Roasted Chickpea, Arugula and Kale Salad with Tahini Maple Dijon Dressing

Hey guys!

You may have noticed my posting schedule has slowed down. I must admit, I decided to focus on myself a lot more in the last three weeks. I’ve been doing runs every second day and really focusing on eating clean, vegan and low-gluten. I’ve been feeling great and have dropped a few pounds but I’ve also been incredibly busy. To top things off my camera battery finally ran out and I’m having trouble finding a replacement. I still plan of posting regularly in the future but it might be a few more weeks before I’m back to a few times a week.

I owe you a bit of catching up –  I’ve been restaurant hoping with all the birthdays that have come up in the last 6 weeks. In the last few weeks I’ve gone to Tempo (I pictured their eggs benny on waffles on my Shock and Awe post), Hart & Thistle, The Bicycle Thief and the Brooklyn Warehouse.

I more regularly frequent the Hart & Thistle then the rest of the aforementioned restaurants. I love their nachos and creative salads but what keeps me coming back is their ever-changing craft beer.

I’ve gone to The Bicycle Thief twice now, each time as memorable as the last. Their menu is seasonal and their wine and cocktail list is amazing. I had the panzanella, gnocchi and this Rosemary Fizz cocktail that I can’t wait to reproduce! It’s gin, crushed ice, grapefruit juice, tonic and rosemary simple syrup…pretty and delicious!

The Brooklyn Warehouse has been a north end destination for year. It’s unpretentious fancy pants cooking, in a casual setting. They use all local ingredients they have revamped their menu to include sharing boards which work great as an appetizer for a few people and also have delicious cocktails served up stylishly in mason jars. I opted for local Bridge Brewery beer to wash down my food.

I have a new salad dressing I love that is quick to make up, vegan and delicious in this salad. Roast you chickpeas, prepare the dressing and serve it up in the heaps. This recipe makes one lunch sized salad, it travels well and I’m going to show you how to pack it for work. No fancy plating in this recipe, but the taste is awesome, try it!

Roasted Chickpea & Kale Salad with Tahini Maple Dijon Dressing

roasted chickpeas

• 1 – 15oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 tbs of olive oil
• 1 tsp of ground cumin

salad

• 1-1+1/2 cup of kale, either baby kale or large kale washed stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup of arugula or baby spinach

dressing

• 1 tbs tahini
• 1 tsp Dijon
• 1-2 tsp of pure maple syrup or honey
• 1-2 tbs of apple cider vinegar

Method

Heat the oven to 350F.

Rinse and drain chickpeas, toss in olive oil and cumin and lay flat on a baking tray. Roast, turning once for about 10-15 minutes, or until they just start to brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Wash and pat dry the kale. Tear kale into bite sized pieces and put it in a large salad bowl or resealable lunch container.

In a small bowl mix dressing ingredients, add to the kale and coat completely.  I use all the dressing, it will marinate the kale but feel free to use less or make more as desired.

Once the chickpeas are room temperature, add to the bowl or container topping the kale.

Top with arugula and seal container.

If you are not making this to store, you could arrange this different to make it more visually appealing. Other great add ins are red peppers, granny smith apples and almonds.

Quinta dos Carvalhais Colheita 2008

Portugal is known for the only fortified wine that can be labelled as Port. I’m not a humongous Port fan myself, but I do like it occasionally ounce or two with a truffle in hand. I like to think of Port as a dessert replacement, especially in the cold of winter. It also is a great sweetener that adds a boozy complex flavour when added to salad dressings, fruit compotes, jams/jellies or even drizzled over fresh fruit and topped with whipped cream. My Mother would mention, at this point in the conversation, that she prefers hers over vanilla ice cream.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Port is not the only wine that Portugal does very well. In the last two summers, Vinho Verde (my favorite is listed here) has gained so much popularity for its crisp taste and drink-ability, that it emptied off the NSLC’s shelves before June, and didn’t return until last February.

I myself prefer red wines, and Portugal also happens to make a red wine from the Dao (pronounced ’down’) region that I promise is different from just about any red you have tried. I have tasted a few Daos over the years and I always walk away noting their elegance. Even though I have only tasted a few, I find they have perfected the balance of smoothness and complexity; which is a really difficult thing to do. Usually the smoother and rounder the wine, the flatter and one-dimensional they taste.

At first sniff you will notice a lot of oak, the Colheita is aged in both French and American oak for 12 months which usually would make it a little rough and very dry. However once you taste this wine, the oak back you sensed lands softly in the middle ground of the tasting experience, blending softly with a vanilla-raspberry and slightly fennel fruit taste. This wine finishes cleanly with a slight dryness and little aftertaste.

The Quinta dos Carvahais Colheita 2008 I most recently bought was a clearance wine and originally priced in the high-twenties but I got on sale for about $18 which was a great buy for me. The NSLC has it listed on their site and you can click here for more details on where to find it if you are in Nova Scotia. 

A lot of red wines recommend beef as a pairing, but this wine was really complementary to soft rich cheeses. Since the wine itself was very soft and mellow (not too acidic or tannic) it actually would have went nice with a lot of Middle Eastern food like grilled breads, yoghurt dips, smokey eggplant dishes, lentil kofte and creamy hummus. It’s a great Spring-time red wine selection, and I hope if you don’t try this one, you at least experiment with a Portuguese red wine soon. 

Shock and Awe

I wish I could pass off last week as a bad dream, a nightmare of unrealistic proportions, but I can’t.  The older I get, the smaller our global community feels to me. The more my heart hurts when people are needlessly killed or hurt, physically or mentally. I don’t want you to relive the details, and I don’t want to give any wrong doers anymore screen time however if you are completely unaware of what I’m hinting at this article by Jezebel exacts my sentiments of most of what went on last week. It has me thinking about how we cope with loss and overwhelming stress. Last week I started running again, and eating cleaner. I took gluten and dairy almost completely out of my diet. I didn’t drink any wine and doubled my water intake. I walked to work every morning. I slept my eight hours to the best of my ability and I tried to reset my mental state one day at a time. While all of that helped me, I still feel like I’m a 5 am alarm clock that won’t shut off. Blaring in the dark while your eyes are blurry. When I feel overwhelmed I usually find comfort in focusing on things I love. My little family, my friends, my blog. I totally tried, really hard,  but found myself retreating into a small bedroom with my laptop and my favorite video game while history podcasts went on in the background. I was trying to will everything out and away while I was still in my head, swimming in thoughts. I’m in shock. I’m in total awe that when things seem to get better, in a second they can turn on their heads.

I’ve never had a dog so stoked to be at the vet. He made everyone’s day.

On my morning walks I tried to see the life of the city. I share my photographs on Instagram (Azee16). I wanted to give people things to look at that weren’t damaging to the heart. These are the images I shared: Music culture is a huge part of Halifax. This piece is on the outside of a bar that used to be called The Marquee. Behind the buildings on Gottingen street, this sea of tags give horizon to a scare parking lot.   Brunch with my love, hells yeah they made eggs benny with waffles!   Took a stroll in the sun in the South end of our city, I found a small dead tree transformed into a pair of seals. 

Found in Point Pleasant Park

Today I bought each of my dogs soft toys that are ‘built’ to last aka for extreme chewers. In my heart I knew it would last them maybe a day but in their exuberance it not only entertained them, but us, for about one hour. The house soon was a cloud of stuffing, lit up the the sound of thumping tails and dotted with deflated animal bodies and respective parts. Sometimes happiness has to be found in the midst of a great mess. You have to ignore the distractions around you to focus on helping yourself be joyful. Today it meant letting my dogs teach me that happiness can take so little, yet be so rewarding.

N is for…

Can anyone tell me where the last two weeks went? I feel like it hasn’t been that long but it has. I remember glimmers of birthday dinners as well as BINGO, yep BINGO! Even though I didn’t win anything it was still a great time and for a great cause.

This week has been work, work, and more work. I knew it would be a busy week for me so last week I started this post and unfortunately didn’t have it ready, but here I am sleepy-eyed, trying to turn a phrase or two before I’m forgotten.

It’s Wednesday, and I hope by now you know what that means around these parts (ahem… can I get a What’s the Word?). If you are new to my blog please check out my original series posting on Agave.

This What’s the Word? Wednesday we are catching up with the letter ‘N ‘ and N is for Nutritional Yeast!

N is for Nutritional Yeast

You most likely have not heard about this product and if you have you either are blissfully in love (me!) or a skeptic because you haven’t tried it due to its mega hippy associations. Nutritional yeast is also widely known as nutch/nooch (pronounced the same way) and less commonly (I recently discovered) as hippy dust. I quite like that one.

What is it?

Nutritional yeast is a yeast grown from sugar beets or sugar cane which may lead you to believe it is unhealthy but you would be terribly wrong. It is sold in a flake and powder form and is a natural medium-yellow color. It’s generally inexpensive and can be found at health food stores and in some natural food sections of bigger grocery store chains. Often packed in bags or tubs like the one below.

What does it taste like?

Let’s start with what it doesn’t taste like. It definitely doesn’t taste like yeast, or ‘health food’, or cardboard. So what does it taste like, most people will describe it as a mildly nutty, cheesy or creamy taste. For this reason it’s often used as a cheese substitute in the vegan diet.

Where do I use it?

Nooch is very versatile. Given the chance I’ll sprinkle it on anything savoury. It’s amazing on hot buttered popcorn, it’s great sprinkled on soups, salads and pastas and it’s a wonderful add-in to help reproduce a cheesy flavour. It also blends well into liquids so makes a great nutritional booster to things like mashed potatoes, stuffing, sauces and gravies.

Are there health benefits?

Yes! It’s naturally vegan friendly and gluten-free. It a very good source of vegetarian B vitamins as well as protein and fibre. The B vitamins are essential to our muscles and a lack of B vitamins usually causes muscle fatigue and lethargy. Nutritional information will vary from brand to brand however one tablespoon of the Neeko brand I have, contains about about 4.5 grams of protein and 0.5 grams of fat. The photograph below shows all the vitamin and mineral information:

V- Spot Recipes and suggestion using Nutritional Yeast:

• Baked Faux-Fish Sticks V
• Basic Tofu Scramble V
• Cheezy Kale Chips V
• Sun-Dried Tomato and Dill Pesto V
• Vegetarian Sausages V

Nutritional Yeast Inspiration around the web:

• Almond Parmesan by Hipster Food
• Cauliflower Popcorn from Sweet Freedom
• Easy Cheezy Crackers by Oh She Glows
• Noocho Cheese Sauce by Kristina of Spabettie posted on No Seitan, No Whey, We are XGFX
• Vegan Pimento Cheese Spread by An Edible Mosaic

Dill Tartar Sauce

Ahoy!

I have Friday off! I swear I’m not saying this to rub it in, I’m just really excited. I love having a week day off to get some week day things done before the weekend. My weekend this time around is actually consisting of a work event on a Saturday, and not a fancy drinks and dinner work event just in case you were starting to get jealous, but a computer class which will be very helpful for my job and blog.

So I realized I made some faux fish sticks and left you hanging on the tartar sauce action. I’m sorry, I really am but I can say the recipe will have been worth the wait. When I’m craving tartar sauce, I sometimes will go out and order fries with a side of tartar sauce, but unfortunately the stuff you get in restaurants (unless it’s house made) is pretty dull and boring and often too sweet for my liking. That’s legit, right?

This recipe makes more than enough tartar sauce for the faux-fish stick recipe and if you have any extra it would be great to add to crumbled tofu or eggs for egg/tofu salad. It’s also a great dip for your oven baked fries or roasted potatoes or just use in place of mayonnaise/veganaise on your next sandwich. You might not have any left over if you are a triple dipper like me, real talk.

Dill Tartar Sauce

• 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, preferably Hellman’s Olive Oil or Veganaise
  
• 1/4 cup of fresh dill, rinsed, stemmed and minced
• 1 baby dill pickle, diced
• 2-3 tbs of capers, diced of chopped roughly depending on the size
• 1/2 tsp of lemon zest
• 1- 2 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tbs of pickle juice
• 1 small clove of garlic grated
• freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Method

Finely diced dill pickle and capers and add to a small mixing bowl. Clean stem and mince dill and peel and finely grate garlic and lemon zest and add to the same bowl. Mix in mayo/veganaise lemon juice, dill pickle juice until everything is combined. I didn’t find it needed salt added due to the capers and pickle but I did season well with freshly ground pepper.

Chill in the fridge at least 30 minutes however if you can leave it a few hours the taste improves with age. Serve with the faux-fish sticks and roasted potatoes. It also makes a good veggie dip for carrot or broccoli if you want a healthier side.