Tag Archives: hummus

Roasted Beet Sandwich on Naan

I love naan.  I love it a little less now that I’ve investigated what it is that I am actually eating.  It’s not exactly health food.  I have been buying these delicious commercial naan bread that I typically see at my deli counter and now they are available at Costco, double whammy.  After I made this sandwich, I started researching recipes online for a healthier, more importantly vegan naan and I came up with a few that I will be trying for my next foray into sandwich-making.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sometimes not eating meat poses problems in the sandwich area-going to a deli can be less than successful most times.  Instead, you have to make up for it in your own kitchen.  Pictured is a toss together sandwich made from Tin Foil Beets and various other items found in the fridge.  These items would also make a great salad with a squeeze of lemon or orange juice for the dressing.  Contents of the sandwich on naan bread are:  smear of hummus, fresh baby spinach, avocado with lemon juice and roasted beets.  I serve this in a pocket sometimes with sprouts, arugula and carrots.  A Mr. Wonderful fave and perfect beach food as they travel well.

Roasted Turnip and Sweet Potato Pizza

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Most of the recipes I come up with that are truly “my own” are straight out of my lack of want to go grocery shopping.  I hate, no loathe, the grocery store.  As a result of this…Roasted Turnip and Sweet Potato Pizza was born right from the contents of my pantry, fridge and deep freeze.

Ingredients:

  • store prepared or homemade hummus (I used Sabra, garlic flavor)
  • store prepared or homemade pizza dough (I used a ball of Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat dough from the freezer)
  • 1 large sweet potato, cut into thin discs (skin on or off, your choice)
  • 1 small red onion, sliced into rings
  • a handful of turnips, cut into thin discs (skin on or off, your choice)
  • goat cheese (unless you are vegan, then sub your fave non-diary cheese or go without)
  • extra virgin olive oil (about a glug’s worth from the bottle-we are very scientific here)
  • salt and pepper
  • flour for counter top to roll out your raw dough

Wash, cut up and roast veggies tossed with olive oil, either in a foil packet on the grill or in a 400 degree oven until they are tender.  In the photos, I took them out of their foil packet and put them right on the heat for the last minute or so to get a char.  They are high sugar content veggies, so do not leave them unattended [if you were to by chance do this…you just end up with potato chips, so win-win at least].  You could roast your veggies up to 3 days in advance and keep them in the fridge until you are ready to use.  I would do this if I were more organized…alas, I am not…so keep reading.

While your veggies roast away, roll out your dough blob to desired crust thickness and let rest until your veggies are off (I have a VERY small grill-large grill owners you can do both at the same time is space allows).  Brush crust on one side with some olive oil and put directly onto grill grate.  DO NOT MOVE the dough until you can see the grill lines developing on the underside, or you will tear your perfect crust-give it a peek after a minute or so to see where you are at.  This grated side is going to be your topping side.

Flip dough after it is firm yet not burned.  At this point you can apply your hummus to the first cooked side, scatter around your potatoes and onion then drop your goat cheese or cheese substitute on top, cover and allow for the cheese to melt.  When your cheese hits the melty stage, remove entire pizza.  Let cool a few minutes then slice it up.

I find hummus is an awesome base for pizza-I use it more than the traditional tomato-based sauces.  You can put just about any combination of toppings on this, sub what you like or what you have on hand, add fresh herbs to increase the wow value…if it were up to Mr. Wonderful we would make grilled pizzas every day.

Leftovers Pita with Hummus

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’m rather impressed with myself right now.  I made that delicious quinoa bowl  and had lots of leftovers, so I engineered this dinner the very next night, followed by another quick dinner the night after that, stretching the sauces out over three days AND more importantly using them up, instead of wasting them (which in cooking for 2 people I’m prone to do).

This leftovers pita with hummus, takes the Tahini sauce from the quinoa bowl, and whirls it around in a food processor with 1 cup of cooked chickpeas to fatten it up a bit-making hummus.  I added just a pinch of salt and had a spread to use with the leftover bowl materials (kale, red onion, chickpeas) and pan fried some tofu in sesame oil to add a little more substance.  Served it on a whole wheat pita that I just warmed in the oven while I fried up the tofu.