Vegan with a Vengeance

a 9 × 13-inch casserole dish with oil. Spread the cauliflower mixture evenly in the dish. Mix together the almonds and remaining herbs. Crumble the remaining matzoh into large crumbs with your fingers and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to them; mix. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the kugel.
    Bake for 35 minutes, until browned on top. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes.
    Fizzle says:
    Kugel officially means “pudding” in Yiddish but in reality it describes any casserole.

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole
    SERVES 6-8 AS A SIDE DISH
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    This is a nice healthy veggie-ful meal, especially if you’re feeling lazy, since all the ingredients go into one pan. After the prep work you bake it for an hour, while you kick back and pay the bills or update your blog. It is a little bland, but not in a bad way, since sometimes you just want the com forting taste of veggies without all those pesky spices. I would suggest making it this way once just to see that it is possible to make an eggless, cheeseless casserole and then doctor it with fresh herbs and spices some other time. I, however, love it just as is.
    3 (16-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or equivalent amount cooked chickpeas)
    1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
    3 large carrots, grated (about 2 cups)
    1 head broccoli, cut into small florets (about 4 cups)
    2 tablespoons thinly sliced chives
    Â½ cup bread crumbs (preferably whole wheat)
    3 tablespoons olive oil
    1 cup vegetable broth
    1 teaspoon salt
    Preheat oven to 350°F
    In a large bowl mash the chickpeas well, using a potato masher or a firm fork; it takes about 2 minutes to get the right consistency. Add the vegetables and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and mix, then add the oil and mix again. Finally, add the vegetable broth and salt, and mix one last time. Transfer all ingredients to a 9 × 13-inch (preferably glass or ceramic) casserole dish. Press the mixture firmly into the casserole. Cover with foil, bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 more minutes. Serve it hot the day of, but it tastes good cold as well.

    Your Kitchen Wall: Structurally Important Object Holding up Your Roof or Storage Facility?
    I am by no means an organized person. My brother-in-law likes to say I “don’t believe in dresser drawers” because of the abundance of clothing on my bedroom floor. When it comes to my kitchen, however, I need things to be relatively organized or I know that it will only take that much longer to eat.
    My method for organizing is basically this: Have as much hanging on the walls as possible. You can usually buy hanging devices relatively cheaply at most hardware stores, but if you aren’t looking for anything fancy you can pound some long nails into a long piece of strong wood and hang that up. I keep all of my pots, strainers, and most of my utensils on the wall, freeing up tons of valuable cabinet and shelf space. The other thing that’s great about hanging pots and pans is that you won’t fill up your dish drainer; you can simply hang them up to dry.

Falafel
    MAKES 16 PATTIES
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    If you attended Jewish day camp you might have grown up thinking that Judaism was a series of humiliating acts wherein you had to don curious things on your head and wear brightly colored face paint and then dance around in the hot sun while lethargic adults looked on. Case in point: One summer, my fellow campers and I dressed up as falafel and sang a song to the tune of the Kinks “Come Dancing.” It went “Fa-la-fel ... I like to eat it on a Saturday; fa-la-fel . . . the taste is natural.” Somehow I came out of all this still loving falafel to pieces. If you don’t have a food processor, you can still make it by chopping the onions, garlic, and parsley as finely as possible and then mashing everything really, really, really well.
    2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained, or canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
    Â¼ cup whole wheat bread crumbs
    2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    1 medium-size onion, chopped
    2 cloves garlic, chopped
    Â½ teaspoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon ground cumin
    1 teaspoon ground coriander
    Â¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
    Â¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
    Â½ teaspoon salt
    A few dashes fresh black pepper
    Vegetable oil for frying
    4 large pita breads, sliced in half to make 2 pockets apiece
    Lettuce
    Chopped tomato, red onion, and cucumber
    Tahini Dressing (page 121)
    In a food processor