Thursday, October 16, 2008

VeganMoFo: Mini Meze



It's been so hot the past couple days I've been feeling reluctant to cook. I just want to chill out with an iced tea and nosh on little nibbles. A meze is a small snack or appetizer assortment that can be consumed as a starter course or as an entire meal. Tonight's supper will consist of a mini meze spread with three delightful dips/spreads that go well with pita and crackers. Also we'll be enjoying something new that is here to stay: garlicky edamame.

Our spread:

Hummus: A creamy Middle Eastern dip made of chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice that is drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sumac. (Recipe from Tables of Lebanon cookbook)

Bazargan: A tart and fruity Syrian bulgur relish which contains bulgur, walnuts, lemon juice, olive oil and pomegranate syrup. (Recipe from: Olive Trees and Honey cookbook)

Za'atar: A Middle Eastern spice mixture of thyme, oregano, sesame seeds, salt and sumac which is mixed with olive oil for dipping. My favorite Lebanese restaurant provides this at every table with chopped onions and tomato so I copied them. You can find prepared za'atar spice mix at a middle eastern grocery or ethnic market.

Garlicky Edamame (recipe at the end of this post)

Pita Bread and Sesame Crackers
Iced tea, Beer, Water


A little mountain of bazargan surrounded by creamy hummus and za'atar in olive oil.




Garlicky Edamame. Wow, this is really good. I got the idea for this from a PPK'er who made a breaded garlic parmesan edamame but unfortunately used non-vegan parmesan. I wanted to try something similar and came up with this. I used 'Parmezano Sprinkles' (which is always available in my fridge!) which gave them a beautiful nutty bite.

Garlicky Edamame

2-3 TB olive oil
2 cups steamed edamame
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 TB Parmezano Sprinkles (you can get this recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook...or you can email me!)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add edamame and stir fry for a minute or so to coat them with the oil. Add the garlic and toss a few times. Turn off heat and sprinkle with Parmezano Sprinkles, salt and pepper. That's it! They are so garlicky and salty and addicting! Be careful!

6 comments:

Leslie Richman said...

That all looks deeeelicious!

Jen Treehugger said...

Meze's are ACE!
I love having lots of little things to eat - such a nice way to eat and you get to taste SO many things.

kmouse said...

pixiepine,
Thanks and it was delicious!

jeni,
Yes they are! I never normally do this for just two people (works great for parties) but I'm glad we did. It was totally satisfying and really yummy.

Anonymous said...

I think one of these days I will have a Meze for dinner! Yours looks amazing!

KitteeBee said...

amazing spread, when i saw your picture, i really though it was restaurant porn. i have olive trees and honey too, such a great resource. it surpises me that more people don't have it.

question about the edamame, did you steam it first?

xo
kittee

kmouse said...

theveganfoodie,
Thanks! I want to do this more often.

kittee,
Thanks!
I really love Olive Trees & Honey. I think I'm obsessed with it actually! I look through it everyday adding a new bookmark for every recipe that looks tantalizing.
About the edamame, I had a package that was pre-steamed.