Carrot soup with crisped chickpeas and pita wedges

I love pureed soups. I think mainly because I grew up on pureed "root" vegetable soup, carrot soup, and other varieties that my mom made famously. They're kind of gourmet, I think. However, I can't help but feel a little strange when I, personally, serve them. It's like, "here's a bunch of pureed vegetables - by the way, it's soup, not baby food." Anybody else identify with this?

When I saw this Smitten Kitchen recipe for carrot soup, however, I was drawn to the wonderful spices used, in addition to the crisped chickpea topping. Plus, I love the pitas on the side. I was sold. And rightfully so. This recipe is really delicious, and Zack loved it too.

Now, I will say up front that this recipe calls for a lemon-tahini dollop to be lightly stirred into the soup right before serving. I love this idea, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy a large jar of tahini, just to use 3 tablespoons. Done that before, and my $8.00 jar of tahini sat in the fridge and expired. I just don't use it often enough to warrant purchasing a large amount; where are the small jars of tahini out there? It's like tomato paste; you only need a little bit.

Carrot soup with crisped chickpeas and pita wedges

As adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients for soup:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 pounds organic carrots, washed and diced, or thinly sliced

1 large onion, finely chopped

4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

Heaping 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional if needed

1/4-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus additional if needed

Heaping pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

4 cups vegetable stock

Ingredients for chickpeas:

1 15-oz. can chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and patted dry on paper towels

1 heaping tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Ingredients for pita wedges:

A few large whole-wheat pitas, sliced into wedges

Extra-virgin olive oil, to brush pitas

Sesame seeds, to sprinkle on pitas

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

Heat olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss chickpeas with olive oil, salt, black pepper, and cumin until coated. Spread them on rimmed baking sheet and roast until brown and crisp, 10-20 minutes depending on size and firmness of chickpeas. Toss occasionally during baking. Once vegetables in soup pot begin to brown, add stock, using it to scrape up any browned bits on bottom of pot. Cover pot and simmer until carrots are tender, stirring occasionally about 30 minutes. Spread pita wedges on same baking sheet used for chickpeas, or a second baking sheet if chickpeas are still toasting. Brush pitas lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds, salt, pepper, and parsley, and toast until brown at edges, about 5 minutes. Puree soup with an immersion blender once carrots are tender, until smooth. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with some crisped chickpeas, garnish with leftover chopped parsley, and serve with pita wedges.

Pretty fancy weeknight meal, right? But so easy. Really, the hardest part was chopping 2 pounds of carrots. Maybe do that ahead of time if you are able to and want to cut back on "prep" time.

First of all, the soup is incredible. Even by itself. I love the combination of spices with the carrot. I've actually been adding a bit more spice than called for to all of my recipes lately because I find that it kicks the heat up a notch and just adds flavor. Hence, the "heaping" being added to my ingredient lists, as seen above. This may or may not be your thing, but do play around with it.

Secondly, crisped chickpeas are great. I've seen a recipe for crisped chickpeas that uses cayenne in Power Foods, and I've wanted to try it (for an appetizer, snack, etc.), but honestly I thought Zack would think they were weird. On the contrary, he loved the ones used in this recipe. They're just delicious to munch on.

Lastly, sesame seeds on pitas is like the most wonderful thing ever. I will definitely be doing that again. These pita wedges would be so great served with hummus or any other vegetable dip for an appetizer or snack, again.

All in all, this meal was so successful and one that I will make again and again. Another meatless recipe success also. Who would have thought? Cheers!

Spinach-Chickpea Spread for Pita Sandwiches

Chickpea this, chickpea that. I know. They're good, okay? And iron- and folate-rich too. I've been wanting to make this spread recipe from Power Foods for awhile now. The catch was this: I didn't have a food processor. And somehow, the blender didn't really seem like it was going to cut it for this recipe. But, now we have a food processor (a special thanks to Ron)! Zack and I are so blessed to have people in our lives that support and care about our culinary adventures, so thank you. I know that's kind of corny, but I'm serious. Thank you.

This spread is meant to go on a pita along with some sliced tomatoes (at least that is how it is featured in my Power Foods cookbook), but really, this could be used just as a dip. We've dipped Trader Joe's multigrain pita chips into it as a snack, and we think it would be good with anything you might usually have hummus with. Because that is pretty much what this is; a spinach hummus.

Cook minced garlic in extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add chickpeas and lemon juice. Add spinach, salt, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cover; raise heat. Cook until spinach is wilted, uncover, raise heat to high. Cook, stirring, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Let cool. Then, pulse the chickpea mixture (in a food processor) with some tahini sesame seed paste and a little more lemon juice and salt. Easy as that.

I'm excited to try making some of my own hummus recipes based off of this one. I think you could substitute the spinach with some other vegetables. Think red bell pepper, eggplant, sweet potato, etc. Ahhh yeah. Cheers to cooking experiments, one and all.

Mediterranean Burgers

So, a lot of my recent recipes have come from a little cookbook made by Cooking Light that I got from the library. It's their Healthy Heart Eat Smart Guide. It's all about being calorie conscious, knowing your fats, decreasing sodium, and going for whole grains. What I love though, is that these recipes are doing all those things without compromising flavor. Furthermore, Zack and I have felt so good about what we've been eating!

As promised, I found a creative way to use up the ground beef that was leftover from our Beef and Beer Chili. I used it to replace the ground turkey that was called for in this recipe. I think ground turkey would have been just as great, but hey, I'm all about using leftover ingredients. Just combine panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), crumbled feta cheese, minced red onion, pesto, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, ground beef, and minced garlic.

I don't really have much experience making burger patties, and I don't really know what went wrong, but the ingredients sort of started falling apart once they hit the pan. Maybe they would have been saved if Zack was home, but I was on my own, so it turned into a crumbled mixture. After freaking out for a second, I took a taste and realized it was all good. Whatever. I had improvised (sort of). And it tasted amazing.

I was excited to make these "mediterranean burgers" because Zack and I are totally into a good gyro. There is this place down the street from us that is to die for. They are legit, man. Their meat is so perfectly combined and delicious. Spicy and rich. And their tzatziki is so tangy and fresh. I think I'm a long way from making a gyro as amazing as theirs (okay, I'll probably never make one as good as theirs), but I'm excited for a version that we can perfect at home.

I think we could have gone for a little more spice (as was also recommended by Zack), but these were pretty good. The occasion bite of feta just pops, and the pesto/breadcrumb combination is really tasty. It provides for great texture (even if you just have meat crumbles versus actual patties). We used Trader Joe's tzatziki, which was really creamy and good too. Yum.