My spring break has been rather eventful though. My cousins came into town for the first part and my friends came into town for the second. I had some down time in the middle where I managed to avoid my to-do list and watch an entire season of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix. (I’ll be paying for that in a couple days.)
My cousins and I did a lot of shopping, gossiping and eating. The last night of their stay in Austin, we cooked dinner for my parents. We threw on our pajamas, kicked my mom out of the kitchen and took over. We planned out a weird menu of Indian and Italian food- baingan ka salan with homemade whole wheat roti, pasta with “alfredo sauce,” and quinoa stuffed bell peppers.
The baingan ka salan is a dish of roasted eggplant with a creamy sauce made from roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and coconut flour. It is seasoned with coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger and a few fresh peppers. We also threw in a sliced bell pepper. The veggies were tender and absorbed all the flavors of the sauce.
I whipped up some pasta to add bulk to the meal. I made a creamy “alfredo sauce” using the same technique I use for tofu ricotta with a few changes. I started out by pureeing a block of firm tofu with a generous amount of olive oil and 5 cloves of garlic. I then seasoned with two palmfuls of dried basil, a palmful of dried oregano, a half palmful of thyme, and a half palmful of rosemary and a few large pinches of red pepper flakes. I then added a pound of al dente bowtie pasta and about a ½ cup of cooking water (to keep it moist) and tossed. I later seasoned with salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper. Can’t go wrong with this one. It’s simple and delicious- a real crowd pleaser.
The final dish: quinoa stuffed bell peppers. Hands down, this was my favorite. I can’t resist the quinoa, guys! I pulled the recipe off of Whole Foods and reduced the measurements by about a half and added in a few more handfuls of veggies. I’ll be honest, I was a little unsure of this recipe. Cinnamon? In a savory quinoa dish? That didn’t sound promising. I was way off. The quinoa was incredible. It had onions, carrots, mushrooms and spinach. The real surprise was the handful of cashews. They really made the quinoa stand out. Not gonna lie, we ate a good amount of quinoa straight from the pan before stuffing our peppers. It was so good!
Overall, it was a memorable night. Good food, good friends and good conversation.
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