Flourless Carrot Cake (Gajar Ka Halwa)

I've had this flourless, no bake carrot cake before, in Nepalese restaurants, but never knew how to make it. Luckily, Donna (of Dine with Donna) asked a restaurant owner for the recipe. It turns out the cake is really easy to make. Basically, shredded carrots are cooked in a dry pan over medium heat until all the moisture evaporates -- then, milk, butter, and sugar are added in turn, and cooked until the liquid reduces -- and finally, cinnamon, coconut powder, and ground cardamom are stirred into the carrot mixture.

While the resulting cake is delicious, the recipe is worth making for the smell of freshly ground cardamom, alone.

Dine with Donna featured the cake more than a month ago, but it took me a while to make it because I didn't have the coconut powder called for in the recipe. I finally just decided to use coconut flour, which worked just fine (and maybe is the same thing?). You can find coconut flour at health food stores.

Recipe here.

Orzo and Vegetable Salad

The warm temperatures and sunny skies last week started me thinking about lighter spring fare. After months of winter vegetables, an orzo and vegetable salad (from Jeanne Lemlin's Quick Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook) seemed like a great way to welcome spring.

Of course, by the time I got around to making the salad, the temperature had plummeted more than 20 degrees, the sunny sky had been replaced with clouds, and it was snowing. Also, I somehow lost an hour?

While the weather (and time) may have let me down, I don't believe this salad ever will: orzo and tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, celery, parsley, feta, and (of course) kalamata olives, in a light, creamy dressing. I threw in a little chopped spinach, this time, too... Here's to the longer days, sunnier skies, and warm-weather food to come.

Pizza With Broccoli, Feta, And Garlic

Garlicky-feta goodness. Plus olives.

Ingredients
1 batch pizza dough (I used Mark Bittman's recipe with a little spelt flour mixed in, but plan to try this one in the future)
flour as needed
1 head broccoli, washed, stems removed, and finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped

Preheat the oven to 500F.

Lightly brush a baking sheet with olive oil.

Roll out pizza dough on a lightly floured surface, and transfer to the baking sheet. Brush the dough with olive oil.

In a large bowl, combine chopped broccoli, red pepper flakes, garlic, and two teaspoons olive oil, and toss to combine.

Carefully pour the broccoli mixture onto the pizza. Top with the feta crumbles and chopped kalamata olives.

Bake at 500F for 6-12 minutes, monitoring carefully after the 6 minute mark.

Stuffed Cabbage (Not Exactly Like Grandma Made Them)

I suppose we all have our contradictions. I generally don't miss meat at all -- but sometimes I crave my Grandma's stuffed cabbage. And, so, while I usually am not interested in re-creating traditional dishes without the meat, I have tried different meatless versions of stuffed cabbage over the years -- ranging from wonderful version at a Ukrainian restaurant in New York City to a best-forgotten attempt using mock meat "crumbles."

I recently noticed a recipe for "Cabbage Parcels" in the Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen cookbook. The parcels -- stuffed with a pureed blend of barley, pecans, cashews, mushrooms, onions, and cheddar cheese -- sounded interesting, even if a bit different from the stuffed cabbage that I grew up with. And so, I decided to give them a try.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, up until it came to stuffing the cabbage leaves. The recipe said to bind the cabbage parcels with kitchen string to hold them together. I skipped this part, and instead just stuffed the cabbage the way I remember seeing it done as a girl -- dab of stuffing in the center of a steamed cabbage leaf, fold the top and then the bottom of the leaf up over the middle, and then carefully tuck the two sides underneath. The stuffed leaves then went into a large skillet of tomato sauce to simmer for about 30 minutes.

I was really pleased with the outcome -- the cabbage rolls weren't exactly like Grandma made them, but were closer than I expected, and also just plain tasty. Folks who are looking for a good homemade veg burger should check out the filling recipe ("Brown Rice-Mushroom 'Burgers,'" from the same cookbook) -- the nut/grain/mushroom blend has a good flavor and even looks surprisingly meat-like (if that's what you're into).

Spicy Cauliflower Pasta Bake

This pasta bake is quick and easy, and features two of my favorite ingredients -- cauliflower and kalamata olives. The basic recipe is from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook; after preparing the tomato sauce and cooking the pasta and cauliflower, I combined them in a lightly oiled 13 x 9 baking dish, baked them for 25 minutes at 375F, and then added panko bread crumbs and a little grated parmesan cheese and put the baking dish under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Blueberry Walnut Corn Muffins

I've been on a muffin kick lately. My current favorites are blueberry walnut corn muffins, made with a blend of corn meal, almond flour, and all-purpose flour. The muffins are adapted from a recipe for almond cranberry cornbread that I posted about in December. (I've discovered that it's easier not to eat 1/4 batch in a single sitting if I divide the recipe between 12 muffin cups.)

The adaptation is really simple: I substituted 1 cup frozen blueberries (tossed with 1 tablespoon flour) and 1/2 cup walnuts for the almonds, canola oil, and cranberries called for in the original recipe. Blueberries are a nice addition to corn muffins, and blueberries and walnuts taste great together. Mix the blueberries and walnuts in after combining the wet and dry ingredients.

Original recipe here.

On Top Of Spaghetti (Sweet Potato Chard Rounds)

When I first became vegetarian, I tried to make meatless versions of the dishes I was familiar with, like spaghetti and "meatballs." Over time, I became less interested in replicating traditional meat dishes, and more interested in creating tasty vegetable-based dishes. So, when I saw photo of sweet potato kale balls with pasta at Cupcake Punk recently, I was interested in the sweet potato kale rounds, but a little skeptical about serving the rounds on top of spaghetti.

The rounds are made from a mixture of mashed roasted sweet potatoes, caramelized onions, and sautéed garlic and kale (I used chard). While it takes about an hour to caramelize the onions (good instructions here), the caramelized onions really compliment the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato mixture is rolled into rounds, coated in cornmeal, and then baked at 400F for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes.

My one stray from the original recipe was pour a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar into the pan that I used to caramelize the onions (after removing then onions and chard), and then add the vinegar and any scrapings from the pan to the sweet potato mixture. I really liked the tanginess of the balsamic vinegar with the sweet potatoes and caramelized onions.

I did decide to go ahead and serve the rounds on top of spaghetti. And, I have to admit, it worked. The rounds are really good with a marinara-type sauce. Also, since the rounds are not that big, the pasta helped make a filling (but not too filling) meal.

The recipe at Cupcake Punk was adapted from a recipe by Jess at Happy Vegan Face. Jess suggested mixing cooked quinoa into the rounds, to make more of a patty. While the rounds are really good with pasta, I also might try experimenting along these lines in the future.