Creamy Italian White Bean Soup

I Loved this soup!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 medium stalk celery chopped
1 garlic clove
2 cans white kidney beans (15 oz each)
1 can (14 oz) vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups water
1 bunch spinach
1 tablespoon lemon juice
fresh parmesan cheese

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion, and celery till tender. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds while stirring. Add beans, broth, pepper, thyme, and water. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim stems from spinach.

With a slotted spoon, remove 2 cups bean and vegetable mixture from soup and blend in blender. Put back into soup when blended and bring back to a boil. Place spinach in soup and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat. Serve with cheese on top if you like.

each serving is 1 1/2 cups. Each serving has 295 calories, 18 grams protein, and 5grams total fat and 945 mg sodium.

Falafel

This is a DELICIOUS falafel!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups garbanzo beans
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)
3 crushed garlic cloves
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup flour
oil for frying

Grind beans in a blender or food processor until fine. Add spices and flour. Make small balls about 1 inch in diameter each and place on waxed paper. Heat oil for frying. Fry few balls at a time for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.

Stuff 3 falafel balls into pita bread, spread humus in pita, and stuff with any fresh vegetable salad of your choice.

Baklava

This is a traditional Israeli dessert. Very unhealthy so you know it delicious! ;)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb filo dough
1/2 lb peanuts, walnuts, almonds or mixture of nuts, peeled and chopped (I didnt use all 1/2 lb)
7 oz melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Topping: ( I did not use all of this either)
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Line a greased 10 1/2 x 13 1/2" pan with 1/3 of dough. Brush each filo sheet with melted butter. Mix nuts, sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle half on dough in pan. Cover with another layer of filo dough. Sprinkle remaining nuts mixture onto filo, then cover with final layer of filo.

Cut into diamond shapes but not all the way through. Pour remaining butter on top. Bake in pre-heated oven at medium-hot ( I did 350 degrees) for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cut pieces through and allow to cool.

Topping: Boil all ingredients until thick and pour over slightly cooled Baklava. There is like two cups of this and I only used maybe 10 tbsp fulls. It turned out great!

Humus with Tehina

Again, Israel had the best tasting humus ever. Mine turned out tasty also but not as good as the REAL stuff.

Ingredients:

1 cup canned garbanzo beans
5 tbsp lemon juice
2 crushed garlic cloves
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp Tehini spread
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a food processor or blender, blend the garbanzo beans until smooth. Then add all ingredients and blend again together. Taste and add more salt or lemon juice if needed.

Israeli Salad

This is a healthy and flavorful salad. Its easy and a winner.

Ingredients:

2-4 cucumbers
4 large tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 small onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Cut the vegetables into small pieces, add the rest of the ingredients and mix! yummy! This is delicious in pita bread with falafel.

Soft and Yummy Pita Bread

While in Israel, we ate lots of Falafels. Israel had the BEST pita bread ever. It was fresh and soft. I made some home made pita bread and it turned out well. I should have let it puff up a little more cause they were a little hard to cut like a pita pocket. I borrowed a recipe from another lady's blog.

http://momgrind.com/2009/02/26/pita-bread-recipe-homemade-soft-and-fabulous/