Day-Before-Payday "Caviar"

[K8-EEE]

As Shrubby says, the human being and the fish CAN co-exist, especially when you leave the caviar to the gazillionaire BushCo lobbyists, it's gross anyway.

This festive black bean version is easy to make with stuff from your pantry, better for your wallet and your health than the real stuff.

Caviar
Chop up 1 RED ONION, 3 or 4 RIPE TOMATOES, and a HALF CUP OF ITALIAN PARSLEY.
Drain and rinse ONE CAN OF BLACK BEANS

Dressing
1/2 CUP OLIVE OIL
JUICE OF ONE LIME
3 CLOVES OF CRUSHED GARLIC
1/2 TEASPOON CUMIN
1/2 TEASPOON CRUSHED RED PEPPER

Mix everything together, it's even better the next day!

Great on crackers or sourdough toast for a light meal. Pour your Sam Adams in a champagne glass, turn on Keith Olbermann and celebrate the evening, you never know how many we have left with these morons in charge!

I've decided to make a DU blog of the torture-free recipes I'm collecting. Stay tuned for more!

[flamingyouth]

1. My mom made "poor man's caviar" with eggplant when I was little

I LOVE it! This recipe from the Food Network sounds a lot like hers. I don't recall her using a recipe; like me, she just used to throw things together et voila! Bon Appetit! :D

1 medium, firm eggplant
1 clove garlic, cracked away from the skin
2 pinches ground allspice
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 handful flat-leaf parsley tops
A drizzle extra-virgin olive oil
1 whole grain baguette or other long crusty bread, sliced at bread counter

Preheat oven to highest setting, at least 500 degrees F.
Cut 2 or 3 slits into whole eggplant. Place eggplant directly on the oven rack in the middle of the oven and roast the eggplant until it is tender, about 20 minutes. Keep the slits facing up so that the eggplant does not loose liquids as it roasts.
The roasted eggplant will look like a flat tire when you remove it from the oven. Using a sharp utility knife, carefully peel skin away from eggplant flesh. Add cooked eggplant flesh and juice to food processor and combine with garlic, allspice, salt, and pepper and parsley. Pulse grind the eggplant into a paste, add a drizzle of olive oil. Transfer to a serving dish. The seeds of the eggplant will make the spread resemble caviar eggs, and so the name: poor man's caviar.
To serve, surround a bowlful of spread with crusty bread rounds.
Tidbit: Mixed olives are suggested accompaniments to this menu to round out your buffet. They require no recipe or preparation and add something to the offering overall. Place them on the buffet near the eggplant caviar and bread.

Yours sounds yummy too - I'll have to give it a try - thanks for posting! :hi:

[K8-EEE]

2. YEOW!!!

oooh I will try that for sure!

[flvegan]

3. And you DARED

suggesting a Disclaimer when you visited the Tofu Ghetto here. All because, "oh, I'm not vegan" blah blah blah.

*snort*

Fuck a vegan if he/she can't love a "DU blog of the torture-free recipes" that you're collecting, or the poster that's doing it. On top of that, I'm not only staying tuned for more as you've suggested, I'm suggesting that if someone gives you shit about your "veg status" that you let me know. I sure as hell have the back of anyone in this situation. I'm glad you're here.

And THAT is the bottom damn line, cuz flvegan says so.

[Debau2005]

4. I realize it is early

but WHAT THE HELL are you talking about?

[LeftyMom]

5. Sorry, I kept him up late.

Let me go get the link to the OP's first thread down here and perhaps then he'll make sense.

edit:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=231x14366

She said: "Hi all, first of all, disclaimer, I'm not a vegan or even a vegetarian really but trying to cut out the meat, dairy, eggs more and more. I would say about three quarters of my meals are meatless and maybe half of those vegan." He's telling her it was unneeded to apologize for posting down here and that she clearly belongs. (Hey, any other time you need flvegan to English translation services let me know.)

[K8-EEE]

6. Oh I Understood Perfectly!

I can understand how if you missed our first exchange you would be bewildered though, so thanks for the translation.

I really hope that people will visit this nice friendly corner of DU regardless of their diet, because who wouldn't benefit in the GWB economy from some nice meatless dinners a few times a week? That's how it started for me and I find myself going farther and farther down that road. Plus if you look at the $$ the freaking beef industry gives Shrubby there's a lot of inspiration right there to embrace the plant kingdom at least at your next meal, and I'm still a bit surprised that veg based diets can be so DELICIOUS!

[peacebuzzard]

7. iknowwhatyoumean

about going further and further down the road. Started off posting here as a milk egg and fish eating veg. Nowadays I have cut all that out and classify myself 98% vegan because I spend 20 days a month on the road and sometimes when hunger strikes, I can not hold out and end up doing milk products or I faint. Such is life on the road when you don't have time or space in bag to pack the right stuff.

By the way, the recipes here sound great. I love black beans. I grew up on them. Matter of fact, had some last night for dinner cooked mediterranean style (like everything else I cook) with garlic and onions sauteed in olive oil). I like to serve black beans with my pasta. Where I grew up we called that "Worker's food" denoting it as a lowly, economical and abundant fare to fill the tummies of the sweaty laborers. Dinner is not dinner without it.

[K8-EEE]

8. Yeah...Restaurants Are Usually Cheesey For Me

I went out to meet some old friends at an old school red sauce Eye-talian joint on Saturday and ended up with a VERY gooey eggplant parmesean. I have to say it was delicious! At home I find it easy to eat low on the food chain, traveling can be a bitch for sure though!

Do you have a Costco by you? My vegan friend gets these delish little snacky things there, they are nuts pressed into little squares. Yummy and filling, nice protein fix, they come in little bags like chips, I forget the name of them, she always has some in her purse or in the car in case of a dry spell food wise! Good for the plane too....shoot I forget the name, they have cashew, pumpkin, almond and one other kind in sort of a "variety pack" packaging. I will look, anyhow, highly recommended!

On Edit....I googled them, here they are, Mrs. Mays!

http://www.veganessentials.com/catalog/mrs-mays-vegan-roasted-nut-snacks-4-new-flavors.htm

[flamingyouth]

9. I love those Mrs. Mays snack things

My neighborhood market sells them. They're yummy! :9

[K8-EEE]

10. They're Super Convenient Too!

My kids like them after school too...I keep them in the car for between school and after school stuff, beats going out for french fries or something on busy afternoons!

[peacebuzzard]

11. I just bookmarked that site. I have tried the Ms. Mays nut crunches

I saw them at whole foods stores in progressive cities, tried some flavors and loved it. Last year I even sent some to my sister for her birthday.
I needed the website to order from to get them on a consistent basis, and thanks for the link.
I loved all the other products, too. I will come back to that later when I have more time.
:grouphug:

[Ilsa]

12. You could add cilantro and corn and use it for a dip with tortilla chips.

That is what I call texas caviar. Or substitute black-eyed peas for the black beans and leave out the corn.