Roasted Chickpea and Wild Rice Salad with Tahini Dressing

Alright my fancy foodie followers, this ones for you.  It''s a suped up fancy pants salad.  This might actually be the only salad you ever see on my blog because not only do I hate making salads I actually suck at it.  Yup, I, Vegan Beezie, suck at making salads.  I have a really bad habit of throwing everything and the kitchen sink in and it just ends up being weird.  I also think it is just a lot of effing chopping and when you go to eat it it's a lot of effing chewing.  And I don't know about you foolios but I gots a heavy duty appetite.  I'm no fresh juice for breakfast, fruit for lunch, lettuce for dinner kind of vegan.  This recipe is a great recipe to make for non-vegans, it's hip, kind of fancy, healthy and filling.  Here you go...




Chickpea Croutons
1 can rinsed chickpeas
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon braggs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Dressing

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4-1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

1 clove garlic

1 inch peice of ginger peeled and minced

splash of braggs

pepper

Salad
2 cups cooked wild rice at room temperature
spinach
tomatoes
cucumber

1.  To start this recipe make sure that your rice is cooking and going to be cooled before you decide to plate.  Wild rice takes about 45 minutes to cook fully.  Next start the chickpea croutons by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix ingredients on a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes.  Yes, you can mix the ingredients directly on the baking sheet, why dirty another dish? The chickpeas should be crunchy but still a little soft on the inside.

2.  While the chickpeas are baking you can make the dressing.  This dressing is bomb and hellsa easy.  Just throw everything into the blender and blend.  Salt and pepper to your liking (I used braggs for the salt in mine).  Taste and make sure the dressing suites your liking.  Start with 1/4 cup water and add more until the dressing is your desired consistency.

3. Once chickpeas are done, rice is cooked and cooled and dressing is prepared you are ready for assemlbling! I put a layer of spinach, topped with wild rice, then chickpeas, tomatoes and cucumbers and drizzled the dressing on top for what is pictured.  I also just mixed the leftovers all together for later and it still looked beautiful:) Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Coconut and Ginger Soup

So as you may have noticed I have not been blogging much and there are a few reasons for this.  One, is I was working on an application for grad school... Yup, my ghetto ass is trying to go to grad school.  Also, to keep it real my cooking attempts have been straight flops lately... but not this one...

Soup on a rainy day?... duh!  This shit is the ultimate comfort soup.  It's carby and creamy with just a touch of spice.  This soup is also hecka easy to make, except for peeling and dicing the butternut squash.  I hate doing that shit!  I am the kind of person that passes the pre-chopped veggie section of the produce with disgust, like, how fucking hard is it to cut some zuchinni and bell pepper.  But after hacking away at the huge butternut squash for an hour tonight I might rethink my butternut purchase next time.  Anyways, once you get the butternut squash chopped its a breeze.  

Butternut Squash Coconut and Ginger Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 large shallot minced

2 teaspoons fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 medium sized butternut squash peeled, seeded and diced

6 cups veggie stock

1 can coconut milk

salt and pepper

1.  Heat large stock pan to medium heat.  Add olive oil and onion and saute for 5-6 minutes until onion begin to become translucent.  Add the shallot and cook for a minute.  Then add the ginger and cayenne and cook for 30 seconds or so while continuously stirring.  

2.  Add the butternut squash, veggie stock and coconut milk to the onion mixture and bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for 30 minutes.  Once butternut squash is tender and cooked through blend with a hand blender.  Taste and adjust spices to your liking and it is ready to go.