Vegan Greek-ish Veggie and Chickpea Stew with Pearl Couscous

When you have some veggies and a trying to get creative, who knows what will happen?

Ingredients

  • 2 Small Eggplants, peeled and cubed
  • 4 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 Zucchini, peeled and sliced
  • 1 large (or 2 small) and diced tomatoes
  • 2 cans of chickpeas or 3-4 cups prepared chickpeas
  • 1.5 cups of water from chickpea cans or chickpea prep
  • 1 bunch of kale, trimmed and chopped
  • Pearl/Israeli couscous
  • Vegetable broth

Process

Salt eggplant and allow to sweat in a colander for 1 hour.  Rinse and pat dry.

Sauté onion, peppers, carrots in olive oil for 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and spices. Cook an additional 3 minutes. If you do this in a cast iron pan, you’ll have one less pan to clean later!

Add tomatoes, chickpeas and chickpea liquid, eggplant, and zucchini. Bring to a boil, add kale, and allow to cook at a low boil for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400*

Transfer the whole shebang to the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and add additional water if necessary.

Meanwhile, prepare your couscous in broth according to directions. 

Serve stew with a heap of couscous and a drizzle of olive oil, a spoon of yogurt or sour cream, and some olives.

Vegan Baklava, Oh Yeah!

IMG_0750I started with a recipe from  CrandleCakes and made slight adjustments, but not much!

IngredientsIMG_0742
1 T cinnamon
6 oz each- pistachios, walnuts, pecans
⅔ cup raw sugar
1 pound (1 package) thawed phyllo dough
4 oz. coconut oil (if you don’t  like coconut oil, use all margarine)
4 oz. vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
2 cups agave
1 cup water
¼ cup orange juice
1 t lemon juice

Process

If your phyllo is frozen (it probably is), thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then set it out for an hour or so before you use it. Don’t thaw on the counter!

Open the dough and unroll. Trim it to fit in your pan size. It will be around a 13×9, but I found myself trimming about ½ inch length and width. DD used the extra to make a separate mini baklava.

In a food processor or mixer, chop together cinnamon, nuts, and sugar until the pieces are the size you want them. This took about 15 seconds in the Vitamix, but will depend on your appliance. A little more fine will make a more dense pastry.

Put margarine and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and heat until just melted.

Use a pastry brush or new painting brush to apply a layer of the melted margarine. Lay down a sheet of phyllo. Repeat 9 times (total of 10 layers). Curse and wonder why you started this.

Sprinkle around ⅓ of the nut mixture over the dough.

Add six more layers of phyllo and margarine, then ⅓ of the nuts, then six more, then ⅓ of the nuts.

Finally, do 10 more layers of the phyllo and margarine. You’ll probably be sweaty and oily by now.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Leave the oven on.

Remove from oven and slice into squares or diamonds or whatever. I meant to do diamonds until I realized it was hard to slice and decided squares were great!

Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Yep again.

While it’s baking, combine agave, water, orange juice, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off to cool.

Remove baklava and allow both that and the syrup to cool for 30 minutes or so. Recut if needed. Drizzle with about ¾ of the syrup (I actually just put it all on, but if you want to save some for serving).

Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours before serving.

Optional: Drizzle slices with more syrup right before you serve.