I'm always on the lookout for new recipes that are simple, healthy, and tasty. It's harder than it sounds. Recipes tend to fall into the 'pick two' category. Simple and healthy, but taste like shoe leather. Healthy and tasty, but take three days and every gadget you own (and some you don't) to prepare them. Simple and tasty, but loaded with all the stuff you're trying to avoid. Yes, sugar, I am looking at you.
So when our local newspaper included a couple of potential candidates in their food section, I was game. Especially when I saw they both featured my old cooking nemesis: tahini. For some strange reason, I was feeling up for a challenge.
My beef with tahini has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with texture. It's one of those ingredients I use very rarely. That means it sits in the pantry for months, with nothing better to do than separate. It's like those fancy nut butters, the kind with all the oil sitting on the top; but orders of magnitude worse. Think a layer of oil over the top of a can of concrete. When it's time to use it, by the time I retrieve the drill and the paint stirrer attachment from the tool shed, I've usually lost the desire to futz around with the recipe.
Just kidding. I don't keep the drill in the shed. I keep it in the kitchen, in case of tahini emergency.
Just kidding again. I am able to mix the tahini together again by hand, but I have a Popeye arm when I'm done.
Now, you might be asking yourself: what in the name of Sweet Tap Dancing Lucifer is 'tahini'? Think peanut butter, but made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. Looks very similar. Smells different, though. Milder. It's an ingredient found in lots of Asian cuisine. It's often found in hummus, and some noodle dishes like pad thai. It used to be a challenge to find it at the grocery store, but not anymore. Just look in the Asian foods aisle. And of course, there's always Amazon to the rescue if you strike out locally.
Once you get the tahini solids and liquids mixed together again, it's smooth sailing incorporating it into the recipe. Both of these are tasty. And they are probably perfect for those of you who have never cooked with or eaten tahini, and don't want to go too crazy with it until you know if you like it or not. Although the article leads with tahini in the title in huge block letters, the tahini plays a much smaller role in the recipes. Just a few ounces. It's in the dressing for both the baked sweet potatoes as well as the lentil bowls.
This photo is from the newspaper article. I'm not the kind of cook who goes to the trouble of plating the food porn. But I will say both recipes were tasty. I love sweet potatoes and eat them in bowls at least a couple of times a week. And I have been meaning to switch from rice to lentils for my lunch bowls for some time now. This article was just the kick in the pants I needed. Both were very mild. When I make them again, I may add something to give them a little more zing, like my two favorites: sriracha and peri peri. But if you're not into spicy food, these recipes will be just fine for you as-is.
Click-O-Rama
- I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating: Dave Pell's Next Draft newsletter is awesome. It has so much great content. That's where I find a lot of cool stuff to share with you, like this article about a woman who specializes in creating art by bruising ripe bananas.
- Speaking of art, there's a new book out about Texas artist Bob Daddy-O Wade. He's the guy behind the giant 40-ft. long iguana that used to perch atop the Lone Star Cafe in New York City.
- The against-all-odds story of Dr. Kati Kariko, the scientist who lead the charge for using messenger RNA as a tool in vaccines, is very satisfying. A woman in a male-dominated profession, an immigrant escaping oppression in her home country, told many times her idea wouldn't get funded, etc. etc. Gotta love it.
- Pretty sure vaccine stories are gonna be a thing now. Here's mine: I wasn't in any of the initial early groups eligible for the vaccine. And I'm not one who enjoys waiting. No one does, amirite? I was volunteering on a local phone bank to help folks get registered. But my number literally was not coming up. Then I heard from a dear friend that slots were available in her area. Their website was getting bombarded, but after about ten attempts, I was able to get it to load. One week and an easy 67 mile drive later, I had my first jab of Moderna. Three weeks later, second jab. No after-effects, other than my arm felt like someone punched me. I'm past my two week waiting period now, and let me tell ya, I'm walkin' on sunshine, people! Now, I want to hear yours. What's you're vaccine story? Drop it in the comments. Looking forward to congratulating you.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this, I hope you'll take a minute to subscribe to my newsletter.