Lemony Chickpea and Kale Saute

On a cold November night in 8th grade, I went to the first showing of Twilight at our local movie theater. I had heard of the books years before, but despite my friends’ claims that they were amazing, they always sounded too dark and creepy to read. I mean, a 100-year-old vampire who falls in love/simultaneously yearns to suck the blood of a high school girl? No thank you. When the movie came out, however, my best friend (a recent Twilight convert herself) convinced me to come along. Not counting Harry Potter (which is lightyears above and beyond any other story I’ve read or movie I’ve watched in my entire life) it was one of the best movies I’d ever seen. I now cringe to admit this, but it’s true. I don’t know what it is about middle-school girls, an actor with big hair and a bad American accent, and vampires, but it was honestly a swoon-worthy movie for all my friends and me (and probably every other girl in the theater). I may or may not have gone to it three nights in a row!

I then proceeded to read through the four books in the series, loving them all. The following year, I read them all once more and counted down the days until the release of movies New Moon and Eclipse. It wasn’t until my second time reading the last book, Breaking Dawn, that I started to realize how weakly written they actually were. My mom had always had an issue with Edward, wondering what exactly his redeeming qualities were, and while I had unwaveringly vouched for him in the past I began to see that she was on to something. Even Bella started to bug me, with her weirdly deep, dark depression in New Moon to her annoying habit of washing all the dishes and doing way too much laundry. She just didn’t seem realistic, even though the author worked extremely hard to make readers think she was. By the time the two final movies came out, my Twilight-mania had ceased for the most part. I still enjoy the stories and characters, and would go as far as calling myself a Twilight fan, but I don’t love them anymore. This series is strictly in the friend zone. Note: all these opinions are strictly my own. I mean no offense to Twilight lovers, Twilight haters, or those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about. 🙂

Even though I have mixed feelings about the books I could never go as far as missing the final movie, which I saw back in November. Two friends and I went to dinner beforehand at one of my favorite restaurants. I ordered the Chickpea and Kale Sauté, and I may have enjoyed that dish just as much as Breaking Dawn Part II later that night! Crisp chickpeas, tender kale, garlic cloves and olive oil all topped with crispy shallots and tomato coulis made up this fabulous little meal. For some reason it crossed my mind when I was thinking about what to make for dinner the other night, and I immediately knew that I wanted to recreate this healthy and delicious dish. The version I came up with is a little different than the original, but equally as good. It literally took about 20 minutes, start to finish, and was the perfect accompaniment to our roasted chicken. Filled with vitamin- and fiber-rich kale, protein-packed chickpeas, tender shallots, flavorful garlic, and zesty lemon, this dish is a keeper for sure.

Lemony Chickpea and Kale Saute 

Serves 4

1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium shallots, diced

6 cloves garlic, roughly minced

1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 head of kale

Zest from half a large lemon

Juice from half a large lemon

Directions:

Wash and dry the kale. Tear the leaves away from the tough stems and coarsely chop the leaves. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick pan. Add in the shallots and garlic and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and salt and sauté until chickpeas are golden and crispy, about 8-10 minutes. Add the kale and pepper flakes (if you like spice) and cook for 2-3 minutes or until kale is wilted. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice. Serve warm.

(Recipe adapted from Live to Eat)

Smoky Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

In the last year or so, my taste buds have gone through a transformation.  I used to have a long, long list of foods that I couldn’t stand, and all of a sudden I became quite fond of quite a few of my former food-foes.  Say that five times fast.  Anyway, that list had included mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, artichokes, yogurt, fish, avocado, almonds, blue cheese, cilantro, and yams (I wasn’t picky or anything) and suddenly they all went from tasting…bad…to tasting….good (for lack of better words).  Maybe it was because I hated them off a basis of appearance and decided to overcome that; maybe it was because I had only eaten them once or twice before closing my mind to them; but I like to think it was because my taste buds underwent a miraculous transformation to help me widely expand my culinary horizons.  That’s obviously the most likely.

Regardless of the reason, I am now able to experience the joy of eating all those once-hated foods, although I guess I wouldn’t really be missing out on anything if I still hated them…that makes sense, right?  Maybe.  But with the exception of beets, for which I will always and forever harbor a deep, dark, incomprehensible, unfathomable sense of loathing for in the pit of my soul, I like almost everything.  There are a few foods that I can’t believe I hated for so long, such as yams.

I’ve wondered for years and years what exactly the difference is between a yam and a sweet potato.  According to the produce section of my grocery store, yams are the orange-fleshed ones and sweet potatoes are the pale-yellow ones.  According to wikipedia, “sweet potatoes” applies to both the orange- and yellow-fleshed ones and yams are long baseball-bat-shaped vegetables that are usually only found in Asian markets.  I hate to say that I’ve kind of stopped caring.  I just call every culprit in question a sweet potato and am, in effect, living a happy, carefree life.  At least as far as the yam issue goes.

If you’re still with me by now, kudos.  Reading about all the things that go on inside my head can be an overwhelming, confusing experience, and I wouldn’t judge if you just skipped on down to the recipe at the bottom.  Maybe I should have put this warning at the top of the post….too late now!  But I always have a point.  Today, it’s a recipe for roasted potatoes.  A combination of sweet potatoes and russet potatoes roasted in a coating of olive oil, rosemary, garlic, and smoky paprika to be exact.  These are so, so delicious.  I’ve made them twice in the last week, and I’m thinking about scrapping the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and making these instead.  Enough said. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smoky Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

2 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

2 large russet potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp sweet smoked paprika, divided (regular paprika is fine, too)

2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary (or 1 tsp dried rosemary)

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (or 3/4 tsp garlic powder)

1-2 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Place potato chunks into a large mixing bowl.  Add olive oil and toss well.  Add 1 1/2 tsp paprika, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper and stir until the potatoes are evenly coated with the spices.

Spread potatoes into a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake until potatoes are golden-brown and crisp, about 1 hour.  Flip potato pieces about halfway through.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and serve.

(Recipe adapted from La Tienda)

Black Bean & Corn Quinoa Salad

During the school year, my family has a “dinner night” system.  I’m in charge of planning meals for the week, assigning each person to 1-2 dinner nights, and doing some of the grocery shopping.  Some weeks everything goes smoothly, and we eat wholesome, on-time dinners made from ingredients that were already purchased and ready to go.  I would estimate that this happens about 1 out of every 10 weeks.  🙂

The majority of the time, the system is semi-smooth…but life happens.  My brother happens to *forget* that it’s his night for dinner until 7 pm, someone has already used up the ingredients that were meant to go into that night’s meal, one of my parents has to work late, or it’s just one of those exhausting weeknights when the energy required to cook dinner fails to be conjured up and we end up ordering Thai food.  Those nights are the worst!  (insert sarcasm)

When it comes to dinner nights, everyone’s style is a little lot different.  My mom prefers cleaning up to cooking, and though my dad likes to cook, limited time and limited energy lead to fast and easy weeknight dinners.   And as for my 18-year-old brother’s attitude toward actually cooking an actually balanced meal by an actually reasonable time for his family…I’ll just say that if it was between doing that and sticking daggers into his eyes, I’m not sure which he’d prefer.  Which leaves me.  I honestly enjoy making elaborate dinners (and just so we’re clear, a pot of homemade chili is considered elaborate when compared to some of the other meals that have graced our table) and my family looks forward to trying the new recipes I make and enjoying the old favorites.  The funny thing is, no matter what I make, if it involves more than 5 ingredients and about 20 minutes of cooking time they think they’re eating a gourmet meal and assume that I must have labored over dinner all afternoon.  They ooh and aah over almost everything I make.  It’s nice to have such a great support team, but sometimes their exuberance over, say, a meatloaf, makes me laugh.  I can only imagine the awe that would ensue if Julia Child offered to cook for them.  (Just to clarify, I’m talking about awe at her cooking, not awe at the fact that a deceased chef is standing in their kitchen.)

My point is that it’s very, very easy to impress my family when it comes to dinner.  Even if it’s a dish that takes 30 minutes to prepare with only 10 minutes of hands-on cooking, tastes wonderful, goes with almost anything, requires minimalistic ingredients, and can be served at any temperature.  Win, win, win, win win!  This Black Bean & Corn Quinoa Salad is so quick and easy to make, yet my family is always convinced that they’re eating a gourmet side dish.  I’ll admit that this may have something to do with them, but it may have even more to do with this fabulous recipe.  This salad is full of fresh, healthy ingredients that give the quinoa lots of flavor without loading up on heavy fats or salt.  It’s perfect as a side dish to highlight a simple main course, or you could even serve it as a main dish since it’s full of protein from the beans and quinoa.  I bet if you make this for your family, they’ll assume that since it tastes so good, it was a lot more difficult than it really is.  And then they’ll proceed to thank you for dinner about 10,000 times and say, “Is this cilantro?  How fancy!”  Or wait….maybe that’s just my family….

Black Bean & Corn Quinoa Salad

1 Tbs olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa

1 1/2 cups (12 oz) chicken or vegetable broth

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup frozen corn, yellow or white

2 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion and sautee, for 4-5 minutes, or until tender.  Add the garlic and sautee for 1-2 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant.

Add the quinoa and broth.  Stir in the cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is cooked.

Stir in the frozen corn and black beans.  Cover the pot and allow it to sit off the heat for about 5 minutes to heat the corn and beans.  Stir in the cilantro.  Serve warm or chilled, your choice.

(Recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)