Roasted Vegetable and Feta Farinata

If you are like me, and love roasting vegetables along with a BBQ, or year round for that matter, this recipe is a great way to use up any leftovers. You can use any combo here – I used zucchini, red pepper and purple onion as that’s what I had on hand.  As with my other farinata recipes, these cut and freeze great for lunches, and I have been keeping one on hand on a regular basis for just that.  This will be a great way to use up the abundance of zucchini I’ll likely get during my summer CSA too 🙂

On to the recipe !

Asparagus and Gouda Farinata

This recipe was just something I whipped up on the weekend with a bunch of asparagus and shredded gouda.  Farinata is a simple dish made from chickpea flour and comes out as kind of a cross between a custardy pancake and a quiche, but is egg-free, gluten-free and vegetarian.  It can easily be made vegan through the addition of a vegan cheese substitute. The mix-in possibilities are endless, and you can eat this for any meal.  I consider this a kind of spring version of the dish.

On to the recipe!

Beer and Cheddar Chickpea Waffles

These savory beer and cheddar waffles are great for breakfast, lunch or snacks.  Enjoy them on their own with a dipping sauce of your choice (I have a dijon mayo here), or as I also have, used them in place of sandwich bread! And as long as you use a gluten-free beer, the chickpea flour used in these waffles means that they are not only filled with extra protein, but gluten-free too.  As with other waffles I’ve made, I also find that these stand up great to freezing, and are easily re-heated.

Vegan Queso Dip

This cheesy dip contains no cheese, and no dairy at all !  A few simple ingredients, along with your favorite salsa and you have a dip that is ready for your favorite tortilla chips or whatever you choose to dunk.  It is whipped up in minutes and can be kept in a sealed jar in the fridge to be warmed later when you are ready to serve.

The “cheesiness” in this dip comes in part from nutritional yeast (not to be confused with yeast used for baking or brewing).  It can typically be found in most bulk food stores or health food sections of your grocery store and is great to keep on hand for other recipes (like my seitan black pudding!)

Ready for the recipe?

Tropical Fruit Dip

Here is another recipe that I came up with for the So Delicious and Go Dairy Free Snackable Recipe Contest.  A simple yogurt dip for snacking, filled with tropical fruits.  It can be whipped up in a matter of minutes, ready for your favorite coconut or banana cookies, or even more fruit.

This version is dairy free, starting with vanilla cultured coconut milk.  You can, of course, try any other yogurt variety, but I thought this worked well with the tropical theme.

Caribbean Hummus

This week I have been working on a few recipes for the So Delicious and Go Dairy Free Snackable Recipe Contest.  Anyone visiting my blog knows I am not completely dairy free, but I do incorporate non-dairy products into my diet and also like to have alternative recipes for people who visit my home who are dairy free.  This contest was a great new way to challenge myself to come up with some new snack recipes !

Hummus, while dairy free in its original form, is a great base for many flavors.  I wanted to use coconut milk as a substitute for some of the tahini in my recipe, and thought that pairing it with some Jamaican spice would work well.  I was very pleased with the results!

This is a fairly large batch hummus recipe, so you can halve or adjust it as you wish.  Start with canned beans, or as I did, cook from dry.

On to the recipe!

Spiced Pomegranate and Molasses Glazed Shrimp

Middle Eastern flavors come together in this warmly spiced and sweet glazed shrimp dish that is perfect for BBQ season.  Serve them up as an appetizer for the main event, have them with salad, or showcase them along side a platter of grilled vegetables and halloumi cheese, as I did.

Grilled Nectarine and Goat Cheese Salad with Molasses Chipotle Dressing

This new summer salad balances sweet and heat with a little smokiness thrown in for good measure.  Juicy sweet nectarines are lightly grilled and along with creamy goat cheese, top a mixed green salad that is finished with a bright and spicy molasses chipotle dressing.

Smoked Cheddar and Beet Green Farinata

This time of year, I am always on the look out for new ways to use up all the greens that come in my CSA (Wysmykal Farm!).  This week’s delivery (a half share at that!) came with kale, some new turnips as well as little beets.  I cooked the kale and turnip greens separately so that I could whisk them into morning eggs, as well as freezing some for later.  I never toss the greens from my beets either, so while I was roasting them today to eat through the week, I whipped up this hearty farinata that’ll come in handy for quick lunches through the week, with some destined for the freezer.

Farinata is a kind of pancake made with chickpea flour.  It bakes up to kind of a dense custard-like texture and the combinations for what you can mix in are endless really.  It is already vegetarian and if you opt out on the cheese (or opt in a dairy-free version), this also makes for a great vegan meal.

Savory Chickpea Waffles (aka “Fa-waffles ! )

Apologies for the extended blogging hiatus !  I’ve still been cooking, just not developing any new recipes.  And sadly, I got into a little bit of a blogging slump.  It happens.

Thankfully my inspiration was not lost forever.  I tend to get really back into the swing of things once my CSA starts up for the year and I have to get creative with all my veggies.  The main recipe you see here (the waffles) didn’t use any of that up yet, but that lovely salad you see there is full of lovely new greens from Wysmykal Farms.  The feta is local too, from Holmestead Cheese.

I’m a big fan of using chickpea flour in every day cooking.  It satisfies a carb craving, but also delivers about 20 grams of protein per cup, which is a great bonus in healthier eating, especially if you are following a vegetarian diet.  I mostly like it for its taste, really, and after checking out this recipe for socca waffles, I was inspired to incorporate falafel flavors into a handy (and might I add, non-fried) meal or snack.  I opted to leave out flour or bulghur in the recipe, which also ended up making it a gluten-free waffle.  I was really pleased with how these turned out. And they whip up in no time.

As you can see, I served mine with a tahini sauce (I used this one) and a salad with a simple herbed lemon and EVOO dressing.

Ready for a recipe?