Greek Salad + Dressing

Ingredients:

The dressings:

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 clove garlic, minced

The salad:

• Romaine
• Cucumber
• Roma tomatoes
• Red onion
• Feta
• Kalamata olives

Directions:

1. Combine dressing ingredients and whisk vigorously. Store in the fridge.
2. Combine salad ingredients and pour a generous amount of dressing on top. 

Falafel

Ingredients:

• 1 pound (about 2 cups) dry chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3-5 cloves garlic (I prefer roasted)
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• Pinch of ground cardamom
• Vegetable oil for frying 

Directions:

1. Soak beans overnight
2. Drain and rise beans
3. Combine beans and all ingredients except oil in a food processor
4. Pulse all ingredients together until a rough, coarse meal forms. Scrape the sides of the processor periodically and push the mixture down the sides. 
5. Remove any large chickpea chunks that the processor missed.
6. Fill a skillet with vegetable oil to a depth of 1 ½ inches.
7. Heat the oil slowly over medium heat. Meanwhile, form falafel mixture into round balls  
8. Before frying my the batch of falafel, fry a test one in the center of the pan. If the oil is at the right temperature, it will take 2-3 minutes per side to brown (5-6 minutes total). If it browns faster than that, your oil is too hot and your falafels will not be fully cooked in the center.
9. Fry the falafels in batches of 5-6 at a time till golden brown on both sides.
10. I like to eat these in a pita with tomatoes, cucumber, romaine, red onion, and Tzatziki. 

White Pizza with Portabella Muschrooms

I don't normally like vegetarian pizza. But this is filling and delicious. Try this and you won't even notice that there isn't meat on it.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough
2 portabella mushroom caps
2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
lots of garlic
1 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. First, the white sauce: Mix 1/4 cup olive oil with about 1 teaspoon rosemary, 1/2 teapoon oregano, and 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning. Add about 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Stir and let sit. This can sit days if you want. But an hour is probably the minimum for it to infuse the olive oil with flavor.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3. On a piece of foil put a small bulb of garlic. Let this roast for about 20-30 minutes.
4. Stretch out your dough on a pizza sheet. Poke holes in it with a fork to prevent big bubbles.
5. Cook dough for 5 minutes at 450 degrees.
   
6. Remove dough from oven and set aside.
7. Saute portabella mushrooms in olive oil until tender.
8. Now assemble the pizza.
9. Evenly spread the infused olive oil over the pre-cooked dough.
10. Spread about 2 cups of freshly grated mozzarella on the pizza.
11. Add the mushrooms, roasted garlic, and feta cheese. You can also add some Parmesan.
12. Cook pizza for 7 minutes on a pizza pan.
13. Then cook for an additional 3 minutes with the pizza directly on the oven rack.
14. Enjoy!

Spicy Carrot Salad

The kittiesx3 household adores spicy food—the spicier the better. And this dish is spicy. It’s also ridiculously tasty and very nutritious too. Let’s put it this way. One person in my home dislikes carrots but makes an utter pig of himself when I serve this dish. I’m lucky to get any.

Ingredients:

4—5 carrots, peeled and shredded in a food processor or by microplane
Pinch each of salt and sugar
1 T canola oil
1 t cumin seeds
1 t dry mustard seeds
1 t sesame seeds
½ t cumin
¼ t hot red pepper powder (we make it with ½ t and it is HOT)
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
1 t fresh lime juice (substitute lemon if that’s what you have on hand)

Directions:

1. Add the pinches of salt and sugar to the shredded carrots, mix and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the cumin, dry mustard and sesame seeds. Heat until the sesame seeds begin to pop. Remove from heat.
3. Add the cumin, hot red pepper powder to the saucepan and stir.
4. Stir in the chopped cilantro and lime juice.
5. Add the mixture from the saucepan to the shredded carrots and mix well.
6. Chill.
7. Enjoy!