Greek Beans, Lebanese Rice and Egyptian Basbousa.

Last night my husband and I had a romantic night out and for dinner, we had Lebanese food which I'm crazy about. Got me in the mood to cook Mediterranean food this weekend.


I made "Gigantes" which are baked lima beans in a tomato and dill sauce. If you hate lima beans, try them this way. They bake up so tender and creamy with a simple and beautiful flavor combination of dill, tomatoes, onions and olive oil. The recipe is from "The Greek Vegetarian". I also made Lebanese rice pilaf. I love the little vermicelli noodles in it. The recipe is from "Tables of Lebanon".


For dessert, Egyptian basbousa! This is a very sweet semolina cake that has been drenched with sugar/orange flower water syrup. I got the recipe here. I used vegan shortening instead of butter, omitted the eggs and replaced with a little almond milk and 1/2 a tsp of cider vinegar. And I substituted soy yogurt for the yogurt.


This dessert is amazing! It's so tender and incredibly moist from the syrup. I think I need to work on the liquid to dry ingredient ratio. My cake fell apart a little because it was so moist. But that did not stop me from enjoying the hell out of it!

VeganMoFo: Mediterranean Dinner Party Food.

I had a fantastic dinner party last night with a beautiful buffet of food that I FORGOT TO PHOTOGRAPH! I was so mad at myself when I realized after we had eaten. So I present to you the leftovers. In front: heirloom tomato bruschetta, green beans with sundried tomato and olives (Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen recipe), spanakopita (Vegan with a Vengeance recipe) and Greek 'gigantes' lima bean casserole (Greek Vegetarian cookbook recipe). Not pictured: roasted lemony potatoes. They were delicious and were gobbled up so fast.


For dessert I made the baklava from Tables of Lebanon cookbook. Great recipe with perfect results every time.

A Greek Lunch and Chickpea Blondies!

Ah hello weekend! I had a long week and was so looking forward to a weekend of cooking, reading, dvd watching and relaxing on my patio. So far I've done all of these and Saturday is not over yet! I decided to go Greek for lunch. I pulled out my 'Greek Vegetarian' cookbook and made a couple of delicious dishes.


Gigantes which are oven baked beans with dill and tomatoes. I've made this before and I normally use dried large lima beans from scratch but this time I was lazy and used frozen butter beans. I wished I hadn't because for some reason the beans didn't get as mushy and tender as they usually do when I make this dish. But it wasn't a total loss. The flavor was amazing still!


Plated with whole wheat bread and skordalia, a very creamy garlicky and slightly tangy potato dip. So heavenly!


Served alongside a colorful salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, assorted olives, pepperoncini, pickled turnips and fresh lemon wedges.


So much flavor!


I finally got around to making these beautiful chickpea blondies. Mine are not gluten free. I used spelt flour to make these. Instead of strawberry jam, I used a combo of fig jam and date syrup! Deliciously sweet, tender and chewy.

Greek Gigantes, Lemon-Caper Potato Salad & Baba Ganouj

You don't understand, I crave Mediterranean flavors all the time! Yes, I switch gears and do Thai or Indian and even good old American but when it comes to food that just does it for me, it's this kind of food. I think it's because of the glorious mediterranean climate here in California that gets me in the mood. Today I revisited Greek Gigantes. I made it once before using a recipe I found online. This time I used Diane Kochilas' recipe from "The Greek Vegetarian" cookbook. You're supposed to use authentic greek big beans but large limas do the trick just fine. I also omitted the honey and used a bit of sugar to counterbalance the tartness of the tomatoes. They turned out beautifully creamy and tender and flavored with lots of dill. I also made potato salad with lemon-caper mayo and dill. Also baba ganouj and fresh pita to round out the meal. Husband and I ate together and washed it all down with a cold beer/tomato juice cocktail.

Edited to add a picture of dessert! How could I forget to put this up?

Date cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. All vegan!

Saturday Nibbles.

Baked samosas. Recipe from Vegan Planet. I forgot to photograph the insides! Well, to give you an idea it has mashed orange yams, white potatoes, green peas, curry powder and cayenne.


Eggplant and Walnut Dip from The Greek Vegetarian. Served with carrots and pita crisps.

Weekend Meze.

It rained last night and the forecast had predicted rain today but it has yet to come. I took advantage of the current blue skies and sun with slight breeze to lunch al fresco once again. I'm really getting used to this! It makes me look forward to the weekend. Come summer, this is will be a regular thing. Can't wait.


Another meze lunch with lots of things to nibble on and again with the mediterranean theme. I just got a new cookbook, "The Greek Vegetarian" and I wanted to use it today. I made from it Eggplant Puree with Walnuts and Fava Bean Stew with Mint. I also made hummus and a greek salad.


Hummus on the left and Eggplant Puree with walnuts (Makedonitiki Melitzanosalata) on the right. The eggplant puree was delicious and garlicky. The walnuts are first ground to a paste and then processed with roasted eggplant pulp.


Fava bean stew with mint (Koukia Stifado me Dyosmo). Delicious and filling tender fava beans with a base of tomatoes, red onions, garlic, mint and dill. I added dill because I'm crazy about it and a lot of greek dishes have fresh dill so it seemed rather fitting.


Greek salad with cucumbers, olives, red onions and "Betta Feta", a tofu based faux feta from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. Drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.


First of the jasmine blooms I've seen this year.


Buster eating pita.


Dessert is banana bread that I made with the biggest ripest bananas that I found in our fruit bowl. The cake sunk in the middle a bit because of my impatience. I peeked in the oven way too many times!