Sunday, April 06, 2008



A Very Special Post

Lunch today was a bit of an experiment. I grabbed a kohlrabi from the market on Wednesday, and decided, after reading about its relationship to broccoli stem, to grate it with some carrots and serve it in an afternoon salad. To go with the salad, I put together an Asparagus and Leek soup before heading to the gym. K was already whizzing her up when I ran in the door.


Kohlrabi and Carrot Salad

Ingredients:
-1 Kohlrabi (grated)
-5 large market carrots (grated)
-1 granny smith apple (diced)
-a handful of raisins
-a tiny bit of greens for the base

How To:
K grated the Kohlrabi and carrots and dressed them in a little vinegar, citrus and oil. It sat for a while while I did my best to destroy the stairmaster. Upon my arrival, we topped it with the remaining ingredients and ate it up.

After clearing away the lunch dishes, I cracked open my bright and shiny new copy of Veganomicon and decided to start in the most appropriate of sections: The Cookies. I picked the Rosewater and Pistachio recipe, because I had never worked personally with Rosewater, but I had eaten enough baklava to choke a horse - so I thought it best to learn how to work with this ingredient. After dabbing some of the main ingredient (the water, not the nuts) on my neck and behind my ears, I got to work on Isa's scrumptious recipe. In the end I changed the all purpose white flour to a whole wheat. This decision wasn't based in health or whole grain purposes - it was what I had in the house. I also went with less oil and sugar. The end product is delicious. I am really happy with these cookies. They are crisp, chewy, yummy and cutely decorated with pistachios. The book is satisfying me already.

Birthday Dinner
Dinner tonight is in honour of someone special, someone who I can't be with tonight. Work, the limiting speed of current travel options, and life in general make it impossible for me to be with my little sister tonight as she celebrates her 19th birthday (a big day for any Canadian). Emily, I miss you and love you so much. I made hummus, babaganous fatoush and mushrooms tonight - all for you. (K and I will do the honours of polishing it off for you).

My sister is pretty cool, exceptionally beautiful, and wickedly smart. One of our favourite haunts back home is a Lebanese restaurant: La Luna. I remember thinking that I had the coolest sister on the planet, when at the fresh young age of 12 and 13 she was ordering falafel, hummus and other Middle Eastern goodies. Over the years Emily became a fan of the hummus and would do just about anything for a taste of La Luna's hummus.

Happy Hummus Birthday Emily. I am wishing you all of the happiness and adventure that you might be able to find as you work your way towards 20. It isn't La Luna, but I thought you might like it:


14 comments:

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

how sweet of you! Happy Birthday Emily!

Alicia said...

Wow! I ate almost the same thing! And yes! happy birthday Emily!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Aww, happy birthday to your little sister! :o)

Bianca said...

What a cute birthday message!!

I've been using whole wheat pastry flour in all the Veganomicon recipes I've amde and find that its subs out great!

I never tried kolrabi, but looks yummy!

Anke said...

Sweet! Happy birthday, Emily!

And your salad looks delicious :-) Kohlrabi is very common in Germany. We eat it raw most of the time, maybe dipped into something. Some people cut it into cubes and have it in vegetable soups.

J said...

That salad looks awesome.

That is so sweet of you to do that for your friend! Happy Birthday Emily. :-)

Anonymous said...

Awh! I miss LaLuna! I can't bring myself to go there without you. I'm sure it would cause some cosmic unbalance and all the worlds chick pea supply would just vanish. Can't have that now, can we?

I am enjoying my pita/hummus birthday message via you so you must tell me it was good!

I miss you, love you, and love your blog (and I am clearly not the only one).

All my love
Emmie

aTxVegn said...

Oh, I love your birthday food! I searched for kohlrabi this weekend and couldn't find any, so I must keep hunting. I haven't made the pistachio cookies yet, but did get to try someone else's and they are really nice.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

awww, Happy Birthday to yr sister!my baby brother, Drew just turned 19 on April 3rd.

Anonymous said...

I've never tried kohlrabi, it looks intriguing!!

Happy Birthday Emily!

VeganCowGirl said...

OK - Vegans Rock! Thanks for all of the Happy Birthdays to Emily.

And...happy birthday Drew!!!

Sam said...

The salad looks lovely! I love the color combination! (I've added you to my blogroll!)

Maggie said...

Give Emily my birthday wishes too!

Also, kohlrabi is one of my favorite veggies ever. It's like the perfect combination of turnip, cabbage and crisp apple -- and the greens are good too. Your recipe sounds excellent.

Anonymous said...

How sweet! Happy birthday Emily! (I have a sister named Emily too!)

Yes, my day of kitchen enslavement (haha!) turned out to be worth it in the end. I'm sure your two layer chocolate cakes are fantastic, and that avacado pie sounds to die for! They don't have to be decorated to taste delicious!