Hi all, it's kind of slow around here so I thought I'd post today's
Football Sunday menu at the Vito house :-)

Today I chopped up some cabbage, a leek, a rib of celery, a carrot, a
small Thai eggplant and sauteed them quickly in some EVOO. I added a
tablespoon of dried yellow split peas, a couple of tomatoes (the
wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper is working:-), a few slices of
left over proscuitto, and a whole preserved lemon. I put it all in
the slow cooker with some chicken broth and filtered water and have it
on high.

I love this kind of "kitchen sink" vegetable soup, but always miss
having a hunk of rustic bread with it. As I love all things chickpea,
today I'm trying a new recipe I found for a type of bean bread
(farinata, socca, torta tal cecci, etc.). Here's the recipe for that
if you are interested:

1 cup chickpea flour
1 2/3 cup water (more or less depending on if you like it crispy or
chewy)
sea salt
coarse pepper
1 tablespoon of EVOO, plus some to oil the pan (maybe two tablespoons
altogether)
1-2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary, if desired

Whisk together the water, salt, pepper, and flour and allow to sit a
couple of hours (or overnight)
Preheat oven to 500F
Generously oil a heavy pan (I am using my grandmother's cast iron
skillet) -- more oil will make a crisper edge
Pour a very thin layer of the batter in the skillet -- thinner is
crispier
Sprinkle the chopped rosemary over the batter
Place in the hot oven for 8-15 mintues, depending on how crispy you
like it
Pull it out of the pan, slice it up, sprinkle with some sea salt and
eat right away -- with soup!

I ran the meal through Calorie King and came up with this:

Farinata
595 calories
4.4 g sat fat
53.2 g carbs
20.6 g protein
9.9 g fiber

Soup
297 calories
0.3 sat fat
55 g carbs
15.1 g protein
21.1 g fiber

I should have used fava beans instead of the split peas, and who knew
leeks were so darn carby, LOL. So it is not a low calorie or a low
carb meal, but I think it is nutritious and all that fiber's gotta be
good for...uh...digestive health! A quarter to a third of the recipe
should be pretty filling and would be something I would eat at one
meal.

"Ricavito" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all, it's kind of slow around here so I thought I'd post today's
> Football Sunday menu at the Vito house :-)
>
> Today I chopped up some cabbage, a leek, a rib of celery, a carrot, a
> small Thai eggplant and sauteed them quickly in some EVOO. I added a
> tablespoon of dried yellow split peas, a couple of tomatoes (the
> wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper is working:-), a few slices of
> left over proscuitto, and a whole preserved lemon. I put it all in
> the slow cooker with some chicken broth and filtered water and have it
> on high.
>
> I love this kind of "kitchen sink" vegetable soup, but always miss
> having a hunk of rustic bread with it. As I love all things chickpea,
> today I'm trying a new recipe I found for a type of bean bread
> (farinata, socca, torta tal cecci, etc.). Here's the recipe for that
> if you are interested:
>
> 1 cup chickpea flour
> 1 2/3 cup water (more or less depending on if you like it crispy or
> chewy)
> sea salt
> coarse pepper
> 1 tablespoon of EVOO, plus some to oil the pan (maybe two tablespoons
> altogether)
> 1-2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary, if desired
>
> Whisk together the water, salt, pepper, and flour and allow to sit a
> couple of hours (or overnight)
> Preheat oven to 500F
> Generously oil a heavy pan (I am using my grandmother's cast iron
> skillet) -- more oil will make a crisper edge
> Pour a very thin layer of the batter in the skillet -- thinner is
> crispier
> Sprinkle the chopped rosemary over the batter
> Place in the hot oven for 8-15 mintues, depending on how crispy you
> like it
> Pull it out of the pan, slice it up, sprinkle with some sea salt and
> eat right away -- with soup!
>
> I ran the meal through Calorie King and came up with this:
>
> Farinata
> 595 calories
> 4.4 g sat fat
> 53.2 g carbs
> 20.6 g protein
> 9.9 g fiber
>
> Soup
> 297 calories
> 0.3 sat fat
> 55 g carbs
> 15.1 g protein
> 21.1 g fiber
>
> I should have used fava beans instead of the split peas, and who knew
> leeks were so darn carby, LOL. So it is not a low calorie or a low
> carb meal, but I think it is nutritious and all that fiber's gotta be
> good for...uh...digestive health! A quarter to a third of the recipe
> should be pretty filling and would be something I would eat at one
> meal.

How did that bread come out? I bought some chickpea flour (had a hard time
finding it) to make some of that and other things but never did.

I grew up eating soup but we rarely ever had bread with it. My dad crushes
crackers into his soup but that just seemed appalling to me so I never tried
it. I never was much of a cracker person either.

We do eat a lot of soup here at times. I haven't made any since we were
last sick (swine flu) because I souped out Angela last winter. I had
pneumonia and then bronchitis that lasted for months and all that time the
only thing I cooked was soup. She finally protested. I did spy most of a
case of V8 juice in the garage today though and thought I should make up a
batch of soup. <evil laugh>

Anything would be better than tonight's dinner. I made potato cakes out of
some leftover mashed potatoes. Alas, they had frozen in my fridge. I have
since turned the fridge down a notch. The thermometer in there indicates it
is at the proper temp., but obviously not. I used a bean blend flour
(gluten free) on the outside and fried them in olive oil. I didn't add any
flour to the potatoes and didn't add any eggs. I really think eggs are
necessary to hold them together. I found them to be edible but just barely
and Angela didn't like them even when drowned in ketchup. We also had green
beans and bacon. The bacon was the best part of that meal.

On Dec 13, 8:03*pm, "Julie Bove" > wrote:

> How did that bread come out? *I bought some chickpea flour (had a hard time
> finding it) to make some of that and other things but never did.

Hey Julie, the farinata came out pretty darn good. I let it get very
crispy on the edges, and it was really really tasty. But then I love
chickpeas a lot. I realized in starting the cooking process that the
full recipe was going to be too much, and so I only cooked about half
of it, so I have the rest for tomorrow in the fridge. I will
definitely make this again and often.

The chickpea flour I've been using is Bob's Red Mill brand, and I can
usually find it in the "health food" section of the major grocery
chains. There are recipes to make it with dried chickpeas using a
food processor or coffee grinder, and I think Indian style probably
would be to toast the chickpeas before griding the flour. Seems like
a lot of work, but I might try it one of these days.

>
> I grew up eating soup but we rarely ever had bread with it. *My dad crushes
> crackers into his soup but that just seemed appalling to me so I never tried
> it. *I never was much of a cracker person either.
>
> We do eat a lot of soup here at times. *I haven't made any since we were
> last sick (swine flu) because I souped out Angela last winter. *I had
> pneumonia and then bronchitis that lasted for months and all that time the
> only thing I cooked was soup. *She finally protested. *I did spy most of a
> case of V8 juice in the garage today though and thought I should make up a
> batch of soup. <evil laugh>
>

LOL, she might like it as a winter tradition then. The kids in my
family just like to eat the same things over and over. The soup I
made today was good to me, but my DH said it was a little too salty
for him. I didn't add any salt to the soup, but the preserved lemon
and scraps of proscuitto were salty I guess. I just cleaned off
insides and washed the lemon peel before I chopped it, so next time I
will soak it a while to get some more of the salt out.

> Anything would be better than tonight's dinner. *I made potato cakes out of
> some leftover mashed potatoes. *Alas, they had frozen in my fridge. *I have
> since turned the fridge down a notch. *The thermometer in there indicates it
> is at the proper temp., but obviously not. *I used a bean blend flour
> (gluten free) on the outside and fried them in olive oil. *I didn't add any
> flour to the potatoes and didn't add any eggs. *I really think eggs are
> necessary to hold them together. *I found them to be edible but just barely
> and Angela didn't like them even when drowned in ketchup. *We also had green
> beans and bacon. *The bacon was the best part of that meal

That is too bad about the potato pancakes, but the green beans and
bacon sounds really good. Anything is good with bacon, lol. I have a
green bean pate recipe I'm planning to try when they start showing up
at the farmers' market here. I can't decide if green bean pate sounds
good or kind of yucky but I'll try anything once!

"Ricavito" > wrote in message
...
On Dec 13, 8:03 pm, "Julie Bove" > wrote:

> How did that bread come out? I bought some chickpea flour (had a hard time
> finding it) to make some of that and other things but never did.

Hey Julie, the farinata came out pretty darn good. I let it get very
crispy on the edges, and it was really really tasty. But then I love
chickpeas a lot. I realized in starting the cooking process that the
full recipe was going to be too much, and so I only cooked about half
of it, so I have the rest for tomorrow in the fridge. I will
definitely make this again and often.

The chickpea flour I've been using is Bob's Red Mill brand, and I can
usually find it in the "health food" section of the major grocery
chains. There are recipes to make it with dried chickpeas using a
food processor or coffee grinder, and I think Indian style probably
would be to toast the chickpeas before griding the flour. Seems like
a lot of work, but I might try it one of these days.

That's the kind I have too. I keep looking for it by its middle eastern
name (besan) and looking in the ethnic food sections but no dice. Then I
happened upon the Bob's Red Mill.

>
> I grew up eating soup but we rarely ever had bread with it. My dad crushes
> crackers into his soup but that just seemed appalling to me so I never
> tried
> it. I never was much of a cracker person either.
>
> We do eat a lot of soup here at times. I haven't made any since we were
> last sick (swine flu) because I souped out Angela last winter. I had
> pneumonia and then bronchitis that lasted for months and all that time the
> only thing I cooked was soup. She finally protested. I did spy most of a
> case of V8 juice in the garage today though and thought I should make up a
> batch of soup. <evil laugh>
>

LOL, she might like it as a winter tradition then. The kids in my
family just like to eat the same things over and over. The soup I
made today was good to me, but my DH said it was a little too salty
for him. I didn't add any salt to the soup, but the preserved lemon
and scraps of proscuitto were salty I guess. I just cleaned off
insides and washed the lemon peel before I chopped it, so next time I
will soak it a while to get some more of the salt out.

I'm the type to eat the same thing over and over. She is not. I have to
keep trying to come up with new things I think she will like.

> Anything would be better than tonight's dinner. I made potato cakes out of
> some leftover mashed potatoes. Alas, they had frozen in my fridge. I have
> since turned the fridge down a notch. The thermometer in there indicates
> it
> is at the proper temp., but obviously not. I used a bean blend flour
> (gluten free) on the outside and fried them in olive oil. I didn't add any
> flour to the potatoes and didn't add any eggs. I really think eggs are
> necessary to hold them together. I found them to be edible but just barely
> and Angela didn't like them even when drowned in ketchup. We also had
> green
> beans and bacon. The bacon was the best part of that meal

That is too bad about the potato pancakes, but the green beans and
bacon sounds really good. Anything is good with bacon, lol. I have a
green bean pate recipe I'm planning to try when they start showing up
at the farmers' market here. I can't decide if green bean pate sounds
good or kind of yucky but I'll try anything once!

Green beans are one of Angela's favorite foods. That is one thing she will
eat over and over again. Just plain from a can. Also loves black olives.