recipe

roasted pumpkin with dukkah, yogurt, and fried bread

in ,

the last time i ate pumpkin i was at the zoo in australia, missing my chance to cuddle a koala because i'm a space cadet. all i wanted was to be in tip top shape when i met my new koala friend so rather than going straight to the cuddling station when i got to the zoo, i stopped for a little snack to have the energy to wait on line without getting cranky. and that snack was a pumpkin wrap. and that line closed while i was enjoying my pumpkin wrap. and it was my last day in australia. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

missed connection

me: sneakers, a backpack, parsley in my teeth, pumpkin in my belly. 

you: a cuddly plop of koala at the taronga zoo. you went to bed at 3pm. 

so i have this kind of sad feeling about pumpkin.

but i also have all of these happy feelings about pumpkin because before my koala incident, i had spent the weekend at sophie and luisa's workshop in the blue mountains outside of sydney where we ate some really delicious pumpkin in a way that i'd not ever had before. it was winter there (july), so rather than beginning my days with my typical summer breakfast of chopped tomatoes and cucumbers over yogurt, sophie suggested a big bowl of roasted pumpkin over yogurt and it was so perfect and good. i drizzled it with some of her homemade olive oil and dukkah, and scooped it all up with fresh sourdough. it made me look at pumpkin in a whole new savory delicious way than just as a pie filling and cake ingredient, and it made me even more excited for sara and aimee's virtual pumpkin party.

this is more of a non-recipe that's inspired by my australian breakfast bowls and it's fall's equivalent to summer's breakfast salads. it's the type of thing that you can sleepily spoon into a bowl using last night's leftover roasted pumpkin (or roasted sweet potatoes or squash, any orange starchy thing really) and yesterday's bread (since frying in a bit of olive oil will revive any old bread). you can get as complicated with the other stuff as you want: i love adding lemony sautéed kale for some greens and a handful of nuts and seeds for crunch. and if you don't have chiles, hot sauce will do the trick! 

roasted pumpkin with dukkah, yogurt, and fried bread

ingredients

Pie pumpkin, seeded and peeled and chopped into 3/4” cubes 

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

ground cumin

Crusty sourdough

Plain full-fat greek yogurt

Red chiles, seeded and sliced

Dukkah (I like using a blend of pine nuts, pepitas, sesame seeds, and coriander)

Optional: kale sauteed with olive oil, salt, lemon

clues

preheat oven to 425ºf and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toss pumpkin with a drizzle of olive oil, a few pinches of salt and pepper, and a dusting of ground cumin. spread pumpkin on baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes, tossing every 15 minutes, until browned and caramelized. (you can do this step the night before. to reheat, toss the pumpkin in a hot skillet for a few moments.) 

meanwhile, slice bread and heat a thin layer of olive oil in a skillet. brown bread slices on both sides in the oil, sprinkle with salt, and set aside.

when pumpkin has finished roasting, remove from oven and let cool slightly. dollop yogurt in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Top with pumpkin, chiles, a sprinkle of dukkah, and kale, if using. Serve with bread.

...and be sure to check out all of the other recipes in today's virtual pumpkin party! happy pumpkin season, everybody in the northern hemisphere! 

-yeh!

apple, onion, and aged cheddar mini pies

in ,

hi from minneapolis where i have just arrived with the smallest suitcase i've used all year. it is a carry-on and in it i have squeezed three pairs of shoes, my buttercream sweater, and a small stack of sugar beet tattoos which i have to conserve because they are almost gone!

i am packing light for this two-day trip and considering it a test for my theory that packing light is wildly overrated. i decided this back in may when i went to ireland and hemmed and hawed so hard about bringing both my green clogs (since everyone told me i'd be miserable in them due to the rain in the forecast) and my rain wellies (since that would have required a second checked suitcase). in the 11th hour i brought a second suitcase of shoes to ireland and ended up being extremely happy with my footwear options because in the end it barely rained at all and when it did i was covered. as i rolled down the irish hills in my favorite clogs in the world on my sunny birthday, and then sloshed through the rain the next day with a bowl of carrots and labneh, i decided that it's much more important to be over prepared than it is to prove whatever you're trying to prove when you pack light. (WHY ARE PEOPLE SO PROUD OF THEMSELVES WHEN THEY PACK LIGHT???) i had to explain this all to the customs lady when she questioned my decision to bring two suitcases for a five-day trip. 

but now i'm testing my theory for no real reason other than i was running late this morning and wouldn't have made it to the airport by the time cutoff to check a bag. 

oh, maybe that's a reason to pack light. 

more importantly, i am so freaking excited for my minneapolis events! i'm spending the day tomorrow at cooks of crocus hill (12pm signing that is free and open to the public!) and then having brunch with my minneapolis homeslices and of a kind, in celebration of the new line artisanal kitchen supply from bed bath & beyond! in between i'm going to go to spoon and stable, marvel bar, and the bachelor farmer. yay!

and speaking of ireland, i have a recipe for you today that uses some irish cheese!!! if you have been to ireland you are aware that it is the land of cheese and butter. and if you have not been to ireland, you can experience this all by coming over and opening up what has essentially turned into my cheese refrigerator. i got to meet some kerrygold cows when i was in ireland, and they are so beautiful and happy in their green rolling fields, it was pretty clear how they're able to make such tasty stuff. kerrygold's aged cheddar is one of my favorites, it's a rich cheese, the kind you want with an apple pie. so here is my version of an apple pie (it's savory!), which combines apples and onions in a grownup mac and cheese-type sauce. it's perfect for a fall picnic or road trip! 

apple, onion, and aged cheddar mini pies

makes 9

ingredients

2 tb butter

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 large apple, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp salt, plus more to taste

pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp cayenne

2 tb flour

1/2 c veggie broth 

1/4 c dry white wine

2 oz kerrygold aged cheddar, shredded

 

14-15 oz pie dough

1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tb water

clues

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Coat a 12 cavity muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, apples, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until very soft, about 20 minutes. Add a few turns of pepper, the paprika, and cayenne and cook 1 more minute, until fragrant, and then stir in the flour. Add the broth and white wine and cook until thickened and then add the cheese, stirring until melted. Taste and add salt as needed. Remove from heat and let cool while you shape the dough.

Roll out the dough to 1/4” thickness. Cut out nine 4” circles and nine 2 1/2” circles, re-rolling scraps when needed. Press the 4” circles into the muffin tins. Spoon the onion mixture into the tins and top with the 2 1/2” circles. Fold the edges over and pinch to seal them. Use a fork to poke holes in the tops. Brush with a thin even layer of egg wash and bake until golden brown. Begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. Let cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove to the rack and serve.

-yeh!

thank you for kerrygold for sponsoring this post!

cumin chickpea salad tacos with chipotle tahini

in

hello from chicago! i have been floating in a sea of family and friends, some of whom i haven’t seen since my limited too body glitter days, some of whom i didn’t recognize until they mentioned my elementary school. most of whom have more facial hair (if they’re dudes)… it’s so bonkers to see all of these old homeslices and sign their books! it really makes me want to smile my whole face off and hug the guts out of them. i hope i didn’t spread any cooties though, i’ve been chugging mum’s matzoh ball soup and just had my first wheatgrass shot (ew), so i think i’m on my way to being 100%. i’ve also been getting better at coming down off of the wired feeling that’s leftover after each book event. bojack helps (should i start a bojack blog?), and so does this great book that i’m reading, searching for john hughes. it’s a new memoir by jason diamond, who grew up right near me in the chicago suburbs, and reading it is like receiving letters from a good old friend that i’ve known for a million years. i love it and 10/10 would recommend.

speaking of the suburbs, i am heading deeper into the suburbs today, to lake forest for my second of three chicago book tour events. and tonight i’m going downtown to the cso! i can’t hardly wait.

Since it is Tuesday, we should think about tacos. This recipe has become a staple supper in our house. It began its life as a greek salad that I tested for Lily’s forthcoming book, Kale and Caramel, and Eggboy and I became so obsessed with it that we started having it literally every third day. Lily Salad! Lily Salad! Over the past few months, it’s evolved to fit our taco obsessed lifestyle and adapted to accommodate the ingredients that we commonly have on hand. Olives were swapped out for radishes, pita croutons were swapped out for the amazeballs tortillas from this small factory in moorhead, minnesota, and a load of mint was swapped out for whatever sad small amounts of mint we can get our hungry hands on. (At one time over the summer, mint was plentiful from my little plant. But when all of that died and it just couldn’t be found at any of our groceries, I got sad. And around this time I broke into Lily’s apartment in los angeles while she was on a date, and when she returned she had a bush of fresh mint the size of two of my heads. oh wow! is there a farmers’ market today?? i asked, pointing to her mint. no, this is literally the smallest quantity of mint that i can get from [insert generic grocery store name here]. *eye roll* *california* *ugh*.) I also started adding tabasco sauce because I feel weird not having tacos with classic tabasco sauce, and I thought that chipotle tahini would be a fun twist on chipotle mayo, giving it a nice creamy texture and some smokiness that brings these cumin chickpeas to the next level. 

cumin chickpea salad tacos with chipotle tahini

makes about 8

ingredients

Olive oil or flavorless oil
1 15-oz carton chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and patted dry)
ground cumin
ground coriander
Salt and pepper
original Tabasco sauce

5 oz mixed greens
1/2 purple onion, thinly sliced
1/2 large cucumber, chopped
4 radishes, thinly silced
A handful of fresh mint leaves, or more if you've got it
A handful of crumbled feta

1/4 c tahini
3 tb cold water
1 tb lemon juice
1 tsp chipotle tabasco, or more to taste

about 8 six-inch flour tortillas

clues

heat a thin layer of oil in a skillet over medium high heat. add the chickpeas and cover them with a dusting of cumin and coriander, a big pinch of salt, and a few turns of pepper. cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown. remove from heat and top with a few shakes of hot sauce. 

in a large bowl, combine the mixed greens, onion, cucumber, radishes, mint, and feta. 

in a small bowl, mix together the tahini, water, lemon juice, chipotle tabasco, salt, and pepper and stir until thickened. taste and add additional tabasco, if desired. 

warm the tortillas in the pan you used to cook the tortillas in (so the seasoning gets on one side), and then fill them with a pile of salad, a spoonful of chickpeas, and a healthy drizzle of chipotle tahini. alternatively, you can toss the chickpeas and the tahini sauce with the salad before stuffing everything into a taco.

enjoy! 

 

-yeh!

thank you, tabasco, for sponsoring this post! check out the #tabascotastemakers hashtag for more tabasco recipes!

coconut tahini monster cookies + a mega giveaway

in

you know what i would pay a good $26 for these days is like a 4loko-circa-2010 + emergen-c hybrid that actually tastes like matzo ball soup and is three ounces or less but fills you up way more than that. there would be a boozy version for nights and weekends and a non-boozy version for the weekday and it would be available at all of the airports, even the two-gate grand forks airport. there would be coconut water in it too, for hydration. 

really what i want is the ability to power through the rest of this book tour with the immune system of a kindergarten teacher and the energy of ellen bennett. 

and the dance moves of maddie ziegler. 

i just get so excited when i see all of my homies during my travels that it’s hard to be like “no, i can’t go sunrise wine tasting with you, matt and beau and katie, i have to sleep in and then do ab exercises like the boring lame jane that i am.” so i don’t. and then i end up with a strep-ish throat underneath a blanket cape and a winter hat on an airplane on yom kippur, day-dreaming of disgusting alcoholic energy drinks that taste like matzo ball soup. it’s all obviously worth it. i had so much fun giggling with matt and beau, cheering on katie during her chopped episode, eating nik’s lamb around a bonfire, and discovering the cuteness of boise with the delicious contents crew these past few days… what a cute little town! but i also wish i had small pouch of energy reserve that i could kick into high gear for chicago this weekend that wouldn’t require me to take any time off from fall recipe testing today and tomorrow.

what do you do when you’re about to get sick? 

  1. vitamin c
  2. whine
  3. tweet about matzo ball soup and hope that the town matzo ball soup factory sees it and sends over a lifetime supply of matzo ball soup
  4. power through it, go to the club, only invite friends that agree with your theory that vodka is the best way to kill the germs in your throat

i know what this darktown blog post needs, cookies and a bigass giveaway!

as you might have seen on instagram, the day molly on the range came out also marked the beginning of a hanukkah-length giveaway that features super amazing kitchen gear, apparel, spices, and surprises that were featured in motr. so many of my favorite companies were massively generous in sending props for the book photo shoots, so i’m taking this time to showcase some of them and send their amazingness to one lucky winner. that winner will receive:

the Stanley lunchbox that i packed pizza pockets and celery soda into for the pizza night on the tractor shoot. and the Faribault cape that i wore for it.

the Staub casserole featured on the tater tot hotdish page.

a selection of some of my favorite La boite spices, including the za'atar that can be seen on the back cover.

the Vermont Farm Table cake stand that's on the cover and in a few other places throughout the book, like the princess cake pictured above.

the Shun knife that's pictured with the tahini blondie ice cream sandwiches.

the Lodge mini cake pan from the mini peach bakewell tarts that were ultimately cut from the book (nooooo!!!) but that cake pan remains one of the cutest things in my kitchen. 

...and a surprise box of goodies from me that will totally include some tattoos, a stick of chocolate halva lip balm, a signed book, some other cookbooks that came out this fall that i love, maybe just like a full on sugar beet? and secrets!!! it'll be like summer camp but better because we don't have to sneak in candy under a pile of tampons.  

to enter this mega giveaway, tag your molly on the range instagrams (a photo of the book or a dish that you’ve made from the book) with #mollyontherange and #8daysofgiveaways throughout the month of october. a winner will be chosen at the end of the month, and this is open to u.s. residents.

and now let’s talk about cookies!!! i first made these in los angeles over the summer, in my measuring cup-less kitchen. they’re a combination of samantha seneviratne's new chocolate chip cookies, which i love because they are coconut oil based which means you don’t need an electric mixer (and they have nuts and coconut in them!), and dani’s tahini chocolate chip cookies which i love for obvious tahini-centric reasons. these guys have a party of flavors and are quick as a bunny to make. they’re soft, chewy, and nutty, and if you don’t have measuring cups and have to eyeball all of the measurements, they’ll likely still be pretty swell. even if they fall apart and you have to sprinkle a bunch of broken cookies over ice cream.

coconut tahini monster cookies

makes 10

ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 c melted virgin coconut oil, slightly cooled

1/2 c tahini

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tb vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

optional: splash of coconut extract

3/4 c bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 c toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut

flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

sprinkles, optional

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf and line two baking sheets with parchment. combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. 

in another bowl, combine coconut oil and tahini. whisk in sugar until well combined. add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then mix in extracts. finally, stir the flour mixture into the tahini mixture along with chocolate chips. 

scoop cookie dough onto lined baking sheets with and ice cream scoop, leaving a few inches between them for the cookies to spread. top the dough with walnuts, coconut, flaky salt, and sprinkles if using. 

bake until the bottoms are lightly browned and the coconut is toasty, begin checking for doneness at 15 minutes. let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove to a rack to cool completely, or eat them warm! enjoy!