Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Bulgur Wheat is Delicious

I visited my hometown not long ago and got to see family and friends. One of my friends, who is an excellent cook, made delicious food for me and gave me this recipe. It's so simple, so cheap, and so good! (Thank you, Lee!!) Here in Gainesville, bulgur can be bought in bulk at Mother Earth Market (at an absurdly cheap 69 cents a pound), and whatever your local whole foods store is will probably carry it as well. There are different ways to cook it than the soaking method I use, so if you have another preferred method, go for it.

Bulgur Wheat
Ingredients:
1 Cup bulgur wheat
3 Cups boiling water
olive oil
lemon juice
(optional) 1 tomato
(optional) capers (if you use very small capers, add some salt as well)
(optional) non-dairy feta (Sunergia Soy Foods makes a wonderful soy feta that I like very much. I get it at Mother Earth.)
(optional) pine nuts

Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine the bulgur wheat and the boiling water. Cover, and let sit for about 40 minutes or until fluffy and well-rehydrated. Drain the excess water. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and a few splashes of lemon juice. Add any other ingredient you want, maybe a tablespoon or two of each. Stir it up, and enjoy!

You can also experiment with other ingredients as they strike your fancy. Anything you'd like in couscous, for example, should work well with bulgur wheat. Good luck!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Garlic Biscuits

I posted this recipe on my personal blog Zombie Cats Eating Plants and thought why not share the love over here as well. The inspiration came from the garlic biscuit I had at this years Central Florida Veg Fest. This was my first experience roasting garlic in the oven, but it won't be my last.

Roasted Garlic Biscuits

Ingredients
2 medium heads of garlic
olive oil
1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup non dairy milk of your choice
1/3 cup canola oil or melted non dairy butter
Dry Italian seasoning to sprinkle on top (Optional)

To Prepare
First roast the garlic bulbs and set aside to cool.

How to Roast Garlic
Peel off the outer white covering of the garlic bulb, leaving the individual coverings on the cloves and leaving the cloves attached to the bottom of the root. Cut the tops off of the cloves to expose the inside of each clove. Place the head of garlic on a piece of tin foil. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the garlic bulb. Wrap the garlic bulb tight with the foil. Place on a baking sheet or set inside the cup of a muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until garlic is soft. Remove from oven and let cool.

After you have roasted the garlic, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease or add parchment paper to a large baking sheet.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt with a fork until combined. Add the milk and oil and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be sticky. Remove the soft inner garlic cloves from the bulb. Add the soft garlic to the batter and mix in with your hands. Don't over mix or the biscuits will be tough. Scoop batter out in about 1/4 cup amounts and roll slightly in hands. Place on the baking sheet. This recipe makes 9 medium sized biscuits.

Bake until the bottoms are golden brown, about 8 minutes.

Enjoy, but resist the urge to kiss loved ones for the rest of the night. :)






Enjoy! ~Amber