Honey Garlic Roasted Vegetable Skewers

This recipe is free of gluten, dairy and nuts.

I was struggling to think of something to go with my Canada Day salmon and came up with this! Normally with salmon I make fattoush (recipe coming soon), a Lebanese salad with toasted pita, but today I was fresh out of lettuce and all grocery stores are closed given the occasion. I'm actually SO happy that I ran out of lettuce because this was way better and a good change from my usual routine! I love honey garlic anything, and love vegetable skewers, so the combination was a good idea if I do say so myself. 

Yield: 5 Skewers

Veggies:

1 large-ish onion (a larger "medium" onion more like it)

1 red pepper

½ large cucumber

2 medium tomatoes

Marinade:

6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

4 tablespoons honey

4 teaspoons gluten-free soy sauce 

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

A few healthy shakes of veggie seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the veggies into bite-sized pieces, but not too small as we want them to be just right for piercing with the skewers. If they are too small they will fall off the skewers during the piercing or during the roasting.

Mix marinade ingredients together and place in a large bowl with veggies for 2-8 hours. Every now and then I stirred up the bowl because I wanted all of the veggies to sit in the marinade, but didn't want to dilute the marinade with water so that it covered the veggies as I would do with a meat marinade. Keep the marinade because you'll be spreading it on the skewers throughout the roasting process!

Preheat your oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas Mark 6.

Skewer the marinaded veggies. Some people like to stick to a pattern but I'm much less meticulous. 

Line a deep pan with foil to catch the drippings. If the pan has a minimum inch of height, it allows the skewers to cook well underneath as well as on top. Balance the ends of the skewers over a deep pan. 

Spread the marinade over the skewers (as you would baste meat), and sprinkle a healthy few shakes of veggie seasoning over the skewers followed by salt and pepper to taste.

Place the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and spread more of the marinade on all sides of the veggies before placing back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Remove, let cool, and enjoy! 

Posted by McKayla

Classic Hummus

Free of gluten, dairy and nuts. Vegan friendly. 

I am obsessed with hummus. I eat it everyday on everything. I eat it with my steak, I eat it with my vegetables, I put it on bread for a snack, in my sandwiches, etc. etc. I can go on. 

The best hummus recipes I've come across have been Lebanese, but they were missing a key ingredient. They tasted slightly bland, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Then someone suggested I put cumin in my hummus - uughhhh sooo glad I did. Hummus has never tasted better!

Yield: 1 medium-sized bowl

3 cups soaked chickpeas
¾ cup tahina paste
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup water from boiled chickpeas
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¾ teaspoon salt
Paprika, parsley, olive oil and a few straw chickpeas for garnish

I highly recommend using dried chickpeas. You soak them for a minimum of 12 hours, and then boil them until they're soft. Canned chickpeas just doesn't provide the same flavour. 

After your chickpeas are boiled, put them in a blender or food processor along with all the other ingredients until a paste is formed.  I used a blender, so I had to frequently stop it to mix the paste so that all the chickpeas would be blended evenly. 

You can get creative and draw designs in your hummus for presentation. I drew a spiral as you can see above, then filled it with olive oil. Garnish with chickpeas, paprika, then parsley. 

Enjoy!


Post by McKayla

Lemon Lentil Soup - Saudi Style

Free of gluten, dairy, and nuts. Vegan friendly. 

In an effort to appease the finicky taste-buds of the Saudi(s) in my life, I began fervently searching for Arab lentil soup recipes online. Of course no matter what I found or how great the reviews were, it was "good" but never "like home". Perplexingly, even when the recipes literally came from the Discover Saudi Arabia website they were under par... Very frustrating. I decided to take matters into my own hands and experiment with spices I was given from Saudi. I came across a spice used in almost everything, referred to mysteriously as "baharat" - very vague when you consider baharat means "spices" in Arabic. Baharat was the key ingredient that my soup was missing, and has revolutionized my lentil soup forever!!


I can hear some of you sigh, "..But where can IIII get baharat?" and really a baharat blend can be obtained from any Middle Eastern food store, but I know sometimes in smaller cities even finding one of these stores can be a challenge, so you could also always click the above link and order off of Amazon! Baharat is also made differently in different countries, so finding the specific Saudi blend used in this recipe might prove to be impossible. However, I found that generally substituting a tablespoon of baharat for a tablespoon of garam masala (available in generic grocery stores) and a teaspoon of curry was a GREAT substitute - the difference was almost indistinguishable.


Yield: 6-7 medium bowls

1 cup red lentil
2 bay leaves
2 medium yellow onions
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic cloves, or more if you love garlic (I use more)
1 carrot
1 potato
½ cucumber
2 small teaspoons baharat blend (or 2 teaspoons garam masala and ½ teaspoon curry)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon dried cilantro
4 lemons
Black pepper and parsley to garnish


Finely chop onions.

Soak the lentils for about 30 minutes. Boil them in a large pot with the bay leaves with 2½ cups of water.

While the lentils are boiling, fry onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Add them to the pot.

Chop carrot, potato and cucumber into bite-sized pieces. The soup will be pureed in the end, but chopping them small will allow them to soften more quickly. Add them to the pot with another 2½ cups of water. Set the burner on a low boil and cover for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Add all the spices - salt, baharat, oregano and cilantro, also adding 1 cup of water. Cover again and cook for another 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Puree the soup. I use a blender and it works great, in fact that exact amount of soup will perfectly fit into a generic-sized blender.

Cut the lemons in half and remove the seeds. As you portion the soup, stir in the juice from half a lemon into each bowl. It adds a great complimentary flavour, but the soup still tastes fantastic without it.

Garnish with pepper and parsley.

Enjoy!

Post by McKayla