• Gyro Dip

    I haven’t pulled out a sandwich-as-dip recipe in a while, but this one has been in my back pocket for a couple months and I finally made it this past weekend. This dip was fantastic and thanks to some pita chips it tasted 100% like eating a gyro. We are in the full swing of…

  • Lobster Roll Banh Mi

    Whether you are a lobster roll purist, or a banh mi purist I think we can all get on board with this amazing sandwich.

  • Rice Bun Burgers

    This burger uses two rice patties as the buns. For toppings, cucumber, mint, peanut, and sriracha.

  • Hummus Quinoa Cakes

    I wanted to use hummus to make something that was falafel-like and very easy to make. I knew I would have trouble achieving that toothsome crunchiness of a true falafel, so I thought of using cooked quinoa as the main ingredient to get that desired texture. It actually worked even better than I thought! The quinoa on the edges that got browned up were perfectly crunchy, and the insides of these patties were creamy and juicy with just enough bite. I served these falafel style in a fresh pita with cucumber salsa, lettuce, and tzatziki.

  • Persian Chicken Burritos

    You guys know I love to make twists on the burrito from all over the world. There are even some good versions in Stuffed! The key to making this work is not just slapping a bunch of exotic ingredients into a tortilla, you really have to take the time to replace all of the burrito staples like rice, beans, meat, and salsa. This week Mandi and I made an incredibly tasty Persian take on the burrito. For the rice, we used a sour cherry rice complete with the crispy bits Persian rice is famous for. In place of beans, we used lentils. The meat was a classic marinaded chicken, salsa was a Persian tomato-cucumber salad, and for sour cream, we made a yogurt sauce.

  • Thai Inspired Sloppy Subs

    Some of you guys might remember “Bro Week” from a few years back, where I made an effort to cook really simple recipes for a whole week, while maintaining my unique style and still using mostly homemade and fresh ingredients. Well my sister is a junior in college this year and has a kitchen in her apartment for the first time, so I decided to do another week of easy recipes geared towards her and other college students who want a break from the caf and aren’t in the mood for takeout. I know in reality, Jello shots is probably the only recipe of mine that will be happening in that kitchen, but I’d like to think that maybe Joanna, or other college students might benefit from this week of recipes.

    For the first college week recipe, I have a sloppy sub that is influenced by a Thai dish that features ground meat in a light chile-basil sauce. The slow cooker was perfect for this dish, as I was able to let it do it’s thing for 4 hours only stirring it twice through the process. I may be wrong, but I think tastes have changed a little in the 10 years since I was in college, and more and more students are into a little more adventurous cuisines like Thai, but still maybe can’t get any near campus, so I thought that this would be a fun and easy way to satisfy that craving.

  • Vietnamese Bun Vermicelli Burgers

    Last week I went to an awesome burger event in Boston called Battle of the Burger. It was lots of fun and sponsored by Amstel, so as you can imagine I had a few. I tried as hard as I could to taste all 20 burgers there, but alas, I only made it to about 15. I almost had to crawl out of the event I was so full! I even had to pass on the make your own sundae booth, and throw away a few bites of a shake shack burger which might have been a low point of my life. I was really impressed with many of the burgers, especially the lamb and tzatziki burger from Cafeteria, but overall, I wished some of the restaurants lightened things up a bit. Every burger was an overindulgent savory bomb which was awesome at first, but after trying 10 or so, they all started to meld together. If I was there, I would have served these Vietnamese vermicelli topped burgers as a bit of a reprieve from the bacon-truffle-mushroom-aioli-cheese madness.

  • Scallop Ceviche Tacos

    Last week I went to see Cayucas with some friends, and before we headed out to the show, I made this tasty ceviche as a light pre-concert meal. It was inspired by their song “Deep Sea Diver”, and it was summery, fresh, and reminiscent of the ocean, just like the band’s music!