Just Baking

I went a bit nuts for the The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook (which is actually nut-free by the way), as well evidenced by the book review and blog post I put up within one week.  Mixing home-style and gourmet, this cookbook is more about good (real) food than any sort of special diet.

Of course, my favorite savory dish (thus far) was still a gift from the oven, Baked Falafels.  This was a fun one; I had never made falafels.  Lacking pita bread or even a tortilla, I served the falafels overtop a bed of jasmine rice and lightly steamed caught-it-just-in-time organic spinach.  As one person pointed out, I did flatten them out in a rather untraditional fashion.  They were so easy to shape that I must confess, I could resist making little patties.

While the author (Cybele Pascal) recommended her tahini sauce, my pantry was also short on tahini.  So I made a hummus sauce (I had some pre-packaged Trader Joe’s hummus on hand).  My husband had his sans sauce, and found the dish more than flavorful enough.  I liked the moisture that the sauce added, but agree that it wasn’t 100% required.

Really, this was an easy, tasty, and vegan entrée, that even my meaty husband positively loved.  I will be making these again! 

As a side note, the recipe calls for oat flour.  A cheap and easy shortcut is to grind regular old oats in a spice grinder ($9 at the grocery store, best investment I have ever made) for about 30 seconds, until a nice flour develops.  Gluten-free consumers can by “safe” oats and make oat flour using this method too.