Baked Falafel with Simple Yogurt Dressing

There is a lot of cooking in my kitchen for other people - steak for my husband, a whole series for my daughter, BBQ for my in-laws. This Baked Falafel is just for me. I could eat meatless hearty salads for every meal and I love greek food. The hubby will pass on tomatoes and olives and our little darling is only really interested in strawberries and cheese toast these days. 

Luckily - I'm the only cook in the house and everyone just has to deal with my whims. Just kidding, being a wife and mom just means I need meals that 1. I love and 2. I can adapt for my sweet finicky family. This Baked Falafel is good like that. My husband will eat these in a pita pocket without the tomatoes and olives and with very little yogurt sauce. Ella will have her sauce on the side, actually she'll have everything separate, please. Me? I love to eat these guys on a big bed of lettuce with lots of feta, lots of ripe tomatoes, and lots of stinky olives. The falafel and Simple Yogurt dressing also make a pretty hearty appetizer with some sliced cucumbers. 

Like most of the recipes I share here - these Baked Falafel are adaptable and forgiving. Out of cornmeal? Use all-purpose flour. Hate mint? Just chop up some parsley. The yogurt sauce can handle some red wine vinegar instead of the lemon (because 9 times out of 10 -  I forgot to buy the lemon). 

Baked Falafel 

makes 24 small falafel patties, 4-6 servings 

2 (16 ounces) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed 

1 small onion or shallot, grated 

1 clove garlic, minced 

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup finely chopped minced herbs - I like thyme, oregano and mint but parsley is a good neutral 

1 teaspoon smoked paprika 

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

olive oil 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mash together the chickpeas, onion, garlic, cornmeal, herbs, paprika and salt with a potato masher in a large bowl until most of the chickpeas are smashed and the mixture holds together when pressed. You can also pulse the mixture in a food processor 10-15 times until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and also holds together when pressed. 

Coat a baking sheet with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Scoop the chickpea mixture into 2 tablespoon sized balls (I like a small fisher for this) and flatten slightly. 

Bake for 12 minutes, flip and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Serve with Simple Yogurt Dressing, pita bread, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. 

Simple Yogurt Dressing 

makes about 1 cup dressing

1 cup greek yogurt 

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

1 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs - such as chives and mint

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

Mix together yogurt, lemon juice, herbs, and salt. Let the mixture sit for at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Psst. This is how I set up the components of a greek salad for Ella. She is 1000% guaranteed to eat the bread, yogurt sauce, and cucumbers. Every once in a great while she will eat the tomatoes and the feta too - so I keep trying.

Toddler Friendly Taco Soup with Corn Tortilla Crisps

Life behind the scenes at Stir & Scribble is not all beautifully lit cocktails and artfully stacked donuts. I've allude to this before when talking about the current lack of date nights with my husband. My goal has always been to bring you real recipes that are fuss-free and family friendly (and strong drinks, because raising a family is tough business). So I also want to share more of our real family meals. 

Even as trained culinary professional - dinner time can be really stressful! Ella is either getting herself into trouble or begging for a snack, the dogs want in, no the dogs want out, 'Ella please stay out of the dog food' while trying to cook something that A. I want to eat B. Ella will eat. Priorities. 

This "Toddler Friendly" Taco Soup is more a strategy than a recipe - one that I learned in the trenches of cooking food for Ella. The end result is a soup for adults and a plate of food for Ella to eat. This isn't about soup for a toddler because honestly eating soup with a toddler will result in you both needing a bath and the floor needing a mopping and do you really want to do that on a Wednesday night? I would much rather watch Nashville and drink a cocktail. 

My friend* Jenny calls this tactic "Deconstructing Dinner" and it will serve you well to learn, embrace and employ this tactic regularly. You don't really want to eat plain pasta and peas or make two dinners every night until your kiddo learns to appreciate tomatoes anyway. 

*Okay - I've never actually met Jenny, but I imagine we would become friends over a cocktail and swapping family dinner stories. 

TODDLER FRIENDLY TACO SOUP with Corn Tortilla Crisps 
makes about 6 servings 

Soup:
4 (6-inch)corn tortillas 
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided 
1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced 
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained 
1 cup of frozen corn
1 teaspoon kosher salt 
1 teaspoon smoked paprika 
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 
1 quart chicken broth 
1 can of diced tomatoes
8 ounces chopped cooked chicken 

for serving: 
Salsa 
Chopped avocado 
Sour cream
Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
lime wedges 

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the corn tortillas into wedges. Liberally coat a baking sheet with 2 tablespoons olive oil and lay the tortilla wedges in an even layer on the pan. Flip the tortillas so both sides are coated with oil. Set aside. 

Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Brown the onions in the hot oil until softened and beginning to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and peppers and cook until the garlic is fragrant about 3 minutes. Add the black beans and corn and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes - until the corn is cooked and the peppers are softened. 

At this point, I pull a spoonful of the veggie bean mixture out onto Ella's plate. It cools while the rest of the soup cooks. I also pull a handful of chicken for her plate before the it goes in the soup. 

Add the salt, paprika, and cumin and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and chicken and bring the mixture to a simmer. 

Meanwhile, bake the tortilla crisps in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. While the crisp are still hot a sprinkle a few with shredded cheese to melt while they cool. 

Simmer the soup for 5 minutes - remove from the heat and serve with the tortilla crisps, salsa, avocado, shredded cheese and sour cream.  Ella gets her own diced avocado and a little sour cream for her "dipping' chips".

Steak Frites

The original idea for this post was something akin to Ashley's dating her husband series. I'd write some kind words about my dear husband and the relaxing evening we shared. It was a really lovely and romantic idea. 

Here's what Sunday evening at 5:09 was like at our house:  

There was a rug in our front yard, I had chocolate frosting all over my shirt, Ella was crying about something (we still have no idea after asking repeatedly), my husband snapped at me because I hadn't given him enough time to vacuum the floors (its his thing), and the Brussels sprouts were burning. This was our date night. 

My husband works a lot. We are lucky if we get to have one meal as a family together during the week, luckier still if we get to have a Friday or Saturday night together. I'm not complaining - I'm happy to have a husband who works really hard (and likes it) and all that provides our family is incredible. It just means that we've been approximately 127.5 days without a proper date. 

It also means that when my husband has a day off - there are about 2,700 projects that I want to get done on that one day. This is totally doable and not insane. This Sunday was one of those days. 

Sundays are also the day when I shoot all the photography for Stir & Scribble or any freelance recipes I'm working on. Usually I'm shooting two full recipes plus two tips in a 2 hour window between nap time and losing daylight. This is also totally doable and not at all insane. 

Did I also mention that we have a toddler? What is that saying "the days are long but the years are short"? Our days are very very short right now.

I want to celebrate our little family in small ways more often - so I created this little riff on one of my husband's favorite meals - Steak Frites. Typically Steak Frites, steak and fries, is a served as rib-eye steak with deep-fried shoe string potatoes. If you think I have the time to prepare either of those - please re-read above. No, instead I bought a flank steak which is rather inexpensive and cooks very quickly and paired it with our new favorite oven fries. And because we are working on eating fewer processed foods - I also made steak sauce; My husband loves the stuff. 

The beauty of this meal is that it kind of cooks itself. Sure there are a few prep steps - but most of them can be started and forgotten; The same cannot be said for the Brussels sprouts. 

Steak Frites with Steak Sauce 

serves 2 (or 2.5) 

for the steak sauce: 

1 small onion,  chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon  dijon mustard

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Cool the steak sauce for 30 minutes, strain out the onion and garlic and store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

1 - 11/2 pound flank steak 

kosher salt

2 large russets potatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil 

Remove the steak from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before cooking. Salt liberally, I used about 2 teaspoons for my 11/4 pound steak, and set at room temperature. 

Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick matchsticks and cover in cold water. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Soak the potatoes for at least 30 minutes. It takes my oven about this long the heat up. 

Drain the potatoes and pat them dry with paper towels. Spread the potatoes into a single layer on a baking pan and coat with the oil. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden - flipping them once about half way through. 

Heat a large cast iron pan on high heat. When the pan is ripping hot - sear the steak for 2-3 minutes on one side then flip and sear for another 2-3 minutes on the second side. Remove the pan from the heat and cook the steak an additional 5 to 10 minutes (to desired doneness - I cook mine for an additional 5 minutes for medium rare). Wrap the flank steak in foil and rest for 15 minutes. Slice the steak against the grain and serve with juices from the foil, the fries and steak sauce.