Roasted garlic and red pepper hummus

It is Grey cup Sunday here in Canada. While I'm not much of a football fan I do love using it as a excuse to spend time with family and eat appetizers for dinner. Every year my mom asks me to make hummus, for some reason hers never turns out like mine. With her kids grown and flown the coop my moms food processor gets little use these days except for making hummus. Since she prefers my hummus she has passed on the food processor and the hummus making duty to me. I find that the key to a good hummus is using good beans. I have never had good hummus from no name brand beans. I will ONLY buy Scarpone canned beans. I have tried cooking the garbanzo beans myself and they just leave something lacking. Since Orion has a sesame allergy I substitute sunflower butter instead, you could leave it out but I find it lacks something in flavour without it. This year I am switching it up a little and making red pepper hummus.

Roasted Garlic and red pepper Hummus
1 medium pepper cut in half
1 head garlic peeled
Scant 2/3 cup lemon juice
2 little cans  (Just under 600ml total)Scarpone Garbanzo beans drained with 4 tbsp of liquid reserved
1/4 cup Sunflower butter (If you run the measuring cup under hot water before measuring the sunflower butter it will slide out easily)
1/4 cup EVOO
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
Paprika to garnish if you would like

Preheat oven to 400F
Take pepper halves and spray with Olive oil, Wrap head of garlic in foil. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Let cool.
Put beans, liquid, peppers and garlic in food processor and process until chopped,  Dump in Sunflower butter, lemon juice, blend again. while food processor is going drizzle in olive oil. Taste, then add salt and pepper (Some beans are saltier then others) (I find that  by not rinsing the beans you don't need much other flavourings.
Let sit at least an hour before serving

Sour leaf lazy cabbage rolls

I grew up eating sour leaf cabbage rolls. I love them so much. Hand rolling cabbage rolls takes so much time. Last time I made cabbage rolls I froze the leftover filling and little bits of sour cabbage that were not suitable for rolling, I baked it like a casserole and it was so good! This time I am fine tuning the recipe to make it into lazy cabbage rolls. This recipe is sans tomatoes since that is the way my family eats sour cabbage rolls. You could use sauerkraut instead of the sour head if you like, just make sure that you use non pasteurized sauerkraut. You can fine it in the produce section or a good European deli/grocer , then stuff in jars is nothing compared to the real stuff. I really like Kissel Cabbage.  This is dairy free yet still has the richness of flavour that you expect from sour leaf cabbage rolls. This recipe makes enough for two casseroles.

Yield: 12 servings
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water

3 cups brown Calrose rice

Sourhead Cabbage

1 Sourhead cabbage diced into 1 inch pieces or 2 bags of sauerkraut (My favourite is made by Kissel Cabbage)
3 medium onions. diced
1 package of bacon, diced into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp pepper
1 cup Dairy free margarine (I like earth balance or vegan becel)
1/4 Coconut oil (Make sure it is descented, I like Omega  Organic coconut oil for this)
1/4 cup bacon fat (I always save my fat in the freezer, so I have or for recipes like this or frying perogies. If you don't have any just add another 1/4 cup of coconut oil instead)
1/4 cup water

Bring chicken stock and water to boil in a large pot on stove, add rice lower heat to just barely simmering. Cook for 55 minutes until all  the water is absorbed.

Bacon frying

Fry bacon until crispy, remove bacon (Leave the grease in the pan)

Add onions to pan, fry until just starting to turn translucent,
Turn heat down, add margarine, coconut oil, additional bacon fat and pepper to pan, cover, simmer for 15 min.
Place diced cabbage. bacon and cooked rice in a large bowl mix well,
Put rice mixture in two greased casserole dishes
Ladle onion mixture over top, add 1/8 of a cup of water to each casserole dish
Cook covered at 350F 45 minutues OR freeze.

To make from frozen, Thaw the casserole, then cook at 350 until the internal temp is 165.

Casseroles ready for the oven/ freezer

Cooked and ready to eat :)

Sauteed spinach with mushrooms and bacon

I served this dish for a dinner with my parents, it is an easy side that has a great flavour. Do not overcook the spinach, when it is all just wilted it is done, it will still continue wilting after you take it out of the pan.

Sauteed spinach with mushrooms and bacon
Serves 5

6 cups loosely packed washed organic baby spinach
1/2 cup bacon bits
4 cups mushrooms sliced (I used cremini because I really enjoy the flavour)
5 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp of coconut oil  plus 1 tbsp

Mix, garlic, coconut oil mushrooms in a large pan, Over medium heat cook until mushrooms are browned.
Stir in spinach and additional coconut oil stirring often, until spinach is just wilted.