Middle East meets Mexico

Tonight's dinner was kind of an evolutionary process. I was first going to make Tortilla Soup, but realized I was out of veggie stock. So, that wasn't an option. I put a pot of stock on, and we'll have the soup tomorrow. I had planned on a night of a few different hummus flavors and some different things for dipping. So that was the route I thought I'd go tonight. But the more I thought about it, the less I wanted that. I started looking around to see what I needed to use up and came away with some cilantro, some limes, some green onions and a cucumber. Cilantro, limes, and onion meant something with a sort of Mexican vibe. So, what I finally came up with was the Chipotle Lime Two Bean Hummus, and a sort of Mexican style Tabbouleh (replacing the lemon with lime and the parsley with cilantro). This dinner worked really well, and tasted very good. It was so refreshing, and will definitely become a go-to on those hot summer nights that I don't want to turn the stove on. Not to mention this meal came together in about 15 minutes, and you can't beat that!!

Mexican Style Tabbouleh

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

1 cup water

1/2 vegetable bouillon cube

1 medium cucumber, finely chopped

4 green onions, finely diced

1 large tomato, finely diced

1 1/2 cups finely chopped cilantro

juice from 1 1/2 large limes

salt and pepper to taste

Place bulgur in small sauce pan with water and bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. In the meantime, dice veggies and mix together in a large bowl. Add cooked bulgur, add lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix well. Refrigerate until ready to use. This can be eaten right away, warm, but is nicer when the flavors have had time to combine

I also wanted to post a picture of our lunch today.........sort of a "Mexican" salad type day I guess. For lunch I made a bean salad. I just mixed some pinto beans with diced tomato, avocado, green onions, cilantro, and thawed corn kernels. I drizzled it with olive oil and the juice of half a lime, then salt and pepper to taste. Again, this was very good and very refreshing.

A Taste of the Middle East

One of the food blogs I follow on a regular basis is The Vegan Mother's Blog. Last week she posted about a Middle Eastern restaurant she likes and how she re-created their sample platter at home. It sounded so yummy, I had to try it.

I included the same dishes that Lizzy did; hummus, baba ganoush, and mujaddara. For the hummus, I don't use a recipe, I just add the ingredients to taste. In this hummus I used roasted garlic rather than raw, but admittedly, would have liked more of a garlic flavor, and wish I would have gone raw. For the baba ganoush I used a recipe from Vegan Cookbook, which I checked out of the library a few weeks ago, only instead of vegan yogurt I used cow's milk yogurt. And for the mujaddara, I used this recipe, only I added about 1 Tbs of cumin to the lentils and rice as they cooked. I also used brown basmati, which requires a much longer cooking time than indicated in the recipe. I knew it was going to take longer, but I got a little hasty and unfortunately didn't have the patience to let the rice cook completely, so it was sadly a little underdone.

This was a great meal, and incredibly filling. Rob loved the baba ganoush.....I was afraid that he's balk at it once he learned it's main ingredient is roasted eggplant!! None the less, he loved it. I'll definitely be making this middle eastern feast again. Although, I think I will steam the rice in the rice cooker before adding it to the lentils.