Black Bean Chili Over Roasted Sweet Potatoes

This Southwest inspired vegetarian dish is simple and satisfying (and healthy, too). If you want to go the more conventional route, you can serve the chili in taco shells.

Chickpeas and Vegetable Madras

This is from a vegetarian cookbook that is a cult classic in my extended family–although it is out of print and otherwise seems to have been forgotten. All my siblings and my parents have a copy of Carol Gelles’s Wholesome Harvest. My grandmother (Z”L) loved the soup recipes.

Anyway, I have neglected it of late. My sister was telling me about this soup, Harirah, that she was making, and when I asked where she got the recipe, she said: “Wholesome Harvest!” She also made a sweet potato red lentil soup recently from the book. So, I took a look at the book and made my modified version of the Cabbage Soup (which my husband loves) and a big pot of vegetable stew.

Morshan (Tunisian Chickpeas and Swiss Chard)

Seeing a recent post about Ottolenghi’s chickpeas and spinach made me think about Paula Wolfert’s recipe for Morshan (Chickpeas and Swiss Chard in the style Tunisian Sahel) (pp. 127-28 of Mediterranean Cooking). The irony was this: I had the baby spinach to make the Ottolenghi recipe, but I had just cooked the Swiss chard that I bought a day or so ago. But now I wanted to make the Morshan. So, I used the baby spinach instead of the Swiss chard.

And it was delicious.

Jeanne Lemlin’s Herbed Bean Burgers

Jeanne Lemlin, in Simple Vegetarian Pleasures, says that these white bean burgers taste like stuffing. She’s really not kidding. They taste exactly like the Thanksgiving dish made with bread.

Adjustable Heat Kid Friendly Chili

My son loves beans, and they are good for him, but he is not keen on anything “spicy.” So, when I made chili tonight, I made it very, very mild, and made some “mix-in” for me and my husband that would amp up the flavor for us. My son had two or three servings and said it was the “best meal he ever had.”