Tag Archives: naan

Rummaged Flatbread

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 1 comment

Some nights I just don’t feel like cooking.  Really.  Yes, even me.  Which is why I’m thankful that I am competitive enough to make a game out of what I can scavenge from the fridge to pull dinner off.  Mr. Wonderful loves anything in the family of pizza.  So naan is a great quick pizza crust and Costco has the best deal on naan in the free world.  Enter naan from freezer and let the creative juices flow.  The most difficult part about this recipe is the patience it takes to caramelize the onions…chop them up and toss into a fry pan over very, very low, for a very long time.  You can vacuum, do dishes, watch some YouTube videos in the mean time.  Hell, get crazy and read a real book.

Here’s a quick flatbread recipe as rummaged from the fridge/freezer/pantry:

Grilled Asparagus, White Bean and Caramelized Onion Flatbread

  • 1 very large onion, any type, chopped finely into half circles (approx 2 C raw)
  • 1 bunch asparagus trimmed and washed
  • 1 C Provolone cheese, grated (goat or gorgonzola cheese would be better here, but none in the fridge, alas)
  • 4 C white beans, cooked or 2 cans, drained-reserve this liquid in case your hummus is too thick and you can drizzle some in (I pulled these from my freezer-reserve 3/4 C to sprinkle on TOP of flatbread, the rest will be used for “hummus” for the sauce on the flatbread)
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 2-3 T Tahini (or just use a little of the juice from the beans if you don’t have this in your cupboard)
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano or a handful fresh
  • 1/2 tsp dried cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried chipotle or red pepper flakes, omit if you are not pro-heat
  • 2 T lemon juice, fresh squeezed preferred, but that little plastic lemon kind won’t kill you here
  • salt to taste, this will take more than you think…white beans have little flavor
  • EVOO
  • 2 pieces commercial naan bread

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Cut up onion, toss in hot frying pan with a swig of EVOO, then turn way, way down to low.  Here is where the patience comes in…now, wait.  Stirring every 15 minutes or so.  Caramelized onions take TIME.  Like, an hour or so.  Good news, you don’t have to do anything to them except poke around at them every quarter hour….seriously quit your complaining.
Take the following ingredients and zap them in the food processor until smooth:
tahini
white beans (minus 3/4 C for topping of flatbread)
lemon juice
garlic cloves
spices
pinch of salt
You just made white bean hummus which is the “sauce” for the flatbread.
Asparagus should be washed, trimmed and tossed with a splash of EVOO, then turned out onto a hot grill, or in a grill pan until just warm, they should be crispy, semi-raw still, they will be cooked again in a hot second.
Fire the naan for a few minutes in a 400 degree oven to crisp it up just a little.
Now assemble:
Apply “sauce” to naan bread, then onions, reserved white beans, asparagus and top with provolone cheese.  Toss back into hot oven until cheese melts.   Season with a bit of black pepper.
Devour.

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Posted in Bread, Leftovers, Less is more, Quick Cooking, Recipes

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Faux Chicken BBQ Pizza

Posted on May 19, 2011 | 1 comment

I’m not a huge faux meat fan.  I don’t eat meat because, I don’t want to, not because I want to eat something that tastes like it, but isn’t it.  Did that make sense?  At any rate, there are a few things I do miss about being vegetarian:

1.  Bacon

2.  Chicken Hot Wings

3.  Tuna Steak

4.  Barbecued Turkey

I discovered this product at Whole Foods on my last jaunt to Ann Arbor, and thought I’d give it a try.  That trip was about 5 months ago, so it keeps well in the freezer although I think it was sold in the fresh case, by the lunch meat etc.

Mostly, gardein bbq pulled shreds tasted like, well bbq sauce.  The “meat” didn’t have flavor, in fact, after I ate it, THEN I went back to see what it actually was, you know like any responsible consumer-vital wheat gluten, or Seitan in the veg world, which I can make at home.  All-in-all, not an offensive product.  I think it gave Mr. Wonderful his bbq pork/chicken fix for a little while and it was a quick dinner after a long day.  I love this idea of “pulled pork” or whatever and think next time, I will try my own homemade bbq sauce which is much lower in sugar and “pull” my own Seitan.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

Faux Chicken BBQ Pizza

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat up bbq shreds according to package directions, from frozen it took just 3 minutes on high.

Put naan directly on oven grate for 1-2 minutes until a little crisp.

Add bbq shreds, onion, grated cheese onto the naan then pop back into the oven until cheese is melty and naan is crispy.

Don’t forget your napkin.

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Posted in BBQ, Dinner, Meat Substitutes, Product Review, Vegetarian

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Clean Out the Fridge Sweet Potato Hash

Posted on April 18, 2011 | 2 comments

I consider it a personal challenge when I have a few stray veggies in the fridge and a container of eggs.  It’s not really a food emergency or worth going to the store unless I am out of half and half for the coffee.  With the eggs, I could make an omelet (how predictable), or I could bust out some spices and a piece of stale naan bread from the freezer and make the following:

Curried Sweet Potato Hash with Egg Over Easy and Grilled Naan

This is a toss it all together recipe, so I didn’t measure.  Do the best you can with what you have on hand.  In these photos:

  • 1 small onion diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper diced
  • ½ green pepper diced
  • 1 handful edemame from the freezer
  • 1 medium sweet potato diced
  • 1 egg, over easy
  • 1 piece of Naan bread, grilled
  • 1 tsp hot curry powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Dice up the veggies, approximately the same size.  In a sauté pan or whatever is clean frankly, spray a little oil and add the sweet potato dice first, it will take a little longer to cook, when that becomes a bit soft, add all the rest of the veggies.  Cook until just tender.  Sprinkle mixture with curry, pinch of salt and pinch of pepper.  While the hash is cooking, push to once side of the pan and fry the egg over easy.  Over an open flame or in the oven warm up the naan bread.  To assemble.  Naan on the bottom, hash, fried egg.

Feelin’ really crazy?  Butter your naan bread with peanut butter and slice up a banana on top of it before adding the hash and egg…this is called a Tickle.

For lunch this same day, I took the leftover hash, put it in a sauce pan, with a can of coconut milk, a can of water and some additional curry powder.  Soup.  🙂

Crazy for Cumin?  Try this one from Pinch my Salt, one of my fave food blogs.

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Posted in Leftovers, Recipes, Vegetarian

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