Curried Cauliflower Fritters

If you follow this blog you know that I always had a soft spot for cauliflower. It ranks up there as one of my favorite veggies to cook with - it lends well to so many different flavours, and is similar to rice in that it is a blank canvas for any meal.
As an avid cauliflower lover, I have cooked it a million different ways but cauliflower fritters hold a special place in my heart. Especially my Parmesan Cauliflower Fritters. I used to make ‘em as a side dish, but they are so delicious and satisfying that nowadays I serve them as a main. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians love them equally.

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

I took a month off and went on a trip to France for the summer. I so needed it.
While I was traveling on the French Riviera I stopped in Nice for a couple of days.
What a gorgeous city, you could easily have stayed there a week — or 37 years, like the artist Matisse did.
Anyways, on a breezy summer evening in a small brasserie on the Promenade des Anglais, I tried some amazing tomates farcies à la viande hachée (i.e., tomatoes stuffed with ground beef.)
An amazingly simple dish but so fantastically delicious that the next day and the day after that I came back to the same brasserie to eat it again.

Italian Farro Salad

If you’re not familiar with it, farro is a grain similar to pearl barley, but it’s dried in such a way that instead of being fluffy and spongy, it becomes a bit chewy and has an incredible nutty flavor.
Farro is a pure form of wheat with the husk intact.
It’s been a staple in the Mediterranean diet for centuries, in fact it was a major food for the ancient Romans, who used it to make bread and soups before shifting to wheat.
It’s incredibly versatile and pretty healthy too. It contains a lot of fiber which proves to be very good when it comes to digestion and cardiovascular health. It’s also exceptionally high in protein for a grain and supplies more than 10 different vitamins and minerals.
It used to be pretty hard to find, but nowadays almost all grocery stores carry it. From Trader Joe’s to Whole Foods to Walmart, look for it in the natural-food or special selection sections.

Greek Pasta Salad

Pasta salads tend to get a bad rap, but I find that the more I think of them as cold and fresh summer dishes and the less as mayo-laden bowls of suspicious ingredients offered in delis around the country, the more inviting they become, not only for picnics and potlucks but for an awesome Friday night.
I actually made this Greek Pasta Salad for a BBQ this past weekend, everyone raved about it, and wanted to know how to make it.
In my book, I always know that something works when people ask for the recipe. Then again, I’m not sure if they are ever going to make it but sure enough, they’ve enjoyed it.
I love when people get so excited about something that is so simple to make and so fresh.

Sheet Pan Spicy Chicken Fajitas

I don’t know if I should tell you or not, but I kinda have a thing for Mexican food in my house.
I’ve never actually thought about it until now, but I’m pretty sure I eat Mexican food at least once a week. From quesadillas, to carnitas, to enchiladas, to these awesome Sheet Pan Spicy Chicken Fajitas.

Pepper Quesadillas

It’s about time you meet one of my fave go-to meal, Pepper Quesadillas.
When I’m feeling too lazy to make a proper meal but I still want something delicious, filling, and a tad on the healthy side too, I throw together these quesadillas in 15 minutes flat.

"Blow Your Mind" Grilled Chicken Marinade

Sometimes simplicity is the best. Like the easy breezy grilled chicken marinade I invented the other day.
As a person who loves chicken dishes and couldn’t get tired of them, ever, I’m constantly looking for different and original methods to cook chicken so I can serve it more often without the risk of getting bored. My goal is always the same, juicy, tender, succulent chicken that packs a flavor punch.

Marinated Red Peppers with Garlic and Oregano

Most of the time, I don’t choose the recipes I share here, it’s the market that controls it.
As it happens when you live in a climate that deprives you of field-fresh produce for almost half the year, leaving you to go completely out of control and of course overdo it in the months that you’re graced with it — bringing home buckets of fresh produce when you only need a fraction of it.
The other day I picked-up some mega-huge red peppers thinking about pickling them, but then I changed my mind — as I often do— and I instead roasted them.

Easy Gratineed Eggplant

It’s finally starting to feel like summer so today I’m making a dish that has summer written all over it.
A super simple Gratineed Eggplant — a dish that get raves from anyone who's tried it.
I know that “gratineed” sounds like a fancy word but in reality it just means to bake or broil in au gratin style. That’s it.

(Vegan) Sun-Dried Tomato and Chickpea Burgers

Here is the thing about veggie burgers — I found that once you bite into them, they are often mushy, or they tend to fall apart or even worse they are cardboard-like.
Even some of the good ones are more akin to a fritter than a burger and all miss that juicy burger texture.
Prepare to be amazed.

Classic Souvlaki Kebabs

Why is it that, no matter what, we always crave the back-to-basics, simple food that has been around for ages?
Probably because no one wants to fuss and also because we like food that doesn’t make demands on our time, our kitchen skills or our wallets.
As far as I’m concerned there are recipes — such as these Classic Souvlaki Kebabs — that I make a lot around here.
Simple food that speaks for itself. What is there not love about it?

Socca (Gluten-Free Chickpea Flatbread)

Let’s talk about socca, shall we?
For those of you who are not familiar with this food, socca is a sort of large flatbread (or unleavened pancake if you prefer) made with chickpea flour, water, olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.
It’s a popular street food along the French Riviera and in and around the province of Genoa, Italy. It's traditionally cooked in wood ovens on copper disks, roughly cut, and served hot.
It’s a great any-time-of-the-day recipe that can be enjoyed in so many ways.
Socca is often served as an appetizer with a few herbs and spices and eaten with the hands with a glass of crisp rosé. My favorite way to eat it is with hummus or harissa: so delicious!

Green Falafels

For those of you who don’t know, falafel is a simple fritter of ground chickpeas, filled with garlic and herbs and fried into a glorious, filling, and inexpensive food.
Falafels are typically eaten wrapped in pita bread and topped with yogurt sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes. But when I make ‘em at home, I’ll eat them straight-up with just a dip of tzatziki.
Traditional falafel is also a vegan food: A great source of protein for people who have cut meat out of their diet and low in fat if you fry it in heart-healthy vegetable oil (such as grapeseed oil.)

Zucchini Pasta Carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara is a classic pasta dish that the whole family loves and that takes as long to make as it does to cook the pasta. The ingredients are simple: Pasta, bacon, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese, a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. A silky sauce is created when the beaten yolks are tossed with the hot pasta and a little fat from the bacon. Luscious and wonderfully indulgent, pasta carbonara is as good as it gets.

Easy Baked Chipotle Chicken

Can I be totally honest with you guys?
I am in love with this Easy Baked Chipotle Chicken. So much so that I made a second batch of it the day after devouring the first — which was like two days ago. Speaking of which, I think the time has come to whip up another one because seriously, this is smoky spicy awesomeness.

Sheet Pan Ratatouille

I can’t believe how well this worked out. I also can’t believe I made this quintessential stove top hearty dish in the oven. But I can believe I’ll be making this again tomorrow, because it’s delicious and an incredible cinch to make.

Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Can we please discuss for a moment the price of supermarket veggie burgers? Why are they so expensive?
One can argue that this happens because veggie burgers are made with a lot of ingredients.
Or maybe it’s because vegetarians are willing to pay more to avoid beef/pork, the manufacturers know this and thus charge more.
More likely is it because the production of veggie burgers is on a much smaller scale if compared to the beef counterpart and in addition vegetables and grains — though generally quite cheap pound to pound — are seasonal and can greatly fluctuate in price.
Whatever might be the reason: veggie burgers are expensive!

Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas

I don’t know if there is a name for this but when I see a recipe that sounds intriguing, I have this bad habit of cooking it either right-that-very-moment or pretty much never.
I do the same with clean laundry, I either get every single thing into its proper closet/drawer or it sits on my bedroom chair for days — never bothering to put it away. Same thing happens when I buy something I’m not sure of, I either return it the very next day or it stays in its bag forever.
The fact is, once something leaves my short-term memory, it may as well be lost eternally.
But with recipes, at least today, I’m on a rescue mission.

Crock-Pot Mongolian Beef

One of the most fundamental, basic rules of dinner parties — and the one I routinely ignore — is that you should never try out recipes for the first time on your guests. Good manners predicate that guests are not guinea pigs, hence you should never test new dishes and ideas on them.
But when those guests are your family — which means that they are forced to love you — I say go to town on them.
Fortunately, with this Crock-Pot Mongolian Beef everything worked perfectly, like I knew it would. Soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sugar, and beef in the slow cooker: Hardly something can go wrong.

Easy Indian Butter Chickpeas

Since you all know me, then you know that I love Indian food to the utmost.
Give me some Chicken Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken or Pumpkin Masala and I’m one happy camper.
In fact, some of the most popular recipes on this blog are Indian-inspired; such as the Chickpea Tikka Masala or the Red Lentil and Spinach Tikka Masala — maybe not quite like your grandmother’s authentic Indian recipe but so tasty nonetheless.