Meatless Monday recipes: Braised Fennel with Roasted Grape Tomatoes. Kale Chips and Hummus.
Here’s a couple of vegan dishes that can be served as snacks. starters or sides.
Braised Fennel with Roasted Grape Tomatoes
Ingredients:
One bulb fennel
Two cloves garlic
12-15 grape tomatoes
3/4 cup white wine
1 tbsp dried fennel seeds
1 tsp Harissa (optional)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Drizzle olive oil into a cast iron skillet and heat. Chop the fennel into bite size pieces (somewhere between a slice and a dice). When the oil is hot, toss the fennel into the skillet on medium high heat.
As the fennel cooks, cut the grape tomatoes into halves. Sprinkle fennel seeds and a pinch of salt and pepper on the tomatoes and toss in olive oil. Place on a cookie tray and put it in the oven when fully heated. Let the tomatoes roast for about 30 minutes.
Dice garlic.
Do not stir the fennel until it starts to develop a caramelized glaze. When it does, stir once in order to brown on both sides. Once it is browned on both sides, add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper and pour in the wine. Keep cooking until wine has fully evaporated. Fennel should become soft and not too chewy.
Remove the tomatoes from the oven and toss with the fennel. If you have Harissa, you can add a small dollop and mix it into the dish.
Serve immediately as a warm dish, or refrigerate and serve cool.
Kale Chips and Hummus
Kale Chips:
Ingredients:
One bunch kale
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Chop kale into bite size pieces. Remove stems. Toss in olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper. Bake in oven about 20 minutes, or until crisp.
Hummus:
Ingredients:
One can (~15 oz.) chick peas (garbanzo beans)
Tahini (see instructions for measurements)
Two cloves garlic
One wedge lemon (1/4 of the whole fruit)
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
There’s really no reason in the world to buy pre-made hummus at the grocery store. It almost always tastes worse than what you can make on your own and has the wrong consistency, it often has chemical preservatives added, and it’s ridiculously overpriced for what’s in it. Once you learn to make hummus at home, it’ll take you 5-10 minutes to make a batch that will last you a week.
Pour the can of chick peas into a food processor, dumping most, but not all, of the juice. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the mix.
Making good hummus requires a lot of tasting and adjusting, especially with the tahini and olive oil. Recipes diverge dramatically in terms of the proportion of tahini, and the amount of olive oil you use really depends upon how thick and creamy you like your hummus. Start with a couple tablespoons of tahini and a couple tablespoons of olive oil in the mixture, but be prepared to add more (I often use as much as 1/4 cup of each).
Turn on the food processor and blend the mixture until smooth. Taste the hummus. Is it not creamy enough, or too thick? Add olive oil. Is it bland? Add more tahini and salt. Too thin? More tahini. Keep adjusting, a little bit at a time, until you have it right to your taste.
Serve with kale chips.
