Sunday round-up style, here’s some dishes I didn’t share as I ate them, but I’ve taken these photos over the past two weeks.
Green beans and parsnips; acorn squash stuffed with turnip, carrots, and apple from Passionate Vegetarian.
Yellow and green squash and onions over couscous and tofu with Trader Joe’s Mango Chutney.
Buttercup squash with cinnamon and maple; rainbow chard; Field Roast Celebration Roast. (Thanksgiving trial.)
Emanu is an East African restaurant in town I’d been wanting to go to for a very long time. On the few nights we go out, we typically chose to visit places we’d already been instead of trying the new place. Thankfully, Emanu is no longer new, and I can’t wait to go back.
If you’re familiar with Ethiopian food, this should look familiar:
This was the food for both of us, served on one plate on injera. Injera is like a fluffy crepe made from fermented teff, which is a fine grain grown in Ethiopia. The striking flavor of the injera, to me, is how it resembles a fluffy sourdough pancake.
In addition to the injera under the food, you get rolls of injera to use to pick up and eat the food. Although they provide utensils, traditionally you pick up bites of the food with the bread and eat with your hands.
As for the meal, we got two orders of what amounts to the combination platter, hiwswas (beyaynetu). As shown below, from bottom left to right, this includes: spiced lentils stewed in red sauce; green beans and carrots; spiced cabbage cooked with onions and peppers; collard greens; and, yellow lentils.
Each of these vegetables was really good. I particularly liked the green beans and carrots, which were sweet and crisp with charred roasted bits. The collard greens were also really good, as were both lentil dishes. Everything was good.
We also ordered the vegetarian appetizer, vegetable sambussa. These were deep-fried pockets of vegetables, onions, and herbs. This is a close-up, they were pretty small and just enough to get introduced to the Ethiopian flavors that were new to both of us.
One thing to know about Emanu is that they do not have a liquor license and instead allow you to BYO. The menu is small, but I will certainly be returning for these vegetable dishes. By the end of the night, we were both full on bread and veg and very pleased with our first East African experience.
So, I hear Ethiopian food is popular these days. Did that happen five years ago for those of you who aren’t in Cincinnati? If so, I’m jealous.
This is another recipe straight from a blog to my plate, courtesy of Tofu Mom. This recipe for vegan scalloped potatoes with lots of garlic looked like something I needed to try!
This dish is brought to you by my impulsively purchased OXO mandolin. I love it, even though it sliced my thumb the first time I used it.
This made short work of slicing my taters. Off they go into a sauce of blended cashews, silken tofu, milk, and garlic and other seasonings!
After baking in the oven, this dish is browned on top and full of thick, creamy, saucy goodness. We enjoyed the mild flavor of the scalloped potatoes along with some balsamic roasted green beans, red onion, orange tomato and a (brown) portabella to round things out.
This is my kind of meat and potatoes.
I don’t participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture), but I do have a bin of produce delivered nearly every week. Much of the selection is local, but from a variety of farms, and it’s either local or organic. Often both, or at least no-spray. I go back and forth on whether I like this better than shopping the farmer's market. I do both.
That’s not really my point. My point is that I was too busy lately to remember to customize my bin. This means instead of selecting what I want to be delivered, I got the standard order. This means I have several items I wouldn’t have chosen for myself: “no-heat” jalapenos, a spaghetti squash, and tomatillos.
Let’s start with the easy one, the spaghetti squash. It turned out pretty good, and yes, it shreds to look like spaghetti noodles. What’s your favorite way to eat this squash, if you’ve had it before? My first try was good, but I’d be willing to experiment if I get one again.
I steamed it, I guess, in the microwave (yes, I used a microwave), and then shredded it and finished it in a skillet with a little olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil. The squash was so mild in flavor (or maybe the microwave zapped out the flavor as well as the nutrients?) that it mostly tasted like the basil. I liked it, though. We both ate a good bit of these squash noodles and have both enjoyed leftovers since this meal.
I had originally planned to roast my squash along with some other vegetables in the oven, but it was just too hot to turn it on. Instead, I grilled green beans, red onion, broccoli, eggplant, and corn. I finally got a tray to make it easier for me to grill the smaller vegetables. Before, I’d used foil. Besides the drawback of being disposable, it didn’t really work that well.
I made a quick marinade of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and garlic. I should have used a blender on this; instead, I have little flecks of garlic falling through the grill. See my effort to place a few pieces atop the eggplant? I saw Rose’s post too late and her interesting photograph down the blender. Next time, next time. Maybe I can also do skewers like she does. I’m also taking notes from Diana with her balsamic roasted vegetables, especially the eggplant. I can’t wait to try her barbecue balsamic roasted eggplant next time.
Alex ate half of one piece of eggplant and saved the rest for me. Sweetheart.
