I've been in such a mood for Mediterranean food lately. (Did you guys see my post about my homemade tabbouleh?!) I think it's probably because I have inspiration from all the yummy herbs growing right outside my door. So I have two super delicious recipes for you.
My first recipe is my new favorite lunch. It's really simple and really, really good. I get cravings for it. I don't know what to really call it. I'm usually too busy thinking about eating it to think of something to call it. Anyway, here's recipe number 1:
Avocado Cucumber Salad (it's the best I could come up with)
1 avocado, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (basil is good too)
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Mix everything together in a big bowl. And that's it. Really. I usually put it inside a wrap or a pita, but sometimes I just put it on top of a salad. Either way it's delicious!!
Recipe number two came from scrolling through other posts and seeing a picture of falafel. It looked so yummy and golden and crispy and delicious that I had to make it for myself. I had all the ingredients on hand so I just threw it together. I always see falafel mixes at the store, and now I'm wondering why. It was so easy to make from scratch! I cooked the beans from scratch, but you can use canned too.
Falafel
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup ground flaxseeds
1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs, I used a mixture of parsley and lemon balm
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Put the chickpeas in a food processor and blend until smooth. In a big bowl, mix all the ingredients, except the oil, together with a fork to keep the mixture fluffy. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and flatten slightly into patties. Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Cook the falafel for about 3 minutes on each side until golden and crispy. It made a lot of falafel, so you'll have leftovers all week.
I had mine over salad with a lemon vinaigrette, and stuffed some of that into a pita, but you could be more traditional with tahini, hummus, tzaziki, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Or, OMG, you could put it with the avocado cucumber salad in a pita!!!!! I'm drooling just thinking about it. Looks like I'll need to buy some more cucumbers. And tomatoes. And pita bread. Hmmmmph.
Anyway, who knows what the flavor of next week will be. I haven't done Mexican food in awhile! What's your favorite kind of food?? Does it change weekly like mine?? Have a wonderful Meatless Monday everyone!!
Yum!!
ReplyDelete