A few nights ago, we had a Mediterranean feast.

We had a falafel plate with toasted pita and hummus

and fattoush

The hummus turned out great. The fattoush was okay–the Mediterranean place down the street makes a better one, though. I’m not sure about using mint in the dressing. The falafel was total blandyland. We baked it instead of frying it, which maybe explains a little, but in general, it didn’t have any kick to it like a good falafel does. Also, it wasn’t very firm. Has anyone had any luck with homemade baked falafel?

This is an excellent replacement for mozzarella and/or creams in recipes. It doesn’t melt or taste like mozzarella, so it’s not ideal as a faux cheese. It does taste awesome, however, and will scratch the cheese itch in a lot of dishes.

I’ll post a better photo soon–I just couldn’t wait to post this. It’s too useful.

Cashew Cream

• 1 cup of raw cashews soaked in filtered water for 6 hours
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp sea salt (fine grind)
• 1/4 cup (or a little more) filtered water

Once the cashews are done soaking, blend all of the ingredients in a blender or Vita-Mix ™. If you’re using a blender, you’ll have to be creative–scrape down the sides and keep sort of pushing the cream into the blender-vortex. Blend until very smooth. Refrigerate for at least a half hour before using, if you want it a little more solid.

But wait! Isn’t salsa generally vegan? You’d think so, but you’d be amazed how often I get asked “Oh, can you eat X”, when X is something like a potato. So rest assured. Vegans can eat this. I promise.

• 6 – 8 good-sized heirloom tomatoes (I like a variety–at least one darker and one sweeter orange or yellow)
• 3 jalapeno peppers, diced (remove some/all seeds for a milder salsa–use more and/or stronger peppers [habaneros are really hot, fresnos and serranos are also pretty hot])
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 1/4 – 1/2 lime (I like more lime in a mild salsa, less lime in a hot salsa)
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• salt, to taste

While the above ingredients are more or less indisputable (except by cheaters), what to do with them is the subject of some debate. Do you blend them? Or hand dice? Thick salsa? Or thin?

Personally, I like a thinner, hot salsa. If it’s too thick and it’s not hot, then it’s really a pico de gallo.  But a person could make a cause for a chunkier salsa. I, however, am not that person.

The bigger question is whether you want to use a food processor/blender or whether you wan to hand dice. I’ve heard tell that using a blender will bruise your tomatoes and will produce a lower quality salsa. Thus, hand dicing will produce a better flavor. I’ve tried this both ways, and I can’t tell a huge difference. If you are using a blender/food processor, take care not to over-process–this will result in a very water salsa. Also, I’m a firm believer in surgically removing any/all tomato guts in almost all recipes. It’ll just make your salsa more watery.

So. You can choose either path here. Either (a) throw everything in the blender/food processor and blend, or (b) dice live you’ve never diced before. Or (c) try both and get back to me.

Either way, this takes very little time and is better than most anything you can get at the store (which, admittedly, isn’t saying a whole lot). If you’re feeling really ambitious, this would make an excellent foray into canning. Even if you’re not feeling ambitious, this would make an excellent foray in to canning.

Huzzah!