2 summer vegetarian dishes with one sauce: Rich Roasted eggplant and Lentil-Kale Delight

The original recipe (which I cannot remember if I found on Pinterest or online, can't figure out my phone's browsing history, arg!) dressing is for eggplants plus bell peppers, if you're just doing eggplants probably only need 2-3 tbsp of dressing. But I found it also works nicely on other veggies or I think could make a great lettuce salad dressing too. 

This first recipe will be the best if you can bbq your eggplants in a metal basket to avoid heating up your house, but you can use your oven also. 

Both recipes are eaten cold and are therefore considered by me to be wonderful on a hot, El Paso summer day. 

I will always first remember kale as a decoration in the salad bars that we would use at the dining hall. At the end of the night we would collect them in buckets to be used another day if they weren't wilting yet. Now they are such a trendy food. 

See the little serving of eggplant above the sammie?

Recipe #1 Rich Roasted Eggplant Salad 

Ingredients: 

• 2 Italian egg plants (the big bulbous ones, rather than Japanese or other Asian varieties that are longer. Probably fine to use them but just increase the quantity). Makes about 4 servings. 

Dressing for eggplants (or Lentil and Kale salad)

• ¾ cup of vinegar
• Cumin 1 tbsp
• Salt 1.5 tsp
• Pepper 1 tsp
• 5 roasted garlic cloves-(cooked with the eggplant)

Optional: Toasted nuts. I did about ¾ cup toasted pecans (toast 5 minutes on 300F or on a pan over low). Let cool then break into small pieces to sprinkle on eggplant just before serving

1. Tuck in the garlic cloves whole with the roasted cubed (about ½” pieces) eggplant tossed in olive oil (about 2-3 tsp) in baking dish in a single layer at 400 for 30-40 minutes stirring every 10 until very tender and pieces shrunk to about 1/3 of their original size.

2. Pull out the garlic cloves when soft enough to be easily pierced by a fork. Place dressing ingredients in a blender. Whizzzzzle around until smooth. 

3. Toss with dressing (again try it with just 2-3 tbsp and see how it tastes) and stick in fridge for at least 1 hour to let flavors marinate. Save the rest of your dressing for another meal. Add nuts to each person's serving if you think there will be leftovers so nuts remain crispy. 

Could probably make this more hearty by adding some kind of a bean for protein. Chickpeas perhaps? I went nicely with Liz's tomato-white bean-basil soup (dairy free) and grilled cheese (yay bread maker to have myself a gluten free version).

Recipe #2 Lentil and Kale Delight: 

It will still heat up your kitchen since a pot is boiling 40 minutes.

Allow yourself 40-50 minutes to cook the lentils. It makes enough for about 6 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dried brown lentils (rinsed and sorted for any stones)
• 1 bundle of kale (any kind, I used the curly version)-rinsed and cutting off the leafy part from the stem. Curly kale steam is very tough usually, you may save it for making a soup stock or compost it. 
• 2 tsp coconut or olive oil

1. Put lentils in a medium pot covered with water (about 3/4 full). If you have a lid with a steam hole, use it. If not just check the beans more often.

2. Drain lentils once they are tender enough (about 40-50 minutes). Check about every 10 minutes to see if more water needs to be added.

3. Prepare the kale by tossing it with 2 tsp of olive or coconut oil and 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

El Paso, TX Eats

Sampling quite the variety of goods that this city has to offer during our house/apartment scouting trip and after being here 2 months for school. Should you have the "fortune" to visit this dusty but relatively large town neighboring Juarez, here are some of my findings of places to eat.

West side of town

The paper came in hand for my juicy turkey burger

 We can't get enough t-rex jokes.

1. Independent Burger-5001 N. Mesa free range meats, fish, and vegetarian selections. And gluten-free buns. Also a build your own Italian soda bar-will have to try this next time. Just what we needed to fuel an all day housing search. Tradition to have burgers once when we're on travel! A classmate has shared that they have $5 Thursday burgers with fries at 8pm. Get there early!

If you don't feel like the rootbeer float at Independent Burger, head across the plaza for gelato. Pistachio rose flavored was a first for me!

2. Koi Japanese Fusion-5860 N. Mesa. Felt so swanky sitting in a polished wooden booth that faced the bar and the horrendously boring Pacquel v. Mayweather fight. I remember a time when I would watch Monday night fights with Dad on TV. But we were happy just to sit after a full day of driving back and forth across town (8:30 am-6:30pm), the poor waiter had no other customers so he checked on us frequently. Dave thought he sounded like (and sort of resembled) the actor who played Spider Man (that Garfield guy) Delicious New York roll and sunomono salad (above) = cucumber with some other seafood. I think Dave was satisfied with his usual nigiri salmon and yellow tail. I wouldn't say the cheese cake is something you MUST go for (I had to try avoid eating the crumbs too)-but they do give you two slices for one order!

3. Ripe Eatery- 910 E. Redd Road. Hooray for shady patio eating and dog friendly. It's actually seeming like EP is very dog friendly (saw nights to take the furry one to the Chihuahua's baseball stadium, a bar downtown that allows dogs during one happy hour a week, several markets that are friendly to dogs). The portions are ENORMOUS. Share with a friend if you tend to avoid leftovers. Dad couldn't finish his fish and chips (and my Dad can eat a surprising amount), even Dave's chicken Caesar was left with leaves in the bowl. You can make the oink face at me as I finished my Portobello Mushroom Rockafeller (almond red pepper pesto! Yummmmm, can I just get a huge tub of that to take home and freeze?) that included two mushroom caps on polenta.

4. Tara Thai Kitchen-2606 N. Mesa St. I came for dinner this summer with classmates after a friendly table tennis game at the rec center. The food was really tasty and I was happy with my level of medium spice, albeit for a vegetarian dish I was a little floored by the $15 price tag, even for dinner (compared to San Diego standards, supply and demand I suppose). Perhaps their lunch prices are more what I'm used to. Portions are at least large though, my party had leftovers. Only other trouble was their air conditioning doesn't work very well, it was stuffy. I'm wondering if it uses swamp cooling.

Central side of town (just east of the Franklin mountains, a local told me, we're still considered central NOT east)

1. Cattle Baron's Steak and Seafood-1700 Airway Blvd. Honestly went here because we were tired on our first night in from San Diego's flight. Their $9.99 salad bar for a gluten-free, veggie-lovin' person was fabulous. Four different desserts I could have (puddings and mousse), and many prepared and plain fixins for the leafy greens. If you enjoy Soup Plantation, you'd like this place too. They did have at least one other location in El Paso.

2. Cuauhtemoc Cafe-6840 Montana Avenue. We needed something close to the airport. I had to call to get hours (get ready to use your Spanish, I surprised Dave "A que hora de operacion?"....no idea if that even makes grammatical sense but had to try again with "Que es las horas abierto?" Hooray high school skills. Will definitely need to brush up going to grad school here) since they didn't have a website. The waitress did speak English, just not the person who answered the phone. Sadly their beans were not vegetarian but I opted for the cheese enchiladas. I savored the salsa, but felt the sauce on the main dish needed some extra zip. So salsa saved the day. Portions were generous.

3. Korea House- 4601 Hondo Pass Rd. Craving spicyness on your lips to last until bedtime? Look no further! Large array of the sides and a good sized helping on the main dishes. I ordered a spicy squid, which the waitress assured me was not made with any kind of flour. The sauteed onion and squash in the squid paired so nicely. I would have shared this dish with another person if I knew the serving size, but the guys were set on having their beef anyway. They had a few kinds of fish I had never heard of, so next time I will be more adventurous. I think they did also have some tofu dishes but I didn't get to ask if they were vegetarian.

4. Kabob House- 7500 N Gateway Blvd. The Yelp reviews cautioned you need to just look for a gas station because it is not presently obvious that a Persian gem lies inside the walls. The owner/chef would like to have something scrolling on the sign outside soon. He actually shared with us that it used to be a Subway but that went terribly awry (very odd business model) but he didn't give up and converted it. I wouldn't say you want to come here if you want a romantic night out. The ding, ding! of the gas station door constantly could spoil the mood. Then again we arrived just when a large tour bus did. Make sure to ask the owner which items can be vegetarian since the description may not be clear. I also had the disadvantage of not being very familiar with Persian dishes. But the man was really gracious and quickly made me a tasty cilantro-bean-lime stew free of beef.  It inspires me to make a mushroom based one in the near future. I hope next time the pistachio ice cream is in stock.

5. Lucky Cafe-3831 Alameda Ave. Came here by mistake meaning to go check out Good Luck Cafe just a few building down. Bright gecko green exterior, you can't miss it. Also open 24 hours. Late night study break? I loved that they had vegetarian refried beans with the breakfast menu and a man providing acoustic guitar and singing. Just the right amount of spicy salsa. They did have chilaquiles which my old-coworkers seem to really enjoy, so I'll have to try that next time. Got your standard coffee, nothing special, not too strong, and smooth.

6. Kiki's- 2719 N. Piedras. A classmate recommended this place, and at least 16 of us came over during prime lunch hour on a weekday after our first grad school exam. We waited half an hour to sit all together, not bad for having no reservation in such a small place. Fantastic green sauce enchiladas and vegetarian beans! My classmates note that the margaritas are made with white wine as they only carry beer and wines at present. Small parking lot, try carpooling...or it's near residences so plenty of parking with a short walk.

7. Chun Ju Korean 3901 Broaddus Ave. Chosen based on Yelp reviews. I braved trying a new dish, "belt fish" which was very bony (and I was warned) and took great effort to eat. It was just lightly seasoned if at all, not what you want to pick if you're looking for a spicy dish. My classmate who is Korean says there is a trick to getting the meat off easily but she failed to show it to me at the time! The sides were wonderful and they offered to refill them. I think overall everyone was happy, though the expert said that they just had very basic dishes (comparing to LA). I'm pretty limited in what I eat anyway, so I am ok with smaller menus as long as it's done right.

PLACES RECOMMENDED TO ME that I have yet to try:
Chopes-Hatch, NM. Enormous portions.
State Line BBQ-I checked, they don't appear to serve free range, but there is fish! We did go to hear their free summer series concerts on a Wednesday night.

Cattleman's Ranch-also have animals to go see and movie sets. Seafood is available.