Sequestration Meal #649

 

An interesting bowl of things: A simple romaine and tomato salad with bac'n bits and a creamy Italian dressing, a casserole I made from leftover things (explanation below), and firecracker chickpea meatballs (recipe from Connoisseurus Veg).

The salad is my most low-effort version: Romaine lettuce, chopped tomato, salt, pepper, equal parts light Italian dressing from a bottle and vegan mayo, and bac'n bits. Light Italian is the only bottled salad dressing I ever buy, and it's always to mix with mayo. It's a simple, quick dressing I know I like that doesn't overpower anything.

The casserole had leftover rice, leftover cashew cream sauce, and some vegetables leftover from a work event's veggie tray (cauliflower and broccoli). I added a shredded carrot, an onion, a splash of soy milk, and some non-dairy cheddar and baked it all up. It was delicious.

I didn't put as much hot sauce in the firecracker sauce for these meatballs as the original recipe directed, because comments and common sense suggested that a full half cup of hot sauce would make for a spicy sauce. I probably could have used more, but it was nice with just 1/4 cup, lightly spiced but not overpowering. The meatballs themselves were really easy to make and had a great texture from a mixture of chickpeas, vegetables, and panko bread crumbs. It is still very obviously chickpeas and panko but they were tasty.

Sometime over the summer I became obsessed with collecting meatball recipes to try when I could have my oven on again, so lots of meatballs may be part of a theme this year, like last year's saga of a new pizza every week. It's a wonderfully wide world out there.