Ginger, Ribz, & Phyllo Pie

A beloved and much missed friend has come to stay with us for the weekend, and a hearty meal of 2 new now favorites on our table was in order.
The start of our meal was a refreshing, clean out the fridge salad of Boston Lettuce, some cucumber and carrot matchsticks (from our sushi the other night...post about that one soon!), tomato, alfalfa sprouts, chickpeas, avocado, and my personal favorite, That Ginger Dressing (from here). I'd always used my mini food processor for this dressing and, while great, it was rather liquid-y and not quite right. Enter the amazing immersion blender and viola! perfect, just like in the Japanese restaurants!

Next came Susan's Ribz, which I'd been dying to try. As it looks like we'll round out our summer still without a grill, I opted to bake them all the way to the end (350 oven, bake for 20 min, baste, bake for ten more, flip, bast, and bake for ten final min). These are AMAZING! we loved them. I just used a store bought sauce but looking forward to trying my hand at a homemade for next time. They are super easy to whip up (I used peanut butter as my nut butter ingredient) and I cannot wait to share them with others. Their texture is per-fec-tion. If only all seitan recipes turned out this spectacular!

Finally, another first time recipe at our house, Dreena's Broccoli Mushroom Walnut Phyllo Pie from Vive. I knew just by the ingredients that this would be great, and it is! The general consensus was that it was good, but that the walnut taste dominated a bit too much. I blame this on not toasting the walnuts enough so they were more raw tasting than the recipe likely requires. I want to make this again, but am interested in trying it with one or two small changes. Can't wait to see how that goes, but for now? I'm just excited to eat up the leftovers!

I wish I'd gotten a good shot of the top of the pie. Her technique for schrunching up the top layer makes for a very pretty presentation. Ah, what the heck...here's my crappy photo of it ;)The phyllo is perfectly flaky and the whole pie has a meaty, almost cheezy flavor. It's filling and tasty. If you haven't tried this one yet, do! Just remember to fully toast your nuts so they don't overpower the flavor.