Things will never change if we remain the same

In hopes that Spring is coming, we've made a few salad-y type dinners recently that have made the days seem a bit warmer! We actually traveled to Florida last week - and while we enjoyed the 85 degree weather, it had snowed at our house in PA! I'm ready for spring and warm weather.

I love the idea of making home-made hummus  - however all of my past attempts did not meet my expectations. Perhaps I just love Sabra hummus and the creamy texture, that when I made it at home the texture never seemed quite the same. However, I read online that the "trick" to Sabra-like hummus is to de-skin each chickpea. To me, this seemed pretty easy at first. However, after skinning 2 cans of chickpeas (who knows how many hundred chickpeas that is!) - by the end I was hoping this would be worth the effort!

I made roasted red pepper hummus - adding the red peppers in at the end. This was well worth the effort and I could definitely tell a difference between skinned-chickpea hummus and just throwing the chickpeas in as is.

What goes better with hummus than Falafel and Tabbouleh! I used a boxed mix for the falafel by Fantastic Foods - which is my usual go-to for quick falafel.

I also decided to make the cauliflower tabbouleh from Oh She Glows. She calls this recipe her Detox Tabbouleh - but I loved that it used so much cauliflower instead of a grain since cauliflowers are delicious and on sale! :) I'm usually not a huge fan of raw cauliflower - I prefer it cooked, but it tasted really great in this recipe with the vinegars and cilantro.

Sabra-Like Hummus:
1 15 oz can chickpeas
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 Tablespoon water
3-4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 Tablespoon tahini
1/4 t salt and pepper
6 oz roasted red pepper

Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Then peel each of the chickpeas "skin" off and discard. Add garlic clove to food processor and pulse until chopped. Add the chickpeas, water, lemon juice and pulse until broken up. Add tahini, salt and pepper, and roasted red peppers and let run until creamy.

This kept in the fridge for a week and was great on top of salads.

Another salad friendly dinner we had was the Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon from Appetite for Reduction. Of course, anything I make from this book I have no doubts it will be amazing.

I am not the biggest fan of eggplant, but the eggplant "bacon" on this salad was delicious even for non-eggplant lovers. The caesar dressing was a great vegan friendly-creamy alternative and pulled the salad together.

Vegan Caesar Chavez Dressing (From Appetite for Reduction):

2 Tablespoons of chopped shallot

2 Tablespoons of raw cashew pieces

1 Tablespoon of tahini

1 Tablespoon of miso

1/3 cup water

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/8 tsp salt

freshly ground pepper

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until creamy. 

The original recipe calls for capers - however we have a slight aversion to capers so we chose to leave these out and it was still delicious!