Spring carrot salad with harissa, herbs, and feta

Hope you all had a happy Easter weekend. We spent Saturday in Asheville, walking around, stopping in a bookstore, a gallery, and a brewery with the in-laws. It's amazing what a few days away can do. It's refreshing to turn the smart phone off (unless we needed directions), and do nothing but talk, walk, eat, and sleep.

We had dinner at Mela, an excellent Indian restaurant on Saturday night. It was then that I realized there are two camps: bread people and condiment people. I fall into the condiment camp, my husband into the bread camp. As everyone was enjoying the pappadum sans chutney, I was using it to scoop up (a lot) of mint cilantro chutney. This has also occurred at home, when I found myself standing at the kitchen counter with a spoon in the jar of romesco, raita, and recently in this harissa.

I've seen a few recipes with harissa over the past year and I finally made my first batch. I made Luisa's recipe, (see above for my exact changes) substituting chipotles for New Mexico chiles and adding the entire roasted red pepper. My sun-dried tomatoes were tiny, so I added about six in total, and used walnut oil (husband allergic to raw olive oil). My harissa wasn't too spicy, I think the walnut oil helped. Adding fat—like oils, nuts, avocados, cheese—to spicy foods, reduces the heat factor.

I bookmarked this carrot salad many months ago, because it reminded me of a salad I had on our honeymoon at a cafe in Copenhagen. A chilled carrot salad with smokiness from the peppers, sweetness from the mint, crunch from the almonds, and saltiness from the feta.

We ate the carrot salad with this spring panzanella last night for dinner. It was perfect. Oh and you'll have some harissa leftover, so mix it into scrambled eggs, slather on roasted potatoes, or on your next grilled cheese.

Spring carrot salad with harissa, herbs, and feta 
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
6 medium carrots, grated
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp harissa
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c curly parsley, mint, and chives
2 tbsp almonds, toasted and chopped roughly
Garnish with feta, optional

Put the grated carrot into a large bowl. Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, add the harissa, stirring frequently. Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and pour over the carrots along with the herbs. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least an hour so the flavors meld. Garnish with almonds and feta before serving.

Orange sesame stir fry & brown rice noodles

My younger sister lived off bowls of Ramen noodles as a kid and I know a lot of college students do too. Ramen might be quick to prepare, but those noodles don't contain much nutritional value. There are no vegetables and they are incredibly high in sodium, not to mention preservatives. All the flavor resides in those little mystery foil packets.

I was inspired by this week's Food Matters Project recipe to make a big vegetable stir fry. Stir fries are great, because you can pack them full of vegetables like cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, turnips, bean sprouts, onions, and more. I mixed in some brown rice noodles to make this a one pot dinner. Since I used brown rice noodles this dish is gluten free, but soba or buckwheat noodles would work great too.

I added garlic and ginger to the orange sauce, and used local spring onions in place of the scallions. No mystery foil packet here. And don't worry about heating the leftovers up, they taste delicious as a cold noodle salad the following day.

This dish honestly doesn't take too long to prepare. Your health is important, so spend a little extra time preparing your food. You won't regret it.

Orange sesame stir fry & brown rice noodles
Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook
1/2 lb brown rice noodles
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1.5 oranges, zest and juiced
2 tbsp tamari
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 spring onions, sliced thinly
1 container mung bean sprouts
2 carrots, grated
1/2 turnip, grated

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, minced
6-8 mushrooms, sliced thinly
1/4 of savoy cabbage, sliced
1/4 c cilantro

Cook brown rice noodles according to the package. When cooked, drain, and put into a large serving bowl.

Heat sauté pan over medium. Add sesame seeds, cooking until toasted. Set aside.

Mix orange zest, orange juice, 1.5 tablespoon of tamari, and honey in a small dish. Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil over medium heat. Add the sprouts and half of the spring onions, cooking until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Then add the grated carrot and turnip, stirring well. Add the ginger and half of the garlic, cooking until fragrant. Now mix in the orange sauce. Cook for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and pour over the noodles. Mix well.

Heat the remaining sesame oil over medium heat. Add the remainder of the spring onions and the mushrooms to the pan. Add the remaining tamari to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked down. Now add the cabbage, stir, and cook until wilted. Remove from heat, mix into the noodles, and sprinkle with cilantro and sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Vegan apricot carrot muffins

Most of last week was spent at the beach with an amazing group of friends for our co-ed bachelor/bachelorette trip. We drank, laid in the sun, cooked, played games, swam, and danced. It was laid back and casual, just our style. I highly recommend doing the same when you're ready for that.

Needless to say, I had a hard time getting back into my regular schedule. I knew most of my weekend would be spent working, so I procrastinated and made these yummy muffins on Saturday morning. I'm not usually a sweet breakfast person (prefer eggs over pancakes any day), but every now and again I want a tasty scone or muffin.

It's amazing how fickle baking can be. I made the same recipe in class a few weeks ago and it turned out great. When I made them at home, the first batch didn't rise as much as the second batch (see image below). The original recipe says to let the batter to sit for a minute so it will rise, but clearly the batter than sat for 12 minutes won. I think the humidity of my kitchen slowed that process down a good bit. I've made those notes in my recipe below.

Don't worry if your muffins don't rise all the way either, they still taste delicious. I love that they're packed with beta-carotene rich carrots and apricots, and the applesauce keeps them moist for days.

Vegan apricot carrot muffins
1/3 c dried unsweetened apricots, diced
1/2 c apple juice
1 c all purpose unbleached flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (cloves or allspice would work nicely too)
3 T olive oil
1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
1 c maple syrup
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/3 c almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 T apple juice, reserved from draining the apricots
1 c shredded carrots

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil or cooking spray.

Soak the apricots in the apple juice for about 15 minutes or until they've plumped up. Strain over a bowl and reserve 6 T of the apple juice.

Whisk (or sift) together the dry ingredients—flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg—into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients—oil, applesauce, maple syrup, almond milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, apple juice—together. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until smooth. Fold in the apricots and carrots. Do not over mix. Let the batter sit for at least five minutes depending on the humidity of your kitchen. You should notice that the batter has grown a little.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins two-thirds full. Pop into the oven and cook for 12-14 minutes. Use a toothpick to see if they're done. Remove from the oven and let cool. Enjoy warm from the oven with a dollop of yogurt. These muffins are very moist and taste great the next day too.