Related Posts

• Baked Eggplant Stuffed with Butter Beans

  

  I love eggplant. The sad thing is that my partner does not, so the amounts in this recipe are given for one person, but they are very simple to double or triple. Baking only one eggplant is a little sad, so I always bake more than one and make something else out of the others. I already wrote it down in the recipe too, but I can’t stress enough – do not undercook the eggplant. Undercooked eggplant is not a nice thing to eat. Baking whole like we do today, it is practically impossible to overcook it as the skin protects the tender flesh, so baking for longer is in this recipe always a better choice. I have included one of my favorite condiments in this recipe – marinated onions. As there are bigger onion lovers and the ones who only tolerate them, I did not mention amounts in the recipe (in fact, I never measure the ingredients when making marinated onions), so you can choose yourself how much of them you wish to include.

• Roasted Curry Chickpeas

  

  Lately I’ve been hungry for more veggie protein options, so I’ve been gravitating toward eating more beans. Chickpeas, AKA garbanzo beans, are part of the legume family. They’re touted for their high levels of insoluble fiber, so naturally they’re an amazingly cleanse-friendly food. In just 1 cup of chickpeas you’ll get over 15 grams of protein, so they’re a fantastic veggie-based protein source. Chickpeas boast a wide array of phytonutrients both in the seed coat and inner bean. My favorite inflammation fighting phytonutrient, quercetin, is plentiful in this little bean, which makes it a healthy food to be eating during any allergy season. Chickpeas are extremely versatile. You can flavor them with a variety of spices, add them to soups, salads, and salad dressings. You can even eat them by the handful for a healthy and filling snack. Not only will this recipe delight your taste buds, but it will also help to satisfy your cravings for junk food and sweets. In a recent study, people who ate chickpeas were shown to eat fewer processed foods. Equally exciting, participants who ate garbanzo beans for just 1 week were able to control their blood sugar and insulin levels.

• Eggplant Tacos & Homemade Tortillas

  

  I love spice, and if I had to choose only one type of food to eat until the rest of my life, tacos would be very high on the list! They are incredibly versatile, and I always love to pile them with a ton of fresh ingredients. There always needs to be a spice element and always something crunchy. I am pretty sure that Mexicans would disapprove of this recipe because eggplant in tacos is far from traditional, but for me, it works! Preparing soft tacos is pretty straightforward. Besides water and salt, you only need masa harina flour. I am sure that tortilla press makes preparing them even easier, but rolling them out between two pieces of parchment paper works well enough for me. The tortillas do not need to be 100% round and uniform in size. They are, after all, homemade tortillas, and nobody expects them to be perfect. Saying that – if you don’t feel like baking the tortillas from scratch, feel free to use store-bought small tortillas, and the dinner will be served in even less time. One thing to keep in mind preparing this recipe is that the eggplant needs to be eaten quickly, or it will get soggy. One way to keep it crispy longer would be to fry the eggplant sticks instead of baking them, but I prefer keeping them on the healthier side. I recommend preparing everything else in advance and letting the eggplant sticks be the last ingredient added to the tacos right before eating them.

• Stuffed Vegetables with Rice and Lentils

  

  Right now I can’t imagine any other recipe that would be more suited for autumn than these stuffed vegetables. They are warm, slightly spicy, and full of seasonal fresh vegetables. So-so good! I am not a big fan of autumn as it tends to be rainy and dark in Estonia, and spring is still very far away, but I absolutely love all the fresh produce available and I like to make the most of it. There are probably a million different recipes for stuffed vegetables. I once went to a yoga retreat in Morocco and as they offered cooking classes too, I got to learn how to make Moroccan-style stuffed vegetables. They used minced meat as the main filling ingredient, but as I very rarely consume animal products, I figured lentils might be a good substitute. I just remembered that all the cooking classes in Morocco were private classes in a tiny local kitchen and fully in French, which I don’t speak. It seems that food is a universal language because I managed to understand everything just fine.

• Warm Quinoa and Eggplant Salad

  

  It is spring in Estonia, and nature is slowly waking up again. We had a little setback this morning as it started to snow, but now the sun is back out, and I am always happy to see the sun. Beautiful weather or not, thanks to the virus, we are sadly still required to stay indoors. Luckily, I have a big terrace, and last week I cleaned up my little rooftop garden, so it is all ready to plant carrots and herbs and zucchini as soon as it gets a bit warmer. I was even lucky enough to find that my strawberries, mint, and parsley have survived the winter, so I could already pick some leaves for this salad too! Brighter weather means that my dishes also turn a little lighter, and this salad is an excellent transfer from colder weather to summer as it is light but warm and quite substantial. The recipe is simple and foolproof, but when working with eggplant, it is always essential to work fast brushing it with oil. It has a superpower to absorb absurd amounts of oil. Another important tip is always to make sure that eggplant is fully cooked – it should be creamy inside. It is one of few vegetables that does not win from being al dente at all.

• Eggplant and Lentil Empanadas

  

  This version of empanadas is very far from traditional, that are usually deep-fried and often filled with all kinds of meat and cheeses. I typically try to keep my recipes on a healthier side, and I did the same with these little pies that are baked in the oven, and only two tablespoons of oil are used for the whole batch. Also, I chose eggplant and lentils for the filling as I had some cooked lentils leftover from the day before, and the eggplant was already looking a little bit tired. I am always very mindful of food waste and try to avoid throwing away anything. Now that going out, even for groceries, is limited, it is an extra challenge as I try to order food only every two weeks, and it is quite challenging to predict what I would like to eat in 10 days. I take it as a positive challenge and imagine myself in a cooking competition where I am given random ingredients and have to come up with a delicious meal!