Vegetarian Madness! Veggie Wheat-Berry Salad with Warm Pita and Grilled Halloumi

But first, a confession. Had you asked me what "halloumi" was 6 months ago, I would've ventured a guess that it was a type of fish. I would have, of course, been absolutely wrong. I had been to countless Greek and Mediterranean restaurants and seen something called "halloumi" on the menu and immediately regarded it as a type of fish, perhaps a white fish like halibut or mahi-mahi or a bronzino. Although, now I see that I probably just equated the way halloumi sounded with a combination of the words halibut and mahi-mahi (I believe covered the fact that I'm weird. Moving on...) Regardless, I would've never thought it was a type of cheese. What kind of name is halloumi for a type of cheese anyway? Well, it is and my sincerest apologies for the island of Cyprus (and its inhabitants) where halloumi originated. Halloumi is, indeed, a cheese and I learned this at a birthday party earlier this year. What's wondrous about halloumi is that it doesn't melt, but one of its famed preparations is grilling it. I'm not sure what kind of magic keeps this brined sheeps' milk cheese from melting once applied to heat, but it remains intact and this delicious salty-briny-crispy crust forms on the outside. It's delicious and irresistible. My friend's boyfriend grilled some up for my friend's birthday party and it just tasted so damn good. Plus, it's super quick and easy. Just a non-stick pan is needed over medium heat. Plop down a few slices, grill a couple minutes on either side, then eat! Well, okay, wait for it to cool down a bit, but then eat!

Weirdly enough, I forgot about the halloumi until this weekend while leafing through this month's issue of Women's Health. Every once in a while they'll have a section on food and cooking chock-full of delicious recipes. This month's held a particular gem: Veggie Wheat Berry Salad. My husband, when presented with this week's menu, immediately said "I knew you'd pick to make that!" pointing to the recipe in the magazine. I asked him why he would think that I would be drawn to this recipe, despite the fact that it sounded delicious and perfect for a summer evening. "Because of the photo. It's in a small little glass, all pretty and colorful." Indeed the photo shows a small appetizer-sized glass full of colorful veggies and little fluffy-looking wheat berries. I can't deny that the photo drew me into the recipe in the first place (ironic considering one of this month's articles is on food porn...), but it was the potential for a delicious one-salad meal with fresh summer veggies and chewy wheat berries. I fell in love with wheat berries when I was living in London. One of the yogurt varieties/brands had winter wheat berries stirred throughout. The yogurt itself was sublime (so much better than the yogurt in the states), but the addition of the wheat berries...it made it more filling and you'd find these little chewy bits of deliciousness amid the creamy clouds of yogurt and sweet chunks of strawberries. I ate more yogurt while I was in London that I'd eaten my entire life. Anyway, for the longest time I didn't know what these little bits were in my yogurt. But now I know and I'm totally going to cook up a batch of plain wheat berries and sprinkle them in my yogurt from now on.

Anyway, getting back to the salad, and the meal as a whole, it was perfect: savory and fresh. I couldn't find any green bell peppers at the store, and wanting a bit more color than red, I found a few purple bell peppers and picked those up (of course, forgetting that the red onion is also purple, but they still stood out). The dressing is a great combination of tangy and savory, akin to the "broth" in a gazpacho (thanks, in part, to the red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce). Overall it had a very gazpacho-like quality, but much more filling due to the chewy and delicious wheat berries. Originally, I wasn't sure if this would be filling enough for a dinner, which is why I toasted up a pita bread and grilled up the halloumi. Everything worked so well together. After taking a bit of pita and cheese with a bit of olive oil, a bit of the salad would cleanse the palate. This would make an excellent picnic meal (either pre-grill the cheese or use a pan or be extra-special careful on the open BBQ). The salad itself, of course, is perfect for summer potlucks, too!

Hello Dal-ly, Take Two: Curried Red Onion Jam with Simple Dal

I know it wasn't too long ago that I posted a delicious dal recipe. This particular post isn't necessarily going to focus on the dal, but rather on the condiment which elevates this simple dal into something incredible. You'll recall from my last post that I'm rather enamored with a new cookbook. It shouldn't surprise then that this recipe comes from the same book. While the onion is called "red", it certainly doesn't look RED like other truly red fruits and vegetables. Instead, the author quite rightly puts the red onion in the purple chapter. Yes, a look at a color wheel would show that the connection between red and purple is only a small amount of blue away, but it's still purple. Okay, how did we get on the topic of color? When I set about to make this condiment, I had no idea how much flavor a red onion could have. I have a slight issue with onions. Raw onions tend to not have the best affect on me; they leave me tasting onions for days afterward and my stomach is certainly far from happy. Cooked onions are better for me, but I tend to keep my distance from too much onion regardless. But this jam? Oh my... it's sweet, tangy, spicy, and, well, jammy. It's super simple to make and even though I made mine the night before making the dal, they can both be made at the same time and in about an hour. So, while it's certainly not a 30-minute meal, it can be done after coming  home from work. I have a feeling this jam would also make a great gift. Snag a couple of small jars and a few pieces of decorative fabric/cloth and you've got a gift for just about anyone. Cheryl, the author of Ripe, mentions you can use the leftover jam for sandwiches and I'm eager to give it a try. I figure some roasted chicken, mayo, and some spinach with plenty of this jam would make a kind of curried chicken salad sandwich. You could also use it in a pita with hummus and crunchy veggies for a flavor-packed vegetarian option. Either way, this jam can be an excellent condiment for just about anything in need of kick.

I did want to touch upon the simple dal. It really is very simple. I could barely believe just how simple it was to cook and yet so incredibly flavorful, creamy, and rich it came out to be. I'd never cooked with red lentils before, so this was a first. I think the last dal I made, using lentils of course, used the regular brown/green lentils (I think...it was a while ago). The red lentils don't retain their shape like French black lentils do, but instead break down into this super rich creaminess. The aromatics in this recipe also stand out. I mean, this dal only calls for lentils, water, star anise, ginger, and a chili pepper (I used jalapeno since I couldn't find a red chili at the store). Since it's only 1 chili, there isn't a whole lot of spice, but ginger makes up for the lack of heat. The star anise provides this sweetness and underlying tone, which I'd never noticed in other dal I've had. Honestly, this is probably the simplest recipe I'll ever post here.

I got a request from a friend to post more vegetarian-friendly recipes. I have another vegetarian dish, which I'll post next. I honestly love cooking vegetarian. Not only does it tend to be simpler to make, but it's also a lot lighter on the wallet. The times when I've spent the most at the grocery store have usually been when I had a lot of meat on the week's menu. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think I could ever turn completely vegetarian. I love fish, chicken, pork, and beef way too much to give it all up. I pride myself on being an omnivore and am lucky to have a husband who doesn't have to have meat on his dinner plate every night.

The Most Important Meal of the Day: Cacio Pepe Oatmeal with Spinach

I'll say this first: I never was one for breakfast. It wasn't until the last few years that breakfast has become a must-have. Before then, I could easily sail through the morning on a big cup of coffee and not much else. Maybe I'd throw in a piece of toast, but it usually was just coffee. I was worse in college. My first meal of the day was usually lunch. After, you know, the giant cup of coffee. I never ate breakfast in high school. Now, this doesn't mean I didn't like what was served at breakfast. I love eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles, fritatas, quiche, sausage, hashbrowns, everything you'll find on any diner menu - I love. But, I have this weird thing where I just cannot bring myself to eat right when I get up. There has to be this delay. I don't understand people who get up and immediately eat. It actually makes me sick to think about it. But I've had to change my tune when I started Weight Watchers, which is when I really started to hone my breakfast skills. Of course, eating a solid breakfast helps combat snacking and helps your blood sugar maintain a steady level through the morning, so it was only natural to start eating breakfast. I used to make a pretty hefty breakfast sandwich with an egg, bacon, and spinach on a whole wheat English Muffin; all together not as point-heavy as you'd think. So, on a daily basis, I've come around to breakfast.

Whenever I bring up what I eat these days for breakfast, I'm usually met by a confused expression on my companion's face. Last year, I came across a section in an issue of Womens Health that was all about oatmeal. It included 4 or 5 different recipes for oatmeal, some sweet and some savory. I tried a few of them and fell in love with one: Cacio e Pepe Oatmeal. Cacio e Pepe, when describing a pasta dish, is simply fresh pasta tossed with Parmesan cheese, lots of freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Sounds pretty great, huh? Well, I thought it'd be great, too, for breakfast. It goes without saying that not all oatmeal needs to be sweet. I grew up on the instant packets of Maple Brown Sugar and loved every sugary bite. I never really cared for fruit in my oatmeal; I liked it more plain than chock full of stuff. Before I found this article, I would've never thought to branch out my oatmeal tastes. I never really thought oatmeal could be savory, but I was oh so wrong. The result of my first batch of this particular dish was delicious: creamy, warm, savory, and peppery. It reminded me of a big bowl of cheesy risotto. Originally, I made this with standard rolled oats (never instant). I then made a move to steel-cut and I've never moved away since. I love steel-cut oats: they're chewy and they retain their overall texture when they've been cooked. The only thing against them is that they take a long time to cook, but I've adjusted my morning routine to accommodate the time required. Luckily, it's not like risotto in that you have to keep stirring, but you certainly don't want the pot to go completely dry.

This particular oatmeal dish eventually evolved over time. One of the other recipes in this article was a Florentine-style oatmeal, with Monterey Jack cheese and an egg on top. This seemed a little TOO heavy for every morning, but I loved the idea of adding something green to my bowl. I honestly am not a huge fan of raw spinach, but I'll happily add cooked spinach to pretty much everything I can. So, I snagged the spinach from this other oatmeal dish and added it to mine and I got a dish that was cheesy, creamy, peppery, now with a slight bite/crunch from the wilted spinach. It also turned my rather indulgent breakfast into something much more nutritious. Chock full of protein, iron, and Vitamin C, it keeps me full through the morning. Within the last couple of weeks, this bowl has evolved again. One morning, as I stood at my counter making my breakfast, my eye was caught by the little container of cherry tomatoes. "I wonder..." I grabbed a handful and plopped them on top of everything else. I was pleasantly surprised with the result. As you can probably imagine, this is a very heavy meal. The sweet-tart burst from the cherry tomatoes cuts through the thick oatmeal and really brightens up the meal overall. I love the combination and it's elevated my breakfast into something I eagerly tuck into, instead of picking at while driving to work.