Aunt Sarah: This posts’s for you. Over the weekend my aunt texted me to say that a local bakery had a killer pizza that day. As soon as I read the words “roasted fennel” and “balsamic vinegar” my tongue got all hot, my mouth suddenly felt parched and my peanut butter & jelly sandwich that I’d packed for lunch started to just look plain sad. But I’ve already made you a roasted fennel pizza. So, how about this balsamic vinegar? How can we use it? These days I don’t have the time to play around in my kitchen as I used to, so I rely on quick dinners and Trader Joe’s easily prepared foods to save time, as I’m sure many of you do as well. So this pizza comes to you from two places: the need for quick food on the table but the refusal to settle for something boring.
a little under 1/2 c balsamic vinegar; reduced (plus a couple of tsps of sugar)
1/4 c fresh parsley; chopped
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil
How to do it:
Preheat your oven to 475 F and turn on a burner to low heat. Heat up your balsamic with the sugar. PLEASE, open your windows or your eyes will burn off. Let it cook for about 10 minutes and sit. It will reduce and thicken.
Roll out your pizza dough with a roller/glass cup/whatever you have that will accomplish this task. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and place dough onto it. Add a little olive oil, brush it around (or use a tissue to spread it) and add a little salt and pepper. Place your pan on the very, very bottom of your oven (not the bottom rack but the bottom of the oven) for about five minutes or until the dough begins to bubble and slightly brown. Remove from the oven.
Your balsamic should be kind of thick now, like a syrup. Brush/tissue/drizzle a thin layer of it onto your dough, leaving a half inch border and being careful not to get the center of your pizza too moist. Mix the hummus with a couple tsps of cayenne pepper. This is depending on your taste. I like things spicy. Start slow, if you must, and taste test. Spread the hummus onto the pizza, staying within the balsamic’s border. Drop your sun dried tomatoes on top and stick it into the oven for another six or seven minutes. The hummus will change to a brownish/reddish color. Remove from oven, garnish with parsley and enjoy! Shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes.
It seems like virtually ever culture has some version of a ball of dough stuffed with meat. In Israel, kubbeh is the meat-stuffed dough ball of choice served in either a sour, lemony broth or a tomato/beet based broth with veggies and kubbeh balls. In Latin America, kubbeh = empanada. And in San Francisco, Mexican food = amazing. My most recent Mexican food adventure included the most delicious empanada I have ever had. This is my take on it, but with a Middle Eastern hairdo. The empanada itself is made with plantains and chickpea flour, is stuffed with plantains, ground beef and baharat spice, topped with tehina and parsley, and resting in a slightly altered version of muhammara (a walnut, pomegranate, and roasted red pepper dip that I added chocolate to and heated up). Now, I know if you live in Israel you won’t be able to find plantains, and I’m really sorry because this will be week two of an ingredient that you can’t find anywhere. I’m fairly certain though that you can use bananas instead.
cayenne pepper to taste–you want this to have some heat though
3 tblsp melted dark chocolate
How to do it:
Boil the plantains for about an hour in their skin. While they’re boiling, place the ground beef and baharat in a frying pan and cook with some salt and pepper over med-low heat until fully cooked–don’t overcook. Set aside. Make your sauce by combining all the ingredients (except for the water) in a food processor/blender and grind them up into a paste. Place into a small pot on the stove (you’re going to heat this up with 3 tblsp water when the plantains are done). After about an hour, remove the plantains from the water with tongs and use them to peel the skin off; place the plantains in a large bowl and mash them up. Take about 1/3 of the plantain mixture and combine it with the beef. Add a little salt to it. Add chickpea flour to the plain plantain mixture and combine well.
In your hands, take tennis ball sized amounts of the chickpea + plantain mixture, roll into a ball as best you can and place it between two sheets of parchment/wax paper. Flatten into a disc with a tortilla press/roller/glass cup. You want the disc to be fairly sizable and also with some thickness, so shoot for about six inches in diameter and 1/4 of an inch in thickness. You may have to start over the first time just to get a sense of the size. Take a tblsp or two of the meat & plantain mixture and spread it down the center of the disc vertically and fold the plantain over so you have a half-moon kind of shape. You can pinch the edges down if you like, leave it open like a taco, or pinch it down and run the tip of a small fork along the edge to give it a pretty look.
Lightly spray a baking pan and bake the empanadas at 375 F for about 20 minutes or until they slightly brown. During the last couple of minutes of baking, heat up your sauce. Pour/spread some of the sauce on a plate, lay the empanada on top, top with tehina, garnish with parsley and enjoy!
If I think it’s yummy, please don’t call it yucky. I know I’m sounding childish right now, but there’s something about the topic of brussels sprouts that just makes me wanna throw a tantrum and suck my thumb.
You know that question philosophy professors always ask, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”? Well, I have been wondering something of my own this week: do children who have never tasted brussels sprouts know to hate them?
I think they might…
I had ever eaten one until two weeks ago because I trusted that little voice inside me going, “eeeew, Mommy! Noooo!” But recently, I was practically forced to eat them at a bar, starving, really, really not wanting to eat a burger and finally settling on brussels sprout chips which the gal said were super popular. Two days later, I was practically force fed the little critters again when I went out with some friends and the two appetizers I wanted were “gone” and the only non-fishy (I’m allergice) appetizer was…DUM Dum dum: panko crusted roasted brussels sprouts and everyone looked at me like, “yeah, definitely, definitely we’ll take those instead!”
Now, if you’re anything like me—or most children, I guess—you’re going, “eeeew….yuck….why??? She better update this post STAT!” But then again, if you hate them so much, why are you still reading? You’re nothing like me! I would have clicked on 10 minutes ago! So I can only assume that brussels sprouts lovers, you must be my audience now. And WOWZERS, theses are so good! And with most things I like, let’s give them a shortened name: B.sprouts. These tiny little cabbages are the new addition to my grocery list and I really feel like a grown up now. Haters: if you are still here, give b.sprouts a shot. They just wanna get to know you.
What you need:
1 pound of brussels sprouts; peeled and washed well
1 tblsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 lemon/lime wedge
How to do it:
Cut the ends off of your b.sprouts. Peel off the layers until they won’t peel easily and when you reach this point, cut the stem again, peel the layers and then stop. You can reserve the tiny remainder of the bulb for a bonus recipe below. When all the leaves are in a bowl give them a really, really good rinse. Toss with the olive oil and salt and lay on a baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes at 400 F or until the leaves are crispy, like chips. They will have turned to a slightly brownish color at the tips. Drizzle with lemon/lime juice and enjoy!
You can see here I tried to get experimental with flavors. Cinnamon + b.sprouts= baaaaaad. The others, especially the turmeric, rosemary and cayenne were pretty good! I couldn’t really taste the cumin and the sumac was good, too, but I think I prefer them plain and drizzled with lemon juice to the sumac.
*Bonus Recipe–What to do with the left over bulbs?
Panko-crusted Brussels Sprouts
Sorry for the poor photo quality. Hopefully your oven is still hot at 400 F from the chips; if not, preheat oven to 400 F. Take the bulbs and slice them down the middle. In a pan, place the bulbs flat-side down. Add 2-3 tblsps of olive oil, 2 tsp minced garlic, salt to taste, 1/2 c panko and the juice of one lemon and turn the burner to medium-high. When the flat side begins to get a pretty brown color remove them from the burner and place on a roasting pan. Roast for about 15 minutes, place in a dish and drizzle with olive oil. Enjoy!
So I just made these this morning again and realized I should be a tad more specific with the instructions. When you ladle the mixture onto the pan, don’t ladle more than about 1/2 -3/4 c. The more you use, the softer the pancake will be and it will be more likely to break when you try and flip it. The thinner, the better. And once you do ladle it onto the pan, just spread it out so it’s fairly even and as it’s cooking and the edges are crisping, run your spatula under the edges once or twice.
If you decide you want to make this on the sweet side, you can add all sorts of fruits and make it more like a chewy pancake–just try not to overload the mixture with too much stuff so it cooks fairly evenly.
Okay, so last week was the “sophisticated chicken nugget,” and this week is, I guess, the sophisticated latke, made with chickpea flour, parsley, feta cheese, red onion and sumac. I found this recipe on Mark Bittman’s “The Minimalist,” and he calls it a “tortillita”—a Spanish pancake that he cooks with different fishes. Being deathly allergic to fish, I opted out and made this vegetarian and with Mediterranean flavors. I dolloped some yogurt on top, but sour cream or tehina would have been phenomenal. It’s a pretty dense pancake, and I thought that if I made smaller ones they’d be a perfect substitute for the same-old same-old greasy potato latke. But until Channukah comes, this is a great addition to the Sat/Sunday morning breakfast repertoire. And chickpea flour is wonderfully high in protein!
**Bittman says if you use all chickpea flour, you’ll get a crispier and flakier result–sounds pretty dang good to me)
1/2 c chickpea flour (you can buy this at any Middle Eastern/Indian store/Whole Foods or grind up raw chickpeas in a food processor)
1/2 c all purpose flour
3/4-1 c water
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c fresh parsley; chopped
1/2 c crumbled feta
1/2 c dates; chopped
1/4 c red onion; chopped
1 tsp sumac
How to do it:
Combine the flours, baking powder, salt & pepper in a bowl. Add the water (it should resemble the consistency of thick cream). Add all the other ingredients. Over medium-high heat, in a small frying pan, get some olive oil heated (give it a fair amount, 1-2 tblsp or so and spread it all around so it doesn’t stick–do not be stingy because it could get stuck). Drop a bit of the batter just to see if it sizzles. Once it starts sizzling, pour amount 1/3 of the batter onto the skillet (about 1/2-3/4 c). The more you use, the softer the pancake will be and it will be more likely to break when you try and flip it. The thinner, the better. Cnce you do ladle it onto the pan, just spread it out so it’s fairly even and as it’s cooking and the edges are crisping, run your spatula under the edges once or twice. Let it cook for about a minute or until the center hardens. Give it a quick flip, cook for 30 seconds more and serve. Enjoy!
If you decide you want to make this on the sweet side, you can add all sorts of fruits and make it more like a chewy pancake–just try not to overload the mixture with too much stuff so it cooks fairly evenly.
I made it through my first week of law school. And, side note: I promise this blog will not turn into my “law school diaries.” But, for the first time in ten days or so, I’m not hopelessly wandering through the fog of summary judgments and direct verdicts and the only question on my mind is: why haven’t I posted this recipe yet? Shame on me!
Do you miss chicken nuggets? Do you cringe every time you feed your child one? This is MY NUMBER ONE GO TO DINNER: a sophisticated chicken nugget, haha. I love this dinner. I love this as lunch. Would you think I was disgusting if I said I would eat this for breakfast? (The answer to that is obviously yes.) But I love this chicken so much that there was a period of time not too long ago where Adam and I would make about four pounds of this chicken, keep it in fridge and add it to our salads or sandwiches throughout the week, which was a killer time-saver. The carrots are a delicious combination since the cumin seeds pair well with the cumin in the chicken and the sweetness of the honey plays with the nuttiness of the pistachio like kindergarten buddies. And I always, because I’m obsessed with lemon, squeeze lemon juice all over my chicken and with the smack of my lips, WOWZER, this seals the deal.
Even more than the flavor, did you check out how colorful this plate is? I didn’t photoshop that. Colorful = healthy! Which this recipe IS because I found it in Shape magazine a few years back. I’ve since played with the recipe a little, but in no ways that would alter the healthiness even a little. Mainly, I added some mustard seeds because my great friend Annie said she’d done that with this recipe and it was delish. Please, please, please make this now, with or without mustard seeds, and tell me your thoughts.
See these babies? GRIND 'EM UP! (or buy them ground, and you can do it in your coffee grinder, too)
Just bought this food processor at a moving sale for $20. My life is complete.
Serves 2 hungry people or three people who are also eating appetizers
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (if you’re in Israel, buy the breasts for shnitzel; if you’re near a Trader Joe’s, the 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves are perfect)
1 cup pistachios; ground (not ground too finely–you want it kind of nutty)
3 tblsp black sesame seeds (if you can’t locate these, toast some regular ones or just use regular ones)
2 tblsp ground coriander
3/4-1 tblsp ground cumin (or you can use baharat spice)
1 egg + 1 tsp water
1/2 c all-purpose flour (use chickpea flour if you’re gluten-free)
salt & pepper (don’t be stingy!)
a few lemon wedges (or if you have lemon salt on hand, you’ll need just a pinch of it)
For the carrots:
1 1/2 tblsp olive oil
5 or 6 carrots cut on a bias into 1/4 inch thick piece
salt and pepper
1/3 c orange juice
2 tblsp honey or date honey
1 tsp cumin seeds and/or 1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp fresh cilantro; chopped
How to do it:
Preheat your oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray some cooking oil. Grind the pistachios and transfer to a bowl in which you’ll combine the sesame seeds, coriander and cumin. In a shallow bowl or plate, beat the egg and water together. In a third bowl (I know!!! but stay with me!!!) add the flour and season it with salt and pepper. You can also add some lemon salt at this point or you can wait till the end and add fresh lemon.
Cut the chicken breasts into small pieces to your liking. To “bread/crust” the chicken: dip a piece of chicken in the flour on both sides and shake off the excess; quickly move to the egg mixture, immerse the chicken in the egg so it’s all wet; then lay each side into the pistachio mixture so it’s covered. This is a messy process. Just go with it. Transfer the pieces to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the juices run clear when pierced with a knife in the thickest part.
While the chicken cooks, prepare the carrots. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and/or the mustard seeds and fry until they become fragrant (this is a good technique if you’re ever cooking with actual seeds). Add the carrots and toss to coat with oil; season with salt and pepper. Add the orange juice, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the honey. Continue cooking, uncovered, for about 10 minutes more or until liquid evaporates and carrots are tender. Divide chicken and carrots among the plates, sprinkle with fresh cilantro, garnish with a lemon wedge and serve. Enjoy!
So, my first day of law school begins in about an hour. Taking a couple years off has been great for me, but at times many people have asked if I was nervous that it would be hard to get back “into the groove.” What they were really asking was if I was nervous that my brain will have stopped working. Ignoring the somewhat insulting implication, I considered what I was actually nervous about: waking up early. Would I be physically capable of getting up before 7 because, well, I hadn’t done that in a couple of years. And wow, what a shocker. I couldn’t fall asleep from excitement last night and when Adam’s alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, my eyes burst open like it was my birthday and there would be a present waiting for me on the dining table. Apparently I have no problem waking up early…yet.
Now, why is this jelly called back to school jelly? Because, in a similar way to Harissa (that deliciously life-transforming red chili sauce that I posted a couple months ago), this jelly will “get you back into the groove,” or whatever non-offensive groove you have fallen out of. It’s a real hit to the taste buds at the early hours when your coffee hasn’t yet brewed and you can’t find your pants. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. It’s not overwhelmingly sweet like jam, in case you don’t like to start on your mornings on a sweet note (like me), and it has a really subtle “man behind the curtain” spicy kind of kick. It’s slightly reminiscent of red chili sauce (that you use for Asian foods) but a lot more like a relish and it doesn’t leave that feeling of sticking to your insides like red chili sauce does.
I tasted this a couple weeks ago for the first time at a friend’s house. She bought some from the Farmer’s Market and after my first taste I was totally intrigued how someone would make this. The listed ingredients on her jar that I could remember were: sugar, peppers, and vinegar. ODD combination, to say the least. SUPER ODD appearance and SMELL while cooking. DELICIOUS, STICKY taste (and that’s what we’re here for, right?) for your meats, fish, crackers, toast and _____. You can decide on the last one–be creative and let me know what you used.
What you need:
1 c red bell pepper; finely, finely chopped
1/2 of a green jalepeno (I used only 1/4 and it wasn’t spicy enough. I had to add tobasco, but just circumvent that little bump and go for 1/2)–It should be about 2 tsp worth
3 c sugar (it will NOT be overwhelmingly sweet)
3/4 c white vinegar
How to do it:
Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan or a large frying pan. Let boil for about 15 minutes and then let simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. Pour mixture into a jar and refrigerate. The next morning you will awake to the proper consistency and be ready to “groove.” Enjoy!
Routine getting you down? This is a Middle Eastern take on the classic & boring American hamburger. It’s very similar to the Persian-style kebab, koobideh (koob-ee-deh), but the shape of the patty is slightly different. The meat is so tender it melts in your mouth and the baharat gives the kebab a gorgeous aroma and flavor. If you haven’t tried baharat yet, you really should. I use it in meats and in baked goods and it really just shakes up boring classics.
Kebabs don’t have to just be vegetables topped on top of blocks of meat. In the middle east, kebabs are more often made with ground meat, covered in sauces and jammed between two soft & fluffy folds of pita bread. Adam likes to tease me every time I talk about kebabs because one of my favorite little facts is how shish kebabs got their name. The phrase shish kebab originated with Persian soldiers who would roast animals on their swords over a campfire. Cool, huh?
I’ve made this meal four times in the last two weeks. It’s delicious, kids loves it, too, and it cooks up and comes together fairly quickly. If you don’t have a grill, you could just do them in the broiler.
What you need:
pita bread
this tehina recipe (or Trader Joe’s ready kind, if you’re pressed for time)
2 lbs of ground beef
1 1/2 c flat leaf parsley; chopped (reserve 1/2 for tehina)
1 egg
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 medium onions; grated or whizzed in a food processor (you get the idea–finely, finely chopped)
1 tblsp baharat spice (*if you don’t have time: 1 heaping tsp of cinnamon, a few hard shakes ground ginger, a few hard shakes nutmeg)
salt & pepper to taste but don’t be shy!
For the red sauce:
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste (and again, don’t be shy!)
1 medium sized onion; quartered
1 tsp lemon zest
cayenne pepper and paprika to taste (this will depend on how spicy you like things)
How to do it:
With your hands, combine the meat, parsley, onion, egg and baharat spice. Knead the mixture for about ten minutes. You may notice that the meat will change slightly in color and the consistency will become very sticky. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to let all the flavors combine. While that’s in the fridge, bring all the ingredients for your tomato sauce to a boil, reduce to low and cover for about 20 minutes.
With wet hands, shape the kebabs onto the skewers. To make a koobideh (Persian kebab) style, make a long, rectangular tube with the meat. Make indentations into the meat with your pinky and place on the grill or run a skewer through it. Or, make oblong-shaped patties and then run the skewer through, as I've done above. I think this is easier that forming the meat around the skewer. Grill on the BBQ or simply make patties like you would hamburgers and place in the broiler for about 12-15 minutes, depending on your grill/broiler.
Take a pita and pour the sauce onto onto it. Place the meat on top of the sauce, fold the pita over, dollop some tehina on top and garnish with some chopped parsley. Enjoy!
I hope you didn’t think I forgot about you! But moving from friend’s house to friend’s house and sleeping on an air mattress in this friend’s newly rented & empty apartment hasn’t really lent itself to a whole lot of cooking. Or enjoyment. In the last week, Adam and I have looked at 20+ apartments and all to no avail. So, please forgive me for taking some time to post.
It’s during moments like these that my heart starts to ache for Jerusalem, where you can check any rental site at 8 PM, show up at someone’s apartment at 8:30 and leave with keys in hand by 9 PM. And if you offer to pay slightly more, you can shave 29 minutes off that final time! But not here in SF. In adjusting back to American life, credit reports, lines and obeyed traffic laws, I find myself forced to recreate little pieces of my life in Jerusalem to make the move a much less forceful shock to the good ‘ol system. And lucky for you, that includes this roulade/jelly roll/swiss roll (call it what you want!) recipe.
When a Friday comes to a close in Jerusalem and you’re having guests for dinner, there’s nothing quite like the feeling that you a) haven’t made enough food or b) forgot a key ingredient for dessert. And at this point, you’ve missed the last running bus, the shuk is closed, and the panic begins to settle in. So, what do you do? Tell me, seriously. Because I just cry…or pick a fight with someone smaller than me. You however, being much more sound of mind, will remember that I posted this gorgeous, velvety roulade recipe that is baked in 15 minutes and requires ingredients most people usually have laying around! Very little goes into making one of these, yet they have the potential to look and taste truly professional.
Just some filling options to think about: your favorite jam or this one, nutella with nuts, honey, powdered sugar & cinnamon frosting, melted chocolate with dried fruit, or some simple berries with whipped cream. You could probably even go the savory route and use only 1/2 c sugar in the cake and the fill it with cheese and figs and then stick in back into the oven for a few minutes to soften the cheese.
You can keep the sponge cake part plain and simple as described above, brush the baked cake with rose water or drizzle some honey, or add some cocoa powder to the cake batter to make it chocolate-y. The options are truly at your discretion.
What you need:
For the cake:
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 c cup sugar
For the jam filling:
1 granny smith apple; chopped
8 strawberries; chopped
4 peaches
Garnish:
a few ounces of dark (or parve) chocolate for drizzling
a few strawberries and blueberries
ground almonds/nuts (optional)
How to do it:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside. In a bowl, mix the eggs until they are fluffy (if you don’t have a mixer, which I don’t, getting them 5 minutes or so beyond foamy will be just fine…but it will add some time to the overall cooking time). Add the sugar and vanilla and continue beating for another 3 minutes or until the mixture becomes pale yellow.
Use a flat spatula to fold in the baking powder and flour. Try not to puncture too many of the bubbles or deflate the eggs because this is what gives the sponge cake its sponge-i-ness. Spread the batter evenly onto the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until center springs back when lightly pressed.
In the meantime, create your filling. If you’re following this recipe, then chop all the fruits and place them in a large frying pan with 2 tblsp of lemon juice and 1 c of sugar. Place a small plate in the freezer (we will use this later to “test” the jam’s consistency.) Over medium heat, bring the jam to a boil, stirring continuously. Skim off any foam. Once it boils, turn the heat to a low simmer and continue to stir for about 10 minutes. Remove the plate from the freezer and test the consistency. When you tip the plate, the jam should look like this:
Before you remove the cake from the oven, lay a dish towel vertically on the counter. Remove the cake from the oven and carefully lift the cake off the baking sheet while holding the edges of the parchment paper. Place it on top of the towel so that on top of the towel is the parchment paper and then the cake. Spread your filling onto the cake now, covering it completely.
Make sure the parchment paper and towel are lined up with each other on the edge closest to your body. Carefully lift up the edges of the towel and parchment paper to begin rolling the cake (from the short side). With two hands, roll the cake over until the towel comes over to the top. Return the towel back to the counter and continue rolling the rest of the cake into a fairly tight roll. Don’t roll the parchment into the cake! You’ll need to pull it over the top of the roll as you roll and roll until the whole thing is a giant roll. (Roll, roll, roll, roll…can a girl get a synonym here?) Place the cake seam side down on a dish. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave (for one minute). With a spoon, drizzle it over the top at all sorts ‘a angles and garnish with some fruit and/or nuts. Cut off the edges for a clean look. If not eating immediately, place in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I might be posting erratically for the next couple of weeks, and since we’ve just begun our move up to San Francisco and we’re staying with friends, I don’t have much access to a kitchen and my warning to you has become true. Given that I will be strapped for time for the next week or so still, I thought I’d post something that takes 10 minutes MAX to prepare and cooks on its own–something for those of us who can’t spend time in the kitchen because we’re running to school, work or to pick up the kids and just want to have something delicious sitting their in the fridge that we can grab day after day.
I made this for breakfast for my family because it really is, essentially, granola and fruit-just disguised by a crisp-like appearance and we topped it with yogurt and ate it for breakfast. Then, that night, we topped it with ice cream and had it for dessert. Quick, easy and delicious, and this recipe is insanely flexible, as you will see below.
7 peaches; cut into moon shapes (of course, you could use apples, nectarines, apricots, plums, a mixture of some or just a few–your choice)
1 heaping tsp of cinnamon
juice from half a lemon
pinch of salt
3 tblsp whole wheat flour
1/2 c honey
3 c oats OR 3 c of granola (if you already have store-bough granola at home, you could use that, too)
1 c unsweetened applesauce (or butter, or vegetable oil)
handful of blueberries
optional: 1/2 c almonds flakes (or your favorite nut) and 1/2 c shredded coconut
optional: top with yogurt or ice cream
How to do it:
NOTE* if you are using my granola recipe, then you can simply toss your peaches as described below, sprinkle the granola on top and go straight to the oven. Same if you are using a store-bought granola recipe. So if you need to save even more time, that will do the trick!
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Place your peaches in a 9 x 13 baking dish and toss with the lemon juice, 3 tblsp of honey, a pinch of salt, and cinnamon until all the peaches are evenly coated. Spread them out evenly in the dish or whatever you have on hand that is on the smaller side.
In a saucepan, warm the applesauce and remaining honey or if you’re using butter, melt that with the honey over low-medium heat until all the butter melts or all the liquids are warmed and well combined.
In a bowl combine the flour, oats (if you’re not using your own granola) blueberries and a pinch of salt, as well as the almond flakes and/or coconut if you are using those. Add the butter (or applesauce) and honey mixture to the dry ingredients and combine until clumps form. Spread this mixture evenly over the peaches and place in the oven for 45-50 minutes.
The granola will brown before 45-50 minutes have passed, so check it after 10 minutes or so and cover it with foil if it’s browning. Remove the foil five minutes before it’s done so the oats can re-crisp. Cool to room temperature and then place it in the fridge for breakfast…or dessert! Top it with yogurt or ice cream. Enjoy!
my jerusalem kitchen 