Salsa Rice: Versatile Dish Extraordinaire!

Once upon a time (i.e. 2009), there was a recession.  Wait, what?  Are we still in it?  I can’t tell—plenty busy here…
ANYWAY…in this Once-Upon-A-Time land, there were two friends:

(I promise she’s not naked.)

…who worked for a consulting company that catered to oil-drilling clients.  And crude oil prices had bottomed out to $40/barrel.  And you know what happens when the price of oil drops below $60/barrel, my friends?  Oil-Drilling Companies don’t drill.  It’s not cost-effective.  So our phones weren’t ringing, and we weren’t working overtime, and we were even FORCED to take one-hour lunches and leave when we hit 40 hours at the end of the week.  Tough times, I tell you.

(Clean desk = not enough work.)

So what to do, when you’re not working, but you still have to BE at work?  Well, these two friends invented a game called “Google Dat”.  Which basically involved spending a lot of time on Google.  Don’t know the answer to a question?  Just Google dat.  What was the name of the guy in that one movie?  Google dat.  How long does it take to fly to Hawaii?  Google dat.  What’s the lunch special at Chung King today?  You should Google dat.  What’s on the Green Dragon Roll at Osaka?  Google dat.
So when one of these friends (aka: me) decided to test out Dr. Ian’s “Detox Diet” for two weeks, I needed a plethora of recipes that involved brown rice and beans, and no meat.  What’s a girl to do? 

You got it:  YOU GOOGLE DAT.

You know…because Pinterest didn’t exist yet.  Also, there were dinosaurs.

I still have a stockpile of recipes that we downloaded during this period of time, but this one is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. 

I still make it all the time because it’s quick, easy, super-flavorful & just really fresh-tasting.  And it goes with anything—or, is totally awesome on its own, because garbanzo beans are a nice protein source (1 cup gives you 29% of your daily requirement).

And normally, I make this with Minute brown rice for a quicker cooking time, however, we were out of that so instead, I finally used up the last of my Louisiana “popcorn rice”.

This rice was a gift from my friends the Trahans (pronounced “Trah-hahns”, not “Tray-hands”) and it comes from one of my favorite lil’ towns in Louisiana: Gueydan.

Which is, of course, pronounced “Gey-don”, not “Gooey-dan”.  Just FYI. It’s a fun word to say.  Particularly if you have or can mimic a Cajun accent.

ANYWAY…it’s a long grain rice that supposedly smells like popcorn while cooking…thus the name.  And it’s an authentic Louisiana product.  And it’s delicious and fluffy & cooks perfectly. If you’ve got the cash & the means, I highly recommend picking some up.

Ingredients (makes eight 1-cup servings):
2 cups uncooked rice
1 can beans (we used garbanzo this time, but black beans are equally awesome)
1 cup your favorite salsa (can add more to taste)
1 cup corn kernels (sweet Missouri corn preferred!)
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lime

Directions:
Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add your rice, then drop the heat to simmer, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes. 
Then remove the lid, check for doneness, fluff with a fork, and remove from heat.
(Updated 2019: You can alternately make your rice in the Instant Pot--I like to use brown rice, which takes 2 cups rice and 2.5 cups water, for about 18 minutes, and then let pressure release for 10 minutes.)
Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Taste for flavor—add more salsa or seasonings as needed.
Then NOM down!

NutriFacts: (per 1 cup serving)
Calories 233.3
  Total Fat 1.2 g
  Saturated Fat 0.2 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g
  Cholesterol 0.0 mg
  Sodium 323.2 mg
  Potassium 269.1 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 49.6 g
  Dietary Fiber 3.9 g
  Sugars 0.7 g
  Protein 6.5 g

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This post is dedicated to my friend/coworker April, who has to eat a gluten-free diet & has all sorts of dietary restrictions because of her MS flare ups.  She works out of our Kansas City office now, but used to be here in this office; I sort of enjoyed the challenge of trying to find a tasty, gluten-free, April-friendly recipe whenever we had a potluck at the office. 

Sadly, I didn’t find this one until just recently, but April, if you’re reading this, I’d be more than happy to make them next time you’re in town, because they were AWESOME!

 

The original blogger who posted this stated that they almost can’t be considered a cookie, but I say “phooie” to that.  It’s small, delicious, and cookie shaped—ergo, a cookie.  She referred to them as “dough bites”…which, I guess I can see the reasoning, since this is essentially a vegan recipe and a lot of the things that make a “cookie” a “cookie” are missing.  No flour, no egg, no butter…

…so what IS in them, you ask?

Chickpeas.

Seriously.

Oh, quit scrunching your nose.  You eat hummus, right? (You don’t???  Okay, you need to start.  Like right now.)  But chickpeas form the creamy base for THAT delicious dish, so why WOULDN’T they work for cookies?

Okay…I understand your reservations.  If the original blogger’s cookie hadn’t looked so darn delicious, I probably would have been skeptical too.  But I’m easily wooed by a beautiful photo with melty chocolate.

Do YOU see a chickpea in there?  Because I don’t.  All I see is something that needs to get in. mah. bellayyy.

If you’ve never cooked with chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) before, you should really try it.  I love hummus, but on top of that, these legumes are a powerhouse.  They’re mild in flavor so you can add as filler to nearly anything, and they’re low on calories & fat, while being high in protein & fiber.  You can season & roast them for a crunchy snack (think “corn nuts”) mix them in with salsa, sprinkle over a salad, add to soups & chili…

…or you can beat them to a pulp and make a cookie dough out of them.  Let’s take a whack at that last one.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel (It won’t take a whole can; there will be about 1/4 cup leftover. I tossed the remaining chickpeas in with some salsa & fresh cilantro for a tasty chip dip.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons  peanut butter 
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini chips for more thorough chocolate distribution)—note, if you’re making this vegan, you’ll have to use a vegan chocolate chip, obvs.

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Bust out your handy dandy food processor, and pour in the chickpeas.  Then pulse until the tiny legumes start to look crumbly.  Then, add in your remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate) and process until smooth.  You’ll probably need to stop & scrape the sides periodically so you don’t miss any chunks of pea.  Once it’s smooth & well combined, remove & scrape the blade, and then mix the chocolate chips in with a spatula.

The dough will be sticky, so wet your (thoroughly washed) hands, and then roll the dough into little balls, and place on a cookie sheet.  Because of the lack of “cookie” type ingredients, these will not spread much, so if you want them to look cookie-ish, flatten them with your hand---or you could do the signature “fork cross hatching” that is characteristic of a good peanut butter cookie.

Then bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms start to brown. Devour Eat while warm.

See???  Just looks like a normal, delicious, wonderful chocolate chip cookie!  You’d never know there were chickpeas in there!  I fed several of these to unsuspecting coworkers (seriously, my coworkers are my guinea pigs.  But they don’t complain.  We’re scientists.  Test subjects are just a way of life)  and waited until they got the “OMG it’s so good!” out of their cookie-filled mouths before I mentioned that the primary ingredient was a bean.

The inside is moist & gooey and melty. Sheer heaven in a cookie shape.

The original blogger mentioned that the dough didn’t taste great before baked, and that the cookies tasted not quite right when cold.  However, I’m thinking maybe that had more to do with the all-natural peanut butter she was using, or perhaps some of the other ingredients, since she lives in Germany and they don’t always make things quite the same in other countries. (I have a friend in Brazil who can’t buy marshmallows at the store.  What kind of life is that???)

I used Wal-Mart brand chickpeas and peanut butter, and good ol’ Acadiana honey, and I thought the dough was delicious.  And the cookies were just fine cold, too.  This is seriously, in all honesty, probably the best PB & chocolate cookie I’ve ever had.

 

So again, if you’re headed to a BBQ this Fourth of July and you don’t want to bring a salad, and/or you have a friend who needs to eat gluten-free, bring this treat along instead!  See if anyone notices they have chickpeas in them…my guess is, if you don’t tell them, they’re not going to say a word, other than “these are AWESOME!” or something akin to that.

 

NutriFacts (per cookie)

Calories 80.9

Total Fat 4.2 g

Saturated Fat 1.4 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8 g

Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g

Cholesterol 1.3 mg

Sodium 84.3 mg

Potassium 59.3 mg

Total Carbohydrate 9.8 g

Dietary Fiber 0.9 g

Sugars 5.6 g

Protein 2.2 g