Shrimp Chickpea Salad
The house i am living in here at Berkeley had its house Christmas dinner tonight. There are six of us, and we each made one element of the dinner. I picked to do "side dish" (I got a little carried away, as usual, and made three things, but it actually turned out that it was a pretty good amount of food for all of us!). Since it's the Christmas Fast, I made food that was fasting of course (and made enough that it wasn't weird to only eat what I made!), and i came up with this recipe that was great (kind of by accident, I mostly added what I had!). (If you keep kosher, sorry about the non-kosher recipe, but I think it would be good without the shrimp!) Anyway, I thought some of you might like it, and look, it's making me post again! Sorry everyone, I do read all the time, I'll try to comment more.
Shrimp Chickpea Salad
Half a red onion (or a whole smaller one, or a not-red onion is probably fine)
8 oz mushrooms (I used crimini)
A large handful, or a bit more, of fairly small shrimp (I had frozen salad shrimp type shrimp, which I thawed)
1 14 oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (or about 2 cups cooked from scratch)
Lemon juice (fresh is good)
Chopped fresh dill (or other herb/dried, whatever, but it was good with fresh)
A couple ripe tomatoes (I used 3 small ones, could have used another one, but I didn't have it)
A couple handfuls of fresh spinach
Dried oregano (optional, I think, but something like this is good)
Salt and pepper to taste
Take the onion, chop it in narrow, inch long strips (or however, really), saute in oil. Chopped the mushrooms, add them, saute. Don't chop mushrooms too small, or saute too long. At the end of cooking they should still be firm but cooked through.
Take shrimp, make sure they're pretty dry, add some salt and dried oregano to them, mix. Then add a bit more oil to the pan, and put the shrimp in. Stir around/cook till heated through. They should get slightly "fried," it makes them better, but don't cook too long.
Dump a drained can of garbanzo beans in (or two cups cooked), cook till heated through. There should be some liquid in the pan, that is fine...
Turn off the heat. Add some lemon juice, chopped fresh dill and pepper, also more salt if it needs some.
Wait till half cooled, chop the tomatoes fairly small (definitely use fresh tomatoes), and toss them in. They don't really cook much. When it's even a bit cooler, throw in the handful or two of chopped spinach. The spinach should wilt just slightly. Mix together
Add more dill (and lemon) to taste, if it needs it. I think I used about the juice of half a lemon, total, or maybe a little more? And I chopped several stems of dill, but I'm not sure exactly how much. A couple tablespoons of fresh?
You can serve it like that (or not let it cool and serve it hot, with tomato and spinach added at the last minute, in which case it's more like beans/shrimp you could serve over rice or whatever), or you can cool it, and add Vegenaise (or mayo, I guess, if not a fast?) to taste. It doesn't need much, but the bit of liquid from the oil/mushrooms/lemon/tomatoes, etc, makes this amazing dressing like thing when you add the Vegenaise, and it is SO GOOD. I served it like a cold salad and it was very popular! All of it got eaten, even though we had a lot of other food!
If you don't use Vegenaise, it is definitely good (hot or cold) without it, but i did really like it with. (I just discovered Vegenaise--I'd been served it, but never bought it. It's probably not the best for one... sigh. It's really good though, at least in my opinion--I don't like mayonnaise much, and I do like this, at least in things--I bought it because i wanted a tuna sandwich!). I do recommend NOT putting too much mayo/Vegenaise--it was light and just a bit creamy the way it turned out.
I'm sure you could add or subtract things and it would still be good!
I also made these potatoes; I can recommend them!
How is everyone doing? If you fast--any new fasting ideas?? I don't have enough ideas these days, or maybe just not enough time to cook!
Shrimp Chickpea Salad
Half a red onion (or a whole smaller one, or a not-red onion is probably fine)
8 oz mushrooms (I used crimini)
A large handful, or a bit more, of fairly small shrimp (I had frozen salad shrimp type shrimp, which I thawed)
1 14 oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (or about 2 cups cooked from scratch)
Lemon juice (fresh is good)
Chopped fresh dill (or other herb/dried, whatever, but it was good with fresh)
A couple ripe tomatoes (I used 3 small ones, could have used another one, but I didn't have it)
A couple handfuls of fresh spinach
Dried oregano (optional, I think, but something like this is good)
Salt and pepper to taste
Take the onion, chop it in narrow, inch long strips (or however, really), saute in oil. Chopped the mushrooms, add them, saute. Don't chop mushrooms too small, or saute too long. At the end of cooking they should still be firm but cooked through.
Take shrimp, make sure they're pretty dry, add some salt and dried oregano to them, mix. Then add a bit more oil to the pan, and put the shrimp in. Stir around/cook till heated through. They should get slightly "fried," it makes them better, but don't cook too long.
Dump a drained can of garbanzo beans in (or two cups cooked), cook till heated through. There should be some liquid in the pan, that is fine...
Turn off the heat. Add some lemon juice, chopped fresh dill and pepper, also more salt if it needs some.
Wait till half cooled, chop the tomatoes fairly small (definitely use fresh tomatoes), and toss them in. They don't really cook much. When it's even a bit cooler, throw in the handful or two of chopped spinach. The spinach should wilt just slightly. Mix together
Add more dill (and lemon) to taste, if it needs it. I think I used about the juice of half a lemon, total, or maybe a little more? And I chopped several stems of dill, but I'm not sure exactly how much. A couple tablespoons of fresh?
You can serve it like that (or not let it cool and serve it hot, with tomato and spinach added at the last minute, in which case it's more like beans/shrimp you could serve over rice or whatever), or you can cool it, and add Vegenaise (or mayo, I guess, if not a fast?) to taste. It doesn't need much, but the bit of liquid from the oil/mushrooms/lemon/tomatoes, etc, makes this amazing dressing like thing when you add the Vegenaise, and it is SO GOOD. I served it like a cold salad and it was very popular! All of it got eaten, even though we had a lot of other food!
If you don't use Vegenaise, it is definitely good (hot or cold) without it, but i did really like it with. (I just discovered Vegenaise--I'd been served it, but never bought it. It's probably not the best for one... sigh. It's really good though, at least in my opinion--I don't like mayonnaise much, and I do like this, at least in things--I bought it because i wanted a tuna sandwich!). I do recommend NOT putting too much mayo/Vegenaise--it was light and just a bit creamy the way it turned out.
I'm sure you could add or subtract things and it would still be good!
I also made these potatoes; I can recommend them!
How is everyone doing? If you fast--any new fasting ideas?? I don't have enough ideas these days, or maybe just not enough time to cook!