Hummus, Tempeh, and Cucumber Wrap

Earlier this week, we made these delicious wraps based on a recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.  

The wraps are filled with tempeh, which is a great meat substitute.  One serving provides almost half of your protein for the day, plus a slew of other vitamins and minerals.  We often eat it on sandwiches instead of deli meat, or we chop it up and add it to enchiladas or salads.  It's cheap, and it freezes well, which is always nice.  In this recipe, you add flavor to the tempeh by cooking it in coconut oil with some ground coriander, garlic powder, and soy sauce.  I thought it was a really great seasoning combination!    

By the way, I'm always looking for new ways to use tempeh, so if you have a favorite recipe, please let me know!

To these wraps I added my first crop of veggies from my spring garden!  I've tried to grow both radishes and spinach in the past, but was unsuccessful.  This year though, my garden seems to be doing very well!

The recipes only calls for romaine and cucumber for veggies, but you could add others, such as other salad greens, carrots, bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, etc.  There is hummus in the wrap, so just think of veggies you would otherwise dip in hummus and you should be good.  Also, it calls for whatever kind of bottled vinaigrette dressing you like, so we chose the only dressing we ever keep in our house: Yumm sauce, of course!  

If you don't want to use a tortilla, you can also serve this as a salad, like we did for lunch the next day:  

Hummus, Tempeh, and Cucumber Wrap

adapted from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

serves 4

1 tablespoon refined coconut oil (or you could use vegetable oil)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander (I probably used more like 1/2 teaspoon)

2 tablepsoons tamari or soy sauce

1 (8 ounce) package tempeh, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips

4 tortillas, whatever size you want, white flour or whole wheat flour

1 cup hummus

1 cucumber, peeled and cut diagonally into thin slices

1 romaine heart, cut into thin strips, or torn into bite size pieces

1/4 cup bottled vinaigrette dressing, whatever kind you like, or Yumm sauce

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  When hot, stir in the garlic powder, coriander, and soy sauce.  Add the slices of tempeh and cook for a few minutes on each side, until nicely browned.  Remove from heat.

They give very specific directions for assembling the wraps, see below, but just do it however you want.  I usually use such a small tortilla that it doesn't wrap very well anyway, so I just fork and knife it.    

To assemble the wraps, spread 1/4 cup of the hummus on each tortilla.  Divide the tempeh strips among the four tortillas and lay them in a column down the middle, leaving a 2-inch border on one edge.  Top each with some cucumber, romaine, and whatever other vegetables you're using.  Drizzle the dressing over each pile.  Fold one side of the tortilla up over the filling, fold in the edge with the border, and continue to roll the tortilla to the other side, making a tight bundle.  Serve seam side down on a plate.  Repeat with the remaining tortillas.  

8-Layer Lasagna

My mom's birthday is very close to mother's day, so what we usually do is celebrate both occasions at once by going out to dinner at a nice restaurant.  This year, however, was different.  Joe and I invited my mom and the rest of my family to come out to our house for dinner.  I was a little apprehensive about taking on the task because I was due to get a tooth extracted a few days before, and I wasn't sure if I would be up for cooking a big meal, much less eating it.

It all worked out though.  We chose to make an 8-layer Cuisine at Home Lasagna, which I assembled early in the week and froze, taking it out to thaw in the fridge the day before (that didn't really work out too well, more on that later).  Joe also made rolls mid-week and stuck them in the freezer before baking them.  So on the actual day we were having dinner, I just had to put together the Caesar salad (homemade dressing and croutons...so good!), bake the lasagna, bake the rolls, (which were brushed with a little garlic butter and tossed with Parmesan cheese and parsley at the last minute), and pick up the birthday cake we ordered from New Morning Bakery (white cake with Marion berry filling and butter cream icing....oh yeah, it was amazing).

I was on the fence about how to store the lasagna after I assembled it, because I wanted to put it together on a Tuesday, but the dinner wasn't until Saturday.  That seemed just a bit too long to refrigerate, but almost pointless to freeze, because I would have to take it out one or two days in advance for it to thaw anyway.  Some recipes I've seen say you can bake it from frozen, but this one specifically said to thaw before baking.

Well, regardless of what I should have done, it was frozen in the middle when we went to put it in the oven, so after about 30 minutes of cooking, the edges were bubbling away but the center was still cold.  So we turned the oven temperature down a bit, covered the top with foil to prevent burning, and let it slowly warm up.  We checked periodically with an internal thermometer.  Alton Brown says that all previously cooked foods should be reheated to 165 F to be extra safe, so that's what we did.  It took longer than we expected, but it was delicious, and well-worth the wait.

I think the most annoying part about the whole thing was par-boiling the "oven-ready" lasagna sheets.  Hello?!  I thought buying oven-ready sheets meant not having to boil them?  I guess they are prone to breaking during assembly, so Cuisine At Home recommends that you boil them for one minute so that they are more pliable.  Sounds simple enough, and I totally see their point, but it was a huge pain, in my opinion.  You are supposed to arrange the boiled pasta sheets in a single layer on a foil-lined, sprayed baking sheet, each layer of pasta separated by a layer of sprayed foil, so they don't stick together while waiting to be added to the lasagna pan.  Except, of course, we didn't have any cooking spray, so we had to drizzle oil onto each foil sheet and try to spread it out evenly without ripping it.  Also, my pasta sheets kept wanting to clump together in the pot of boiling water so I had to cook them in small batches, so it felt like it took forever.  Ugh.
 

On a brighter note, Joe's garlic rolls turned out especially delicious.

8-Layer Lasagna
adapted from Cuisine at Home, February 2004 issue
Serves 8-10

Notes:  Don't buy the brick of frozen spinach, buy the kind that is loose in a bag; it will thaw faster in the sauce.  Also, if you have a traditional 9x13x2 inch baking dish, you won't be able to get all eight layers in there.  Buy a disposable aluminum lasagna pan at the store (they are 3 inches deep), or just make your lasagna 6 layers, like I did, and have leftover filling to eat any way you want.

For the meat sauce:

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 1/2 pound mild Italian sausage
2 cups yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons each dried basil, thyme, and oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
1-28 ounce can crushed tomatoes in puree
1-14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 cup beef broth or water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Bechamel:

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup yellow onion, diced
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
Pinch of nutmeg
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
10 ounces Boursin cheese
Salt to taste
8 ounces frozen chopped spinach
1 egg, beaten

For assembling lasagna:

1 pound oven-ready lasagna sheets, parboiled (see my rant above)
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
6 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

If baking this today, preheat the oven to 400 F, with the rack in the center.

To make the sauces: 

In a large pot or dutch oven, brown both meats over medium-high heat.  Spoon or pour off as much of the fat as possible.  Add the onions, garlic, tomato paste, dried herbs, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf.  Cook until the onions have softened, about 8 minutes.

Add both types of tomatoes, broth, vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.  Set aside.

For the bechamel, start by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion, cayenne, and nutmeg, and saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.  Stir often during this time to prevent scorching.

Add the flour and stir to coat.  Cook for 2 minutes, then gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth.  Add the Boursin in small pieces and whisk until smooth.  Season with salt to taste.  Set aside one cup bechamel for the top of the lasagna.  Let the rest of the sauce cool for about 10 minutes.  Whisk in the egg and frozen spinach.  Set aside.

Prepare the lasagna sheets as described above, and have both cheeses ready.

To assemble the lasagna:

1. Coat a 9x13x3 inch baking dish nonstick spray.

2. Spread 1/3 cup of the Bechamel on the bottom (it's a thin layer, that's ok).

3. Lay three pasta sheets across the bottom of the pan.

4. Spread another 1/3 cup Bechamel over the pasta sheets.

5. Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce over the Bechamel (the sauces will blend, and they may not cover the pasta completely).

6. Top with mozzarella (I allocated two slices per pasta sheet).

7. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

8. Layer three more pasta sheets across the top.

9. Repeat steps 4-8 until all the pasta is used, or you run out of room (I admit, I pressed down on the layers of lasagna as I assembled it to fit in as much as possible).

10. Spread the reserved Bechamel over the last layer of pasta, and sprinkle with Parmesan.

When ready to bake:

Bake lasagna, uncovered, at 400 F, for 40-45 minutes, or until hot all the way through.  The top should be a little browned and the sauce should be bubbling.  Take out of the oven and let rest for 20-30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Rhubarb Lentil Soup with Creme Fraiche

Want to try something different with your rhubarb this spring?  Make this soup!  I cut this recipe out of Cooking Light magazine a couple of years ago because it sounded so interesting and I finally got around to making it this year.

I was at the farmer's market this weekend and the rhubarb looked really good!  I bought a bunch, so I had enough to make this soup, plus a little extra that I chopped and froze for a more typical strawberry-rhubarb crumble or pie later this spring (maybe using the strawberries out of my garden, if they would hurry up and grow already).

This is a very healthy soup!  It has lots of veggies, plus protein-packed lentils.  There is a lot of chopping initially, but the soup cooks pretty fast once you get going.  The Co-op didn't have any red onions that day, so I substituted a yellow onion and it was fine.  Instead of fat-free, low sodium chicken broth, I used Joe's mom's turkey stock.  You could also use vegetable stock or broth (which makes more sense actually, when you consider that the rest of the soup is meat-free).

You top the soup with a dollop of creme fraiche - so yummy.  Creme fraiche is cream that has been cultured, so it's a little tangy, and it has the consistency of sour cream.  The recipe actually has you stir together creme fraiche and dill, of all things.  SICK.  That is the one herb I loathe.  I was actually going to suck it up and buy some for Joe's sake, (and not allow it to come in contact with any of my other groceries of course), but they were out at the Co-Op.  What an absolute shame.

Rhubarb-Lentil Soup with Creme Fraiche
adapted from Cooking Light - May 2008 issue
serves 6

1 1/2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup dried petite green lentils
Cooking spray
2 cups finely chopped carrot (for me that was about 3 large carrots)
1 3/4 cups finely chopped celery (about 4 stalks)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped red onion (about one large onion)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cups chopped rhubarb (about 12 ounces)
4 cups fat-free, less sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
6 tablespoons creme fraiche
Dill sprigs (optional)

Put the lentils into a small bowl, and pour the boiling water over them.  Let stand 10 minutes.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and coat the bottom with cooking spray.  When hot, add the carrot, celery, onion, and parsley.  Sauté for about four minutes, then add the rhubarb, and sauté for another three minutes.  Drain lentils and add to pan.  Stir in the chicken broth and salt, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 35 minutes, or until lentils are tender (ours were done after about 20, maybe we simmered too fast?  Still tasted fine to us!)

Move the pan off the heat and let cool for about five minutes.  Blend about 3 cups of the soup in a blender or food processor.  Remove the center piece of the blender lid to allow steam to escape, and cover with a clean kitchen towel to avoid splatters (OR use an immersion blender and just blend about half of the soup right in the pan).  After you return the pureed soup to the pan, and add the pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the chopped dill and creme fraiche.  Ladle the soup into bowls, and top with a dollop of the creme fraiche mixture.  Garnish with dill sprigs, if you want.

Serving size = about 1 1/3 cups soup with 1 tablespoon creme fraiche mixture.