Atar Allecha (Yellow Split Peas)

Adapted, with very few changes, from kitteekake.

Ingredients
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons niter kebbeh
1 cup dry yellow split peas
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3 teaspoons green chili, seeded and finely chopped
Salt to taste

1. Soak the split peas for one hour in three cups of water then bring them to a boil until fully cooked, smushy, even. Drain any excess water and smush the beans (always a gratifying procedure.)
   
2. Saute the onion and garlic briefly in a dry pan on a low heat then add the niter kebbeh and saute until translucent.
3. Add the mashed peas, turmeric, salt and green chili to the onion mixture and cook to reduce the mixture.
4. Puree until smooth with an immersion blender.
   

When I set this aside to begin the other dishes it dried out but this was easily remedied by heating it up and adding water.

Paella vegetariana

I'm pretty sure my mom gave me this recipe given that it's a computer print out with nutritional information at the bottom (that I duly ignore(ed)), but I associate it with Tiana dinner dates. Clearly it is joy inducing, but is also one of those recipes that gives you time to prepare the next step while the previous is cooking. As a paella, the vegetables can be whatever is on hand. This is what I do:

1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp saffron threads
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 can of artichoke hearts, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups medium-grain rice
3 cups vegetable stock
2 cups kale, in ribbons
1 cup chopped tomatoes fresh or canned
1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1 can's worth of cannellini or other small white bean
1/2 cup peas
1/3 cup cured black olives, chopped

Boil the water and add the saffron- put it aside for ten minutes.
Heat the olive oil and saute the bell pepper and onion until golden.
Add the artichokes and garlic and saute another five minutes then reduce the heat to low.
Add the rice and swirl it to coat it in the oil.
Pour in the stock, kale, and tomatoes and bring it all to a boil.
Add the saffron water, paprika, and salt, and reduce the heat again. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Mix in the beans and peas and cook covered until all the liquid has been absorbed.
Add the olives prior to serving or use as a garnish on each portion

Mom's Make 'em Ahead of Time and Stick 'em in the Freezer Stuffed Shells

My mom was pretty much a genius about making homemade food ahead of time and loading up the freezer so that when she got home from work all we had to do was pop something in the oven and-- voila! This is just one of those dishes...

2 cups shredded mozz
4 cups ricotta
handful of chopped parsley or basil
a couple cloves crushed garlic
2 eggs
salt & pep to taste
1 box jumbo shells

Cook the shells and run cold water over them in a strainer. When the filling is all mixed up and smooth stuff the shells without overfilling them. Lay them out on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. When frozen solid the shells can be popped off the tray and stored in a zip-lock bag until you want to eat them.

Oh, is it that time? Lay your shells into a casserole dish and smother them in marinara sauce. Bake for 20 min at 350 degrees or until bubbling. Voila!

Celina's No Cook Tomato Dip

Perfect with olive or rosemary bread. Celina brought this dip to Cypress Salon's last book club meeting (topic of conversation, Beauty Queens by Libba Bray) and we basically inhaled it. She was nice enough to share the recipe.

18 oz tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup delicious olive oil (it's not for cooking so a flavorful oil for raw eating works best)
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pep to taste
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp basil
1/2 tsp rosemary, crushed mortar and pestle style

Whisk the tomato paste, water, and olive oil together well. Add all the spices and let stand a couple hours for flavors to blend.

Sunchoke and Roasted Mushroom Bisque

What? More sunchokes? I'm sorry, were you under the impression that one can have too many sunchokes? You were dead wrong.

A heaping handful of red or fingerling potatoes, diced
5 big knobby sunchokes, at least, sliced not too thin
3 big handfuls of crimini mushies, sliced
1 large onion, diced
olive oil
butter or "butter"
6-7 sage leaves, minced
sea salt
8 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup "milk"

Toss the potatoes and sunchokes in olive oil and salt and roast in the oven at 425 for about 20 min. Toss the mushies in some oil and throw them in the oven too for about 20 minutes. Sit down and read or call someone from Pittsburgh. You have some time to kill. When those guys are almost stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm-done, saute the onion in the butter until it's soft and translucent. Add the tubers, mushies, broth, sage, salt, and simmah dahn nah for another 20 minutes or so. I went ahead and blended with my immersion blender, but it left the soup someone chunky. If you're not into that I'd let it cool and put it in a "real" blender. (Quotation marks are so-as not to offend immersion blenders.) Add the "milk" at the end for additional creaminess.

I ate it with a side of roasted beets, pots, carrots, and sunchokes, because guess what- you can't have too many sunchokes.

Beetroot Sunchoke Black Bean Burgers with Onion Fennel Chutney

New Year's Eve extravaganza dinner with Annemarie and Molly! This recipe was ad libbed based on a combination of various recipes and all measurements should be taken with a grain of salt (pun intended).

Burger Ingredients:
4 smallish beets, shredded
1 large knobby sunchoke, shredded
1/2 large fennel bulb, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
1 cup cooked black beans
2 eggs (if any vegan friends can tell me how to adequately bind a burger sans egg, I will be eternally grateful!)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 tbsp garlic powder
smoked paprika and salt to taste

I blended all the ingredients together by hand and added more bread crumbs as necessary so the patties wouldn't be too wet. We baked some patties on a greased baking sheet for about 1/2 hour at 375 degrees. Others we fried in olive oil until slightly charred. Despite what you might expect, it is humanly possible for something baked to taste better than fried! The nutty, almost smoky flavor of the sunchokes was brought out in the oven, not the stove top.

Onion Fennel Chutney Ingredients:

3 cups onions, sliced

1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

Water, as needed

This recipe, borrowed from Morningstar was a great condiment for the burgers. You saute everything on med-high for a couple minutes, then cover and simmer for 45-55 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so until everything is a nice, dark brown. I had to add more water and vinegar when I accidentally left the top off and it dried out too much.

We ate our burgers on toasted fennel rye bread with a smear of veganaise. Bam! Happy New Year!