Moroccan Harira (p. 147)

I know, I know -- it's been forever since I've posted. I'm horrible. I'm trying to make a comeback, though, so wish me luck with that.

Raleigh has had pretty gross weather all week long -- cool and rainy -- so a thick stew seemed like the perfect thing, and this one fit the bill exactly; lentils, chickpeas, beef, and lots and lots of spices.

Start the recipe in the usual way, sautéing onion (both large, chopped ones as well as tiny whole ones) in olive oil with some salt. Add in the diced meat and cook, then add chickpeas, pepper, saffron, ginger, and a cinnamon stick.

Simmer with water and chicken stock until everything is cooked and tender.

A note about chickpeas: I normally buy the dried bag and soak them overnight. Fresh Market for some reason doesn't sell them like this, so I had to buy the canned kind in liquid, which I was wary about. What do you guys think -- which is better to use?

In a separate pan, cook a thick paste of chopped parsley, cilantro, and celery along with olive oil. Stir in tomatoes and lentils and some of the boiling water from the meat mixture. Spice it up with tomato concentrate, cumin, and a healthy dose of dried chili.

Finally, just combine the two contents of the two pots and cook them together for a bit, then serve.

This is incredible thick, which Matt and I both really liked. Also spicy, yum. I definitely enjoyed my leftovers.

And unfortunately, Fresh Market didn't give me my receipt, so no price update for this one.

Slow-Cooked Chickpeas with Orange Zest and Lemon Juice (p. 255)

Be ready to commit to making this recipe -- it takes about 4.5 hours altogether, though the majority of that is cooking time.

Luckily the actual assembly of the dish comes together pretty quickly -- it's just sauteed onions and garlic combined with sweet pepper, chickpeas (drained over night), celery, orange zest, bay leaves, and vegetable stock.

Cook until simmering and then stick the whole dish in the oven, covered in aluminum foil, for about three hours. Stir n mustard and lemon juice and cook for another hour.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

This was good, though not my favorite chickpea recipe ever. If I made it again I would up the level of citrus and reduce the amount of onions.  Also, I cut the recipe in half and it still makes a ridiculous amount, so chef beware.

vegetable broth -- $2.50 (plenty left)

bell pepper -- $1.88 (3/4 left)

orange -- $.86 (only used the zest)

yellow onion -- $1.49

celery -- $2.99 (most of the bag left)

Total Cost of Slow-Cooked Chickpeas with Orange Zest and Lemon Juice: $9.72

($1.94 per serving)

Baked Fish Fillets in a Herb Marinade (p. 382) with Garbonzos kon Spinaka (p. 334)

It seems like it's been a little while since I've done a full dinner -- between the holidays and being out of town and working, the months have been flying by quickly. Luckily, I had a three day weekend this past weekend, so last night I felt rejuvenated and ready to do some real cooking.

I always like fish (or any meats, really) in a marinade and this was no exception. Plus, the marinade was so simple that it only took a couple of minutes to make. Just chop together parsley, a bay leaf, garlic, and a yellow onion very finely. Stir in harissa to create a paste.

This gets spread over the fish and set aside in the fridge for at least an hour.

Cook for 15 minutes and then serve.

This was great, as anything with harissa in it proves to be. It wasn't overpoweringly spicy, it just had a nice heat.


Garbonzos kon Spinaka is Sephardic Spinach with Chickpeas from Greece, and I made it to accompany the fish. Since I didn't soak my chickpeas over night, I decided to do a quick soak method that is recommended in the book. You just cover the dried chickpeas with water in a pan, boil the water for about 2 minutes, cover, and remove the dish from the heat. Then leave the pan, still covered, for a couple of hours.

The actual dish comes together pretty easily -- sauté onions and add the chickpeas and some water.

Simmer for about 40 minutes until the peas are tender. Then just add in spinach and dill and cook until the spinach is tender -- about 10 minutes.

Pour in lemon juice and add salt and pepper.

This was pretty good, though I think I'll go back to soaking my chickpeas overnight instead of quick soaking them. They definitely could have been more tender. The dish is pretty lemony, which made it pair really nicely with the fish.

tilapia -- $6.11

onion -- $.34

Total Cost of Baked Fish Fillets in a Herb Marinade: $6.45

($1.61 per serving)

lemon -- $.58

dill -- $.99 (about half left)

spinach -- $3.09

chickpeas -- $1.69 (it was time to stock up, plenty is left)

Total Cost of Garbonzos kon Spinaka: $6.35

($1.27 per serving)

Tunisian Chickpeas with Spicy Vegetables (p. 253)

I've been really into spicy chickpea recipes lately, and since I still have leftover harissa in my fridge, I'm trying to work through a few more.

This one takes a little while to make, but it's worth the wait. Onions, chickpeas, tomato puree, and harissa diluted in water make up the main sauce of the dish.

Then add in carrots, turnips, Swiss chard, sweet peppers, and butternut squash.

A veritable vegetable patch!

Cook everything until softened, then just salt, pepper and serve!

Next time I'll definitely add more harissa to heat this up a bit more (and I probably will in leftovers, too), but for an all-veggie dish this one is definitely a winner. I had a huge bowl for lunch today and it was perfect for a rainy winter day.

onion -- $1.42

carrots -- $2.29 (plenty left to be used tomorrow night)

turnip -- $.60

Swiss chard -- $3.99

green pepper -- $1.00

squash -- $4.31 (more than half left for soup I'll make this weekend)

Total Cost of Tunisian Chickpeas with Spicy Vegetables: $13.61

($3.40 per serving)

Oven-Roasted Fish with Vegetables (p. 380) with Turkish Walnut Sauce (p. 272) and Leblebi (p. 143)

This fish recipe is one from Spain and is known for its simplicity and no-fuss preparation. And that's pretty much true. In an oven-safe dish, layer sauteed onion and lightly fried potato slices before adding your fish -- a whole one, and preferably red snapper -- with slashes cut into each side.

Luckily, my asian market had just the thing.

Apologies for my photos this post, they're not super lovely.

On top of the fish, strew strips of pepper (softened in olive oil on the stove top) and slices of tomato. Pour a mixture of saffron, olive oil, and white wine over the fish and top with salt and bread crumbs. Then just bake.

This was pretty good, though the red snapper was a bit of a bear to parse out. The meat basically falls of the bones, but the bones fall of the bones, too. So we had a lot of those on our plate. Still, the flavor was nice and the saffron really shone through.

The winner of the fish course, though, was the sauce I decided to make at the last minute. I slapped Turkish Walnut Sauce for Fish or Vegetables together in about 5 minutes while the fish was resting. You can make the whole thing in the food processor -- it's just fresh bread crumbs, garlic, salt, walnuts, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and water. 

This was super delicious. I'd smother it all over my fish and vegetables every day. And I will, since we have a ton leftover. 

Most of the soups I have left are either bean or chickpea variations, and I'm trying to work through a couple each week. This week's soup, Leblebi, is Tunisian Chickpea Soup, so it's obviously of the chickpea sort, but made exciting by the mere fact that it contains harissa, which I adore. I've made my own before, but finally tracked down some commercially made harissa last week, and was excited to try it. There's a note in my cookbook about using a little less of the commercial type than you would home made because it's much spicier, but I sort of forgot about that.

The soup is super simple; just soften chickpeas (soaked overnight and then drained) in chicken stock, season with cumin, salt, garlic, and harissa, and eventually add in some thinly sliced sauteed onion. I added the amount of harissa that the recipe called for, which was of course too much for the commercial kind.

Luckily, Matt and I love us some spicy food, and thought this soup was a rock star. Mine could actually barely be considered soup since most of the broth was absorbed or cooked off by the time I served it. Soups almost never work out quite right when you halve the recipes. We didn't even care, though, and garnished the chickpeas with crumbled boiled eggs. We loved this, and will totally make it again some day.

green pepper -- $1.69

red snapper -- ARGHhhh. I threw my receipt away. I have no clue how much this cost.

potatoes -- $2.37

onion -- $1.02

Total Cost of Oven-Roasted Fish with Vegetables: $5.08, plus the price of the fish.

Total Cost of Turkish Walnut Sauce for Fish or Vegetables: Free 

I love having all the ingredients I need!

harissa -- $1.39

Total Cost of Leblebi: $1.39

($.46 per serving)

Arroz al Horno (p. 233) and Fricassee of WIld Mushrooms (p. 326)

Arroz al Horno is Rice Baked in the Oven and includes a recipe for the cocido (the stock) which I opted not to do because a) I've already made homemade chicken stock before and b) I wasn't entirely sure that it was worth the process. So, I just used Fresh Market stock and hoped for the best.

Begin by simmering chickpeas in chicken stock to soften them up -- this process takes about forty minutes. In the mean time, you've got about a billion things (or maybe just four) to brown (separately) in olive oil; potato chunks, peeled garlic, halved tomatoes, and cubes of lean pork. As each ingredient browns remove it from the oil. Once the pork is done, add in chopped tomato and simmer down for just a couple of minutes and then stir in rice, salt and pepper, and paprika.

I got lazy and browned multiple ingredients at once.

When all the ingredients are cooked, assemble the recipe. Place the garlic in the middle of an oven dish and surround it with the pork and rice mixture. Pour the chickpeas (along with their remaining broth) over the top, pushing the beans down into the rice. Settle the tomato halves on top with the potatoes all around them. Lastly, pour more simmering chicken stock over everything; this is how the rice will cook.

Bake for about 20 minutes until most of the stock is absorbed and then set aside covered in aluminum foil for an additional five minutes before serving.

This was good but not quite as delicious as I had hoped for. I really liked the flavors of the chickpeas and pork but it seemed to be lacking flavor in the rest of the dish. I'm happy for the leftovers but it's not something I would make again, at least without changing a bunch of the ingredients and seasoning.

Luckily, with this I made a side of Fricassee of WIld Mushrooms to give a little addition to the flavor sector of our meal. It's super simple to make -- just sauté onions in olive oil until soft and then add chopped, cleaned mushrooms. Keep over the heat until the mushrooms have absorbed the olive oil and then rereleased it and have become quite soft. Add salt and pepper and then quickly stir in egg beaten with lemon juice. Mix everything up and serve immediately, on top of toasted bread.

I loved how creamy and flavorful this was, and the toasted bread added a great texture to the dish. I just picked up the bread and ate it that way -- it could almost be considered finger food. Plus, so easy! I'd definitely eat this again.

tomatoes -- $4.12

pork -- $2.88

potato -- $.72

chicken broth -- $3.99 (about 2 cups left)

Total Cost of Arroz al Horno: $11.71

($2.34 per serving)

mushrooms -- $2.50

rolls -- $1.99 (several left) 

onion -- $1.55 (3/4 left over)

Total Cost of Fricassee of Wild Mushrooms: $6.04

($2.01 per serving)

Provencal Chickpea Soup (p. 141)

Raleigh is so cold right now. Normally this time of year it's in the mid 50s, but this past week it's been hovering around 35 (with an overnight low of 17 on Wednesday!) When I was a Yankee this might not have been so cold, but now I live in the South and I'm freezing. Anyway, wherever you are, its totally soup weather.

I set my chickpeas out to soak overnight so that I was ready to start soup-making once I got home from work yesterday. The drained chickpeas go in a stockpot with water and are brought to a boil. Then lower the heat and continue simmering until the chickpeas are losing their skins and are tender.

Put half of the chickpeas into a food processor to make a thick paste and stir this back into the rest of the chickpeas.

Leave on low heat, just to keep the soup warm.

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft and then add in chopped tomato, slivered orange zest, and crushed fennel seeds. Cook until jammy and stir in with the chickpeas.

Add salt and pepper and serve!

This was good but the soup I made yesterday was better, so I wasn't wowed by this one. Matt liked the flavors that the orange and fennel provided, and it (along with Christmas music and some chicken nuggets) definitely kept us warm on a cold night.

tomato -- $2.01

I had everything else left over from other recipes!

Total Cost of Provencal Chickpea Soup: $2.01

($.50 per serving)

Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Greens (p. 143)

I got chard in my CSA this week and, having never knowingly eaten it before, had no clue what to do with it. Luckily, the index of The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook helped me right out, and I had almost everything else I needed to make Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Greens.

Soak chickpeas over night to soften them up, and then cover the drained chickpeas with some water and begin to simmer them. Throw in a dried chili pepper and some garlic cloves to give it a little flavor. Once the chickpeas are starting to soften, add lentils and cook until they are cooked (you may need to add a little more boiling water at some point.)

Next stir in coarsely chopped chard and continue cooking until the veggies are soft.

Once the soup is done and everything has cooked thoroughly, add in a mixture of garlic, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil.

This was pretty good. Not my favorite soup ever, but I've had it for two lunches in a row and am still pleased by it.

chickpeas -- $1.79

CSA chard -- $2.75

Total Cost of Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Greens: $4.54

Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts in a Lemony Tomato Sauce (p. 100) and Catalan Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Toasted Almonds (p. 256)

I was in Asheville for the long weekend where I ate lots of tasty foods, including a delicious breakfast apple granola crisp made my fellow food blogger (and friend.) Yum! So, it had been a few days since I'd made anything and my fridge was almost completely empty.

I did a quick grocery run on my lunch yesterday, and was surprised and happy that I didn't need to buy too many things to make these lamb meatballs.

First, toast your pine nuts in olive oil until they are golden brown. Remove them from the pan using a slotted spoon -- you'll still use the rest of the olive oil later in the recipe.

In a bowl, combine the pine nuts, ground lamb (the recipe specifies that the lamb be ground twice, but I couldn't bring myself to ask the Fresh Market guy how many times it had been ground), minced onion, chopped parsley, allspice, cumin, and salt and pepper. It took a little while to mix them all together so that they stuck -- in the past when I've made meatballs there has generally been an egg involved that kind of held everything in.

Form your meatballs and set them aside for half an hour to dry.

Cook the meatballs in the same skillet as before until they are browned on all sides. Remove them from the skillet again and add in chopped tomatoes, tomato concentrate, and some water. Cook these down to a thick sauce and then add in lemon zest and juice. Cook for several more minutes and then add the meatballs back into the sauce to finish cooking.

Side note: after months of searching, I found tomato concentrate in a tube.

These had a lovely sweet-tart flavor and would be nice either as a main course (as we ate them) or as mezze for a party. They fell apart a little bit on the plate, but not so much that it was a problem. I liked the flavors of everything in them, and they had a great texture from the pine nuts and onions. Overall, this recipe was a win.

With the meatballs, I served Catalan Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Toasted Almonds.  I had everything I needed for it except for saffron, but I decided to do without -- it makes for an expensive meal!

This recipe takes a little bit of planning because the chickpeas need to be soaked overnight. I forgot until yesterday morning and then started soaking them before work, to no obviously detrimental effects.

Drain the chickpeas and put them in a pot covered in about an inch of boiling water. Cook the peas for 30 minutes to an hour, until they are tender.

While they are cooking, sauté onion (I used red because that's what I had) in olive oil until it is very soft. Add peeled and finely chopped tomatoes and cook for about 20 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Toast the almonds in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown.

Once they are ready, make a paste using the almonds, chopped parsley and garlic cloves, and salt. Pound all these ingredients together (or use your food processor) adding a little of the water from the cooking chickpeas. This mixture will smell amazing.

As soon as the chickpeas are tender, add in the tomato onion sauce as well as the almond paste. Stir well and serve topped with crumbled hard boiled egg.

This was totally delicious and I would definitely make it again. The toasted almonds added a great crunch, and the egg was a nice addition. I'm looking forward to having leftovers for lunch.

lamb -- $2.80

CSA tomato -- $1.05

tomato paste -- $2.99 (lots left)

lemon -- $.89 (used half)

onion -- $.94 (used half)

Total Cost of Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts in a Lemony Tomato Sauce: $8.67

almonds -- 1.28

CSA tomato -- $1.05

Total Cost of Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Toasted Almonds: $2.33