Falafel Salad

This is a deconstructed falafel sandwich. It is a lot easier to eat and very satisfying even for dinner.

Ingredients:

Ready made falafel or dry mix that can be prepared via fry/bake.
Pita bread/Pita chips

Serves: 4

Salad:
1 large cucumber
2 tomato
2-3 carrots
2 bags of mixed greens 

Sauce:
1 1/4 cup of plain yogurt
1 1/2 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp dried parsley (optional)
1/2 tbsp of tahini
1 can of chick peas
salt to taste
1 tbsp of olive oil

For the sauce blend the ingredients together, add some water for a consistency similar to salad dressing. You can buy ready made falafel from the freezer section or the dry mix that you add water to and fry/bake. The pita bread can be toasted or warmed. You can also use pita chips to give the crouton effect. Finally, I like to add some chinese chili garlic sauce for an added kick.

An interesting twist to marinara sauce

The other day I was following a recipe for a carrot/red pepper soup from The Vegetarian Times magazine. I had some soup left over the next day and decided to use it with tomato sauce and some extra ingredients to make an interesting sauce to eat with fried zucchini. I think the sauce came out really well. I didn't duplicate it today but I added similar ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 carrot
1/2 red pepper
1/4 red onion
1 garlic clove
1 bay leaf
pinch curry powder
red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp (add more to make it spicy)
dried or fresh basil (1 tbsp of dried basil)
oregano (1/2 tbsp of dried oregano)
salt to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
can of tomato sauce

Boil the carrots, pepper and onion till the carrot pieces are tender. Drain most of the water but leave about half a cup remaining. Add this mixture to the blender along with 1 garlic clove and tomato sauce. After blending add the sauce to a pot with olive oil and a bay leaf. Let the sauce cook on low-med, add a pinch of curry powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil and salt. Finally, add some parmesan cheese.