy skillet. Add the salt and mix well. Now add the carrots and stir until they're well coated in oil. If they look a little dry, add another tbsp.

Now comes the easy yet boring part. Stir fry the carrots until they're cooked through. This should take about 15 minutes. You don't need to hover over them nonstop. Go ahead and give them a good stir 3 - 4 times while cooking, just enough to make sure none of the chunks end up with one side burned and the other side raw.

After fifteen minutes, you should start to see some browning, maybe even a couple of crispy edges. I've tried this recipe twice this week and found that letting them darken until they flirt with that line between highly caramalized and lightly burned, they come out downright cracktastic. Take a risk. Worst case scenario, you've wasted 20 minutes of your life and $1 in carrots. So, once your carrots are well cooked, add the Herbs de Provence. You can get this French spice mix in an adorable overpriced rustic pot at Williams Sonoma, or for less than $4 in an ordinary plastic jar from Amazon.com.

Sprinkle the spices over the carrots and mix thoroughly. Cook the carrots for another minute or so, then serve. In case you're wondering, adding herbs at the beginning of a high heat or frying process will result in burned herbs. If you think about it, herbs are just little leaves, and a tiny piece of leaf cooks pretty quickly. Don't burn your leaves. Adding them near the end lets you bring out the flavor via cooking before they end up unpleasantly charred.

If you don't happen to have any Herbs de Provence around, you can make a little homebrew using the following ingredients. If you like the mix, scale it up, put it in an old spice jar, and use it to season fish, chicken, or potatoes.

• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp marjoram
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp sage
• 1/4 tsp lavender (optional)

Kosher Parve Sweet Honey Corn

To my surprise, a lot of people aren't entirely sure how to boil corn. It's okay. I knew how to make a good channa masala before I learned how to make basic tuna salad. We all have interesting little gaps in our kitchen skills. Pretend you're here looking for spice advice while you sneak a peek at the cooking instructions. I won't tell.

Most people love basic boiled corn on the cob slathered in butter. It's oh so delicious. However, if you're looking for a parve/vegetarian dish that, as an added bonus, won't smear your makeup while eating, give this variation a try.

6 ears yellow corn

6 tsp honey

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

Find a pot large enough to fit six ears of corn and a bunch of water. In an ideal world, this pot will have a lid. You may not live in an ideal world, though, so don't sweat it. Either way, fill the pot about half way with water and bring it to a boil. Throw in the corn. Now, if you have a lid, put it on top, turn the heat off, and wait 15 minutes. If you don't have a lid, turn the heat down to medium (just enough to keep the water boiling) and let it steam up your kitchen for 15 minutes.

Remove the corn from the water. How you do this is up to you. In an ideal world, a pair of tongs or super heat resistant silicone gloves might be involved. In my world, I usually use a couple of forks while doing the 'ow ow ow hot water just splashed my legs' dance. Do as I say, not as I do. Wouldn't it be better if we all lived in an ideal world?

Using your sturdiest knife, cut the corn from the cob. Now, you may be wondering why you nearly boiled your arm off when the grocery store sells perfectly good corn in cans. Trust me, the texture and flavor aren't even remotely the same. Fresh ingredients make a world of difference, and in the world of corn, it's like going from the inhospitable surface of a hostile, brackish world to the sweet warmth of a newly terraformed virgin planet.

Scoop your newly shorn corn kernels into a large bowl. Add the honey, garlic, and salt, then mix until everything is pretty evenly distributed. Serve warm. If you happen to have any leftover, add about 1 tsp water per cup of corn and it'll reheat pretty well in the microwave.

Variations:

I sometimes like to add 1/2 - 1 tsp paprika or cayenne to give this a little bit of a bite. The same quantity of freshly ground white pepper instead can also add a nice touch.

Kosher Vegan Thanksgiving Dressing

This hearty dressing makes a great vegetarian main course.

Home made bread cubes really aren't that hard to come by. If you pick up a baugette from the store, just leave it out overnight and it'll go rock hard. If you're well prepared, you can even cut it into chunks first. A baguette is easy, but this recipe works great with artisan breads. Go ahead and pick up that Rosemary and Basil Foccacia or Roasted Garlic Herb Bread. It'll add more flavor. Stay away from sweet breads, though. I'm not sure how this would turn out with Cinnamon Swirl Bagels or Blueberry Muffin Loaf.

• Roughly 7 - 8 cups of stale bread ripped into cubes
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp sage
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp rosemary

Preheat your oven to 350.

Peel the apple and cut it into roughly 1 inch cubes. Now peel the onion and do the same thing. Ditto for the bell pepper. Most people put celery in their dressing, but I don't like it. Therefore, we're going to forgo sauteing the onion so it'll still give a little bit of crunch.

Now, in a large bowl, mix all the spices and 2 tbsp of the olive oil with the canned vegetable broth. If your broth has some frighteningly high sodium content, feel free to leave out the extra salt. You're mixing the spices with the broth to better distribute them into the bread. Otherwise, you risk ending up with a big bite of sage at one corner and an unseasoned chunk of dull bread at the other.

I happen to like my dressing moist. I didn't grow up with gravy, so the dressing had to be able to stand on its own. For a vegetarian recipe, this is extra important. If, however, you like your dressing a little drier, only use 3 cups of broth.

Now dump your breadcubes, onion, apple, and bell pepper into the broth. Mix until everything is pretty damp and well blended. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so. This should give the bread a chance to really soak up all the broth. This is especially important if you used a dense artisian bread, like foccacia or cibata.

Rub your remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the inside of a large cake pan (I recommend glass or pyrex, as dark pans are more likely to make the bottom and edges burn.) Press the dressing into the pan. Don't be afraid to squish it down a little. You don't want it too fluffy.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Check it with a fork. Now, this is the only tricky bit. Some people like their dressing a little runny and others like it bone dry. I err on the moist side. If in doubt, go ahead and scoop out a discrete fork full from near the middle. If it's not dry enough for you, let it bake for another 10 minutes. If you bake it too much longer than that, once it hits the table, it'll dry out tremendously. (So much you won't want to use it for leftovers, which is always the best part of the holiday for me.)