Halal
721 recipes found
Grilled Peppers with Garlic Yogurt
This dish is very much in the Turkish spirit of mixing warm vegetables with cool, garlicky yogurt. Various types of peppers will work. This is a typical Turkish way to use grilled peppers. Turkish cuisine features cool, garlicky yogurt with warm vegetables. You can use a mix of peppers for this (in Turkey, longish, thin-skinned green peppers are the norm), and you don’t have to stick to sweet peppers, though I prefer the sweet against the pungent yogurt. Roasted peppers will keep for a week in the refrigerator. They will continue to release liquid, which they can marinate in. Warm the peppers before serving, or serve them at room temperature with the topping.
Farfalle With Roasted Peppers
For this dish, inspired by Greek and Turkish ways with pasta and yogurt, I combined peppers from the market, peas from my freezer and herbs from my garden.
Turkish Yogurt and Spinach Dip
Known in Turkey as caçik, this garlicky mixture of green vegetables, fresh herbs and yogurt can be served as a salad or as a dip with pita and raw vegetables. Traditionally, caçik is made with a number of vegetables, including cucumbers, cabbage and beets.
Stewed Green Beans and Tomatoes With Trahana
The stewed green beans with tomatoes are typical of many Greek “olive oil dishes,” or “ladera,” though my version has about a quarter of the olive oil used in a traditional dish. I have bulked it up by adding trahana to the mix, which turns it into a stew that is suitable as a main dish. It is delicious hot or at room temperature.
Pre-Summer Greek Salad With Shaved Broccoli and Peppers or Beets
Classic Greek salad is a summer dish in my house; impossible to make if tomatoes are not in season and wonderful. But other vegetables take to the same treatment – a simple dressing with a high ratio of acid (in this case a combination of lemon juice and vinegar with olive oil), feta cheese and lots of mint and parsley. I don’t normally use uncooked broccoli flowers. But in this case, I slice the florets paper-thin, allowing the flower buds to crumble off when I cut the crowns. Cut like this the broccoli yields to the dressing and maintains its brightness for a much longer time than cooked broccoli does. I’ve made this salad combining broccoli with sweet red pepper and combining it with roasted Chioggia beets (yellow beets also work; red ones, however, bleed into the broccoli). I like both versions equally.
Omelets With Roasted Vegetables and Feta
If you have roasted vegetables on hand an omelet is a wonderful vehicle for them. Omelets are so quick to make, and so satisfying, whether you make them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can cut up your roasted vegetables into slightly smaller pieces if you want a less chunky omelet.
Corn and Vegetable Gratin With Cumin
This pretty gratin is not as rich as it tastes. I blend the kernels from one of the ears of corn with eggs and milk for a sweet, rich custard that holds it all together. Cumin seeds accent the mixture and give it a Southwestern twist.
Tomato, Cucumber and Corn Salad
You can serve this refreshing mixture as a salad, as a topping for whole grains or as a salsa with grilled fish or chicken.
Simple Trahana Soup With Lemon and Olive Oil
This is just about the simplest dish to make with trahana, yet I find it incredibly satisfying and refreshing. I like it both hot and cold; it is cooling on a hot summer day and comforting on a cool one (we were in the middle of a bad heat wave when I was testing this week’s recipes). The soup is adapted from a recipe in Diane Kochilas’s new cookbook: “Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity From the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die.” My favorite herb to use with the soup is fresh dill. If you want to add more ingredients, simmer vegetables of your choice in the broth, or add blanched or steamed vegetables to the soup when you serve it. Broccoli would be great, as would peas, beans, or sugar snap peas.
Roasted Cauliflower Gratin With Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
Roasting is one of my favorite ways to prepare cauliflower, and I have always loved preparations that pair the vegetable with coriander seeds. I use coriander seeds and cinnamon to season the tomato sauce that I toss with the roasted cauliflower and sautéed red onions, then add a couple of eggs beaten with goat cheese.
Refried Bean, Zucchini and Corn Gratin
This is my own interpretation of a traditional Southwestern dish (that has many interpretations) called Three Sisters Casserole. Three Sisters refers to the Native American practice of growing corn, beans and squash in the same field. I’ve seen many different recipes for Three Sisters Casserole and Three Sisters Gratin, some using winter squash, more using summer squash. Sometimes the vegetables are combined and topped with a layer of polenta. In this version, each element gets its own flavorful layer. Although you can use canned beans for the dish, I urge you to use simmered beans because the refried beans will taste best if you reduce them in their flavorful broth.
Collard Greens Stuffed With Quinoa and Turkey
It takes some time, but I love filling collard greens. Bigger than grape leaves (so you don’t have to make as many), the large flat leaves are great stuffers. I used a combination of quinoa and leftover turkey for this slightly sweet Middle Eastern filling spiced with cinnamon and allspice; rice would work just as well.
Homemade Sour Bulgur Trahana From Ikaria
Trahana is a wheat product that is eaten throughout Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. There are many versions, some made with milk, usually from goats or sheep that is called sweet trahana, some with a combination of milk and yogurt, called sour trahana, and even a lenten version made with vegetable pulp. The liquid is combined with wheat – bulgur, semolina, or a mix of semolina and flour – and made into a dry dough (if using flour) or simmered until it is a thick porridge. Then it is spread out on netting and dried in the sun. Once thoroughly dry it is broken up into granules that can range in size from bulgurlike morsels to small pellets. You can find imported Greek trahana in Greek markets. I found five different types in my local Greek market in Los Angeles and each one behaves a little bit differently when you cook it. It is easy to make yourself, as I found when I made this recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook “Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity From the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die.” This is the trahana that I used for all of this week’s Recipes for Health. I am happy to have this new staple on hand in my pantry.
Grilled Pepper Omelet
Roasted peppers, chopped herbs and a little bit of Parmesan make for a quick omelet in the spirit of a pipérade. I often make the classic Basque pipérade, eggs scrambled with stewed peppers and tomatoes. This time, I kept it a little simpler and used my roasted peppers to fill an omelet. I added chopped, fresh herbs and a little bit of Parmesan to the mix. If your peppers are already roasted (I had plenty on hand as I’d been working with roasted peppers all week) this is a 2- to 5-minute dinner. As always, the better the eggs (farm-fresh, pastured), the better the omelet.
Puréed Trahana and Vegetable Soup
Sweet and tart flavors marry in this thick, comforting soup made with leeks, carrots, onion and trahana. I like to blend the soup with an immersion blender, which results in a purée with a fair amount of texture. You can make a smoother, more elegant soup if you use a blender and then strain the purée. Trahana has a rustic flavor that goes well here. If you use semolina or flour trahana the mixture will be considerably thicker, so use less; half as much should be fine.
Greek Lentil Pie
I consider lentils a convenience food, so quickly do they cook. I used up the last of my ripe summer tomatoes in a simple lentil and tomato stew and used the leftover stew to fill an amazing Greek phyllo pie, an idea I came across when I was reading about all the things Greeks do with lentils in Diane Kochilas’s “The Greek Vegetarian.”
Brown Rice and Barley Salad with Sprouted Red Lentils and Green Beans
This hearty salad, dressed with a creamy, spicy dressing, can be made with a number of different grains. I’ve been making iterations of this hearty whole grain salad tossed with a creamy, curry-spiced dressing since my earliest days of vegetarian cooking. My choice of grains for this version was a function of what I found in my pantry and my refrigerator: -- enough brown rice and barley to combine for a salad but not enough for a more substantial dish. Farro or spelt would also work. The split red lentils, soaked just long enough to soften and begin to sprout, contribute color and texture along with their grassy flavor. Tossing the grains with lemon juice while they’re still warm intensifies the flavors in the salad.
Greek Beet and Beet Greens Pie
I’ve made lots of Greek vegetable pies in phyllo pastry using beet greens, but I had not included the beets. This will now be a regular dish I make with beets in my house. This savory pie, seasoned with mint, parsley and dill, is beautiful, filling and easy to assemble. If you are gluten-free and can’t use phyllo, you can make this as a crustless gratin.
Not-Too-Sweet Wok-Popped Coconut Kettle Corn
I’m usually not a big fan of sweet kettle corn, but I wanted to make a moderately sweet version because some people love it and it is nice to be able to offer a sweet snack for the holidays. I realized after testing this recipe that I do like kettle corn if it isn’t too sweet. The trick to not burning the sugar when you make kettle corn is to add the sugar off the heat at the end of popping. The wok will be hot enough to caramelize it.
Spiced Wok-Popped Popcorn
My mother always used the wok for making popcorn. It is the perfect pan for it. An added bonus is that making popcorn adds more patina to your wok, and a well-seasoned wok is the healthiest type of nonstick cookware there is. I have played around with all sorts of seasonings for popcorn; my favorite is the Tunisian mix called tabil, minus the dried garlic. See the recipe below for the mix, which I make up by the jar and keep in my freezer. To help with cleanup, line the lid of your wok with aluminum foil.
Cooked Tomatillo Salsa
A Big Pot of Simmered Pintos
This pot of beans was Step 1 for the other Recipes for Health this week. If I know that I’m going to use these beans for a Mexican dinner I season them with cilantro and, if I can find it, epazote. If I want Italian or Provençal flavors I make a bouquet garni with bay leaf, thyme, parsley, maybe sage, and most definitely a Parmesan rind. This week, since I am using my beans as a starting off point for other dishes, I season them only with onion, garlic, bay leaf and salt. The dishes that will follow throughout the week will introduce more flavors.
White Tepary Bean and Potato Purée
Tepary beans are very small beans native to the Southwest and Mexico. They are among the most drought-tolerant foods in the world – they would have to be, grown as they are during the extremely hot, dry summers in the Sonora desert and southern Arizona. A dietary staple of native American tribes in Arizona, they are very high in protein and have a low glycemic index. There are two varieties, brown and white. I’m using small white tepary beans here; regular small white navy beans can be substituted. The teparies have a particularly sweet, meaty flavor. The purée, which is in some ways like a white bean brandade, isn’t a main dish, it is more of a comforting, high-protein stand-in for mashed potatoes. But it is substantial.
Baked Stuffed Acorn Squash
This makes a substantial vegetarian – or vegan if you leave out the cheese – Thanksgiving main dish. It is another riff on the native American tradition of the Three Sisters – corn, beans, and squash. I used acorn squash here, and it serves as a vessel for the sweet and pungent bean, corn and tomato filling. Acorn squash comes in various sizes; the larger ones, which are sometimes all I can find, take almost an hour to soften and cook through; the finished squash can be cut in half or even into thirds if too big for one serving. With everything that comes on the Thanksgiving sideboard, that will probably be the case. I always bake the squash for about 20 minutes before cutting it in half; they soften up a little bit, which makes it much easier to cut.