Chickpea cakes with cucumber-yogurt sauce

What's Cookin'

We finally are cooking a vegetarian meal this week. I am glad someone finally picked one because a healthy diet consists of eating meat sparingly. Our readers need to know we are on board with a well-balanced diet. With this said I was still a little skeptical of the recipe choice, not because it didn't have meat but the combination of foods are unfamiliar to me. While in college my good friend would make me a cucumber soup which was really tasty so that was a good sign.

 Looks good and was good! In the process of cooking these cakes I became more and more excited to eat them. The spices and flavor smelled divine. Garam masala a new spice...smelled like nutmeg, chili powder, and more spices (I am sure) was very good. I did leave one spice out, which was cilantro. I'm just not a huge fan, that 's all. The chickpea cakes were very delicious and filling. Serve with a side salad.

The recipe called for white bread. I couldn't bring myself to buy a whole loaf of white so whole wheat it was. My thought is that the white bread would of made them more moist because mine were on the dry side. The cucumber-yogurt sauce made up for any dryness and to my surprise was very good!

I am thrilled to say that there were many things learned while preparing and cooking this meal.

1. Scallions are green onions
2. Shallot similar to an onion which has a sweeter taste like an apple mixed with an onion.
3. A new and yummy spice called garam masala which is a blend of a number of spices used a lot in Indian and Pakistan cooking.

For my health tips this week lets see what health benefits we can gain from the three above foods.

1. Scallions-a good anti-oxidant
2. Shallot-soft on your digestive system and breath
3. Garam Masala-breaks down to each spice but can be powerful antioxidants and antibacterials.

Thanks, Amanda for hosting this week. There were no left overs. I truly enjoyed the learning experience and the recipe. I will most likely make it again. Click HERE for the recipe.