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Spring Salad Recipe with Farro and Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette

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Spring Salad Recipe with Farro and Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette

Spring is in the air and the weather outside is just starting to turn for the better.  Winter’s here in Chicago are long and cold so it’s no wonder the city starts to erupt in March with more and more folks chomping at the bit to get outside at any sign of 40°+ weather.  For me it’s not only the opportunity to spend some more time outdoors, but it’s also turning the page in the produce department.  March brings about things like fresh peas, asparagus, avocados and arugula.  Sure, those things are available all year round but if you know me then you know I prefer to eat in season so now that all of these things are available, a spring salad recipe is definitely on my menu.

In addition to all of the spring produce that is available, I knew I wanted to have a delicious grain to act as the backbone in this recipe.  I’ve been saying it for years so clearly I’m still a ways away, but I’m trying to incorporate more plants into my diet so leaving the animal protein out of this spring salad recipe was a must.  Whether it’s grains, legumes or flours, Bob’s Red Mill is always our go to.  Bob’s products are superior in every facet and we trust them with their growing, harvesting, storing and packaging process, so we also trust them with our bodies and what we put in them.  Bob’s is transparent and they tell you about the entire process, and we love that!  I used Bob’s Red Mill Farro as the grain in this salad recipe and whoa was it delish!  If you’ve never had farro before I like to tell folks that it is a cross between brown rice and barley.  It’s got a wonderful chewy texture and subtle earthy-nutty flavors.  Farro is also really easy to cook as it’s done in under 35 minutes!

While the farro is cooking, this is great time to prepare everything else.  I’m loadin up this spring salad recipe with green beans, asparagus, peas, candied pecans, a few other veggies and an insanely delicious lemon thyme vinaigrette.  For the veggies it is essential that you blanch them in hot water and then immediately cool them.  I put the green beans and the asparagus into the hot water first because they take a bit longer to cook.  After about a minute or two I then add in the peas and cook for another minute or so.  I’m cooking these guys pretty quick because I want to ensure they still have some crunch to them.  There is nothing sadder than an over cooked vegetable so be sure to cook these veggies quick!

Next, I made my vinaigrette by simply adding all of the ingredients into a bowl and then slowly whisking in the oil.  Vinaigrettes are so easy to make and once you start making them yourselves for a few times you will never again buy them from the store, there’s no point.  A homemade vinaigrette is so delicious plus you can swap out and add ingredients to them to make them just how you want them.  I wanted a sweet vinaigrette with some hints of lemon and thyme because I figured those great flavors would be wonderful with the greens and farro.  A standard vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, but because I love vinegar so much I like to do 2-to-1 oil to vinegar so that I can get more of the flavor into it.

Making homemade vinaigrette is easy and so is homemade candied pecans.  When I started to make stuff like this at home on a frequent basis, the less time I spend looking for someone else who makes it.  You see, my whole goal is to inspire and teach people how to cook at home as it is one of my greatest fear that home cooking is on the way out the door and is being replaced with ready to eat meals.  There is nothing more satisfying than making, serving and eating homemade meals, nor will there be a better time to connect with your family on a daily basis then over delicious food.

The last thing is to simply assemble the salad.  I’ve got quite a few things on this salad but I want you to know that you can garnish yours with whatever you’d like.  If you start with the farro, veggies, vinaigrette and candied pecans then you are on your way to having a fantastic salad, the rest is up to you for accessorizing!  I hope you enjoy this recipe, and enjoy the time making, serving and eating it with your family.  Take some time to breathe and just enjoy it!

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Spring Salad Recipe with Farro and Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette
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Recipe type: salad
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
The weather is finally turning, which means more produce is beginning to become available. This Spring Salad Recipe with Farro and Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette is packed with delicious seasonal greens and vegetables for an unbelievable flavor. This salad feeds a ton so be sure to scale it back as you see fit.
Ingredients
  • 4 cups of cooked Bob's Red Mill Farro
  • 1 cup of trimmed green beans
  • ½ bunch of asparagus, cut into 1" pieces
  • 1 cup of spring peas
  • Whisk together juice of 1 lemon, ¼ cup of white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 3 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon each chopped chives and thyme and 1 cup of olive oil
  • 1 cup of light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons of water
  • 12 ounces of spring mix lettuce
  • 6 hard boiled eggs, shelled and cut in half
  • 1 bunch of cherry tomatoes
  • 2 thinly sliced radishes
  • 2 peeled, seeded and sliced avocados
  • micro greens for garnish
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Par boil the green beans, asparagus and peas in a large pot of boiling salted water. First add in the beans and asparagus for 90 seconds and then add in the peas and cook for a further 90 seconds. Rinse and chill immediately.
  2. Next, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper and set aside.
  3. In a large pan over medium heat add in the brown sugar, butter and water and cook until it is boiling and becomes very thick, about 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. Stir in the pecans and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until the caramel sauce completely coats the pecans.
  5. Spread the pecans out on a sheet tray lined with a rubber mat or parchment paper and cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside.
  6. To Plate: Place the greens in a large bowl and accessorize with the cooked farro, par-boiled green beans, asparagus and peas, hard boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, radishes, candied pecans, avocados and micro green and serve alongside the vinaigrette.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill. The opinions and text are all mine.

 

Vegan Tacos Recipes with Jackfruit and Black Beans

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Vegan Tacos Recipes with Jackfruit and Black Beans

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of BUSH’S® Beans. The opinions and text are all mine.

I am always looking to try new things so when I came across the opportunity to make a vegan tacos recipe, I thought it was perfect timing to try out jackfruit. I’m sure you’ve seen the videos online of that huge spikey green fruit that has these weird pods inside.  Well I’m here to set the record straight, it’s exactly like what you see in the videos.  It’s huge, the spikes on the outside are a little sharp and wow is it sticky!!  I can only imagine the person who discovered jackfruit while stumbling through the forest in the Philippines and thought, “I should try this?”  So, what does jackfruit taste like? I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor as I ripped through the inside to try and get to a pod, so I could eat it. The best way to describe the flavor is that it tastes just like that gum that rhymes with lucyroot. Catch my drift? :-).

How to Cut Jackfruit

While I used a fresh jackfruit, I just want to note that you can absolutely purchase the pre-packed version for ease and quickness. Breaking down the jackfruit to get to the pods isn’t all that hard, but it does take about 30 minutes to do the whole thing so be sure to allow yourself some time if you choose to use the fresh version.  Once you separate the pods from the seeds you then want to place the pods in a slow cooker with some spices and herbs and begin to cook it. I discarded the jackfruit pods but after doing some research I found that they are loaded with fiber and if you bake them a bit a lot of people then make them into a hummus. Just a little FYI if you are one of the types of people who like to use everything, to eliminate food waste.

While the jackfruit was slow cooking I quickly pickled some onions using an incredibly simple recipe that allows you to get some pretty good flavors in just a few hours. Also, while the jackfruit was cooking I prepared some of the toppings, starting with BUSH’S® Black Beans.   This recipe is vegan so it’s great to know that BUSH’S® offers a ton of vegetarian products including the black beans that I used.  BUSH’S Black Beans are actually considered a superfood as they are loaded with protein and fiber and are extremely low in fat.  I’m all about using food from folks that I trust and BUSH’S Beans has been around for more than 100 years. Black beans have obviously been around for thousands of years and are still a staple ingredient in several Central and South American cuisines. BUSH’S Black Beans are grown right here in North America and are hand selected to ensure deliciousness and texture. While I’m using them in this Vegan Tacos Recipe, they are great in soups, with rice and a ton of other recipes, such as this black bean salsa.

It was kind of last minute, but I also decided to roast some bell peppers because I thought it could add some great color and flavors to this vegan tacos recipe.  Don’t get me wrong there are tons of other flavors in this recipe, but I am always looking to add to the complexity to help push it even further.  The combo of the roasted peppers and pickled onions are going to be really good when combined with the sweet and slightly spicy flavors from the jackfruit!

One thing that I haven’t tried much of, outside of the jackfruit, is vegan cheese.  I actually didn’t know what to think of it until I really got my hands on it at home.  I’ve had it in the store when people are sampling it, but I’ve only had a small nibble and went on my way.  When I got to eat more of it, I was shocked at just how good it is.  It doesn’t taste exactly like cheese, but I think that’s the beauty of it.  So many times I hear people who try the vegan diet and complain that it doesn’t taste like the real thing.  My argument is that it doesn’t have to – it has its own delicious flavors that can and should live all by themselves.

Here’s to meatless Monday, #tacotuesday and Lent!! Now go get after this delicious Vegan Tacos Recipes with Jackfruit and Black Beans.

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Vegan Tacos Recipes with Jackfruit and Black Beans
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Recipe type: main
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Serves: 10
 
If you are into celebrating meatless Monday or even Taco Tuesday then this Vegan Tacos Recipes with Jackfruit and Black Beans loaded with delicious flavors all while keeping a plant based diet in mind. This recipe is 100% vegan and packed with goodness and nutrients!
Ingredients
For the Jackfruit:
  • ½ fresh jackfruit, broken down to only pods
  • 1 tablespoon each of ground cumin, chili powder and oregano
  • 2 cups of vegetable stock or water
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the taco:
  • 1 peeled and thinly sliced red onion
  • 1 cup of red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 10 corn tortillas
  • 1 can of BUSH'S® Black Beans, drained and rinsed, heated
  • 1 each seeded, julienne and quickly sautéed red and green bell pepper
  • 2 cups of shredded vegan cheese, mozzarella or cheddar, or both
  • 2 peeled, seeded and large diced avocados
  • ½ cup of fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
  1. Jackfruit: Add the jackfruit pods, cumin, chili powder, oregano, vegetable stock and salt and pepper to a slow cooker and cook on hi for 2 hours or until the pods are soft and are easy to shred. Keep warm.
  2. Taco: Add the red onions, vinegar and sugar to a bowl and mix. Pickle the red onions for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
  3. To Plate: place some slow cooked jackfruit on a corn tortilla and top off with some heated BUSH'S® Black Beans, sautéed bell peppers, pickled onions, vegan cheese, avocados and cilantro leaves. Repeat until all of the tortillas have been made.

 

Gourmet Breakfast Toast Recipes with Poached Eggs

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One of the most difficult meals to prepare in my household is breakfast.  It seems as if there are so few options.  Cereal, oatmeal or eggs, what would you like?  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any issues with any of those things, but man can it get boring when it becomes routine.  It also seems as if breakfast is carb heavy in order to give us energy early in the morning, but truth be told we should be looking to protein and vegetables to help in that department.  Again, I’m not knocking carbs after all I’m Italian and was born with a slice of bread in my hands, but protein and veggies are much more sustaining and better for you in the long run.

When it comes to making breakfast, you’ve got to be able to prepare it in 15 minutes or less, which is why I came up with an assortment of recipes for these Gourmet Breakfast Toast Recipes with Poached Eggs.  There is no hour to get things prepped for feeding your family, unless of course you are in a nice restaurant preparing for guests.  Nope, my family is hungry in the morning and they want food NOW!  Regardless of any meal that I prepare, I always take a stroll down the dairy aisle where I almost always pick up a something new to try out.  Whether it be whipped cream cheese, almond milk or brown eggs like these GMO-free Nature Fed Eggs, there is always something I can get to help enhance my recipes.  We are a mostly organic natural food family which means we want to know how our food was cultivated or created, so we have an idea of what we are putting into our bodies.  Nature Fed Eggs give me a lot of reassurance that their eggs are from chickens who are free range and eat what nature provides making it taste and look great.  I hope I get a chance to tour their barn some day!

 

As I said earlier, it’s important to get breakfast on the table quick, and these 5 Gourmet Breakfast Toast Recipes with Poached Eggs are all really easy to do and can be done in under 15 minutes total.  While I recommend doing just 1 or 2 to serve up, you should definitely give all of them a try because they are really tasty.  The first part of the toast recipes is of course, the toast.  I used a variation of breads which include ciabatta, rye and sourdough, HOWEVER, this recipe can totally be changed up so please feel free to use whatever kind of artisan bread you’d like.  In fact, even a homemade bread recipe would be fantastic with this!  Simply slice and toast the bread in a toaster or in an oven on a broiler setting and then load it up with your desired toppings.

Poaching eggs can be a little tricky because more often than not it turns into this crazy spider web of egg whites that go all over the place.  The trick to making it a smaller, more full egg is by stirring the water in a circular motion using a spoon and then putting the egg in it and letting the white wrap around the yolk.  Be sure to only simmer the water over low heat as well as seasoning it with salt.

The first toast I created was by spreading on a bit of ricotta to the toast and then adding on slices of avocado and topping off with some chia and sesame seeds.  You can absolutely add more seeds such as poppy seeds, hemp heart seeds, etc.  Last but not least top with the egg and serve!

The second toast was a combo of cream cheese, smoked salmon, radishes, a poached egg and micro greens.  Always remember to season with salt and pepper.

The third toast was an Italian delight with roasted cherry tomatoes, burrata, a poached egg and fresh chopped basil.  Yup, you guessed it, this one was my favorite.

The fourth toast had sliced roasted beets, goat cheese, a poached egg and thyme.  Super simple and absolutely loaded with flavor.

The last toast was roasted mushrooms, a poached egg, parmesan cheese and a little truffle oil.  This one was a really close second favorite!

Get your breakfast going!!

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Gourmet Breakfast Toast Recipes with Poached Eggs
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Recipe type: breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 5
 
Our family is so busy in the morning time that often times it is so hard to get something delicious on the table that I know is good for everyone, so I came up with these tasty Gourmet Breakfast Toast Recipes with Poached Eggs that definitely satisfied everyone at that table!
Ingredients
  • 5 slices of toasted bread, rye, sourdough or ciabatta
  • 5 poached eggs
  • Optional Toppings Include: roasted shiitake mushrooms, parsley, parmesan cheese, truffle oil, roasted sliced red beets, goat cheese, thyme leaves, burrata cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, whipped cream cheese, smoked salmon slices, sliced radishes, micro greens, ricotta cheese, sliced avocados, chia seeds, sesame seeds
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Mushroom Toast: Place the roasted mushrooms on the toast and top with a poached egg, chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese, truffle oil, salt and pepper. Serve!
  2. Beet Toast: Place the sliced roasted beets on the toast and fan them out. Top off with a poached egg, thyme leaves, goat cheese and salt and pepper. Serve!
  3. Tomato Toast: Place the roasted tomatoes and burrata next to each other on the toast and top off with a poached egg, chopped basil, and salt and pepper. Serve!
  4. Smoked Salmon Toast: Spread the cream cheese on the toast and top with smoked salmon slices, sliced radishes, poached egg, micro greens, and salt and pepper. Serve!
  5. Avocado Toast: Spread the ricotta cheese onto the toast and fan the avocado slices over top. Place the poached egg over the avocado slices and sprinkle on the chia seeds, sesame seeds, salt and pepper. Serve!

For more great recipes and ideas be sure to follow my friends at easyhomemeals.com and follow them at their social media channels below:

 

Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce

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Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce

Every single time I make falafel at home I always say to myself WHY do I not make it more often?  I mean it is just so delicious and so incredibly easy to make that it is a no brainer to make!  This Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce features tons of delicious flavors that are sure to satisfy your Indian/Mediterranean craving!  I have to admit that I like my falafel over most restaurants simply because I season it.  Something as small as salt and pepper goes a long way, but when I eat falafel in a restaurant I am always dumping tahini sauce all over it so that it tastes like something.  Most of the time I get an over cooked really dry falafel that has no flavor and was probably cooked early in the morning and put under a heat lamp all day until I order it.  Well maybe that’s not exactly the case, however, my falafel is better!  I believe the folks in the Mediterranean area would be happy with my falafel :-).

I do have to admit then the first time I ever made falafel, way back in my restaurant days, I made it from canned chickpeas and once I fried it, it completely fell apart in the oil.  I was so flippin mad!  I should have put some flour in there and I knew it but didn’t.  Fast forward 20 years and the real secret is not to use canned chickpeas.  No, it’s to use dried chickpeas that are reconstituted.  You see canned chickpeas are cooked and soaked making them dang near impossible to hold together because there isn’t much left to cook.  I used Bob’s Red Mill dried chickpeas which honestly are perfect for falafel, as is all their products for whatever your need may be.  Once you soak them over night in water, drain them and toss them in a food processor with all the other goodness and pulse it until it becomes like a meal.  At this stage try and think of what a pie crust might look like and you’ll be just about there.

You want to from the falafel into golf ball sized, or smaller, balls that you fry up in some grapeseed oil.  I like grapeseed oil because it’s on the healthier side and has a high smoking point, but you can absolutely use oils like safflower, canola or coconut, totally up to you.  Once the falafels are golden brown and cooked through out, that’s the key make sure they are done in the middle, you want to drain them on a paper towel to get rid of any access oil that they are fried in.  You want to keep the falafel warm while you make the garlic tahini sauce and the quinoa so you may want to keep them in the oven at like 140° just so they stay warm.  Just a little FYI there for ya.

There really isn’t too much to say about the garlic tahini sauce other than you putting everything into a bowl and whisking it together until it is combined.  I guess the only thing you could watch out for is that tahini, or ground up sesame seeds, has a very strong earthy flavor to it and the only way to cut that is with the lemon juice.  If you feel you need more lemon juice because the garlic tahini sauce is just to earthy, or bitter, then by all means add some more in there until it meets your needs.  I always say you should recipes as guidelines and feel free to tweak where necessary.

One of the things we have become obsessed with is quinoa.  The first quinoa I ever bought was Bob’s Red Mill about 5 years ago because I remember hearing just how good it was for you and how it was a complete protein and an amazing supplement should you want to skip meat for a night.  Well fast forward to now and we are still cooking up Bob’s Red Mill quinoa because it’s delicious, it’s loaded with nutrients and because we trust Bob with everything we put into our body.  If you want to wow some friends then for sure make this Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce, because honestly it only takes about 45 minutes to make.  BOOOOM!

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Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce
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Recipe type: main
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Take your weeknight meals to the next level with this Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl Recipe with Falafel and Garlic Tahini Sauce that is loaded with everything that goes into a falafel sandwich. From pickles, to feta, to spinach this falafel bowl is absolutely to die for!
Ingredients
For the Falafel:
  • 1 cup of dried Bob's Red Mill Chickpeas submerged in water overnight and drained
  • ½ peeled and roughly chopped yellow onion
  • ¼ cup of Italian parsley leaves
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • oil for frying
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Garlic Tahini Sauce:
  • ½ cup of tahini
  • ⅓ cup of water
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 finely minced garlic cloves
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Bowl:
  • 6 cups of cooked Bob's Red Mill Quinoa
  • 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, roasted or raw
  • 2 cups of sliced dill pickles
  • 1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
  • 3 cups of packed baby spinach
  • 1 cup of assorted pitted Mediterranean olives
  • micro-greens for garnish
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Add the drained chickpeas to a food processor along with the onion, parsley, garlic, baking powder, cumin and salt and pepper and process until it becomes like a meal.
  2. Using your hands mold golf ball sized balls or smaller from the chickpea batter and set them aside.
  3. Heat the grapeseed oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until it reaches 375°.
  4. Add in the falafel and cook for 1 ½ to 2 minutes per side or until golden browned and cooked in the center. Drain on a paper towel once they are done cooking.
  5. Tahini - Whisk together all the ingredients in a medium size bowl and keep cool until ready to serve.
  6. To Plate: Place 1 cup of cooked quinoa into a bowl and garnish with tomatoes, pickles, feta, spinach, olives, cooked falafel, tahini and micro greens. Serve hot.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill. The opinions and text are all mine.

 

Homemade Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

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Homemade Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe

If you haven’t noticed by reading my blog billyparisi.com, I love pizza.  No, like I really love pizza and especially pizza dough.  Whenever I travel to other cities I do my best to research and identify that city’s best pizza and then go try it out.  Out of all the places I’ve traveled to or have lived in, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, I still have a favorite pizza place and it’s where I went to college.  The university of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri has the best pizza joint of all time, Shakespeare’s.  It’s so good that even ABC named it the best college food restaurant in the entire country.  Their crust is amazing, the cheese options and toppings are of the upmost quality, and it’s just plain old good.  While I may never find a place that can live up the Shakespeare’s, I make a pretty dang mean homemade pizza with a homemade pizza dough recipe right in my very own home.

I’ve made several pizza recipes in the past from my Three Different Homemade Pizza Recipes with No Knead Pizza Crust using dark rye flour, to my Homemade Hawaiian pizza with Semolina Crust, and a few more sprinkled in. However, I have to admit that this Homemade Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe, may be my absolute favorite.  While the toppings and sauce to a pizza are really important, ask yourself what’s the best part to any pizza.  It’s the pizza crust of course!  For me a light, crusty, filled with air pocket crust that is tender and chewy is where it’s at.  To be honest, it’s kind of hard to hit all of those crust staples because of time mostly.

Hands down the most important things when making a pizza crust are time and ingredients.  If you aren’t starting with really good ingredients than most likely your pizza isn’t going to turn out very good.  For me when it comes to making any bread or general dough recipe I always turn to Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour.  It is packed with protein making it ideal for those gluten packed recipes.  In addition to the bread flour I wanted to add a little depth to my homemade pizza crust recipe so I added in some Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour.  The wheat will help in the flavor department as well as ensuring it to be a golden brown outer pizza crust and a lightly browned inside.  Honestly the combo is insanely delicious but don’t be fooled because you can absolutely use 1 or the other for an all white or all whole wheat pizza crust recipe.  One thing that I believe is an absolutely necessity is the use of a gram scale.  You can be off a gram or 2 in a bread recipe, but you can be off an ounce of 2 or else your recipe will be trashed.  Baking is a science and it needs absolute ingredient amounts, so if your serious about baking or are even remotely interested in it, then get yourself a gram scale; I promise it will be worth it.

Outside of the need to use really good ingredients, time is the second biggest factor.  Making bread is not hard at all, it’s mostly just time that is needed.  No self-respecting pizza joint makes dough an hour before service starts.  No!  You usually have a baker or cook come in at wee hours of the morning to prepare the dough for resting and rising.  THIS is the most important part of the entire baking procedure.  I have a resting time of about 4 ½ hours but if you can make that even longer then your dough will be even fluffier and more tender.  My biggest challenge is trying to record a video with enough light in my kitchen during the day so you can actually see what I am doing.  Dang the time change!

Once you mix your pizza dough recipe together really well you let it sit for 90 minutes covered in plastic wrap before stretching it and folding it for 2 minutes.  Then, let is rest for 90 more minutes before removing it from the bowl.  You then want to form it to a large ball and then split it into fourths.  This recipe will give you 4 pizza doughs, which is awesome!  The topping portion is completely up to you so get as creative or as simple as you’d like, but one thing is for certain and that is this homemade pizza dough recipe is legit!

5.0 from 2 reviews
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Homemade Pizza with Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe
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Recipe type: main
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 pizzas
 
No matter where I travel to, I am always on the hung for the best pizza in that city. For some reason I keep coming back to my own homemade pizza with homemade pizza dough recipe. It's incredibly light and fluffy with the most perfect brown crust once cooked making it one of the best I've ever had.
Ingredients
  • 560 grams of Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour
  • 190 grams of Bob’s Red Mill whole Wheat Flour
  • 600 grams of water at 98° to 100°
  • 10 grams of Kosher salt
  • 4 grams of active yeast
  • optional pizza toppings
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl combine with your hands the flours, water, salt and yeast until completely mixed together. Let rest for 90 minutes covered in plastic wrap
  2. Next, stretch and fold the dough for 2 minutes and cover and rest for 90 more minutes
  3. Dust a clean surface with flour and place the dough onto it. Sprinkle the top with flour and fold the dough over 2 times and then begin to mold the dough into a ball by cupping around the dough into the bottom.
  4. Cut the dough into 4 individual dough balls and using the same cupping method form 4 dough balls and place on a sheet tray with parchment paper dusted with flour and covered with a towel, and rest for 90 minutes
  5. Place a pizza stone into the oven and preheat to 500°.
  6. Form a dough ball on a clean surface dusted with flour and stretch it out until it is about 12”-14” in diameter and transfer to a wooden pizza paddle. Add on desired toppings leaving a ½” to ¾” inch around the outside for the crust.
  7. Dust the pizza stone with semolina flour and transfer the pizza onto the stone. Bake for 5 minutes before rotating the pizza 180° and then baking for another 5-7 minutes or until the crust is browned and the cheese is completely melted.
  8. Slice and serve!

 

How to Make a Homemade Artisan Country Loaf Bread Recipe

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How to Make a Homemade Artisan Country Loaf Bread Recipe

Thanks again guys for stopping in to BillyParisi.com to check out all of my recipes and videos, and on tap for today is this How to Make a Homemade Artisan Country Loaf Bread Recipe.  It is to this day the best loaf of bread I have ever made.  As I get more comfortable with baking homemade bread, each recipe just seems to get better and better.  While the measurements are incredibly important, I’ll talk more on this later, technique and time are just as important if not more important.  Regardless, I’ve been LOVING baking homemade bread just like this artisan country loaf recipe and I can’t see myself slowing down any time soon.  Once you get your first really good loaf of homemade bread then it just pushes you to keep exploring and trying new things.  Can you tell I’m excited about baking homemade bread yet lol?

I made homemade bread a little bit throughout my food years since culinary school and to be honest I was a hack.  In fact, I feel like I was a food hack with a lot of things but now I’ve got some more patience and am generally more interested in the creativity and creation of food then I’ve ever been before.  I had a solid culinary education but to be honest my “on the job training” wasn’t all that awesome so most of my creativity had to come from myself.  It’s not that I didn’t work with amazing chefs, I did, it’s just that they were much better chefs from a management and classical standpoint and didn’t put as much emphasis on pushing the envelope in the creativity department.  I only tell you this because we never even made homemade bread when I was working at all those restaurants back in the day, we got it brought in.  It’s simple things like making homemade bread, that can make all the difference in the world.

I’ve been doing some reading lately and I have to say that the best book for homemade bread making techniques is Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.  It’s incredibly informative about how to go about each step in the bread making process and honestly, it’s fool proof.  It’s pretty much exactly what you would learn in a baking class in culinary school, except for when to add the yeast into the flour, salt and water.  Regardless it’s a fantastic book for making bread if you are interested in getting into this fun cooking hobby.

There are so many countries out there that have people who still make bread every single day.  To me, baking homemade bread is a dying art form and while it does take time, there is nothing more satisfying then making it especially from something so simple.  Bread, when done right, is loaded with all of the minerals and vitamins you need to sustain life.  While I cheated a bit with this artisan country loaf bread recipe, the most traditional way would have been using a starter instead of yeast.  However, most people who are just everyday cooks aren’t going to take the time and money it takes to feed a starter once a day so yeast is much more practical.

To make this homemade bread recipe you are looking at about 5 hours.  I think I said 3 hours and 45 minutes in the video but that’s really more dedicated to the resting and proofing time and not the actual folding and forming time.  If you do this recipe you need to start in the morning so maybe the weekend is best.  You are also going to get your hands dirty, so don’t even worry about breaking out the gigantic wooden spoon or spatula.  It’s important to use your hands so you can feel the dough come together.  You can’t do that with a spatula or spoon, you need to be touching it at all times so make sure there are no lumps.

Lastly, I want to talk about measuring for bread.  It is super important so if you are serious about this then I recommend investing in a metric scale.  Measuring in grams is as precise as it gets and you just can’t get that with ounces or measuring spoons or cups, so pick up a metric scale.  Homemade bread baking is a science and if you aren’t right on then you aren’t going to get the final product you need.  Guys I hope you enjoyed the video as well as inspiring you to get out there and bake some fresh homemade bread, there’s nothing like it!

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Recipe type: side
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Bread should be light and fluffy on the inside with a beautiful hard crust on the outside. Learn How to Make a Homemade Artisan Country Loaf Bread Recipe!
Ingredients
  • 560 grams of 00 bread flour
  • 190 grams of whole wheat flour
  • 600 grams of water at 98° to 100°
  • 17 grams of Kosher salt
  • 3 grams of active yeast
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl combine with your hands the flours and water until completely mixed together. Let rest for 10 minutes.
  2. Next, sprinkle the salt and yeast overtop and mix it into the dough by pinching, stretching and folding the dough over for 4 to 5 minutes.
  3. Cover and rest the dough in a warm dark place for 15 to 20 minutes before folding the dough over 5 to 6 times.
  4. Cover and rest for 45 to 60 minutes and then fold the dough over 5 to 6 times again.
  5. Cover and rest for 2 hours or until it has tripled in size.
  6. Dust a clean surface with flour and place the dough onto it. Sprinkle the top with flour and fold the dough over in thirds 3 to 4 times and then begin to mold the dough into a ball by cupping around the dough into the bottom.
  7. Place the dough into a floured Benetton and cover and rest for 60 minutes.
  8. In the meantime, place a small Dutch oven pot into the oven on 475° for at least 30 minutes.
  9. Flip the dough right into the hot Dutch oven pot, cover it and return it to the oven and bake for 30 minutes
  10. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

Smoked Cheese Bean Dip Recipe and Crudité Platter

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Smoked Cheese Bean Dip Recipe and Crudité Platter
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of BUSH’S® Beans. The opinions and text are all mine.

I absolutely love this time of year, and not just because it’s the holiday season. You may not know this about me but I am a college football junkie, so when the bowl games get going then you can be sure to find me in front of the TV grazing on food all day, which makes this Smoked Cheese Bean Dip Recipe and Crudité Platter the absolute perfect at home tailgate recipe! Just because I love football and love to eat recipes like this one does not at all mean this bean dip wouldn’t be absolutely fabulous for your Christmas or holiday spread this year; After all, this recipe is jam packed with amazing smoky bean flavor!

It seems these days that almost all of the dips I make have bacon in them. I mean come on, what’s not to like, right? I used to always say that either you like bacon or you’re wrong haha. So, with that being said, of course I started off this recipe by cooking off some thick cut bacon. Not only will I use the bacon to finish off the bean dip with, but I also use the rendered bacon fat as well. I mean just think of two super simple things that go amazing together, pork and beans. Once you cook the bacon, you want to set the crispy bacon to the side while leaving the bacon fat in the pan. To help kick the flavor up a few notches I added in some onions and garlic and caramelized them to help bring out some of the natural sugars that are in those foods. Next up, beans!

When it comes to cooking with beans, I almost always use an assortment to help provide some complexity to my recipes as well as some diversity to the legume category. Thanks to BUSH’S® Beans and their wonderful array of beans, this recipe turned out spectacular. BUSH’S offers a bean for every dish and taste – from vegetarian, reduced sodium and organic to bolder flavors and varieties.

The awesome combination of Pinto and Cannellini Beans combined together with the smoked cheese, made for the most amazing flavors. BUSH’S Beans are also easy to prepare, just a simple rinse and they are ready to go!

I added in just a wee bit of water to help cook the beans once I added them to the pot with the caramelized onions and garlic so that they could break down a bit. The goal here is to really soften up the beans so that you can mash them. Now, you can simply transfer everything at this point over to a food processor or mash it by hand which is what I did. I kind of like a few chunks in my dips and don’t at all mind if there are a few whole beans in there or even some nice big chunks of caramelized onion. To me these little inconsistencies in the texture of the dip make it awesome!

Once you mash up those beans you want to toss it around with a bit of cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise to help make it creamy. From there you bake it up until the cheese is super melty and has almost a nice crisp brown to the top. While you’re baking up your smoked cheese bean dip, this is perfect timing to get all of your crudité ingredients together. If the word crudité scares you, don’t let it because it simply means raw assorted vegetables served up with a dip for an appetizer, which is what we’re doing here. For me, the more dippers the better but you have to be mindful of the season so since it’s winter you should be looking to root vegetables first. You simply want to avoid things like cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow squashes, green zucchinis, etc. Just think of things that grow in the ground really.

When it comes to making a crudité platter, the more colors and options the better. As you can see from the pictures the spread is incredibly colorful with tons of great choices. I also like to include warm pita bread on there because it really just ads a little something extra along with helping to make it easy to scoop out all of that goodness in the dip! Happy football watching and holiday season!

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Smoked Cheese Bean Dip Recipe and Crudité Platter

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

Looking for a great appetizer this Holiday season? Try this beautiful and delicious Smoked Cheese Bean Dip Recipe and Crudité Platter!

  • Author: Chef Billy Parisi
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 10
  • Category: appetizer

Ingredients

For the Dip:

  • 6 strips of chopped thick cut bacon
  • ½ peeled and small diced yellow onion
  • 3 cloves of finely minced garlic
  • 2 cans of BUSH’S® Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed 1 can of BUSH’S® Pinto Beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup each of shredded mozzarella and smoked white cheddar cheese + more for garnish
  • ¼ cup of sour cream
  • ½ cup of mayonnaise
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • optional garnishes: sliced green onions, and roasted peppers and onions

For the Crudite:

  • tri-colored baby carrots
  • radishes
  • mini bell peppers
  • cauliflower
  • roasted garlic
  • warm sliced pita
  • olives
  • sliced celery

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Add the bacon to a medium size pot over medium heat and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon and set aside.
  3. Next, add the onions and garlic to the pot with the rendered bacon fat and cook until browned.
  4. Drain the beans in a colander and place into the pot along with a ¼ cup of water and cook over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes or until they begin to break down a bit.
  5. Mash with a hand masher and fold in the cheeses, sour cream, mayonnaise and salt and pepper.
  6. Transfer the mixture to a cast iron or enamel pan and top off with cheeses. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown.
  7. Garnish the top of the bean dip with optional garnishes and serve with crudité options.

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bush Brothers & Company . The opinions and text are all mine.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bush Brothers & Company . The opinions and text are all mine.

 

Vegetable Quesadillas Recipe with Chipotle Ranch Sauce

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of BUSH’S® Beans. The opinion and text are all mine.

I have a family that loves a variety of flavors and options so when we make quesadillas they get exactly what they are looking for.  Quesadillas are so versatile as you can literally put anything you want in them, so when I made this Vegetable Quesadillas Recipe with Chipotle Ranch Sauce, it was almost like making a quesadilla buffet and letting my family choose whatever they want to put in them.  After all, it’s always more fun to have an assortment of ingredients for your choosing when making just about anything.

I feel super lucky to have a built-in griddle to my stove top which makes it incredibly easy and fun to cook quesadillas on.  Just to be clear you definitely do not need a griddle to make quesadillas, a simple large frying pan will do. I’m always looking to incorporate more vegetables into my daily cooking, in fact I always try to do vegetable first before anything else.  It doesn’t always work out that way given the nature of my job but I am very conscience of what I put in my body, so when vegetable quesadillas came up, I jumped at the chance to make them.  You can incorporate so many different vegetables so it’s important to choose the right ones that go into quesadillas to give it the most robust flavors.  I leveraged the sweet potatoes as the protein, because they are kind of meaty, and then loaded the rest of the quesadilla up tons of yummy goodness.

Ever since I made my first quesadilla back in my line cook country club days back in good ole’ Eureka, Missouri, I was always taught to spread on a layer of refried beans first before putting anything else on.  Obviously from the video I am still living by what I was taught 20 years ago, gosh I’m getting old.  Now because I am leaning on only vegetables to bring about lots of flavor I used BUSH’S® Refried Black Beans.  WHOA, talk about flavor, this is the perfect bean to lay down on the quesadilla.  These beans helped to really take these quesadillas to the next level because of the amazing ingredients inside.  These guys are a MUST when making these or else I can’t guarantee you are going to get the same flavors I did.

The rest of the ingredients that go into this quesadilla are completely open.  For example, I used a combination of roasted red peppers, green peppers and onions, however you can add or swap out other ingredients.  You could add in chopped garlic, or replace the green peppers for jalapeños if you wanted some extra heat, this part is totally up to you.  I also used white rice but you could absolutely use brown rice or no rice.  In addition, you could add some leafy greens to these vegetable quesadillas such as kale or even baby spinach.  The point I’m trying to make here is have some fun and use ingredients you like.  To me the only staples to these veggie quesadillas are the beans and the sweet potatoes, everything else is fair game.

I also just want to be clear on one thing, these vegetable quesadillas are vegetarian not vegan, and because of that I piled the shredded Monterey jack cheese high on top before folding it over while making it.  Other great cheeses to use would include Colby jack cheese, queso fresco, cotija or Chihuahua cheese.  Even better yet since your family may be like mine and looking for options, you could provide a couple so they can select.

Last but not least, is the chipotle ranch sauce and it’s simply that, chipotles and ranch dressing.  You mince if a chipotle pepper in some adobo sauce and whisk it in to some ranch dressing.  If you like a lot of spice then I recommend cutting up an extra chipotle pepper to add in.  The ranch dressing can be homemade or store bought, completely up to you.

This Vegetable Quesadillas Recipe with Chipotle Ranch Sauce is a ton of fun and incredibly easy to make.  It’s a great recipe to do for your family or for entertaining.  Happy cooking!

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Vegetable Quesadillas Recipe with Chipotle Ranch Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
Go vegetarian with this fun delicious meal for Vegetable Quesadillas Recipe with Chipotle Ranch Sauce and Sweet Potatoes!
Ingredients
For the Quesadillas:
  • 3 peeled and medium diced sweet potatoes
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 each seeded and julienne red and green bell peppers
  • 1 peeled and julienne yellow onion
  • 1 pound of shredded Monterey jack cheese
  • 1 15-ounce can of BUSH’S® Refried Black Beans.
  • 4 cups of cooked white rice
  • 2 ounces of unsalted butter, cut up
  • 8 large flour tortillas
  • kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
  • 1 finely minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
  • 1 ½ cups of ranch dressing
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Spread out the sweet potatoes on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and drizzle on 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned and tender. Set aside.
  3. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large frying pan over high heat and saute the peppers and onions for 4 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside.
  4. Sauce: add the chipotle pepper and ranch to a small bowl and mix until combined. Cool before serving.
  5. To prepare: Add a small amount of butter to a large frying pan or a griddle over medium heat.
  6. Add 1 tortilla and evenly spread the beans over ½ of the tortilla. Cover the beans with some white rice and top off with some peppers and onions, sweet potatoes and cheese.
  7. Fold the other half over and cook on both sides until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
  8. Remove from the pan or griddle, slice and serve with sauce.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bush Brothers & Company. The opinions and text are all mine

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bush Brothers & Company . The opinions and text are all mine.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of BUSH’S® Beans. The opinion and text are all mine.

 

Homemade Sweet Potato Pie Recipe with Marshmallow Merengue

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When I was a kid I wasn’t too adventurous when it came to trying new foods, and the holidays were filled with things I had never heard of.  We spent thanksgiving and Christmas at my grandparents’ house and we always hung out and ate in the basement.  When it came to dessert time there were the usuals, apple pie, pumpkin pie, ice cream, etc.  However, I do remember one time someone, can’t quite recall who it was (maybe my Uncle Jack), who brought a sweet potato pie.  I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of a potato pie because to this point all I had been used to seeing was a sweet potato baked or sliced up and cooked.  It took several years after that for me to even try it.  After that first bite, I was so mad at myself for consistently passing on such a delicious dessert for all this time.

I like sweet potato pie so much that I won’t even touch pumpkin pie if it’s around.  To me it is light years better than pumpkin pie and so much more flavorful, and with the marshmallow merengue on top you will be floored at the wonderful combinations in this homemade pie.  There are a few ways to prepare the sweet potatoes.  Some some folks boil them, but I prefer to bake them.  I always wash my produce no matter what, even if I end up peeling it.  My chef used to tell me that there are people just like you and me packing up these fruits and vegetables so it’s in my best interest to give them a rinse first.  With the Franke roller mat it has become incredibly easy to wash my produce.  The mat is malleable so you can roll it right over the top of your sink and from there use a hose extender or faucet to rinse your veggies.  If you have small fruit you can put in a colander and rinse it while it rests on the roller mat.  I like doing this because I’m tall so anything that can help save my back from constantly bending over, then I’m game.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking it’s the perfect time to make the crust.  I would say the crust, no matter the filling, is probably my favorite thing to eat in a pie.  It just brings about so much balance and a little saltiness to the pie filling making it perfect.  Not sure who invented the pie crust, but THANK YOU!  Since a pie crust only takes about 5 minutes to make I mold it to the pan and pop it right into the refrigerator to let the dough rest until it’s time to fill and bake.

Once the potatoes are done cooking you want to peel them and mash them.  You can absolutely do all this in a standing mixer, using a hand mixer or a potato mill, which is what I do.  Sweet potatoes mash pretty easy so don’t worry about being able to get them broken down.  Once you mix in all the goodies you fill up the pie crust and bake it for about an hour until it becomes firm on top.  Once things go in the oven I usually try to clean up a bit and get caught up in the kitchen before doing something else.  That same roller mat that was used to wash my potatoes became a drying rack for my dishes while I wiped down the kitchen.  Seriously this thing is AMAZING!

After I cleaned up I had plenty of time to make the marshmallow merengue, which will go on top of the sweet potato pie after it is done baking.  You want to wait until there is about 5 minutes left in the baking process before starting this since you want to put it on top immediately and get it right back in the oven.  Once your egg whites have reached medium peaks you fold in the marshmallow whip and mix it until it reaches stiff peaks.  This is really important for how I styled my pie with the tall little points sticking up out of the pie.  I used the Franke roller mat as a trivet for the hot pie after I pulled it out of the oven to keep my countertops safe.  You definitely do not have to do what I did for the topping so please feel free to add on how you feel comfortable.  Pop the pie back in the oven for a few more minutes or until the merengue is browned and you are good to go!  Sweet potato pie is delicious warm or cold, so take your pick!


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Homemade Sweet Potato Pie Recipe with Marshmallow Merengue
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 pie
 
Leave the pumpkin pie at home this year and try this amazing Homemade Sweet Potato Pie Recipe with Marshmallow Merengue!
Ingredients
For the Crust:
  • 1¼ cups of flour
  • ½ teaspoons of Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • ½ cups of ice cold unsalted butter, cut up
  • ¼ cup of ice cold water
For the Filling:
  • 3 large sweet potatoes, baked and skins removed
  • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter
  • ½ cup of whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
For the Marshmallow Merengue:
  • 3 egg whites
  • ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • 1 8 ounce jar of marshmallow whip
Instructions
  1. Sweet Potatoes: Wash the potatoes and bake at 375 for 60 minutes.
  2. Crust: Add the ingredients, except for the water, into a food processor and pulse until it becomes like a meal. Slowly drizzle in the water until the dough begins to slightly come together.
  3. Remove the dough and roll it out on a clean flour dusted surface so that it will fit into a 9” pie tin.
  4. Form the dough to the pie tin and trim any access. Chill in the refrigerator until the sweet potatoes are done baking.
  5. Filling: Peel the sweet potatoes and add them to a large bowl along with all the other ingredients and mix until combined.
  6. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 60 to 65 minutes at 375° or until it becomes firm on top and in the center.
  7. Merengue: While the pie is cooking add the egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar to a standing mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until they’ve reached medium peaks, about 3 to 4 minutes.
  8. Next, add in the marshmallow whip and mix on high speed until it reached stiff peaks.
  9. When the pie is done cooking add the marshmallow merengue to the top of the pie in any decoration that you’d like and bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until they are browned.
  10. Serve the pie warm or cool and enjoy!

 

Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter

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Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter

Many of you don’t know this, but I actually went to culinary school 18 years ago to become a pastry chef.  It’s hard to imagine myself looking back as being a pastry chef…  Where would I have worked? What city would I be living in? Would I still be in the restaurant industry?  A lot of what if’s, but one thing is for certain and that’s that I never lost passion for baking.  I actually don’t even have a ton of experience with it since I went more of the general cooking route instead of a specific culinary focus, but every time I do bake I enjoy myself.  I actually started on the salads and dessert station, or as we call it, “garde manger,” just after I retired from dish washing :-).  I loved decorating desserts and making bountiful salads and even getting to make some homemade breads, but I dang sure didn’t have the patience for it once I got to culinary school.  I mean it takes so much time to make cakes, bake cakes, cool cakes, decorate cakes, I mean dude there is a reason pastry chefs get started at like 3 am on their job.  Fast forward 18 years and now I have a serious gratitude for it.

Baking is a labor of love so you have to appreciate everything about the process, and this Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter takes about 15 ½ hours from start to finish so if you don’t like baking you better dig deep or just simply find another recipe haha.  There is about 14 hours of down time so don’t get worried that you are going to have to be in the kitchen for that amount of time.  The reason this homemade rye bread recipe takes so long is because rye flour takes significantly more time to rise then that of a normal artisan bread recipe.  Rye flour is dense and the grain is bigger so it’s harder for the yeast to penetrate it to assist in it rising.

When it comes to making bread, the flour is everything and there is no one I trust more than Bob’s Red Mill.  They’ve been making flour for quite some time and Bob’s commitment of milling the best flours around makes me a believer in everything they do.  We got a chance to meet Bob this past summer and at age 90 he seems to have as much passion as ever to what he does on a daily basis and we couldn’t be prouder to use his products in our home.  If you’re wondering what Bob is like, he’s similar to your grandpa who’s well-traveled and has a ton of amazing stories to share.  Yeah, we are fans J.  If you wanted to make the densest bread on earth you could certainly just use rye flour, but because I want this thing to have some air pockets I used equal parts weight of Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour and Artisan Bread flour to make this homemade rye bread recipe.  Just trust me on this and use both or you are going to drive yourself nuts when using just rye flour.

I’ve sometimes struggles making breads in the past as the dough seems tough during the rising process.  It almost seems as if there wasn’t enough water when kneading the dough…  I can’t put my finger on what exactly happened but if anything is a science when it comes to cooking it is hands down baking bread.  Going back to my culinary school roots, there is a reason everything was measured in grams and it’s because if its preciseness.  When you can get down to the very gram then you know your measurements are on point, so that’s exactly what I did in this homemade rye bread recipe.

Believe it or not I didn’t even knead this bread, I just simply mixed it and let it rest for 14 hours before forming the bread and letting it rest again.  You could almost call this rye bread recipe, no knead rye bread but maybe we’ll save that for another date.

The last thing I did to finish off this bread was I served it up with an absolutely delicious cranberry walnut butter that is simple and so in season it should be at Starbucks.  Well that’s all I got for now, but I truly hope this bread and this Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter inspires you to put your baking hat on and get after it!


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Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter
Author: 
Recipe type: side dish
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1 loaf
 
Put your bakers hat on and learn how to make an amazing Homemade Rye Bread Recipe with Cranberry Walnut Butter!
Ingredients
For the Bread
  • 420 grams of warm water
  • 50 grams of dark molasses
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of caraway seeds
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of yeast
  • 270 grams of Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour
  • 270 grams of Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour
  • 10 grams of Kosher salt
For the Butter:
  • 1 pound of softened unsalted butter
  • ½ cup of roughtly chopped dried cranberries
  • ½ cup of roughly chopped walnuts
  • 3 tablespoons of honey
  • Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl whisk together the water, molasses, orange zest, caraway seeds and yeast until combined. Set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl whisk together the flours and salt and mix it into the liquid bowl until combined.
  3. Let rest covered in plastic for 14 hours.
  4. Preheat the oven to 475° with a Dutch oven pot in it.
  5. Next, sprinkle some flour onto a clean surface and place the risen dough onto the surface.
  6. Sprinkle a little more flour on it and make it flat. Next, simply fold it in half, and then fold it in half again until it becomes a square.
  7. Using both hands form the dough by starting at the top and cupping it underneath pushing some of the dough under to make it form a round shape.
  8. Place the dough into a Benetton heavily dusted with flour, or a wooden bowl dusted with flour, cover and let rest for 1 hour.
  9. next, flip the dough over right into the hot Dutch oven pot in the oven and score the top with a bread knife if you desire.
  10. Bake for 30 minutes covered and then remove the cover and bake for a further 15 minutes.
  11. Cool the dough until room temperature. Slice and serve.
  12. Butter: Add the butter to a standing mixer with the whip attachment and beat on high speed until the butter becomes light and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes.
  13. Next fold in the cranberries, walnuts, honey and salt and serve alongside the bread.

 

 

Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Homemade Granola

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Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Homemade Granola

Ever since I read an article with one of my favorite actors, Ryan Reynolds, I absolutely LOVE steel cut oats!  I’d actually never had them before reading the article but once I had them I was hooked.  Steel cut oats are meaty, chewy beyond delicious, and you better believe my friends over at Bob’s Red Mill make the very best.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask Bob himself who will let you know that Bob’s Red Mill steel cut oats is award winning and considered some of the best oatmeal in the world.  Steel cut oats are slightly different than regular rolled oats so cooking them is a bit different.

If you’re from the south, then you absolutely understand the love and passion that goes into making grits, well the same thing applies to steel cut oats.  They take about 30 minutes or so to cook from start to finish and if you want them to cook a bit faster then I recommend you soak them at night.  That’s what I did when making this Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Coconut Milk and Homemade Granola.  I cover the oats until there is about 2 inches of water over the top and simply let it sit at room temperature overnight.  Come morning time I drain them and rinse them and then begin the cooking process.

When it comes to cooking oatmeal it’s wise to constantly stir throughout the process so nothing sticks to the pot, and if my old culinary instructor were around you would have to use a wooden spoon and stir in the same direction.  Now I’m not that strict but one thing I notice when stirring over a stove is that I have one hand on my hip and the other is stirring.  If you’re laughing it is 100% guaranteed that you do the same thing, you just don’t realize it.  Next time you are stirring something while standing over the stove check yourself to see if you are :-).

Since it’s October and pumpkin just about goes into everything, I figured I would fold a bit of it into these cooked steel cut oats.  I heated up some canned organic pumpkin with a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon to help add some nice flavor into it.  I love just about everything pumpkin so I used an entire can when making this Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Coconut Milk and Homemade Granola.  I also made quite a bit of cooked steel cut oatmeal so it by no means was overpowering.  While I love pumpkin, I’m also not one of those maniacs who sits outside their favorite coffee shops in July waiting for pumpkin lattes.

I wanted to make this recipe vegan so instead of finishing off the cooked steel cut oats with butter or cream, I folded in some coconut milk and oh boy did it make it super creamy and delicious.  After that is when I put in the pumpkin, and adjusted the flavor with some maple syrup, honey and cinnamon to get to that perfect balance.  I mean dude honestly I felt like I was eating pumpkin pie it’s seriously that good, except there was no whip cream or sugar!

I thought it would be really cool to make some homemade granola and sprinkle it on top to give it a nice crunch.  I’ve actually only made homemade granola a handful of times and every single time that I do I always wonder why I don’t make it more often.  I used a combo of Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats and coconut flakes along with some pepitas, pecans, dried cherries, coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup and honey.  You just combine all of those things, spread it out on a sheet tray and bake it for 15 minutes and you’re done.  If you’ve never made homemade granola you should honestly do it, it’s really fun and incredibly rewarding when you find out just how good it is.

One last secret for you… Pumpkin goes RIDICULOUSLY WELL with amaretti cookies!  So in light of that I crumbled some up and added some to the top of the pumpkin steel cut oats along with some orange zest.  Oranges go great with pumpkin as well.


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Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Homemade Granola
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 to 6
 
Soak your oats over night to make this extremely tasty Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats Recipe with Homemade Granola and Coconut Milk!
Ingredients
For the Oatmeal:
  • 3 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats + 6 cups of water for soaking
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 can of coconut milk
  • 1 can of pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
For the Granola:
  • ½ cup of chopped dried cherries
  • 2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats
  • ½ cup of Bob’s Red Mill coconut flakes
  • ⅓ cup of pepitas
  • ⅓ cup of chopped pecans
  • 2 ½ tablespoons of melted coconut oil
  • 2 tablespoons each of maple syrup and honey
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla
For the Toppings:
  • crushed amaretti cookies
  • orange zest
Instructions
  1. Oatmeal: Add the oats and water to a pot and soak over night.
  2. Drain the oats and rinse and then add to a medium size pot along with the 4 cups of water.
  3. Stir over low heat until the oats crack and are chewy and tender. Finish with coconut milk, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey and maple syrup. Keep warm.
  4. Granola: Preheat the oven to 275°.
  5. In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients and lay flat on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool to room temperature before breaking apart.
  6. Top the oatmeal off with some granola, crushed amaratti cookies and orange zest. Serve hot!

 

Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese

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Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese

I am back at it this week with this insanely delicious Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets, Sweet Potatoes, Dried Cherries, Pistachios, Bacon and Fried Goat Cheese tossed in a tasty creamy red wine vinegar dressing.  I know I keep telling you that we are pushing to incorporate more greens into our diet and if this is what it takes to get there then count me in.  You wanna talk about flavor? DUDE, this thing is loaded with goodness!  Sure there are a few things I could eliminate to make this really healthy like the bacon and the fried goat cheese, but man it seriously gives it so much flavor and makes clean eating tolerable.

The problem I’ve always had with clean eating and trying to be plant first is that it is so life and time consuming.  I mean you have to plan on so much stuff because there’s no gluten, no dairy, no meat, no cheese, no nothing and it takes time to develop recipes and ideas to accommodate such a lifestyle.  While we are nowhere near perfect we’ve sort of met in the middle at chilling back on red meat, dairy and gluten and trying are darndest to be plant first.  I do hope one day that I will be about 90% vegan because when do have those successful weeks, oh my gosh do we feel amazing.  In those weeks where we are really heavy in plant eating I feel like I barely need coffee.

This Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese is a variation of a bunch of other salads with a some new things sprinkled in, like fried goat cheese.  I really love the recipes that I’ve made so going back to reinvent some older ones or just taking a couple ideas from them to make new ones is really fun.  I knew I wanted to use julienne kale and finely shaven Brussel sprouts as the base for this salad because honestly I need as many earthy leafy greens as my body can get.  As I get older I crave vegetables and few can deliver like kale does.  I remember back in the day when kale was used as a garnish at steakhouses.  In fact no one ever ate it because it was so bitter, but hey it was bright green and looked good.  Fast forward 20 years and now people can’t keep their hands off of it lol, go figure.

I wanted to load this salad up with some tasty vegetables that are in season or are starting to come into season.  Sweet potatoes and beets are loaded with flavor and nutrients so roasting them up and putting them on this kale and Brussel sprout salad was a no brainer.  To keep things efficient I did everything in the same pan, including frying bacon and goat cheese.  Of course after pan roasting the beets I wiped down the pan because I really didn’t want purple bacon.  When frying the bacon I actually added a bit more oil because I decided halfway through cooking it that I wanted to fry the goat cheese in the bacon fat.  SCORE!!!

The fried goat cheese was actually pretty easy to make and if I were to do it over again I would probably do an herb panko instead of just a simple panko.  Don’t get me wrong, they are super good, I just think it could be better with herbs and seasonings in the bread crumbs.  When cutting the log of goat cheese you may experience that it breaks up a bit, but no problem because you can absolutely mold it back to a circle.  Goat cheese is sticky so honestly don’t worry about it falling apart.  Once the goat cheese is cut then you simply dredge through the stations of a standard breading procedure.

The dressing I used for this Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese is a really simple blend of mayonnaise, sugar, red wine vinegar and poppy seeds.  The dressing is extremely creamy, tangy and sweet making it a perfect compliment to the bitter greens and roasted veggies.  Make this one, I guaranteed you’ll enjoy it!

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Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese
Author: 
Recipe type: salad
 
Up your salad making game with this amazingly delicious Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad Recipe with Beets and Fried Goat Cheese!
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
  • ½ cup of mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • ¼ cup of red wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons of poppy seeds
For the Salad:
  • 1 log of goat cheese, sliced ½” thick
  • standard breading procedures: 1 cup flour, 2 whisked eggs, 1 cup of panko bread crumbs
  • 2 cups of pan roasted medium diced sweet potatoes in 1 teaspoon of olive oil
  • 2 cups of pan roasted medium diced red beets in 1 teaspoon of olive oil
  • ½ cup of chopped crisp cooked bacon
  • ½ cup of canola or healthier frying oil
  • 1 head of trimmed julienne kale
  • 15 thinly shaven Brussel sprouts
  • ½ cup of dried cherries
  • ½ cup of pistachios
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Dressing: Combine all ingredients together in a medium bowl and whisk. Keep cool before serving.
  2. Goat Cheese: Coat each goat cheese round in the flour, then eggs, then panko and set on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. keep cool before frying.
  3. In a large pan over medium high heat, roast the sweet potatoes and then the beets. Chill before serving.
  4. Clean the pan and cook the bacon until crispy. Chop the bacon and set aside.
  5. Add the oil to the frying pan and fry the goat cheese until they are lightly browned on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove and drain any fat before serving.
  6. To plate: Place the kale, Brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, beets, chopped bacon, cherries, pistachios, fried goat cheese, salt and pepper and dressing.

 

Black Bean Burger Recipe with Yucca and Guacamole

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I know I keep talking about it, but I can’t say it enough.  We are on a mission to clean eating daily, and while we are nowhere near perfect we are taking some good steps and this Black Bean Burger Recipe with Yucca and Guacamole is one of them.  I’m a little more lenient with the diet, but my wife is doing her dangdest to be lactose and gluten free and plant first.  She may sneak in a piece of chicken or fish but her goal is to essentially be a gluten-free vegan.  This whole vegan thing is brand new territory for me, yes even me a chef.  People always ask me what the organic and vegan stuff was like back when I was in the restaurant industry, but to be honest that wasn’t a thing yet 15 years ago.  It would be really hard as a restaurant owner to meet all of the dietary needs these days, from gluten-free to dairy free, or paleo and vegan, it’s a lot to plan for.  Regardless, trying to come up with totally gluten-free vegan meals has been incredibly challenging and one of the most fun things I’ve gotten to do as a cook in a long time.

One of the toughest things to do when preparing vegan meals is to make everything taste really good.  Not the really good for being vegan, but the really good no matter what your diet it is type of food.  It’s extremely hard to replicate the flavors and textures of meat and dairy when preparing vegan meals, but thank the Good Lord for Bob’s Red Mill.  Who’s ever heard of a chia seed or flax seed meal egg?  Yeah not me until I started doing some digging.  If you’ve ever made a meatloaf or a complex burger then you know it needs an egg.  Now strip away the meat and figure out how to help it bind together without using an egg.  Bob’s Red Mill Flax Seed Meal, enter stage left please!  You simply mix together a ration of 3-to-1 water to flax seed meal and let it sit for a few minutes, and boom 1 flax seed meal egg.  Obviously, it doesn’t taste like an egg but there are plenty of nutritional benefits and a texture that’s pretty darn close.

Using an old trick I learned from working with mushrooms, I blended up some portabellas along with some peppers and onions for flavor to help keep the black bean burger recipe nice and moist.  Since I can’t use gluten, Bob’s Red Mill came to the rescue once again with their corn meal.  I used the corn meal to help dry up the black bean burger recipe a bit so that it could hold shape while cooking it.  It worked absolutely perfect and added such wonderful flavors to the mix as well.

To continue adding flavor to this black bean burger recipe I decided that I would make a Yucca mash to go underneath.  Now, I haven’t worked with Yucca in literally 16 years so it’s been a minute.  Yucca is indigenous to South America and looks like a really long dark brown potato with a thick skin on the outside.  You peel yucca, you slice it then you boil the heck out of it until it becomes really tender.  Strain it and remove these long woody stem like things and then mash away.  I mixed in some vegan butter and a bit of salt for flavor and dang was it good.  My wife and daughter LOVED the flavor and though it was so cool, especially since they’ve never eaten it before.

To top off the black bean burger recipe I used my classic easy guacamole recipe and then finished it off with a chipotle spiked tomato vinaigrette.  I wanted nothing more than to mix together some chipotle adobo sauce and some Mexican crema, but dang the no-lactose thing either!!  The next best thing I could think of is pureeing some fresh tomatoes along with some chipotles and adobo sauce, and some olive oil for some body.  Well it was incredibly delicious and finished off this Black Bean Burger Recipe with Yucca and Guacamole like a champ!

I hope you all are enjoying our clean eating push and please feel free to give me a shout on social media, and give my good friends at Bob’s Red Mill a follow as well!

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Black Bean Burger Recipe with Yucca and Guacamole
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
 
Make this delicious Vegan Black Bean Burger Recipe with Yucca and Guacamole with gluten-free bun and chipotle spike tomato sauce!
Ingredients
For the Toppings:
  • 1 peeled and thickly sliced yucca
  • 1 tablespoon of vegan butter
  • 1 easy guamole recipe
  • 3 ears of corn, un-shucked
  • 2 vine ripe tomatoes
  • 2tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
  • 6 toasted gluten-free hamburger buns
  • 2 cups of watercress
For the Burger:
  • 3 tablespoons of water
  • 1 tablespoon of Bob’s Red Mill Flax Seed Meal
  • 2 gilled portabella mushrooms
  • 1 seeded red bell pepper
  • ½ peeled sweet onion
  • 3 15-ounce cans of black beans, drained and lightly mashed
  • 2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Corn Meal
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Toppings: Boil the yucca in a large pot of boiling salted water for 4-50 minutes or until very tender.
  3. Remove the yucca and remove the woody stems in the center. Mash together with the vegan butter. Keep warm.
  4. Place the corn on a sheet tray and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the outside is browned and the corn is cooked. Remove, shuck and trim the corn from the cob. Keep warm.
  5. Add the tomatoes, olive oil and chipotle pepper to a blender and blend on high until smooth and emulsified. Set aside.
  6. Burger: Combine the water and flax seed meal and set aside for 5 minutes to make a flax seed egg.
  7. Next, add the mushrooms, peppers and onions to a food processor and process on high speed until it is finely minced.
  8. Transfer the mixture to a bowl along with the mashed black beans, flax seed egg and corn meal and mix until combined.
  9. Make 6 large black bean patties and cook them on a flat top or in a large frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil until browned on the outside, cooked in the middle and firm. Note: you can finish them in the oven at 400° for 10 to 12 minutes and frying them brown in the pan.
  10. To Plate: Place the watercress on the bottom of a toasted gluten-free bun and layer on as followed: yucca mash, black bean burger, guacamole, corn kernels, chipotle tomato vinaigrette and the top toasted gluten-free bun. Serve hot!

 

Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk, Berries and Chia Seeds

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Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk, Berries and Chia Seeds

I have been on absolute protein shake binge that last few weeks, and it’s all thanks to Bob’s Red Mill Pea Protein Powder.  I’ve had a little more motivation that usually since I’ve been more persistent about getting to the gym at least 4 days a week, so with going to the gym comes being more conscious of what I’m putting in my body.  When I can start off the morning with a delicious Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk and Berries, I immediately feed energized and full, which is perfect for giving my what I need to endure a busy work day, find time to go to the gym and hang out with my family.

Bob’s Red Mill Pea Protein Powder is loaded with nutritional benefits from 21 grams of protein to having 0, yes that’s right, ZERO grams of sugar in it.  It has a really mild pea flavor, but once you mix it in with the fresh berries and coconut milk, you don’t taste anything other than pure deliciousness.

One of my absolute favorite things about drinking a protein shake in the morning time is that I can change it up every single time, especially since the pea protein powder is so natural in flavor.  It could be a peanut butter and banana day, or a vanilla and frozen berries kind of day, no matter what it is I usually poke around the house to see what we have and use it.

Protein Shakes are meant to be quick, easy and delicious so if you plan on drinking them on a daily or weekly basis don’t go overboard on gathering all of the ingredients so that you’re making some 20 ingredients $35 dollar shake every morning.  Keep the recipes simple and low in count so that you can spend more time on things that matter, like family, or the gym :-).

In addition to this Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk and Berries being part of my daily morning routine, I’ve also used it as a meal replacement or a snack during the afternoon.  Sometimes I’m just busy as all get out and don’t get time to make a meal or even a quick snack, so I just toss everything in the blender and boom I’m done in under a minute with a protein packed tasty treat.  I’ve also subscribed to the fact that these are phenomenal replacements for those sweet tooth cravings that you may have later at night.  I remember reading a Men’s Health® with Ryan Reynolds in it, yes he’s my man crush, and it was right after he did Blade 3 and the dude was JACKED!!  I remember reading in the article that he said if you are hungry after 8 o’clock to avoid any carbs or sugars and go straight to a protein shake.  It will fill you up with no regrets, and you know what he’s absolutely correct.  I’ve been doing it a lot these past few weeks and I’m loving how I feel when I wake up.  I know if I eat garbage the night before that I am so sluggish the next day.

In addition to making blended protein shakes with pea protein powder you could also get creative by incorporating it into muffins, baked breads or even cookies.  Yes, you should avoid all of the sugar you put into things like that and find more natural replacements like honey, agave or even coconut sugar.  The whole idea is to get creative and make things that work for you and your family, and of course your lifestyle.

I’ve been drinking these Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk and Berries for 3 weeks and I’ll do my best to post my progress on how I’m feeling as well as hopefully my physique slimming down a little bit.  When I turned 30, something definitely changed with my body and I immediately noticed I couldn’t just eat whatever I wanted and expect for it to fall away by doing next to nothing.  The body is a temple and we need to be taking care of it and feeding it properly. Just like the old saying goes, garbage in – garbage out!

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk, Berries and Chia Seeds
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1
 
Start your morning off right with this tasty Pea Protein Powder Shake with Coconut Milk, Berries and Chia Seeds recipe.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk
  • ¼ cup each of frozen raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries
  • 1 teaspoon of Bob’s Red Mill Chia Seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of Bob’s Red Mill Hemp Heart Seeds
  • 1 scoop of Bob’s Red Mill Pea Protein Powder
  • 2 teaspoons of Coconut Sugar
  • Optional Garnishes: toasted coconut flakes, assorted frozen berries, fresh cherries
Instructions
  1. Combine everything in a blender except for the garnishes and puree until smooth.
  2. Serve in a glass with optional garnishes.

 

How to Make a Classic Ratatouille Recipe

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How to Make a Classic Ratatouille Recipe

One of my first experiences while working as a line cook at the age of 15 at one of my favorite restaurants in St. Louis was making risotto and ratatouille.  They were the staple side items that we often served up to accompany main entrees on the menu.  I remember everything from prepping the zucchini, squash and eggplant to the sautéing of the vegetables and then finishing it off with herbs and cheese and sending it out the door to dining room guests.  I’ll forever cherish those foundational moments of my culinary journey, which is why I do so many recipes like this How to Make a Classic Ratatouille Recipe.

While my first restaurant experience opened the door to cooking for me, I honed those skills after culinary school at a French restaurant named Malmaison, where it does not get anymore classic than ratatouille.  There I thinly sliced vegetables and layered them over crushed tomatoes and herbs de Provence for the most amazing simple flavors.  My version for this classic ratatouille recipe was inspired by my time at Malmaison.  The owners taught us to respect every part of the cooking process no matter if the continual slicing seemed tedious.  It was at Malmaison where I really began to appreciate every aspect of cooking, from prep all the way to clean-up.

Ratatouille is such a simple dish comprised of few simple ingredients that – when cooked together – give off the most comforting flavors.  Obviously, any classic ratatouille recipe starts with fresh produce, and summertime means it’s peak season for everything that goes into ratatouille.  Since we rehabbed our kitchen and loaded it up with Franke products, washing fruits and vegetables has become much easier – thanks to the Franke Roller Mat and faucet with hose extender.  Not only are the deep farmhouse sink and faucet one of the highlights of our kitchen, but they’re incredibly functional – making every day cooking a joy.

Once you’ve washed your vegetables, it’s now time to sharpen up those knife skills because it will require some very thin slicing.  If for some reason it seems like a bit too much, you can absolutely pull out your friend, the mandolin and allow it to be your guide.  I occasionally use my mandolin, but when slicing delicate vegetables such as eggplant and tomatoes, I find the mandolin can be a bit too harsh and can make things break apart and mush together.

Once the vegetables are all sliced up, I like to lay them next to each other on a sheet tray for easy access to layer everything up.  On the bottom of a casserole dish or cast iron skillet, pour in some crushed tomatoes and then season the top of it with fresh thyme, salt and pepper.  From there you want to layer on the vegetables.  It’s sort of like stacking them up like cards and placing them into the skillet around the outside – making sure to pack them in tight.  Make sure you watch the video for this part as my words may not do this justice.  Once you are layered up around the outside, you then want to work your way to the center, so another layer is in store.

I did zucchini, squash, eggplant and then rotated with either tomatoes or red peppers and then added onion every so often.  My wife’s not a big fan of onion, so I try to use it sparingly.  Now that you’ve got this beautiful layered ratatouille, you’re probably wondering about the gap in the center of the skillet.  I made a zucchini and squash rose by layering them alternately out on a cutting board and then rolling them up.  I know, I know it looks intimidating, but with the help of a mandolin, this age-old garnish trick could not be easier.  Be sure to season the top of your veggies very well with salt, pepper and more fresh thyme, and then it’s off to the oven!

 

Ratatouille takes about 45 minutes at 375° for the vegetables to become crisp on the outside and al dente in the inside, which for me is perfect.  Once it’s cooked, place it on your Franke Roller Mat to make sure you don’t damage your tabletop surface.  You can garnish with herbs and parmesan cheese, but the most important part is enjoying this classic ratatouille recipe.

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How to Make a Classic Ratatouille Recipe
Author: 
 
Learn How to Make a Classic Ratatouille Recipe loaded with zucchini, squash, eggplant, onion, tomato, bell peppers and herb!
Ingredients
  • 28 ounces of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
  • 2 thinly sliced zucchini
  • 2 thinly sliced yellow squashes
  • 2 thinly sliced egg plants
  • 2 thinly sliced tomatoes
  • 2 seeded red bell peppers cut into 1” squares
  • 1 peeled and thinly sliced red onion
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • chopped fresh parsley and shredded parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. Pour the tomatoes to the bottom of a pan and season well with salt, pepper and 1 tablespoons of fresh thyme.
  3. Next, alternately layer the vegetable slices around the outside of 12” cast iron skillet packing them in tight. Do the same to the inside of the skillet and then place a zucchini and squash rose in the center. See the video for details
  4. Season the top of the vegetables with salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoons of thyme and bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until crispy brown on top and cooked throughout.
  5. Garnish with chopped parsley and shredded parmesan cheese.

 

 

Easy Falafel Sandwich Recipe with Lentils and Cucumber Salsa

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I remember the first time I had falafel and thinking what odd flavors of ingredients am I eating?  I was in my teens so my palette hadn’t quite developed yet even thought I was already in the restaurant industry.  I never attempted to make falafel for some years later and when I did it I was blown away at how easy it was to make and how simple the ingredients were.  While making it I immediately remembered when I ate it for the first time several years prior and thinking why on earth did I think it was something crazy.  Falafel is chickpeas with a lot of parsley and a few other things, what’s so crazy about that?  I actually felt the same way about hummus for some reason.  Guess I’m a late bloomer to Middle-Eastern cuisine and only I’m to blame for missing out on all the glorious food.

In the spirit of constantly changing things up I wanted to try and make flafel with lentils instead of chickpeas.  I love chickpeas, but dang do I love lentils too and thought it could provide a really cool flavor.  For the lentils I looked no further than Bob’s Red Mill Organic Brown Lentils.  Since lentils can be cooked right away without soaking I figured I could knock this recipe out in no time, and I did!  lentils have been around forever and have such a delicious earthy flavor that the other ingredient combos I added into this falafel sandwich would be a perfect fit!  The first thing you need to do is cool the lentils which is a simple 3 to 1 water to lentils ratio.  Once you are finished cooking the lentils strain off any excess water and chill slightly.  The only reason I think you should chill them is because you don’t want them to be smoking hot while processing them letting pressure build up possibly resulting in a falafel explosion.  Just google hot liquids in a blender :-).

I used really simple ingredients into this falafel recipe to help bring for those delicious lentils.  I added in some roasted garlic, parsley, cilantro, cumin, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.  Yup, that’s it!  You want to process them until they are smooth which honestly won’t be an issue since the lentils are soft.  Next transfer the mixture to a bowl and add in about a ½ cup of flour just to help bind it together and roll them into balls without being super stick.  I think you could substitute a gluten free flour as well to change this recipe to be gluten free.  Once you roll out the balls you then fry them in a bit of oil just until browned on all sides, and from there they’re baked in the oven.  In total it takes about 90 minutes from cooking the lentils to the finished falafel product.  Not-too-bad for something this delicious.

To enhance the flavors of the lentil falafel I made a really simple yogurt sauce and a cucumber salsa.  Both are ridiculously easy to make and really provide some amazing tastes that I know you will love.  I wanted to change up the traditional tzatziki or tahini garlic sauces with these two.  The yogurt sauce consists of Greek yogurt and milk harissa, that’s it.  It has a creamy slightly spicy taste that is so dang good and is tamed and complimented with the cucumber salsa.  Think of a salsa and then replace the tomatoes, that’s just about it.  Sure I used a rice wine vinegar and didn’t add in jalapeños but the premise is the same.

The last few things I did to finish off this recipe was that I served it with baby spinach, sliced tomatoes and on a huge piece of pita.  If you want to change these ingredients up, or simply want to use whatever you have in the house, you can use arugula lettuce, roasted peppers instead of tomatoes and naan bread instead of pita.  Not huge changes but changes that would add lots of delicious flavor.  Well that’s all I got for now in this delicious Easy Falafel Sandwich Recipe with Lentils and Cucumber Salsa, until next time!  Happy Cooking!


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Easy Falafel Sandwich Recipe with Lentils and Cucumber Salsa
Author: 
Recipe type: main
 
Love Mediterranean food? Check out how to make this Easy Falafel Sandwich Recipe with Lentils and Cucumber Salsa!
Ingredients
For the falafel:
  • 3 cups of cooked and chilled Bob’s Red Mill Organic Brown Lentils
  • 1 bulb of roasted garlic cloves
  • 1 cup of parsley leaves
  • ½ cup of cilantro leaves
  • 1 tablespoon of cumin
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • ½ cup of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour
  • ½ cup of sunflower oil
  • 4 large pita shells
  • 1 cup of packed baby spinach
  • 1 cup of sliced assorted tomatoes
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Sauces:
  • 1 cup of Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup of mild harissa
  • 1 seeded and small diced cucumber
  • ¼ peeled and small diced red onion
  • ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes
  • ¼ cup of chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill
  • ½ teaspoon of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven 375°.
  2. Falafel: Add the cooked lentils, garlic, parsley, cilantro, cumin, lemon juice and salt and pepper to a food processor and process on high speed until smooth.
  3. Next fold in the flour and roll into individual balls until all of the batter is used up. You will have around 20.
  4. Next heat the sunflower oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and cook the lentil falafel on all sides until golden brown and then transfer them to a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.
  5. Bake in the oven at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes or until cooked through out. Set aside.
  6. Sauces: Whisk together the yogurt and harissa until completely combined and keep cool before serving.
  7. In a medium bowl mix together the cucumber, red onion, pepper flakes, cilantro, dill, sugar, vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and keep cool before serving.
  8. To Plate: Spread the yogurt on the bottom of a pita bread and add some spinach and tomatoes to it as well. Top off with a few fried falafel balls and cucumber salsa.

 

Savory Tart with Sweet Potatoes and Goat Cheese in Honey Wheat Crust

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Savory Tart with Sweet Potatoes and Goat Cheese in Honey Wheat Crust

I’ve developed a huge passion for baking the past few years.  Whether it’s making homemade bread, a cake, a pie, or even simple cookies, I’ve fallen in love with baking.  Believe it or not I actually went to culinary school some 17 years ago (dang I’m getting old) to be a pastry chef.  I quickly discovered at the tender age of 18 that I definitely did not have the patience it took to be a pastry chef.  I’m not about to wait all day for a cake to cook and completely cool before icing it. HECK NO!!  So I knew after my first baking class, about 6 months in, that being a pastry chef was not in my future.  I did instead pursue traditional culinary skills and really put baking on the back burner for about 14 years.  I have a 4-year-old so dang has my patience increased, and because I’ve been learning this asset it’s made it more fun to bake.  Thanks Olivia!

In addition to acquiring a bit of patience for the art of baking, I’ve really enjoyed the science behind it.  While there is definitely some science into baking sweet’s it’s much more predominant in bread making.  The yeast feeds off the glucose, but then it needs to be a certain temperature to come out of its dormancy.  Then it causes the flour and liquid to rise and produce this mostly air filled dough mixture that is then baked, which again is a mostly air filled cooked dough mixture.  WOW is it so cool to me.  Ok now that I’ve geeked you out let’s leave the baking process and focus in more to this Savory Tart with Sweet Potatoes and Goat Cheese in Honey Wheat Crust.  While dough rising isn’t necessary in this recipe, there is still some down time so dough can rest before cooking.

There are so many sweet tarts out there I really wanted to make something that was loaded up with vegetables while using a whole wheat crust.  Bob’s Red Mill makes the most amazing stone ground whole wheat flour.  The flavor alone is superior to anything out there and its high protein content makes it perfect for anything baked, especially a hearty savory tart like this one.

Believe it or not any tart or pie crust shell is so easy to make that once you learn how to do it you’ll feel silly for going to the store and buying the premade version.  It’s seriously only flour, butter, a bit of sweetness, salt and tad bit of water.  Seriously that is it, so no more crazy talk like you can’t do it.  Put all of those ingredients into a food processor and spin it together until it becomes like a meal and then you form it into a ball with your hands and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the butter can cool back down.  If you use room temperature dough it becomes harder to work with as it can fall easier due to the butter melting.  Let’s be honest too, 30 minutes is nothing to wait for when making this Savory Tart with veggies.

Once the dough has cooled down a bit you want to form it to a tart shell pan.  If you don’t have a tart shell pan then you can use a pie pan, no worries.  Next you want to dock the dough with a fork so it can breathe a bit when baking, and so no dough bubbles form.  You then place a sheet of fitted parchment paper down onto the dough and add either raw beans or rice to the top to give it some weight and you bake it.  Since the vegetables in this savory tart are already cooked there is no tart crust pre-baking, this is it.

When the tart is done baking cool it too room temperature and spread on a layer of seasoned ricotta cheese.  You can even add a few goat cheese crumbles at this point so feel free to get a little flavor creative.  To finish off this savory tart you want to add on a layer of roasted leeks followed up by spreading out some cooked and sliced beets and sweet potatoes.  Yes, I did add a few goodies to the top like fresh herbs, goat cheese crumbled and some reduced balsamic vinegar to give it a little extra umph!  I always try to make my recipes as versatile as possible so you can add on a lot of whatever you want tailoring it to your taste buds.  So in the end, get creative with what you want to finish off your savory tart with.  Enjoy!

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Savory Tart with Sweet Potatoes and Goat Cheese in Honey Wheat Crust
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
 
Sink your teeth into this Savory Tart with Sweet Potatoes and Goat Cheese in Honey Wheat Crust that makes the perfect appetizer.
Ingredients
For the Shell:
  • 2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
  • 12 ounces of ice cold unsalted butter
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 3 ounces of ice cold water
For the Filling:
  • ½ cup of ricotta cheese
  • 2 thinly sliced leeks
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 each oven bake cooked, peeled and thinly sliced red beet, purple, white and regular sweet potato
  • 12 to 14 asparagus stalks
  • ½ cup of goat cheese crumbles
  • 1 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh chervil
  • 1 tablespoon of reduced balsamic vinegar
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
  2. Add the flour, honey, alt, butter and lemon zest to a food processor and process on high until it becomes a meal. The butter should be size of rice. If the dough seems dry add a little water.
  3. Remove the dough and form it into a ball using your hands. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  4. Next, form the dough to a 10” tart pan. Dock the dough using a fork. Place a circle fitted piece of parchment paper over the bottom of the tart shell and add on 1 to 2 cups of dried beans or rice.
  5. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned and firm. Cool completely to room temperature.
  6. Spread the leeks and asparagus over a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and coat them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked. Cool to room temperature.
  7. To plate: spread the ricotta cheese onto the bottom of the cooked and cooled tart shell and season with salt and pepper. Next spread on the leeks followed up with fanning on the individual sliced potatoes and beets. Surround the outside of the shell where the potatoes and beets are not with the asparagus. Top off with herbs, salt and pepper, goat cheese crumbles and reduced balsamic vinegar.
  8. Eat cool or at room temperature.

 

No Knead Bread Recipe with Baked Goat Cheese Tomato Sauce

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No Knead Bread Recipe with Baked Goat Cheese Tomato Sauce

I’ve been having so much fun lately baking bread.  It’s literally one of the oldest culinary art forms and has really remained the same for centuries.  However, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research around no knead bread and have mostly written it off until now.  I was absolutely blown away by the ease, rising times, crustiness and over all tenderness of this no knead bread recipe that I made.  Now I’m not saying that kneading bread is bad by any stretch, but maybe we’re over thinking it a bit, especially when it comes to simple artisan Italian loaves like this one.  Just bear with me as I try and break this thing down for you…

First off no knead bread starts with a quality flour, like Bob’s Red Mill Organic All-Purpose Flour.  This flour is incredibly versatile making it perfect baking just about any bread out there, and because of that, kneading is not necessary in this recipe.  Again, I want to emphasize that there is nothing proven out there that says that not kneading dough leads to a better bread, but I found it to be just as good if not better in this recipe.  One of the most surprising aspects of this recipe is the lack of sugar.  One of the first things you learn about when using yeast in bread making is that it needs to be dissolved into liquid temperatures of 110° to 115° while eating sugar or some form of glucose.  I mean it’s just what you do when making bread that rises right?  Well that whole concept got thrown out the window to in this no knead bread recipe.  That’s right, I did not use 1 gram of sugar and still the dough rose well and it finished with a beautiful crust and tender light inside.  One thing is for sure, if you do this recipe and it’s different from the bread making recipe that you’re used to, you too won’t believe just how good it is.

I know we’ve been talking a lot about not kneading the dough, but going a step further you only mix the ingredients until they are just mixed together.  I did this in a large bowl with a spoon and stirred it for less than :30 seconds.  You could probably do the same thing in a standing mixer with the hook attachment for like :10 seconds.  Just when you thought it couldn’t get further away from everything you knew about bread making I went ahead and through another wrench in the process.  However, if you step back and think about mixing bread and kneading it you can possibly understand how things could get messed up.  The point of kneading bread is to create gluten so that it rises well when resting and baking, but kneading can create over-worked dough making it tough and overly dense.  If you barely mix and don’t knead the bread simply rises without any opportunity to becomes any of those bad things in bread you don’t want.  I can’t stress enough that there is nothing wrong with kneading since it has been a staple instruction throughout baking for centuries, I am just shocked at what not kneading and barely mixing results in.

Once the dough rises you want to separate it into 3 dough balls and gently flour it while pulling it underneath forming a very smooth surface.  From there you let it rise for 20-30 minutes before dusting it with flour, scoring it and baking it in the oven on a pizza stone.  I’m serious when I say this will be the easiest homemade bread recipe you’ve ever made.  When baking it, I put the dough ball, and the parchment paper it was resting on, right onto the baking stone and it baked perfectly.  One more trick to do is putting some water in a pan in the bottom of the oven.  Putting moisture in the air can ensure your bread is moist with a delicious hard outer crust.  Just do it, you’ll thank me later :-).

Lastly, don’t forget about the baked goat cheese and tomato sauce creation!  This dipping sauce is literally 10 ingredients.  That’s right a delicious tomato sauce with goat cheese and herbs that is under 10 ingredients!  Check out the easy instructions below, and happy no knead baking!

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No Knead Bread Recipe with Baked Goat Cheese Tomato Sauce
Author: 
 
Looking for a great appetizer? Try this easy to make delicious No Knead Bread Recipe with Baked Goat Cheese Tomato Sauce!
Ingredients
For the Bread:
  • 3 cups of water, 112° to 115°
  • 1 tablespoons of kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon of active yeast
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill Organic All-Purpose Flour
For the Baked Goat Cheese:
  • 2 teaspoons of unsalted butter
  • 1 peeled and small diced yellow onion
  • 1 teaspoon of light brown sugar
  • 4 finely minced cloves of garlic
  • 2 28-ounce cans of whole plum tomatoes in juice
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh basil
  • 4 ounces of goat cheese
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven with a pizza stone to 450°.
  2. Bread: In a large bowl combine all the ingredients just until mixed together and cover with a towel or plastic wrap, but don’t make it air tight. Let rise for 2 hours.
  3. Next, divide the dough into 3 pieces and form into balls by lightly flouring each and pulling down underneath the bread until a soft smooth surface has been formed. Be careful not to over-due this process. Let rest for 30 more minutes.
  4. Dust the tops of the dough balls with more flour and score using a knife. Place the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper and then onto the baking stone or place the bread directly on the pizza stone. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the outside has formed a dark hard crust.
  5. Remove the bread and cool to room temperature before slicing and serving.
  6. Sauce: In a medium size pot over medium heat add in the butter and onions and cook until caramelized, about 20 minutes. Stir in the brown sugar ½ way through the caramelization process.
  7. Next, add in the garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes before adding in the tomatoes.
  8. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes before finishing with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
  9. To Plate: If you did not buy a log of goat cheese, form the crumbles together to form a bowl and place it in the center of a bowl. Pour the tomato sauce over top and garnish with fresh chopped herbs and sliced bread.

 

Fritter Recipe with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

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Fritter Recipe with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

I often get stuck in a rut when it comes to serving up quinoa.  More times than not I make a chicken vegetables bowl with, or throw it in a soup.  Don’t get me wrong both methods result in some absolutely delicious recipes, but I was happy when I came up with this Fritter Recipes with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce, which is a little different than my norm.  Quinoa is just so good for you that I want to cook with it all the time, but again the struggle of moving it around to different recipes can sometimes be a challenge for me.  When making this Fritter Recipes with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce I knew I wanted to do something different so as I poked around for inspiration I went to Pinterest and the first thing I saw on my page was a zucchini fritter… Well heck why can’t I just make a quinoa fritter??  The point is I can, and guess what quinoa can go in a lot more things than soup just as long as you are willing to get a little more creative.  You see I’ve boxed quinoa in and haven’t let it come out to all of the wonderful recipes it can be enjoyed in.  One of my favorite chefs always told me that I was only limited by my own creativity, and man did that ring true when making this recipe.

I’ve been using Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa for quite some time and I always go back to the pot because I trust them with everything that I put in my body.  I know it’s responsibly sourced and and will always be the most packed with nutrients before it hits my body.  If you’re unfamiliar with quinoa, it’s one of those powerhouse grains that originated in South America and has been a staple ever since the Incas ruled the land.  In other words, it’s been served up for a really long time.  I feel that it rings true for all of those ancient grains like farro, mung beans, lentils, etc. that have been eaten and enjoyed for centuries.  Only in the past 100 years have we managed to jack up food, but the ingredients that have lasted for this long and are still in style are usually the healthiest and have the most benefits.  Since Bob’s carries all of these grains it’s easy to go back to the pot, as I said earlier.

Once the quinoa is cooked, which is as simple as boiling and simmering together water and quinoa, you mix it together with mashed chickpeas, an egg, a tad bit of flour, baby spinach, cumin, salt and pepper, that is it.  These fritters are only 6 ingredients and are absolutely delicious.   When combining all of the ingredients and forming them into patties I have to note that they are a bit sticky, but don’t let that worry you because they will fry up just fine once it’s time cook.  You should have seen my fingers when making these, they literally looked like fritters by the time I got done haha.  After the fritters are formed it’s good the chill them quickly in the freezer or refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes just to let them cool and hold shape.

Cooking these fritters are super easy, just add a small amount of oil to a large frying, or sauté, pan and cook them for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until they are golden brown.  From there place them on a baking sheet tray with parchment paper and finish them in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes.  There is plenty of moisture in these fritters so even if you leave them in the oven a bit longer they won’t fry out.

For the cucumber yogurt sauce, it’s as easy as shredding a cucumber and whisking it with some Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Be careful after tasting this because you’re going to want to spoon feed yourself loads of this sauce because it’s just so dang good.

One of the coolest things about this recipe is just how versatile it is.  Guess what if you don’t like chickpeas or spinach both can be swapped out.  Try using some mashed sweet potato, regular mashed potato, zucchini, squash, tomato, or even mashed cooked navy beans.  The quinoa is there to provide a light neutral nutty flavor along with tons of protein and nutrients, everything else you put in your fritters is there to provide some stability for shape and flavor.  I hope this has been a little educational, now go cook!!

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Fritter Recipe with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
 
Check out this delicious Fritter Recipe with Quinoa, Chickpeas and Cucumber Yogurt Sauce that is only 8 ingredients!
Ingredients
For the Fritters:
  • 2 cups of cooked quinoa
  • 2 cans of mashed chickpeas
  • 2 cups of packed baby spinach
  • ½ tablespoon of ground cumin
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup of flour
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil for frying
For the Yogurt Sauce:
  • ½ finely grated peeled cucumber
  • 1 cup of Greek yogurt
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • Optional Garnish: olive tapenade
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. In a large bowl mix together the cooked hot quinoa, mashed chickpeas, spinach, cumin, egg, flour, salt and pepper until completely combined and the form 12 fritter patties. Set them on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and chill them in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes.
  3. Add the olive oil to a large frying pan over medium-high heat and cook the fritters for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Return them to the sheet tray lined with parchment paper after they are browned.
  4. Cook the fritters in the oven for 375° for 10 to 12 minutes or until cooked through. Set aside.
  5. In a separate bowl mix together the shredded cucumber, yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Chill before using.
  6. To Serve: Pour the yogurt sauce overtop the cooked hot fritter and garnish with optional olive tapenade.

 

Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce Recipe

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Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce Recipe

For all the singles searching for love or long time couples out there, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner which means it’s time to put in some work.  Even though it’s just another hallmark holiday filled with cards, roses and chocolates there is nothing more important than the food you will eat, for me anyways.  Nothing says I love you like a homemade meal that requires some work, and nothing is more romantic then spending time eating over a delicious meal with some wine.  Sure, you can go out and buy diamonds and necklaces, but when I see people do work on my behalf, it makes me that much more appreciative.  Remember its quality time not quantity of time that matters most :-).

In my book pasta is always a homerun when it comes to cooking for couple’s holidays.  Whether it be an anniversary, a birthday or Valentine’s Day, this Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce will certainly put a smile on your sweetheart’s face.  The pappardelle pasta is of course homemade.  Yes, you can obviously go buy the premade stuff but the labor of love is worth way more than what you can pick up at the grocery store.  When noodles are homemade they are more flavorful and suck in more of the sauce then that of the dried-out version from the store making them that much tastier.  Pappardelle pasta is a super wide noodle that can be on the shorter side or just as long as spaghetti.  I like my pasta long so you must roll it out a little more to make sure you get to that desired length.

I use the simplest of recipes to make all my homemade pasta, flour, semolina and eggs, that’s it.  You must start by sifting the flours together to ensure there are no lumps in it.  From there you form a well and crack the eggs right into it.  Then using a fork whisk together the eggs until combined and then slowly bring in the flour from the outside of the well into the inside.  Ok stop there for a second.  I started to use a bench knife when making pasta dough 2 years ago and I’m never going back.  Using this tool will allow you to scrape your cutting board to get up all the egg-flour mixture to make sure all of it is getting used.  Sometimes the dough can be too dry or too wet, but after scraping up everything and incorporating it you’ll then find that the recipe is perfect.  Once you’ve combined the dough together you’ll want to let it rest for about 20 minutes or so under a towel or plastic wrap.

If you planned on working out, you can for sure skip arm day because you are going to feel it in your triceps when you begin to roll out this dough.  Cut the dough into 3 parts and roll out each one using a rolling pin.  I personally prefer to use a French style roller because it allows me to put more pressure on the dough as well as letting me feel how thick the dough is while rolling it out.  Since I’ve done this quite a few times I find that if I roll each dough ball out to the size of my cutting board, which is 24”x18,” it becomes the perfect thickness.  If you aren’t sure how thin it needs to be, you should be able to see silhouettes through the dough if you hold it up.  Let the rolled-out sheets of dough rest in between sheets of parchment paper before rolling it up and slicing it thick.  If for some reason you aren’t a fan of pappardelle, then maybe you can slice it thinner to a fettuccini or even a linguine.  Honestly it will taste the same so do what suits you best.  Once it is sliced up set it aside on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper dusted with a bit of flour for about 20 to 30 minutes more to dry it out a bit more.

Now that most of the hefty lifting for this recipe is done, all that is left is the Puttanesca sauce.  Puttanesca sauce is an incredibly classic sauce deriving from one of the 5 mother sauces, tomato sauce.  The basic ingredients include thinly shaved garlic, chopped anchovies, capers, olives and tomatoes.  Once you have those ingredients you simply brown up the garlic, add everything else and simmer.

While the meal is incredibly important the ambiance of where you are eating is just as crucial.  I mean could you imagine spending all this time making a beautiful Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce and then serving it up on some milk crates in front of a TV?  Yeah, I don’t think so.  When we renovated our kitchen we wanted people to feel like they were eating in a small romantic French café with the big beautiful farmhouse sink, gooseneck faucets and cooking range with hood.  As we were making our decisions on what to put into our kitchen to capture our vision, Franke was top of mind with their high-end kitchen fixtures.  They cross at the perfect intersection of functionality and beauty and then married with the highest of quality to offer up a truly superior product.  We use the Franke Roller Mat, sink and faucets every day and could not be more proud to display them in our house.  While you are eating in our kitchen at our super long wood table, the light becomes soft in our kitchen but the chrome on the faucets shines through for the most gorgeous kitchen I could have ever imagined having.  So while the food is important it is essential to set the mood as well, and thanks to Franke our eat in kitchen is a joy to be in.  Happy cooking everyone, and Happy Valentine’s Day!


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Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
 
Looking for a great idea for Valentine's Day? Try this amazingly delicious Homemade Pappardelle Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce Recipe.
Ingredients
For the Pasta:
  • 1 ¼ cups of semolina flour
  • 1 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour
  • 4 large eggs
For the Sauce:
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 thinly shaven cloves of garlic
  • 4 chopped anchovies
  • ¼ cup of assorted pitted and sliced olives (black, green and kalamata)
  • 2 tablespoons of capers
  • 2-28 ounce cans of whole plum tomatoes, juice drained
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • fresh chopped parsley, basil and oregano for garnish
  • Parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
  1. Pasta: Sift together both flours onto a clean cutting board and form a well.
  2. Add the eggs to the center of the well and whisk with a fork until scrambled and then slowly incorporate the flour into the whisked eggs until it is completely combined.
  3. Knead for 1 minute to ensure it is mixed in completely, add water if the pasta is too dry, form a ball and set aside for 20 to 30 minutes.
  4. Next, divide the dough ball into 3 even parts and roll out each one until it is the 18” by 24” and place on a flour dusted sheet tray lined with parchment paper and let rest for 20 minutes. Repeat with the other 2 dough balls.
  5. Next, fold the dough over several times and slice it to your desired thickness. About ¾” for pappardelle. Repeat the process until all the dough has been cut and toss it together with a little bit of flour and place on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
  6. Sauce: In a large sauté pan with olive oil over medium heat add in the garlic and anchovies until lightly browned. Next add in the olives, capers, tomatoes and salt and pepper and simmer over low heat.
  7. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are al dente, or slightly crunchy, strain them add them to the sauté pan with the sauce and toss. Season with salt and pepper.
  8. Serve the pasta with fresh chopped parsley, basil and oregano, and grate on some parmesan cheese.

 

Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe

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Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe

You all know it’s that time of year where everyone is setting goals like crazy.  Whether it’s getting in the gym, losing weight or heck even trying to pay off debt, all of us are looking for that reset button, including me!  I didn’t work out on January 1 mostly because our church had a chili cook off and I for sure wasn’t going to miss that one so right out of the gate I didn’t start off too well.  However, the next day I was able to hunker down and get after it while also whipping up and eating this Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe.  This is one of my wife’s favorite salads that I make and it’s incredibly versatile.   By that I mean you can accessorize with toppings as much or as little as you’d like.  I personally love that because I can tailor it by what’s in season and available to me from my local grocery store.  One of my other objectives for this 2017 year is to eat cleaner and in season.  Sure there will be some recipes I create that may have a tomato in it during the winter months or even some berries, but those mostly come from folks I work with, and ugh I got bills to pay J.  For now, we’ll just focus on making this Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe, and a little look back at 2016.

This past year has been incredibly challenging for me.  I had some body aches, a minor surgery, an ER visit, and a couple other ditty’s that set me back.  It’s crazy because I’m only 35, which I feel is still fairly young, and man did I feel like I fell apart a bit this year.  My lower back made me miserable and the surgery recovery was no fun either…  However, throughout all of my minor setbacks I can now look back and be thankful for everything that happened.  I feel incredibly humbled and blessed still that I get to do what I love and spend a solid amount of time with my family.  Time has become my new currency and I want to spend as much of it as I can with my family.  The aches, and pains, and recovery time has taught me that my body will eventually fail me someday and that I’m here temporarily on this earth and am just passing through…  In addition, to be thankful during the times when I’m 100% healthy and feeling great.  While I still am feeling a few aches to kick off this new year, I’m going to remind myself on just how faithful God is and how much he is growing me and blessing me.  Ok Reverend Billy, let’s do this recipe J.

The best my body felt in a long time was a few years ago when I did a 21-day fix through one of my good friends who works at Beach Body.  I ate really well, got in some great cardio and slept like a champ!  I want to find my way back to that so I wanted to kick off this year by exercising, sleeping well and making great food, starting with this Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe.  It’s a wonderful combination of kale greens, seasonal vegetables and perfect sweet-tart combination from the apples and dressing that really brings this one together.  One of my favorite parts about this salad is just how easy it is to make.  I also love the fact that this is an all kale salad that actually tastes really good, because to be honest I’ve had a few that would go really well with a trashcan.  The dressing and other ingredients on top really offset the bitter taste from the kale, and quite frankly compliments it more than it masks it.  I told you my wife loves this salad, but I think even more than that she’s happy when I eat healthy greens.

The research that has been done from people who eat greens regularly versus people who do not is staggering.  There are stories where people eat a raw food diet and literally unclog their 80% plus blocked arteries.  While I’d never be able to commit myself to a lifestyle like that, I still need to do a better job of eating more leafy greens.

So in the end sorry for all of the sad and hopeful stories of 2016 and 2017, but I hope in the end it will inspire you in some way to eat a little better and get some exercise.  Here’s to a healthy and prosperous future to all of us.

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Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: salad
 
Looking for some healthy recipes after the new year? Try this full flavored Kale Salad with Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash Recipe!
Ingredients
For the Salad:
  • 1 acorn squash sliced into ½” thick slices, seeds removed
  • 1 tablespoons of olive oil
  • ½ cup of red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt
  • ½ thinly sliced red onion
  • 3 bunches of roughly cut fresh kale, stems removed
  • 1 each cored and sliced Granny Smith and Fuji apple
  • 1 thinly shaved bulb of fennel
  • 3 stalks of thinly shaved celery
  • ½ cup of pistachios
  • ¾ cup of dried cherries
  • Parmesan cheese for garnish
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Dressing:
  • 2 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • 1½ teaspoons of sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. Coat the squash in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned and al dente, or slightly crunchy. Chill.
  3. Next whisk together the red wine vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved and submerge the onions. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  4. In a small bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, sugar, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and set aside.
  5. In a large bowl toss together the kale, some of the pickled red onions, apples, fennel, celery, pistachios and cherries and season with salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of the vinaigrette and toss together. Finish with Parmesan cheese and top off with chilled roasted acorn squash.

 

Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds

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Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds

I know, it’s a winter salad from Chef Billy Parisi that has close to 9,000 ingredients in it.  I realize quite a few of my recipes have a decent number of ingredients in it but man once I’m creating something I being to think, “Well this other thing would go great in here, and then this, and then this, and then this,” until I get completely carried away like in this Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds.  All I can say is, at least it’s good haha.  That’s my fall back.  However, with a lot of my recipes the ingredient list may be on the longer side but the procedures are incredibly easy, just like in this Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds.  I mean you are simply combining all of the ingredients in a bowl and then drizzling on some vinaigrette.  Easy right?  The only thing you really have to do in this is roast up some butternut squash and shave some carrots, which to me is pretty dang simple…

To ensure you get this salad out on time the first thing you must do is peel, cut up and roast the butternut squash.  Now because I am known to get lazy at times when prepping I prefer not to even cut the bottom portion of the butternut squash where you have to scoop out the seeds.  I really only ever use the top portion because it’s easy to peel and a whole lot easier to cut, plus there is no scooping out of the seeds.  So now that you know how lazy I am let’s talk the removal of some of these ingredients so your head won’t explode at the grocery store while looking for everything.

First, you can completely remove of the following from this Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds:  the carrots, the granny smith apple, the feta cheese, the kale, and the homemade balsamic vinaigrette – just buy a pre-made balsamic vinaigrette from the store.  That should significantly help out the ingredient list and complexity of flavors.  I think the reason I like to pound in so many ingredients in to salads is because I don’t often eat them and I want to get as many nutrients from it as possible.  I want these bad boys to be packed with healthy deliciousness because chances are I’m going out for a burger afterwards or simply eating cookies all day.  I know it’s a cop out but it’s one of the main reasons I like to pile on so many things into a salad.  This Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds was really made more for holidays and entertaining over those cold months that can really impress your guests.  Most folks just make simple romaine or ice burg based salads with out of season produce like tomatoes and such.  With that mentality you can understand why this winter salad recipe is a little more glorious…

I’m definitely a creature of habit when it comes to making homemade vinaigrettes and almost always resort to my honey balsamic vinaigrette.  It’s so easy to make and honestly goes dang good with just about any salad someone would whip up.  It’s got the perfect balance of sweet and tangy to finish off any greens with.  With that being said you can definitely try another vinaigrette if you’d like.  I think anything with a red wine or white wine vinegar base would work well or you can get all fancy faced and try a champagne vinegar or even a berry vinegar, point being you can change it up.

Lastly for the cheeses I thought it would be a cool to do a combo of feta cheese and goat cheese.  You can definitely use 1 or the other but if you only want to choose 1 then I’d go with the goat cheese, it will compliment more of what’s in this salad and help cut some of the bitterness from the kale greens.  To finish off this salad I used some of those thinly shaven almonds which I toasted up in the oven on 350 for like 10 minutes, and then with some dried cherries and pomegranate seeds.  Try not to eat all those cherries because dang are they addicting.  Well that’s all I got on this one, so if you want to impress your guests this winter season with a killer salad then be sure to make this Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds.

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Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds
Author: 
Recipe type: salad
 
Try this Winter Salad Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds this holiday season and wow your guests!
Ingredients
For the Salad:
  • 1 small peeled and medium diced butternut squash
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 3 thinly shaved tri-colored carrots
  • 1 peeled, cored and small diced fuji apple
  • 1 peeled, cored and small diced granny smith apple
  • 1 cup of dried cherries
  • 1 cup of toasted thinly sliced almonds
  • ½ cup of pomegranate seeds
  • ½ cup of crumbled feta cheese
  • ½ cup of crumbled goat cheese
  • 4 cups of packed baby spinach leaves
  • 1 head of trimmed red or green kale leaves
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Balsamic Vinaigrette:
  • ½ peeled small diced small shallot
  • 1 teaspoon of grainy mustard
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of honey
  • ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar
  • ½ cup of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoons of chiffonade fresh basil
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. Coat the butternut squash in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper and spread out on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until tender. Do not over cook.
  3. Cool the butter nut squash immediately in the oven.
  4. Salad: Toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and keep cool.
  5. Dressing: whisk together all of the ingredients until the vinaigrette is emulsified and dress the salad and toss together.
  6. Serve!

 

How to make potato rolls with goat cheese and honey butter

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How to make potato rolls with goat cheese and honey butter

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays I often take for granted.  We have so much here in the US, and so many things are readily accessible that we often don’t think about being thankful for the little things.  The past year has been incredibly challenging for me, mostly from a health standpoint.  I’m only 35, but man has 2016 beat me up, chewed me up and spit me out a couple of times.  I’ve had horrible back pain, surgery, been super sick, been deaf in 1 ear for a month, I mean I’m one whipped puppy.  Not-too-mention all the political stuff that infiltrates are social feeds on a daily basis, which can often be incredibly negative.  However, in the midst of all the craziness this year has brought in, I really have so much to be thankful for.  My family is amazing, we have a cool house, a new kitchen, great friends, a supportive family, food on the table, and the bills are paid.  All I can say after that is AMEN!  So much to be thankful for.  I’ll write another post that explains in a bit more detail…

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With giving thanks, more times than not, comes with delicious food.  Soft delicious and hot rolls are a staple at my table at every holiday, and truth be told I’m Italian so I want some form of bread at the table at all times haha.  Not sure if you’ve ever wondered how to make potato rolls, but truth be told they are super easy to make and 10 times better homemade then what you are going to get in the store, and it ain’t even close J.  Potato rolls are simply using mashed up skinless potatoes with all of the other ingredients that go into making bread.  While these little potato rolls are delicious by themselves, I paired it up with a goat cheese and honey butter to make it even more delicious.  More of that later though.

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There are a few different ways to cooking the potatoes.  I’ve seen people pierce them and microwave them and I’ve seen peeled, boiled and strained.  I’m a bit of a purist so I simply roasted them in the oven at 375° for about 70 minutes until they were nice and tender.  Now these suckers are hot, so be sure to hold them in a towel while pealing them with a paring knife.  Good way to hone those potato peeling skills, almost like you were 3 floors sub-level in the navy :-).

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When the potatoes have all been peeled and mashed, it’s now time to heat up some milk, add in the yeast and sugar and watch it chow down.  The yeast will form almost a raft like top to it, don’t let it weird you out, it’s perfect!  Once it is to that level then you begin to add your other ingredients.  To make sure these potato rolls had the right consistency, I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour which is stone ground.  The protein content is lower in this pastry flour which makes for the most tender baked goods, which is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for when making these potato rolls.  Now, normally when making these I would have used extra virgin olive oil which would have been totally fine.  However, I had some leftover rendered bacon fat lying around that I thought might help kick these up a notch and make them even more tender.  I was right, they’re ridiculous.

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Once the rolls were rested under a towel, I brushed them with melted unsalted butter and topped them off with some sea salt and oats for some flavor and of course appearances.  This part is totally up to you, feel free to simply brush with butter and bake in the oven.

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While the potato rolls are in the oven, it’s time to make a goat cheese and honey butter to spread all over them.  Honey butter by itself is so stinkin’ good, but adding in goat cheese and fresh thyme, FA-GET ABOUT IT EH?!  Dang delicious!!  Make sure your butter is soft, as well as the goat cheese, and simply whip them together with the honey and thyme using a wire whisk or in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment.  I seasoned it just a little with salt and pepper, but the bacon fat in the roll and salt on top are going to make these plenty seasoned and should complement each other perfectly when paired with the goat cheese and honey butter.

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Well folks, that’s all I got!  If you want to make some homemade rolls this Thanksgiving, I’d look at these guys, they’re good.  Oh yeah, don’t forget to give thanks :-).

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How to make potato rolls with goat cheese and honey butter
Author: 
Recipe type: side
 
Wanting to make homemade bread this holiday season? Learn How to make potato rolls with goat cheese and honey butter!
Ingredients
For the Potato Rolls:
  • 3 medium sized baked and peeled russet potatoes
  • 1 ½ cups of warm whole milk (110° to 115°)
  • ½ tablespoon of yeast
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • ¼ cup of rendered bacon fat or extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 eggs
  • pinch of Kosher salt
  • 4 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Pastry Flour
  • 2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour
  • ¼ cup of melted unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon of sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon of rolled oats
For the Butter:
  • 1 pound of softened unsalted butter
  • 1 cup of softened goat cheese
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. Rolls: Mash the peeled cooked potatoes in a large bowl and set aside.
  3. Next, add the milk, yeast and sugar to a standing mixer with the hook attachment. Lightly mix and let sit for 5 minutes.
  4. Add in the potatoes, bacon fat and eggs and mix on medium speed until combined.
  5. Mix the Kosher salt and flours in a large bowl and add them to the mixer in 2 different batches until combined. Do not over mix.
  6. Cover the bowl with the dough in it with a towel and let sit for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.
  7. Next, form 20 balls of dough and place them on cookie sheet trays lined with parchment paper. Cover with a towel and let sit for 15 to 20 more minutes.
  8. Brush the tops with melted butter and evenly sprinkle on salt and oats.
  9. Bake in the oven at 375° for 18 to 22 minutes or until they are lightly browned and top and cooked in the center.
  10. Butter: While the rolls are cooking whip together the softened butter, goat cheese, honey, thyme leaves, and salt and pepper until it is light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Chill before serving alongside the rolls.

 

Homemade Pita Bread Recipe

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Homemade Pita Bread Recipe

Man did I have fun this week making this Homemade Pita Bread Recipe.  I’ve never made it before but I am just so intrigued by middle-eastern cuisine, especially from Israel, so I had a blast making this.  First I was so shocked at how simple it was to make, it was literally 5 total ingredients.  THIS is how pita bread should be made, not with 1,000 ingredients from your local grocery store.

I grew up eating pita bread quite a lot.  We would use it as sandwich bread all of the time when I was a kid.  My sister and I wouldn’t fold it over, we would cut it down the middle and use it as a big pocket.  Obviously you’re cooler if you do this.  Pita, or simply flat bread, is really some of the first bread recipes known to our world.  However back thousands of years ago there weren’t tons of leavening agents outside of yeast or sourdough starters so a lot of bread was flat.  Using yeast clearly changed the baking game back some 5,000 years ago and for me personally I prefer yeast because of the rising effect it has. I’m guessing this is why I like pita so much?

Enough history, let’s make this Homemade Pita Bread Recipe.  Start by adding some yeast to some warm water (110° to 115°) in a standing mixer bowl and let it sit for about 5 to 7 minutes.

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Next is time to add in some flour.  I’ve become so partial to Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour.  It’s so versatile in all of my cooking and baking whether I am breading something or simply making cake.  It may just be me but it seems as if the AP flour has enough protein to create a sufficient amount of gluten in making bread, so it works literally with everything.

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Be sure to put on the hook attachment and turn it on low speed and add in olive oil and sugar and gradually pour in the remaining warm water until it is mixed in.  From there add in your salt and let your standing mixer beat the heck out of it for 10 minutes.  I love this part!

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Let the dough rest for 1 hour covered with a towel in a warm place and watch it rise :-).  It will literally get huge.

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My next favorite part, punch it down!!  It’ll go down significantly once you punch it in so don’t go postal on it.  When it gets down to a normal size divide the dough into 9 balls and let them rest again for about 15 minutes.  They’ll probably double in size.

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Next, roll out the dough and spray them with warm water before baking them to help them brown.  They’ll cook in about 6 to 7 minutes and will rise big time while cooking.  Don’t get sad if they fall after they come out of the oven it’s natural.

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Time to eat!!  Of course I’m making sandwiches or serving them with soup.  Enjoy!

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Homemade Pita Bread Recipe
Author: 
 
Ever wondered how to make pita bread? Well now you can with this incredibly easy guide on who to make a Homemade Pita Bread Recipe.
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon of yeast
  • 1 ¼ cups of warm water (110° to 115°)
  • 4 cups of Bobs Red Mill All Purpose Flour
  • ½ teaspoon of sugar
  • ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 500° with a sheet pan in the oven. We will be cooking on this.
  2. Next add the yeast to a standing mixer bowl with ¼ cup of the water and wait for 5 to 7 minutes.
  3. Next, with the hook attachment on and the standing mixer on low speed add in the flour, sugar, olive oil and gradually add the rest of the water until combined.
  4. Turn the speed to high and knead for 10 minutes.
  5. Place a towel over the bowl after it is done kneading and let it rest for 1 hour.
  6. Divide the dough into 9 individual balls and let them sit for 15 minutes before rolling each of them out to about ⅓” thick.
  7. Spray the dough with warm water in a spray bottle and add them to the hot sheet pan in the oven and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until it lightly browned and cooked through out.
  8. Note that the bread will rise in the oven and fall once it comes out. Serve hot!