Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies

Several years ago someone gave me Love Real Food by Kathryne Taylor for my birthday. At first glance, I wasn’t very inspired by the recipes, which seemed pretty basic for a lifelong vegetarian. I made one underwhelming recipe and put it on the shelf, where it sat for the last few years. But lately, I’ve been trying to revisit old forgotten cookbooks instead of turning to the internet every time I want to find a new recipe. So I rescued Love Real Food from the bottom of the pile and started looking through it with a more receptive spirit. I was able to find several recipe I could try making, even if none of them seemed particularly original. This recipe for carrot cake breakfast cookies was my first attempt at a dessert recipe from the cookbook, but my second attempt at a carrot cake cookie. I embarked hoping this try would be more successful than my first disappointing version.

I was a bit skeptical of this recipe, since it contained neither eggs nor an ingredient that I consider an egg substitute (like apple sauce). Despite my misgivings, I followed the recipe to the letter (except for leaving out the raisins). This was a super simple recipe. I wasn’t sure whether to melt the coconut oil or not, but I followed my instincts I used it in its solid form. The recipe says to use a hand mixer to cream it with the maple syrup, which worked well. Using the solid coconut oil ended up working well, but the first batch of cookies didn’t spread out at all. For the second batch I smooshed down the dough balls and they came out perfect.

I was super impressed with these. The mixture of spices, maple syrup, and coconut oil made for a sweet and savory effect that leaves a great taste in your mouth. Without the raisins I wasn’t sure the cookies would be sweet enough; they only have 1/2 cup of sweetener. But the sweetness level was just right for me. Plus they’re pretty low calorie (less than 70 calories each by my calculation!). My only complain with these cookies was that they’re a bit crumbly (they’re basically carrot granola clumps). They came apart a bit when I took them off the baking sheet. With the second batch I let them cool for a minute or two before moving them off the sheet, which helped with the crumbling. I might try adding a single egg to these to help them stick together better, but otherwise I thought they were perfect.

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Potatoes and Carrots in Coconut Curry

On my quest to start eating Indian food again, I was very excited to make this recipe for potato carrot curry in a coconut sauce. The recipe was pretty easy. It called for 2 tbsp cumin seeds and 2 tbsp curry powder. That seemed high so I used 1 tbsp of each. I also left out the onion and garlic and used onion/garlic oil instead. Since I’m still trying to avoid spicy foods, I left out the serrano chilies as well.

This was super tasty and very little work to make. Definitely something I’d make again when I don’t feel like making something too complicated.

Low Fodmap Curried Chickpeas with Fresh Ginger and Cilantro

I’ve been very excited to start eating Indian food again. I got some canned chickpeas and decided to make Chana Masala. I’ve made this recipe from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker a number of times, though it’s been a while. But I’ve never made the recipe with canned chickpeas before and it required a bit of experimentation. The original recipe says to cook dry chickpeas in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours before adding the rest of the ingredients and cooking for another hours. I skipped the pre-cooking and just added all the ingredients together and cooked them for an hour. I also had to guess a bit with the water. The recipe calls for 6 cups of water with the dry beans. I added 2 cups to the canned beans, which turned out to be too much. Next time I’d only add 1 cup. Since I haven’t made the recipe in a while, I can’t remember if I followed the ingredients completely before. The cumin seeds called for seemed high to me. Instead of the tablespoon of cumin seeds called for, I used 2 tsp. I definitely think that was enough. The flavor of the final dish was good.

Marinated Tofu Cabbage Salad

On a day when my feet were hurting too much to go to the store or spend much time in the kitchen, I found this simple recipe for marinated tofu cabbage salad in my old copy of Diet for a New World. Except for the celery seed, everything in the recipe, which has a very limited list of ingredients, was a already in my kitchen. It came together super fast. The tofu is just marinated and added to the salad uncooked. I was a bit skeptical of this, but it came out really tasty. The soft texture of the tofu actually works really well in the coleslaw like salad. Instead of using all sunflower seeds, I used half sunflower seeds and half pumpkin seeds, which I think added some extra interest to the dish. I halved the oil called for in the recipe and thought there was definitely enough oil in it. Even Ian who adds extra oil to a lot of things I make ate it without any amendment. This is a fantastic weeknight dish. Easy, satisfying, and surprisingly tasty for something so simple.

Crispy Potato Kugel

Potato kugel is a staple Ashkenazi dish that I’ve eaten many many times. But I don’t actually like it all that much. It’s always kind of bland and uninspiring, especially next to the triumph that is my grandma’s dairy dairy kugel. Still, for some reason I decided to make potato kugel recently. I found this recipe for crispy kugel (which actually translates to extra oil) on New York Times. Usually I cut down the oil in recipes, but I kept this about the same as what the recipe calls for. Totally worth it.

I adapted the recipe to make it low fodmap. I used onion oil instead of an onion. Then I added a bunch of chopped wild onions (green parts only) to the potatoes. The recipe doesn’t specify an amount of sale. I think I used 1.5 or 2 tsp table salt.

The dish came out so flavorful. I think it has more egg than the average kugel, which makes it more satisfying than most. This dish is an absolute winner. I’ll definitely keep it in my back pocket for guests. It’s easy and something everyone (but vegans) will like. Just be sure to have some greek yogurt or sour cream on hand when serving.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020959-crispy-potato-kugel?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page&region=recently-viewed&rank=17

Cilantro Walnut Tapenade

Ian made this one night as a sauce for shrimp. I only got to taste the residue on the bowl he made it in, but I was hooked. So he made it again for me, this time putting on an egg scramble. Oh my gosh is it good. We spent a long time trying to figure out what to call it, and finally settled on tapenade, which still isn’t quite right but is the best option we found. Put it on tofu, put it on eggs, put it on pita. It doesn’t matter. It will be delicious. Just remember it has like a gallon of oil, so control yourself.

In a bowl combine:

1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

2/3 cup diced chives

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup diced walnuts

5 roma small tomatoes diced

2/3 cup diced chives

1/2 cup diced walnuts

5 cherry tomatoes diced

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup toasted sesame oil

Salt to taste

Baked Tofu

This is my mom’s recipe for baked tofu with a flour exterior. It’s a staple in my family home, easy to make, and very satisfying. There is an ongoing debate between my mom and sister about how much salt is appropriate. I like them with 1.5 tsp salt. If you want to make these even faster, you can double the flour mixture and set aside half for the next time you make them. I find 1.5 recipe gets me through the whole week (7 meals for one person). I usually make coleslaw alongside these. A tried and true favorite. Just make sure you shake off the extra flour after dipping or you’ll end up with a coating that doesn’t stick and is too thick. I left off the garlic powder to make them low fodmap and they were fine without. I just used 3 tsp of parsley flakes instead of 2 to compensate.

One-Pot Turmeric Coconut Rice With Collards

This recipe was inspired by a recipe from New York times, but I made a lot of changes to the flavor profile and the greens and also made it low fodmap. This was possibly the best rice dish I have ever made. So so good, super easy, and all in one pot. A great weeknight dish. It also keeps really well for leftovers. Here’s the recipe:

• 2 cups long-grain rice, such as jasmine or basmati (I used white basmati)
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 bunch wild onion or scallion, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated (I used the wild onion that grows in my yard)
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 teaspoon ground dry turmeric
• 1/4-1/2 tsp grated fresh tumeric
• 1/4 tsp black pepper (or more to taste)
• 1(14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
• 3 strands of saffron
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 bunches collard greens
• 1 lime, zested and juiced (keep zest and juice separate)

1. Rinse rice until water runs clear. Drain and set aside.
2. In a medium pot or Dutch oven, toast the coconut and sesame seeds over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. (Adjust heat as needed to prevent burning.) Transfer to a small bowl.
3. In the same pot, melt the coconut oil over medium-low. Add the scallion whites and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until as dark as possible without being burned (4-8 minutes)
4. Use a slotted spoon to remove the garlic and scallions (If you don’t need this to be low fodmap you can skip steps 3 and 4 and just add the scallions and garlic in with the coconut oil in step 5)
5. Add the ginger and fresh tumeric to the oil. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. While the ginger is cooking, bloom the saffron in small bowl of very hot water.
7. Add the dry tumeric and black pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 1-2 minutes
8. Add the rice and stir together. Cook for about 3 minutes.
9. Add the coconut milk, saffron with its water, and 1/2 tsp salt. Fill the empty can of coconut milk with water and add it to the pot. Give the mixture a good stir to separate any lumps and bring to a boil over medium-high.
10. Once boiling, cover, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
11. As rice cooks, remove and discard the tough stems of the collards. Cut or tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.
12. When the rice has cooked for 10 minutes, arrange the greens on top of the rice in an even layer and add final 1/2 tsp salt.
13. Cover, and cook until the rice is tender, 5 more minutes. In the last minute of cooking, stir in the lime zest.
14. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, 5 minutes.
15. Stir in lime juice, coconut-sesame mixture, and the scallion greens.

Brown Butter Pappardelle with Arugula and Zucchini Ribbons

I had bought some pappardelle at the store and came up with this recipe to use it with some items I had in the fridge. It came out so tasty I had to record the recipe. If you aren’t eating low fodmap, you can chop the garlic and leave it in the sauce.

1 lb pappardelle

1-3 cloves garlic

3 tbsp butter

1.5 tbsp lemon juice

1-3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 medium zucchini

2 medium eggs

4 oz arugula

1. Boil the water for the past
2. While the water is heating, melt the butter in a skillet on low heat. Add the garlic cloves whole. Leave the butter and garlic to cook on low.
3. Slice the zucchini lengthwise into very thin strips, halve the strips horizontally, then cut the strips lengthwise into thin ribbons.
4. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the garlic cloves.
6. Add the zucchini and salt to the pan. Let cook for 3 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat on the pan. Let cool for a couple minutes.
8. Add the lemon juice and eggs to the pan, whisk together.
9. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.
10. Drain the pasta. Let sit for 30 seconds
11. Returns the pasta to the pot and immediately stir in the sauce.
12. Add the arugula and stir together.

Roasted Veggie Tahini Bowl

I found a recipe for roasted broccoli and mushroom bowls in the New York Times, which gave me the idea for this recipe. I adapted it to be vegan, low fodmap, and gluten free and made it for Ian. We both loved it! Ian had thirds. I’d definitely make this again, but next time I’d add a third (and 4th?) veggie to reduce the fodmap content, since this ended up being too much broccoli and mushroom for me to tolerate.

For the bowls:

2 cups cooked rice

Prepare the tofu:

2 blocks tofu

1 tbsp canola or olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 425

Drain and press the tofu

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch squares

Use half the oil to oil a cookie sheet

Spread the tofu out on the cookie sheet

Brush the rest of the oil on the tofu and sprinkle the salt

Cook for 30-40 minutes, flipping half way through

Prepare the veggies:

1.5 lbs broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces

1 lb mushrooms (I used baby bella), cut into thick slices

3-4 tbsp olive oil

3/4 to 1.5 tsp salt

Mix half the olive oil and salt into the broccoli and spread it onto a cookie sheet

Mix the second half of the olive oil and salt into the mushrooms and spread them out onto a second cookie sheet

Put in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes

While the veggies are cooking, make the dressing (I didn’t measure so this is approximate)

Combine together and blend:

3-4 tbsp tahini

1/2-3/4 tsp salt

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh sage

1 tbsp wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

water or broth as needed to reach dressing consistency (I think I used 4 tbsp)

Serve with walnuts on top of the bowls.