German Sausage Pizza with Caramelized Onions

Although my ancestors hail from Germany, I never thought about trying to make German inspired food until we began fermenting our own sour kraut. Now I can't stop thinking of ways to cook with kraut. This may not be a pretty pizza (I had to add the red onions to keep if from looking too beige), but it's delicious and it goes great with a German Lager.

1 pizza crust, store bought or home made
2 vegan beer brats, sliced into half inch thick rounds (I use Tofurkey brand)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 white or yellow onions, thinly sliced
Sea salt
2-3 Tbsp. whole grain or German or Dijon mustard
3/4 c. home fermented sour kraut, or a good store bought brand
1/2 a small red onion, cut into thin rings

1) Preheat the oven according to the directions for the crust you are using. Heat a little olive oil in a saute pan and brown the sliced sausage, cooking for about 3 min. per side.

2) Set the sausages aside and add a little more olive oil to the pan along with the sliced yellow or brown onions and a pinch of sea salt. Give them a toss to coat with the oil and then let them sit for about 5-7 minutes until they start to brown. Once they begin to brown give them another toss and let them sit for another 5 minutes until they start to get evenly browned. Once they are mostly caramelized, stir them frequently to finish them off and then add the mustard and stir to incorporate. Spread the caramelized onions over the pizza crust.

3) Sprinkle the sour kraut over the onions and then arrange the red onion slices and vegan beer brats over the kraut.

4) Bake the pizza according to the directions for the crust you are using. Serve with a German lager beer, if desired.

BPA in Food Packaging

I sometimes like to use canned beans or tomatoes for their convenience, but I have been avoiding doing so as much as possible over the last few years since learning that there is BPA (a well-known endocrine disruptor) in the lining of most cans. Eden Organic brand produces BPA free cans for most of their canned beans so I have been using that brand, but I was still concerned about tomatoes. Today I was researching to see if foods canned in Europe might have BPA free packaging and I found this great link so I thought I would share:

Inspirationgreen.com - Cans Without BPA

Panzanella 2

I already posted one recipe for Panzanella, an Italian style salad featuring day old bread. This one is more traditional using mainly onion, basil and tomato but with a little arugula thrown in for some green.

1 tomato, with it's juice, diced
1/2 a small red onion, thinly sliced
5 leaves of fresh basil, minced
2 large hand fulls of baby arugula
2-3 c. cubed day old bread, multigrain is nice
Juice of 1/2 a fresh lemon
A few drizzles of balsamic or red wine vinegar
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt & black pepper to taste

1) Chop the vegetables and then toss them in a large bowl with the cubed bread.

2) Drizzle the dressing ingredients over the salad, there is no need to mix them together in a separate bowl, and then add the salt and pepper to taste. Toss the salad again and serve.

This makes 2 large servings or 4 side servings.

Turkish Red Lentil Soup with Niter Kibbeh

Ah yes, a classic Turkish-Ethiopian recipe. This soup is one that I've adapted over the years from a recipe that I found in and old cookbook I have: "More With Less - A Mennonite Community Cookbook." If you aren't familiar with the More With Less cookbooks (they have a couple of different versions now), they're great compilations put together by Mennonite missionaries from all over the world. The cookbooks are not vegetarian, although there are a lot of vegetarian recipes in them (since most of the rest of the world seems to know what's up). What I love about them is that they use mostly whole foods, and they are done with the idea that healthy and wholesome food should be affordable to everyone. Plus, since they're put together by missionaries you get recipes from all over the world. Yay!

So this soup is good. But then I had some extra Niter Kibbeh, an Ethiopian spiced butter that I use in my Ethiopian Red Lentil Stew Recipe, and I decided to give it a try in this soup. Even better! So the paprika, mint, and parsley are the Turkish part and were part of the original recipe. The niter kibbeh is the Ethiopian part that I threw in along with some zucchini and a little extra tomato.

2 small yellow or white onions, diced
1/4 c. Niter Kibbeh
1 heaping cup of red lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 6 oz. can tomato paste 
1 Tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika (or whatever kind you have)
1 tsp. dried mint
1 heaping tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 bay leaf
8 c. vegetable broth
2 medium zucchinis, diced

1) Melt the niter kibbeh in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and let them saute until they're soft, about 5-7 minutes.

2) As the onions saute, measure out your spices, rinse the lentils in a fine mesh strainer, and dice the zucchini. Once the onions are soft add the tomato paste and stir it around in the pot to melt it. Then add the lentils and spices and toss them together with the tomato paste and onions.

3) Add the broth and the bay leaf and stir it around to make sure the tomato paste is fully dissolved. Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for 20 minutes.  Make sure to stir it about every 5 minutes or so because red lentils love to stick to the bottom of the pan.

4) After 20 minutes add the zucchini and let it simmer for another 10-20 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes or so, until the lentils are fully soft and the zucchini is crisp-tender.

This makes about 8 large servings and goes well with pita bread.

Indian Chickpea Salad

I was making another recipe and had some odds and ends leftover so I thought, "Why not try tossing this stuff in a salad and see how it turns out?" Not to brag, but WOW - I think this is the most delicious salad I've ever invented. Next time I'm going to double the recipe.

This is kind of like hummus but without blending it. The flavors will blend and get better if you make it a day ahead of time. This is great on its own for lunch or served with any Indian or Middle Eastern meal. It would also be good stuffed into a pita with some lettuce and tomato. If you use canned beans, keep in mind that Eden Organic brand does not have BPAs in the lining of their cans.

For the Dressing:
1/4 c. tahini
3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice or rice wine vinegar
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Water to thin out if necessary

For the Salad:
2 c. cooked chick peas (aka: garbanzo beans), or a 15 oz. can rinsed and drained
1/4 c. peas, thawed by running under hot water in colander
1/2 a small red onion, diced
1 c. cauliflower florets or leftover Cauliflower Subji (it's so good with the subji)
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, minced


1) To prepare the dressing place all of the ingredients in a blender and bend until smooth (or use a hand held blender)


2) Place all of the salad ingredients into a mixing bowl and toss with the dressing.

This serves about 4 depending on what else is served along with it...no, I take that back, it's so good it only serves 2.

Cauliflower Subji

 In Indian cuisine subji is a spiced vegetable dish. Subji can be saucy or dry, this dish is a dry subji. The only thing I don't love about Indian food is how complicated it can be to cook authentic Indian cuisine. To me the work is worth it, but I thought that maybe everyone doesn't want to hunt down specialty Indian grocery stores and spend hours in the kitchen crushing spices and following dozens of steps for a recipe. This dish is very simple and quite good, even my husband who claims he doesn't like cauliflower likes it. I am listing several of the spices as optional just to make the recipe as simple as possible - you need the curry powder but for the optional spices just use the ones you already have and leave out the ones you don't have. If you decide you want to cook more Indian food at home then you can go out an purchase more spices, but don't do it just for this recipe.

1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
3-4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (if you want it to be lower fat, replace some of the oil with vegetable broth)
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. turmeric (optional)
1/4 tsp. garam masala (optional)
1/4 tsp. cumin (optional)
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika (optional)

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Wash the cauliflower and cut it into florets.

2) In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil and spices and set aside.

3) Place the cauliflower in a baking dish and toss with the oil and spice mixture to evenly coat.

4) Cook the cauliflower for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F. Then remove the baking dish and use a wooden spoon to toss the cauliflower pieces around. Bake for another 10 minutes or until tender.

This makes 4 servings.

Cauliflower Subji topped with Miso Lemon Tahini Sauce

Indian Spiced Sweet Potato Fries

These are delicious and healthy. You can use the yellow sweet potatoes or orange yams. My favorite way to serve these is with Mango Chutney Barbeque Sauce for dipping. The recipe is for 1 sweet potato, so if you want to make more just add more spices. You should use one large baking sheet per potato to make sure they won't be crowded, otherwise they'll turn out mushy rather than crispy.

This batch was made with 2 large yams.

1 large sweet potato or yam, peeled and sliced into thin fries (try to get one that's short and fat)
Extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/4 tsp. corriander

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil it and set it aside.

2) Peel the sweet potato, slice it into thin slabs, and then cut the slabs into thin fries.

3) Place the sweet potatoes into a large bowl and toss with a little olive oil and the spices, making sure to distribute the spices and oil evenly on the fries.

4) Place the fries evenly about on the prepared baking sheet. Bake them for 15 minutes and then toss them with a spatula. Bake for another 5-7 minutes or until they are starting to become crispy and just starting to blacken at the very edges, be careful not to burn them.

 Use one sweet potato or yam for 1-2 people, and one tray per yam.