Fool Nabed (Egyptian Fava Bean Soup)

On an impulse, I threw a bag of dry, skinned fava beans into the crockpot at 10pm last night. Had no idea what I was going to do with them nor how they would turn out the next morning. At about 8am, they were really overcooked and in tiny bits. Couldn't do much with them except make a soup.


Found this Egyptian Fava Bean soup recipe in my "Classic Vegetarian Cooking from The MIddle East & N. Africa" cookbook. I pureed the bean bits and heated them up with cumin, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I had a little bowl for breakfast. Creamy and very flavorful! Will have this again at dinner with some whole wheat pita.

Here's the recipe: http://www.sudairy.com/mer/recipes/fulnabed.html
I used the skinned fava beans so I didn't need to skin them. Sometimes you'll find the brown fava beans which are the beans with the skin on.

Stinkey Monkey Pudding

I consider myself a lucky duck getting a chance to sample this wonderful pudding by a company called Stinkey Monkey. The name may be cute and silly but the pudding is serious stuff! I got to try the vanilla matcha flavor and it was amazing. I wanted to go slow and savor it but I couldn't help it, I dove in and in a few minutes (seconds?), it was all gone. This stuff is made with quality ingredients and is dairy free, gluten free, soy free and low glycemic. The vanilla matcha pudding is made from raw coconut meat, organic coconut milk, organic palm sugar, organic matcha powder, organic raw vanilla bean, love and laughter! It was deliciously creamy and a little fluffy with the wonderful flavors of coconut, vanilla and matcha. All the flavors mingled perfectly with no one flavor dominating the other. I wish I could have eaten more. These decadent puddings are available at Rainbow Acres in Culver City and the Silverlake Farmer's Market. Try some soon, you will love it.

Cooking out of the pantry: Falafel Sandwich

Found a lonely can of cooked fava beans in my pantry which I don't think I noticed before. Decided to make falafel with them as I did not have any canned chickpeas. It's very easy, I just mashed up the drained beans, added some chopped onions, cilantro, a tsp. each of flour and baking powder, cumin, and bit of salt and pepper, formed them into little patties and fried them up in olive oil. I served them with whole wheat pita along with tomato, lettuce and avocado. The sauce is a garlicky tahini-mayo which I made out of Vegenaise, tahini, lemon juice and garlic powder.

Pantry staples used:
1 can fava beans
flour
baking powder
herbs/spices: cumin, salt, pepper
tahini
whole wheat pita

Other items:
onion
cilantro
Vegenaise
lettuce
tomato
avocado

Ingredients I needed to purchase: none

Leftovers Burrito.

Wanted to show you what I did with all the leftovers today (which wasn't very much!). I made a beautiful burrito stuffed with the refried beans, rice, portobellos, lettuce, cilantro and onion. I covered it with the red chile sauce and topped it with guac. SO GOOOOD.

Cooking out of the pantry: Portobello Tacos, Refried Beans and Rice

Check out my lunch today. It was superb! Portobello tacos, rice and beans. I wanted to make refried beans from scratch weeks ago but never got around to it because I had other things in mind. This weekend seemed just right for it. The bag of pinto beans in my pantry was calling my name as well as another item from my pantry that I forgot to add to my list: a bag of dried New Mexico chiles. I have a book called "The Power of Ancient Foods" and there is a recipe for red chile sauce that I planned to make along with the refried beans. I cooked my pinto beans in the crockpot overnight so they'd be ready this morning. (My crockpot has a new name: "The Bean Machine". I don't use it for anything else anymore.) So anyway back to the beans, I sauteed some onions and garlic in olive oil, added the cooked and drained beans, mashed them up and let them simmer with salt, pepper, about a cup of the bean cooking liquid and a touch of liquid smoke. I don't think I can enjoy canned refried beans ever again! The beans were stellar, just like in a restaurant. The rice was wonderful as well. Fresh guacamole and lime wedges made it all complete.


I've never had mushroom tacos before and I'm glad I tried this. They were so meaty and juicy. The red chile sauce was really nice.

Portobello tacos recipe here.
Mexican rice recipe here.
This short video shows pretty much how I made the red chile sauce.

Pantry staples used:
dry pinto beans
dried new mexico chiles
rice
tomato sauce
corn tortillas
herbs/spices: cumin, oregano, cayenne

Items from fridge etc:
onions
garlic
cilantro

Items I needed to purchase: 2 portobello mushrooms and avocado

Taco Salad and Pad See Ew

My lunch today: Salad mix, a scoop of leftover chili, tortilla chips, avocado and flax oil french dressing. Mmm!


Whoa, I made Pad See Ew! This is from Buddha's Table cookbook and was so easy to do. It's got cubed tofu and chinese broccoli (aka Pak Kana in Thai) This will be dinner tonight.

Cooking out of the pantry: Kidney Bean and Lentil Chili Dogs

I was in the mood for chili dogs today and I knew that I would have to go out and buy the veggie dogs but I didn't mind because the chili part was all coming out of my pantry. I didn't really follow a recipe, just threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and called it chili. I didn't use a lot of lentils only 1/4 cup or so for a bit of a different texture. I had one for lunch and it was really yummy with sauerkraut and a bit of ketchup. I'll have another for dinner.

Pantry staples used:
brown/green lentils
1 can kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
herbs/spices: cumin, chili powder, oregano, smoked paprika
hot dog buns (my husband bought these yesterday. Score!)
sauerkraut
ketchup

Other items from fridge:
red bell pepper
onion
garlic
jalapeno

Items I needed to purchase:
1 pack Lightlife Smart Dogs