Green Swamp SoupKid, Earth and Time Friendly Recipes

I first tasted this new twist on an old favorite at — where else — school! To be specific, the Grass Roots Cafe at the Malcolm Price Laboratory School. As a kid, I was never a fan of ground-beef-with-tomato-sauce “slopped” on top of a soggy white bun. But “Snobby Joes” were a whole ‘nother story. This version is made with lentils and a spicy-sweet, thick sauce (featuring maple syrup and mustard) that won’t leave your bun soggy, in part because you’ll gobble it up too quickly.

Now, you might be thinking, “What in the world is a school doing serving a vegetarian option called Snobby Joes?” Good question! The Grass Roots Cafe is part of a new pilot food program to promote healthier and more environmentally friendly eating at school. The school’s food service director, Rob Stanley, threw out the old way of making school lunches from pre-packaged and/or frozen foods and now makes everything from scratch — using locally grown and produced food where possible. His goal is to serve healthier foods, support the local economy and reduce waste.

Both of my kids go to school at Price Lab, and needless to say I’m ecstatic about this healthy new approach to school food. But when I tried the “Snobby Joes” when having lunch there recently, even I was surprised at how delicious the food was! This sandwich reminded me of the bistro-style veggie sandwiches in my favorite vegetarian restaurant in Kansas City, Eden Alley.

Needless to say, I had to figure out how make these yummy, kid-friendly sandwiches myself. An online search yielded this recipe from the ultra-cool vegan chefs at Post Punk Kitchen. I’d never heard of the PPK before, but after trying this recipe and reading their website, I’m an instant fan!

A quick glance at the comments on the site told me I’d need to modify this recipe slightly so it wouldn’t be too spicy for kiddie palates (even though my kids do have a high tolerance for spice). Someone had written in and asked if the THREE tablespoons of chili powder was a typo. It wasn’t. (We veggie peeps do love our heat.) If you want to make this spicy, I’d suggest adding a red chile pepper (I made this half spicy, half mild). The sauce itself is very thick, so it won’t soak right through a bun. However, I made doubly sure this wouldn’t happen by toasting my whole wheat buns in the oven first. Top with lettuce, tomato, pickle and a little extra mustard for good measure.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups uncooked lentils
4 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
1/2 green pepper, diced small
1/2 red pepper, diced small
1 carrot, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 15- oz can tomato sauce
1 tbsp. ketchup
2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. yellow mustard (wet mustard)

4 to 6 whole wheat buns, toasted

Directions:

1. Put the lentils in a small sauce pot and pour in 4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft. Drain and set aside.

2. About 10 minutes before the lentils are done boiling, preheat a medium soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onion, carrot and pepper in the oil for about 7 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and saute a minute more.

3. Add the cooked lentils, the chili powder and oregano and mix. Add the tomato sauce and ketchup. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup and mustard and heat through.

Turn the heat off and let sit for about 10 minutes, so that the flavors can meld, or go ahead and eat immediately if you can’t wait. (I let it sit on low heat for half an hour before I served it to make sure everything was extra thick … again, trying to avoid the soggy bun syndrome.)

Serving Alternative: Snobby Nachos

I came up with this idea when eating up my leftover Joes, but you can serve the Joes like this in the first place (I think this will convert the more finicky eaters who might be used to regular old meaty Joes). Just plunk a few scoops of Snobby Joes on a microwave-safe plate, layer with low-fat colby jack and whole grain tortilla chips, then microwave on high for about one minute. Pile melted chips and cheese high with your favorite nacho toppings — lettuce, tomato, jalapeno, black olives, guacamole and low-fat sour cream — and you’ve got a yummy meal or hearty snack.

Feast your eyes on the feasting table.

Middle Eastern food is one of my absolute favorite cuisines, so it was important to me to make sure my kids liked it from day one. We make homemade hummus here on a fairly regular basis and use pitas for everything from pizzas to sandwiches. However, this post is focused on several recipes and ideas that you can use to create a full-on Middle Eastern feast!

The basis of this particular feast is chickpeas, of course! I received some sprouted chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, from my friend, Cara Ullrich. Cara works at Roots Market, and is a bona fide food guru. She explained to me that sprouted garbanzos contain much more protein and nutrients than your average canned variety, and are also much more flavorful — and she was absolutely right! These beans made some of the tastiest hummus I’ve had to date! NOTE: If you can sprout your own garbanzos, I highly encourage it. However, you can used dried or canned garbanzo beans to make the hummus included in this post.

The next item on the feast menu is falafel. I’m seriously CRAZY about falafel. In fact, I had some leftover from the feast and I ate with some Sriracha sauce for breakfast (but I seriously never eat anything considered “normal” for breakfast).

Unfried falafel patty.

Falafel is a fried ball or patty made from spiced chickpeas and/or fava beans. Wikipedia tells us this is a popular fast food in the Middle East and I so wish this were the case here (although they do serve some great falafel at the Pita King in Waterloo). You can make your own homemade falafel, but this takes time.

Instant falafel -- just add water!

For my personal feast, I opted to use the Fantastic Foods boxed mix, simply because it’s easy and delicious. If you want to make your own falafel from scratch, here’s an excellent recipe from Epicurious.

Now, onto the fun part — the tzatziki sauce! My version of this is probably not technically tzatziki, but I’ve found a combination of flavors and textures that everyone in the family, especially Chris, loves. My sauce is pretty simple — just Fage Greek yogurt, green onions, fresh lemon juice and a little garlic powder. Chris literally ate every bite of the batch I made and practically liked the serving dish!

So, how do we serve all of this stuff? Creatively. I will be blatantly honest right now and say that the kids aren’t big fans of falafel. This is really frustrating to me, since it IS a version of fast food, is brown and fried and very nearly resembles a chicken nugget. So, I tuck these little critters neatly inside a warm pita, add some fresh spinach and slather lots of tzatziki and hummus all over it. The kids can have more hummus, tzatziki and pitas after they try their sandwiches.

As for mom and dad, we make several different types of mini sandwiches out of our pitas — falafel/tzatziki, hummus/chili garlic sauce, falafel/tzatziki/hummus/chili garlic sauce.

Because this post contains so many recipes, I have created individual pages for each and linked to them below. For the falafel, either follow the recipe above or buy the Fantastic Foods mix! Even if you don’t make the feast all at once, I encourage you to try at least one of these recipes and introduce this delicious and nutritious cuisine to your family.

Our friends, falafel and pita, waiting to be slathered in tzatziki and hummus.

Middle East Feast Menu

1 package whole wheat pita (you can make these into pita chips as well)
1 package Fantastic Foods falafel mix
1 large bunch or bag of fresh spinach
kalmata hummus recipe
tzatziki sauce recipe
Sriracha or chili garlic sauce to taste

Our friends, hummus and falafel, await a good slathering in tzatziki.

This is tzatziki sauce is not a traditional recipe, but is simple and geared toward younger tastes. Serve as part of the Middle East feast.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. green onions, diced
2 cups Fage Greek-style yogurt
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor.

2. Pulse until smooth and creamy.

3. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

If you love olives, you will love this hummus recipe, plain and simple. This is my newest spicy/salty creation, taste tested by coworkers to rave reviews!

I’ve been making hummus for 15 years and I never make it the same way twice. However, this recipe was inspired by my hubby’s cousin, Margaret Buckton, who uses kalmata olives in her hummus to utmost deliciousness. So, I followed her basic recipe and added some fresh cilantro and parsley for good measure. Tahini is an absolute must in any hummus recipe and can be found in local natural or organic food stores everywhere. I always buy mine organic and unsalted, but any old tahini will do!

Tip: My kids love hummus (eat it with a spoon) but it’s an acquired taste. Skip the pepper in this recipe if making it for the kiddos.

NOTE: Serve this hummus as part of the Middle East Feast!

Ingredients:

1 can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup kalmata olives (seedless)
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. cumin
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 red chile pepper, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro
1 tbsp. fresh parsley
Sea or kosher salt to taste
1 glug olive oil

For “Plain” Hummus:

Omit the kalmata olives, chile,  pepper, cilantro and parsley above.

Directions:

1. Drain beans and save the “juice.”

2. Measure above ingredients into food processor, with the exception of the garbanzo bean juice, salt and olive oil.

3. Process and add garbanzo bean juice a little at a time, until you reach a smooth consistency.

4. Add olive oil.

5. Taste and then add sea salt to taste, 1/4 tsp. at a time.

6. Chill and serve with veggies, pita chips, tortilla chips and possibly even a little plain goat cheese or feta!

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Fast food restaurants and food marketers will pull out all the stops to get our kids to eat their junk food. (I know this because I work in advertising.) So, when it comes to getting my kids to eat healthy foods, I pull out all the stops too.

I  hide veggies in chocolate cake. Bribe trying a new vegetable with ice cream for dessert. And pretend I have discovered the secret formula for Mr. Krab’s famous Krabby Patties.

Tonight I walked the plank and served said Krabby Patties with a Sea Cucumber Soup (gazpacho) and Fish Eggs (grapes). The kids loved the idea! However, one didn’t care for the cucumbers in the soup and the other didn’t fall for the Krabby Patty story. Still, they both tried everything and each came away with one healthy, new dish that they liked.

Krabby Patties (Vegetarian)
2 cups coarsely grated yellow squash, unpeeled (about 1 medium)
1 cup Italian or whole wheat bread crumbs
1/2 cup onions, grated or finely chopped
1 tablespoon mayonnaise (I use soy mayo, which is much lower in fat)
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup of flour

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except flour in a small bowl (grate the zucchini and onion into a colander so some of the liquid could drain out). The texture can be adjusted — if it’s too dry, add another egg; if too wet, add more bread crumbs. NOTE: recipe can be doubled or tripled easily.

2. Heat some oil in a skillet. Form mixture into patties and dredge in flour. Drop into fry over medium heat until golden brown on both sides, about 5 to 8 minutes per side. Makes 4 big or 6 medium cakes.

Krabby Patty Sauce

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. lemon
3 tbsp. olive oil mayo (or soy, or whatever you’d like)
1 dash hot sauce

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a food processor  and puree until smooth. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Sea Cucumber Soup

1 avocado
1 cucumber
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1 tomatillo
1 can tomatoes (or use garden tomatoes if you’re lucky enough to have some, about two large tomatoes, peeled)

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor and puree till smooth. For the true gazpacho lover, serve with a splash of balsamic vinegar and freshly ground pepper. (Sophia, my foodie in training, specifically recommended that I add the pepper because the soup needed a little spice.) If you’d like, serve this with some crusty bread.

Also, here is some additional information about the nutritional value of an avocado (which Sophia loves whipped into a spicy guac).