Tag: chives

Tomato Cobbler with Buttermilk Chickpea Flour Biscuits

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Grain-free    &&    Very Low Fat    &&    Vegetarian

The summer weather is really getting into swing now, but I am lucky to live in Seattle where it almost never gets too hot to turn on the oven. Even if it got super hot, I am probably crazy about cooking and baking enough that I’d turn on the oven anyway.

This recipe is an adaptation of one found in Hetty McKinnon’s beautiful and amazing new book “Family.” I know I’ve said I love her before, but it’s worth saying again; check out all of her cookbooks if you can. Of course I changed this recipe to make it robot-compatible (grain-free and practically non-fat), and I amped up the spices a little bit. The recipe calls for a lot of tomatoes, and would be great for using up those soft wrinkly tomatoes in the back of the fridge that got just past their prime before you could eat them fresh. Or if you can, go to your local farmer’s market, look for someone selling tomatoes and ask them if they have any “seconds”; I get seconds of organic tomatoes at my farmer’s market fo $1/lb, and usually there’s barely anything wrong with them! To be honest, I cut back on the amount of tomato filling when I made this because I just didn’t have the tomatoes, and I thought it was fine.

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The real star of the show here is the buttermilk biscuits! Because of the chickpea flour, they’re not quite as light and flakey as traditional buttermilk biscuits of course, but they’re still full of warm, soft, savory biscuity goodness, without the grain or fat!

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Tomato Cobbler with Buttermilk Chickpea Flour Biscuits

Adapted from Hetty McKinnon’s “Family” cookbook (p.163)

~45 minutes prep, 40 minutes to bake, 10 minutes to cool (total: 1 hour 35 minutes)

Serves 4 to 6

Bits:

Tomato Filling:

  • 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 jalapeño, diced fine
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed with the flat side of a knife and diced fine
  • 4 fresh thyme sprigs (or 2 tsp dried thyme)
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp chickpea flour
  • 4 lbs tomatoes (any variety), cut into about 1″ chunks
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • Hot sauce to taste (optional, if like me, you like everything to have a little kick)

Buttermilk Biscuits

  • 120 g (about 1 cup) chickpea flour
  • 110 g (3/4 cup) fine-ground corn meal
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 100 g (about 1/2 cup) yam, roasted or boiled until flesh is fully softened
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Algorithm:

  • Adjust oven racks so that one is in the center of your oven, and the other is any distance below that. Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220ºC).
  • Make the tomato filling:
    • In a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat, add the red onion, and cook about until caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes; add a tablespoon or two of water if the onion starts to stick to the pan.
    • Add the jalapeño, garlic, thyme, and balsamic vinegar to the pan and immediately add the chickpea flour. Cook for one minute, while stirring continuously; don’t worry if the chickpea flour soaks up all the liquid and looks a little dry.
    • Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and hot sauce if you’re using it. Give everything a few good stirs. The chickpea flour should dissolve into and thicken the liquids in the pan to make a nice sauce. Add water a tablespoon at a time if it’s still to thick, or turn up the heat and cook it down for a couple minutes if it looks too watery.
  • Make the biscuits:
    • In a medium bowl, add the chickpea flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, paprika, and cumin in a bowl, and stir to combine.
    • Treat the yam just like you would butter; add it to the bowl, and using your fingertips, rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
    • Stir in the nutritional yeast and chopped chives. Pour in the lemon juice and buttermilk; whisk with a fork until no the buttermilk is incorporated.
  • Put it all together and bake:
    • Lightly grease the sides of an 9″ by 13″ baking dish with reduced fat butter or vegetable oil spray (this adds a negligible amount of fat to the dish).
    • Pour in the tomato mixture. Loosely form 12 balls of biscuit dough (or drop 12 large spoonfuls of biscuit dough) and place them evenly on top of the tomato mixture.
    • Place a baking sheet (or large bit of aluminum foil) on the bottom rack to catch any drips, and place the tomato cobbler on the top rack. Bake for 40 minutes; check halfway through and loosely place an aluminum foil hat over the baking dish if the biscuits start to get too dark.
    • Remove from the oven and dust lightly with extra nutritional yeast. Let rest 10 to 15 minutes. Serve while still warm. Pairs well with a fresh arugula salad.

Grilled Tofu and Bell Pepper Salad with Tamarind Miso Dressing

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Grain-free    &&    Low-Fat    &&    Vegan option

Now that it’s officially unofficially summer (that’s what Memorial Day marks, right?) you may want to have a good grilling recipe in your back pocket, and I’ve got just the one for you!

Grilling and barbecues often conjure images of lots of meat, or vegetables marinated in oil, and heavy “salads” laden with mayo, which can be problematic or just plain unappetizing for vegetarians, vegans, and cyborgs with a digestive intolerance for much fat. But we also don’t want to be left out of the whole outdoors summer food scene either. This recipe combines grilled marinated tofu and grilled bell peppers and onions in a crunchy, fresh green salad with a distinct savory, tangy dressing. The dressing (which also doubles as the marinade for the tofu) may be a show-stealer here. I hadn’t even originally planned to blog this recipe, but I made it for my brother-in-law’s birthday barbecue on Memorial Day weekend, and had several people ask me for the dressing recipe, so I figured I might as well share it more widely here.

It’s nice to have a good recipe on hand whenever someone’s grilling, but if all you want to do is make a meal, getting out the grill and firing it up definitely feels like overkill. In that case, just roast the tofu and vegetables in a hot oven instead (see note below).

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Grilled Tofu and Bell Pepper Salad with Tamarind Miso Dressing

Serves 6

Adapted from Crispy Tofu Salad in Bazaar by Sabrina Ghayour

Note: This recipe works best if you drain the tofu for 30 minutes to an hour, prepare the dressing, and let the tofu marinate at least one hour ahead, or as early as the night before you serve the salad. (This makes it a pretty good make-ahead recipe.)

Also note: If you don’t want to grill, just follow the recipe up to the point you would grill, but then cut the tofu, bell peppers, and onions into bite-sized pieces and stick everything in the oven on a couple parchment-lined baking sheets for about 20 minutes at 425ºF instead.

Bits:

Salad:

  • 14 oz. extra-firm tofu
  • 2 red/orange/yellow bell peppers, or a combination of smaller bell peppers totaling about 1 lb
  • 1 large or two small sweet onions, sliced into 1½-inch squares, and skewered
  • 1 small head curly green or red leaf (looseleaf) lettuce, roughly chopped into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 large carrots, shredded or julienned
  • 3 green onions (green parts only), sliced thinly
  • ½ oz parsley leaves and small tender stems, roughly chopped
  • 1 stem (about 7-8) fresh mint leaves
  • 6 fresh chive flowers (or 6 chives, if flowers not available)
  • Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Dressing:

  • 4 Tbsp unsweetened tamarind paste (I love Aunt Patty’s Organic Tamarind Paste)
  • 4 Tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 Tbsp honey (sub equal amount maple or agave syrup for vegan option)
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp peanut butter powder (Anthony’s is my favorite; substitute regular peanut butter if your digestive system doesn’t throw an error when you ingest fat)
  • 1 tsp rasam powder (substitute a good chili powder if you don’t have rasam powder)
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2+ Tbsp of water (enough to get desired consistency)

Algorithm:

  • Drain the tofu and wrap in a paper towel, and then wrap that in a dish cloth. Place wrapped tofu in between two dinner plates, and put something heavy like a big cookbook on the top plate to gently weigh down on the tofu, pressing out the water. Leave to drain for 30 minutes.
  • Combine all the dressing ingredients except the water in a pint mason jar, or other similarly-sized container. Add 2 Tbsp of water and stir until the mixture is homogeneous and smooth. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until you have something that is the consistency of a thick-ish salad dressing. A pepper and lemon juice to taste.
  • After the tofu has drained for a bit, unwrap it, and coat it with about 1/3 of the dressing mixture. Put it in a ziplock bag or an airtight container and then into the fridge to marinate for as long as possible before you’re ready to grill, ideally the night before.
  • Cut bell peppers from top to bottom into 3 to 4 long slabs. Remove any stems, ribs, and seeds.
  • Add remaining salad ingredients (from lettuce to chive flowers / chives) to large serving bowl and toss to combine.
  • When your grill is ready, put the marinated tofu slabs, the bell pepper slabs, and the skewered onions directly onto the grill and cook several minutes on each side, until heated through and just starting to get char marks on the outsides. Set aside for a few minutes until cool enough to handle.
  • Cut the tofu and bell pepper slabs into bite-sized cubes, and cut the onion squares into smaller bite-sized pieces if desired. Add these to the salad, and toss again to combine.
  • Drizzle dressing over salad and toss to coat, or (my preference) let others serve themselves salad and add their own dressing to taste (leftovers will last a lot longer if you store the salad and the dressing separately as well).