To Have and To Hold One’s Own Calzone

Calzones have been a favorite of mine since college. I loved ordering up my very own little piece of yummy for a number of reasons. 1) It was cheaper than ordering a whole pie. 2) It was the perfect amount of food after getting home at 2 a.m. when the bars closed. and 3) It was in one cute little package that prevented broke roommates from hovering around and sneaking “just one slice”. Yes, the calzone was perfection to me.

Since going vegan I hadn’t really thought about my beloved calzones too often. Mainly because places didn’t offer a vegan calzone (yes, I know, hold the cheese and there you have it) but it seemed more worth our time perfecting pizza like this instead. I seemed to be just happy in my little calzone-less world…until we moved to Upstate New York about a month ago.

We live just west of Ithaca and people kept telling us about Pizza Aroma and their amazing vegan calzones. Outside of Eugene’s own Pizza Research Institute’s P3 pizza, (which Rahzh blogged about for his veganniversary), I haven’t been all the impressed with the vegan pizzas that are being made out there so really didn’t go running at the first whisper of calzone. I was indeed quite skeptical.

Pizza Aroma is definitely a no frills pizza-on-the-go sort of joint but don’t let that fool you. What was served up for us was a made to order, hot and fresh, honest to goodness, yummy yum yum, worth getting in the car and driving a half hour (40 minutes with a damn detour) for vegan calzone. Made with black olives, spinach, roasted red peppers, eggplant, fresh garlic (ooo the garlic!), roasted garlic sauce, olive oil and Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese. This, my friends, is something to have and to hold, behold:

And the bonus was they were HUGE! We each ordered one and while Rahzh was so excited and rallied through eating a whole calzone, we could have easily shared one. Mine made for a really great second lunch later in the day. The only critique we had of this dish was that the cheese could have been melted just a little more but outside of that it is definitely worth the hype. NOM.

Fabulous falafel gyro with titillating tahini sauce

Falafel is one of our most favorite foods EVER. Especially for rahzh (he could probably eat it all day,every day). Sad thing is we both just discovered falafel a couple of years back (or less). Neither of us ever tried it before we went Vegan. And it is sad to think we missed out on years of fabulous falafel gyros Luckily Woz discovered this food of the Middle Eastern gods and introduced it to rahzh’s unsuspecting and unknowing mouth during one of his early visits.

 

As you all know we moved from Eugene to Watkins Glenn (West of Ithaca),but we would still like to promote our favorite falafel places back in Eugene (we have mentioned them before). Mommy’s Falafel has some of the most delicious falafel we ever tried. Once we found them we rarely ever went anywhere else unless they were closed or to try a new place. Alexander’s Great Falafel is a little different,but just as good (Mommy’s had the added benefit of having seasoned fries). Alexander’s is also a completely Vegan cart. We shall miss them both and look forward to finding somewhere here with delicious falafel (even if only in Ithaca).

 

These gyros are nommers ( We swear that it’s a word. Go and look it up if you don’t believe us )and only take 5-10 minutes to prepare and about 20 minutes to cook. So in 30 minutes or less you will have magically delicious falafel err… wait a second this is a Middle Eastern food not Irish. As always we will continue to personalize the recipe as we continue to make it (after a certain point we usually start eye balling many of the ingredients). As for now this is the recipe that we followed.

 

To make the falafel you will need:

15-19 oz can chickpeas/garbanzo beans,drained (you could also soak your own)
1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
2-3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon baking powder ( 1/2tsp + 1/4tsp or 3x 1/4 tsp)
salt & pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil (you could try another type if you wish)

Start by preheating the oven to 350 and drizzling the oil evenly in a shallow baking pan (we used a small glass baking pan/casserole dish).

Next, mash the chickpeas/garbanzo beans. You may use a mortar and pestle or a food processor but we have neither. So we used a spoon, potato masher, and our blender. This way requires more work and depending on your blender it might mean doing it in a couple of batches to make sure the chunks of chickpeas/garbanzo beans are gone.

Add onions and garlic and blend some more.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and you should get a thick paste-like consistency. Spoon out the mixture and roll (using your hands) into walnut size balls and place in preheated baking dish. Flatten the falafel a little. Bake for 15-20 minutes, flip the falafel halfway through baking.

 

To make the tahini sauce you will need:

1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
4 gloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt ( 1/2tsp + 1/4tsp or 3x 1/4 tsp)
2 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
2 teaspoon cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon warm water

You may use food processor or mortar and pestle to combine garlic and tahini but we just used our blender. Then add salt, parsley, cilantro, and cumin to the mixture. Next, add olive oil, lemon juice, and water. If the mixture is too thick slowly add more warm water until you get the thickness that you like.

 

Now all you have to do is take your favorite pita bread and top it with your favorite toppings ( greens/tomatoes/onions/etc) add the falafel and tahini sauce. AND don’t forget to add some hot sauce. That puts it over the top. We love Cholula hot sauce (especially the garlic version). And voila!

If you like the recipe please go vote for it at at CHOW.com. We submitted as a recipe to be part of the site,but right now there is a contest going on and we submitted it for that as well. Thanks

Three Forks

Tonight we took the easy way out. Woz tried Three Forks at a work retreat a couple weeks ago and wanted to take Rahzh there after a night of yummy Shiraz tasting.

We have fallen in love with Iced Thai Tea and Iced Thai Coffee. We prefer the ones with coconut milk but the soy ones still pass the test:

And the main dish was a yummy teriyaki tofu with green onions and sweetened almonds:

Woz has finally mastered the art of using only chopsticks but Rahzh still had the good ol’ fork to bail him out. We’d definitely do this again.