5.05.2009

After finally doing some grocery shopping...

I had some fresh produce in the house! This is not to say that I can't make something from nothing (or, more specifically, curry from nothing), but it's good to have leafy greens. I instinctively reached for my whole wheat orzo to make one of my standards- a pasta salad with wilted greens. It was then that I saw I had a choice:



I haven't used yellow split peas in forever, probably not since the last time I made split pea soup, which was some time ago. Attempting to work my way through some of the more arcane dried goods in my pantry, and inspired by Heidi Swanson's use of yellow split peas in a salad, I chose the peas over the pasta.



I boiled some water first, and have always wanted to photograph what it looks like with the float of olive oil on top. I only had to try about fifty times to get a shot that made me happy, but there it is:


Anyway. I cooked the split peas...


...and fried some onions with some thinly sliced seitan (made from scratch the night before). The onions turned out amazing, they tasted like I had poured a quarter cup of sugar in the pan. The seitan reminded me (in a good way, believe it or not) of SPAM, the way my dad used to make it when we went camping.


Since I intended to make this a salad with some torn arugula leaves, I made a dressing by thinning out some of Sunday night's pesto. The pesto was made from garlic, onions, capers, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a big bunch of lightly steamed broccoli rabe.

Re: the pesto:

Whoof
, it was bitter at first, but has mellowed as it's been hanging out in the fridge. I don't know that I would make it again because of the bitterness, but it's certainly interesting.

The pesto was thinned with balsamic and olive oil, and made a nice contrast to the sweetness/smokiness of the peas/onions/seitan mixture. Stay tuned for more experiments from the "pesto can be made from anything!" camp.


Here's the finished product, all put together and dressed:


It was delicious, and there was even enough left over for me to take for lunch.
I also baked bread last night:


...And so my dessert was a slice of freshly baked bread (it was still a little warm!) with Earth Balance spread and some spicy plum jam.

I threatened to wear a t-shirt to Coachella that said "Marriage Material." I may still add it to my summer wardrobe because seriously, how stoked would you have been to be married to me last night? :)


As always, thanks for reading!