puffy and pillowy

Lookit my perfect pockety pita!

 

I am seriously into this whole wheat pita bread with flax recipe. It’s pretty idiot proof (though I added an extra 10 minutes of resting time after rolling it out for maximum pocketage) and they just kept poofing bigger and bigger! I have so much fun staring into my oven it’s kind of pathetic.

When I think pita I think “falafel”. At my church there are lots of people from Lebanon and they have this annual falafel sale that is… INTENSELY DELICIOUS. Lacking the skills and ingredients to make the authentic thing (and knowing, honestly, that with the amount of deep fat frying involved it’s probably appropriate that it’s a once a year treat) I took the lazy (but healthy!) shortcut:

   

Do people know if this brand makes other stuff? I dig it!

I didn’t particularly care for either of their suggested cooking methods (frying due to the health and hassle factors, broiling due to the fact that I did that last time I used this mix and they were petrifyingly dry) so I got out my beloved griddle, made my falafel balls, brushed the griddle and the balls with olive oil, and kinda made them pancake style?

Then I (rather BRILLIANTLY) repurposed the leftover baked tofu topper (which had consisted of miso, green onion, tahini, and water) and added lotsa lemon juice and a bit more water et voila- falafel sauce!

It is rather difficult to photograph the inside of a falafel pita. I did my best:

 

With lettuce and the sauce (man I wish we had pickles, that would’ve made it perfect). But I have to say… the hot pita and falafel, the crisp lettuce, the wonderful creamy yet tangy sauce… it was goooooooooooood.

I accompanied with some Darling Clementines:

In other news, Kath is a genius.

I decided I hadn’t had a roasting marathon in far too long (seriously, there’s a point in the autumn when the farmer’s market is at its peak where I just roast everything- stray squirrels beware!). So I had me one. The star of which were “low and slow” sweet potatoes, as described by Kath.

One mammoth sweet tater (8 oz+), thickly sliced, tossed with 1/2 tbsp olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and roasted first for 30 minutes at 350* then for 20 at 400* resulted in the pillowiest, most tender, sweet, sap-y sweet potato goodness I have ever had the pleasure to eat. She used the word “pillowy”, which I really liked!

Accompanying I made rockin’ roasted chickpeas (1 cup chickpeas+ 1/2 T olive oil+ salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and a hint of cinnamon at 400 for 25 minutes)

 

And cauliflower (1/2 a gigantic head+ 1/2 T olive oil+ salt, pepper, garam masala at 400 for 25 minutes then 500 for 10 minutes).