Lebna bil Kusa (summery squash & cumin spread)

Hummus is the "king (or queen) of spreads", but lebna bil kusa makes a great princess!

I love me some hummus and it has been heartening to know that I am not alone in my enthusiasm - when you see a Super Bowl ad featuring a food, you know that it has truly been adopted by America. This love affair with hummus in the U.S. is so passionate that I even use it as a case study for examining the biocultural factors contributing to cuisine in one of the courses I teach at UC Berkeley. Hummus adheres to many current food trends - among other things, it's plant-based, Mediterranean, healthy, and snackable and, as this Wall Street Journal article discusses, demand has grown to the point that you'd be unlikely to attend any kind of potluck without finding some sort of hummus on the table. Many of the store-bought hummuses you'll find at a potluck however, are made from dried and powdered garbanzo beans, which are incredibly subpar in my opinion (though powdered hummus is great for backpacking). But, I digress - this post is supposed to be about another spread and I promise I'm getting there!

Typically, I'm a hummus purest. Give me a blend of chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon, and salt and I am happy (please don't put garlic in my hummus). I worked for many years off-and-on at an "eclectic Mediterranean" restaurant in Berkeley that is now, sadly, closed. The owners are a husband and wife team, good friends of mine, and most of my Mediterranean cooking skillz I credit to the Iraqi husband. In addition to teaching me to not put garlic in hummus, he showed me that although hummus is still the king of spreads, there are some other contenders that give it a run for its money.

Lebna bill kusa (in Arabic, lebna means "yogurt" and kusa means "squash") is one of those contenders. As it's made with yellow squash, which is only available in summer months, one of the great things about LbK is that it is always a seasonal treat. As a side note, did you know that the straight yellow summer squash is also called "gold bar squash"? Pretty cool and appropriate. The yogurt in LbK nixes it from the list of dishes you can share with your vegan homies, but by upping the tahini/olive oil and adding some lemon juice you can make a vegan version that's almost - but not quite - as good. The recipe specifies a range of quantities because whenever I make it I just kind of mix and match until the consistency and flavor is to my liking. Feel free to add other herbs and spices as desired or make it as thick/thin as you like it! Zucchini would also work, but the color would not be as appealing. Makes about 2 cups.

Yellow summer squash (aka "gold bar squash" shown here) gives lebna bil kusa its bright hue.

• 1.5 pounds summer squash (about 3 medium "gold bar" squash or 4-6 pattypan or crookneck), chopped

• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

• 1-2 tablespoons tahini

• 1-2 tablespoons plain yogurt

• 1-2 teaspoons ground cumin

• Salt, to taste

Rustic bread or crackers from whole grains or crisp raw vegetables are a great way to dip up this spread.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. On a baking sheet, toss diced squash with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and spread out in a single layer. Roast for 12-15 minutes or until soft and golden brown, tossing halfway through.

3. Using either a food processor or potato masher (food processor if you like your spreads to be smoother, potato masher for chunkier), blend squash with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon tahini, and 1 tablespoon yogurt. Continue adding more of these wet ingredients in small amounts in addition to cumin and salt until you have reached the desired texture and taste. 

4. Serve immediately with crackers, bread, or raw vegetables or store in refrigerator for up to one week. Garnish with paprika, herbs, and drizzled olive oil if desired. 

Turmeric-Spiced Cauliflower Couscous

I'll admit I was a skeptic when cauliflower rice came on the scene - it often feels unnecessary to mess with a good thing and I am certainly not "carbaphobic". As much as I love cauliflower (and I do love it so), even I'll admit I can overdo it with cruciferous vegetables occasionally (ever tried kohlrabi ice cream? definite skippable). I am, however, a big fan of deliciousness and vegetables and when these worlds collide my meal is complete, which is exactly what happens when cauliflower is pulverized into small bits, seasoned well, and served as a grain. In this case, I call it couscous because the flavoring is in the "couscous genre", one could easily call it rice, as it's the same process. Apart from being delicious and satisfyingly high fiber and phytonutrients, what's great about making cauliflower into a grain is that you don't even need the whole floret. If you have leftover cauliflower stems from another dish they can easily be tossed into the food processor and turned into rice!

Stems and cores can be used in addition to or in place of florets.

This recipe calls for heating the cauliflower after pulsing in the food processor, but it can also be served raw for a crunchier texture and application, such as chilled cauliflower tabouli salad. Additionally, although the flavor and color of turmeric is hard to ignore, cauliflower rice or couscous is also nice simply seasoned if paired with a dish that is flavorful, such as slow cooked spicy garbanzo beans or an eggplant tagine. When it comes down to it, cauliflower rice/couscous is incredibly versatile similar to...regular rice or couscous! Serves 4.

• 1 large head cauliflower (about 2 pounds, stems and/or florets can be used)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 teaspoons turmeric

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup currants (optional)

• 2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds

• Chopped parsley, for garnish

Process cauliflower until it resembles grain.

1. Cut and/or pull apart cauliflower into large florets and chop core/stem into smaller pieces. If you have leftover cauliflower core/stems from another application, they can be pulverized and used as well.

2. Using a food processor, pulse the cauliflower until broken down into couscous-sized pieces, processing in two batches if needed. As cauliflower is processed, remove any large pieces that are not broken down, set them aside, and pulse separately. If you do not have a food processor, you can grate the cauliflower into couscous-sized pieces using the large holes on a box grater.

3. Heat olive oil in a skillet with a lid on medium heat*. Stir in cauliflower, cover, and cook for 6-7 minutes, until desired softness is reached, stirring occasionally. Add turmeric, salt, and optional currants then stir to combine. Serve hot garnished with pumpkin seeds and chopped parsley.

Delicious reinvented side dish or main when paired with sautéed garbanzo beans or grilled lamb.

Lamb Shank with Spruce Tips, Juniper, and Pink Peppercorn

Bright young spruce tips.

My time at the the Nordic Food Lab taught me that not only are pine, spruce, and fir tips edible, but that they are surprisingly delicious if harvested in the spring when young and still soft. I have every intention of gathering all three to post on identification and flavor subtleties, but until then, here's a helpful article. Just know that if you come across a "Christmas tree" in the spring with delicate, very bright green tufts of soft needles on the end of its branches (see photo to right), you have likely come across spruce or fir tips (pine needles are longer). Take a teeny tiny bit of a needle and give it a taste - it should taste tart and slightly resinous. If you've ever had the Greek retsina wine you will know exactly what I mean. 

Spruce tips pushing through their brown papery casings.

What I love about spruce tips is that they are so very seasonal that anything you use them in has a uniquely spring flavor and color. At Noma, the restaurant that many consider the best in the world, uses these fresh conifer needles in variety of ways and I specifically remember a fermented apple beverage infused with pine that was amazing. Additionally, they're very rich in Vitamin C and can be dried and used for a throat soothing tea. The flavor may not be to everyone's liking, but if you like it then you love like it and the tartness can really make other deeper flavors pop, as they do for this rich lamb shank recipe adapted from Cooking with Italian Grandmothers. I recently purchased a quarter of a lamb from Devil's Gulch Ranch, as I have done a few other times, and am always happy to have an excuse to make lamb in a variety of new, fun ways. Recipe makes enough for 2, but can be expanded. 

• 1 cup dry red wine

• 1 large lamb shank or 2 small (about 1.5 pounds total)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced (about 1-1.5 cups)

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery (about 1 rib)

• 5 juniper berries, finely crushed with a mortar and pestle

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• Water as needed

• 1 bay leaf (I used a foraged bay leaf, which imparts a stronger flavor)

• 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons whole pink peppercorn, crushed with fingers

• 7-9 fresh spruce tips, stems removed from most

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring wine to boil in a sauce pan. Reduce heat and simmer until wine is reduced in half, about 7 to 9 minutes. You should have about 1/2 cup - if you don't, just add a bit more wine and reduce again to get 1/2 cup. Set aside.

Season lamb shank generously with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy oven-safe pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once oil is hot, brown lamb shank on all sides and transfer to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium and sauté onions with a little salt until just softened, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, celery, and crushed juniper berries and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes.

Add reduced wine, 1/3 cup of water, tomato paste, and bay leaf and stir, scraping up browned bits. Return lamb and any accumulated juices to the pot and bring to boil. Remove from heat, cover with lid and place in oven. Braise for about 1-1.5 hours, until meat is almost tender.

Finish cooking on the stovetop over low heat for about 1/2 hour. If sauce is too liquid, leave the lid slightly ajar so it will reduce. Conversely, if it gets too dry, add water, a little at a time. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and transfer to individual plates or a serving dish. Top with crushed pink peppercorn and spruce needles and garnish with a few whole spruce tips.

Moroccan "Chick-Chick" Salad

This salad is a fun play on "chickweed" and "chickpeas" blended together with the Moroccan flavors of pomegranate, cumin, and possibly feta.

My list of favorite foraged greens is long, but chickweed *might* be in the top 5. If not the top 5, then definitely the top 10. Lucky for me, it is one of the most abundant "weeds" available and is also drought resistant - armageddon? Sign me up! 

In the Bay Area, you'll find chickweed in abundance after rains when the sun inevitably returns and all the greens start poking up. What I love about this wild green is how soft and delicate the greens are, both in flavor and texture, while still having a slight crunch and very fresh flavor. 

To identify chickweed, look for a sprawling plant with oval pointed leaves and possibly small white star-shaped flowers. The most obvious identifying characteristics are:

1. It does not have milky sap

2. It has one line of hairs on the side of the stem 

3. If you pull gently on the outer part of the stem, it will separate and there will be a thin inner part that does not separate (try a few times, it might take a bit to get the hang of it)

Some recipes call for cooking chickweed, but I think it's best raw or, maybe, slightly wilted over a soup or by the hot chickpeas in this salad. Serves 2.

• 3/4 cup cooked chick peas

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• Sea salt

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses

• 4 cups chickweed, washed and dried

• 1-2 ounces crumbled feta (optional)

Heat cast iron with about 2 teaspoons of olive oil on high. When cast iron is hot, add the chickpeas. Cook, stirring periodically, until beans are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Once cooked, place in bowl and toss with cumin and a few pinches of sea salt.

“The term “chickweed” is based on the fact that chickens love it —- cute!”

Add lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, remaining olive oil, and a pinch of salt to a mason jar. Whisk with a fork or cover jar and shake to combine. 

Combine chickpeas with chickweed in a bowl, drizzle with dressing, and top with crumbled feta (if desired). Serve immediately.

Moroccan chick-chick salad with optional feta.

Roasted Delicata Rings with Tahini

This is the dish - the dish that you can bring to any gathering and it will be well received. Being vegan, gluten-free, allergen-friendly, and pseudo-paleo (to all but the very strict of paleos), you'll get "oohs" and "awes" from all people present. Beyond that, it's delicious, provides healthy fats, and requires no utensils! Serves 4 as a side.

• 2 medium delicata squash (about 1.5 pounds)

• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided

• About 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 3 cloves garlic, diced

• 1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)

• Juice from 1 lemon

• 2-3 tablespoons water

• Pomegranate seeds and fresh herbs for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

“Delicata seeds are can be roasted along with the squash if desired. Simply rinse, pat dry, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and other seasonings of choice, and roast for 7-8 minutes, tossing halfway through.”

Clean the delicata squash well. Slice into rings 1/2-inch thick and remove seeds and pulp from squash rings using a spoon or a knife. It is okay if some pulp strands are left, as they will not be noticeable once roasted.

Place delicata rings on a baking sheet and using your fingers, toss with just enough olive oil to coat (about 1-tablespoon). Be careful with the oil - too much will make the squash soggy. Spread rings out in a single layer.

Sprinkle with one pinch of salt per pan and roast about 12-15 minutes on each side until soft and browned on edges.

While squash is roasting, blend garlic with tahini, lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt using a food processor or immersion blender. Blend in remaining olive oil and enough water to create a thick, fluffy sauce.

Remove squash from oven, allow to cool to room temperature, and serve with tahini sauce for dipping. Garnish with pomegranate seeds and fresh herbs (optional).