Harissa Roasted Veggie Bowl

If you get tired of eating sweet stuff during this holiday time, need something spicy to change the taste then this is your dish. It has Harissa spice paste and roasted vegetables in it , Its light on stomach but so full of flavor and above all , don't miss the tahini dressing on top of it. If you want to make a meal, you can have it on top or side of couscous or quinoa but I just had it with a side of green salad and roasted vegetables and Tahini dressing. It was supposed to be for two serving but I was enjoying so much didn't realized that I finished everything. Don't go by my vegetables, you can have it what ever you feel like and you think it will roast , take those vegetables, this was in my fridge so I used that one. I have readymade Harissa paste so used that one , if you have homemade you can use that too.

Ingredients : 

1 Red onion cut in wedged

1 Red pepper cut in strips

1 Sweet potatoes cut in cubes

Few asparagus

Few Long string beans

1 Yellow pepper 

1 Serrano pepper whole (optional) 

2 to 3 Tbsp. Harissa paste

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup boiled white chickpeas

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cumin powder

1/4 cup Tahini paste

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 lemon juiced

Some mixed greens

Method :

Heat oven to 400F.

Prepare your vegetables. 

Whisk together, Harissa, red wine vinegar and oilve oil in a bowl. Drizzle that mixture on top of your vegetables. and stir.

Put that tray in oven and roast for 30 minutes or till the sweet potatoes are cooked. 

Drain, rinse and dry chick peas if you are using can one. Toss with salt, pepper and cumin. 

Top those bean over the vegetables when vegetables are cooked for 10 minutes. 

Whisk tahini, water and lemon juice. 

Take the vegetables out and when its done. 

Drizzle the tahini dressing on top  and serve it over the bed of mixed greens or quinoa. 

Add more dressing if you like it more. 

Soy Chaap Shawarma Hummus Bowl

I was looking for the recipes people who post about soy chaap and I was intrigue to try one,since I am in Us, it was not that easy to find and its not that easy to make homemade. So when I visited India last year, I had a chance to try one dish in Delhi with soy chaap was chaap butter masala and it was delicious. So I had that taste in my mind and was looking for chaap here in US. One day I found it in my Indian grocery store, without thinking I just grab the can. It says in brine. Didn't know how it's going be , I thought will make something out of it. I was looking for shawarma marinade and found it here.   so it was perfect for my soy chaap to use this marianade and stop my craving for NY Style Shawarma food. So made it and enjoy it and I just used 4 soy chaap, saved 4 to make tikka , will make soon and post also. Till then enjoy this Soy chaap Shawarma hummus bowl. You can add purple cabbage instead of quinoa, or have it with just Hummus and Pita bread. You don't have to use Chaap, you can use chicken, lamb, paneer, Tofu.

Ingredients  :

4 Soy chaap
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Honey
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1  1/2 tsp Paprika (you can use Kashmiri red chili powder)
3/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger powder
3/4 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp each salt and black pepper

To serve : 
cooked Quinoa - I cooked quinoa, after taking all the marinade from the bowl, add some water in the bowl and added that water in quinoa to give some flavor.

Pickled onions
Hummus
Lime wedge
Kalamata Olives
Cucumber


Little goes way too much so don't afraid of the quantity.

Method : 

Take one small bowl and mix  the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, ginger, oregano, turmeric , salt and pepper.

In a big bowl, add 4 chaap and mix the marinade nicely. Marinade these for at-least 2-3 hours, I kept  it for 7 hours in fridge.

When its time to cook, take out the chaap, cut it from the middle for better flavor. Spread the leftover marinade in bowl to inside the chaap.

Heat a non stick pan, add little oil in it and cook the chaap form the both sides,  till its nicely cook and golden. 

 While its cooking, cook your quinoa on other burner.

When everything is ready, In a bowl, have some quinoa, hummus , cut the chaap in 3 pieces from one chaap, cut the rounds of cucumber, pickled onions, olives, fresh chopped cilantro and lime wedge and enjoy your trip to Mediterranean.

If you want you can have side of yogurt sauce and hot sauce on side.

Zhug - Mediterranean Hot sauce

I am always on a look out for spicy , hot sauce or dishes. Since I was making falafel, I wanted to make different spicy sauce to go with that. I know about this zhug sauce, but I don't have or have seen red spicy peppers here in this part of world. So was thinking about making it green one using jalapenos. Zhug is sauce from Yemen, its pronounce different region to regions schug , shug, skhug , it can be red, green or brown but one thing is common is - its hot and spicy. It's a very simple sauce made with green or red spicy peppers, along with coriander, garlic and cumin.  I like smooth sauces that's why I made it smooth one in blender, if you like chunky , you can use food processor and keep it chunky. 

You can drizzle over your salad, or have it with falafel, shawarma, or any bbq meats or vegetable, it goes perfectly on those. Use the hottest peppers you find, I had it with jalapenos since that's widely available.

Ingredients : 

2 Jalapenos cut in big chunks

1 Large bunch of coriander leaves

4 big cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

Method : 

Put Jalapenos, garlic and coriander in blender. 

Blend it till you got nice chunky puree. 

Add salt, pepper , cumin and blend it again. 

Take it out in a bowl and add olive oil and mix it , this will keep green color vibrant. 

Enjoy it where ever you want, salad, falafel, bataka poha, bread. Possibilities are endless. 

Store in glass bottle for the future use, it can stay good till 10 days in refrigerator. But for me, it lasted only 3 days. 

Salatat Jarjeer - Middle Eastern Arugula salad

I am always look out for salad recipes that have minimum work and maximum satisfaction. This recipe has few ingredients but nice peppery arugula in it with tangy sumac, onion, and bite from Walnut. It takes no time to assemble it and you can eat it bowlful of it without guilt. If you don't have sumac, don't worry, mix the lemon zest with salt and you have your sumac. This salad goes perfect in summer BBQ parties, where lots of food is going on but you have to fill up your tummy with this healthy alternative. This is just for 2 people but you can adjust the ingredients as per the requirement.



Ingredients : 

2 cup Arugula
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 Red onion finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing : 

Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp Sumac
3 tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method : 

Take a salad bowl, add onion, sumac, olive oil, salt and pepper, and lime juice. Mix it and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Then add arugula and walnuts.

Stir together and check the seasoning.

Enjoy alongside with any protein or meals.

Tabbouleh Salad

I don't know why I never posted this salad. This is my favorite go-to salad. I always have parsley in my fridge and Bulgar too. This is a very famous middle eastern side dish. Its called Tabouli also.  Its made of Bulgar which is cracked wheat, lots of parsley, tomatoes, mint, green onion, cucumber and dressing. Now don't get confused bulgar with couscous, its totally different grain, just like Khaman and Dhokla, khaman is different and dhokla is different. You don't need to cook bulgar since it is a super fine grain, you just soaked it water, prep the vegetables and by the time it's ready. For parsley, I like flat-leaf one and not the curly leaf. But use whatever you like and find in your supermarket. The more parsley and mint are there it will taste better.



Ingredients : 

1/2 cup dried bulgar - it will be more than 1 cup after it will soak up the water so don't get too much
1 cup diced cucumber without seeds
1 cup diced tomato
3 cups of finely chopped parsley
1 cup chopped mint
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion
1 tsp sea salt or as per taste
for the dressing: 1/3 cup olive oil
4 tbsp lemon juice or as per taste
1 clove garlic finely chopped

Method : 

Take one big bowl, add dried bulgar in it.

Add two and a half cups of water in it and set aside.

Chopped all your vegetables and greens.

In a small bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic and salt and mix it.

By now bulgar must have soaked up all the water if it is all fluffed up but if you see any water in it, drain it.

Take the drained bulgar, add all the vegetables and greens and mix it nicely.

Add the dressing and taste it if need more salt, lemon juice, adjust accordingly.

It tastes best, after 10-15 minutes but if you have no time, you can have it immediately too.

Its perfect side dish with falafel which I had it. Or you can just have it as it is or pair it with any bbq meat or middle eastern dishes.