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Monday, January 28, 2013

Indian Flatbreads

The rest of the weekend turned out to be pretty productive around here. After breakfast and the gym yesterday, Matt and I tag teamed on house organization. It's been a long time coming, and it felt so good to finally set aside some time to get this place in order. We picked up a bunch of large Tupperware bins to organize all of Riker's baby clothes to put in storage (it was both fun and a little sad to go through all his clothes from the last year, remembering each little outfit and thinking how hard it is to believe that just a year ago he was wearing such tiny little things), and cleaned out and organized all our closets. Matt also had the great idea of installing some new shelves on the laundry room door, since the small cabinets we have in there are starting to really overflow with jars of jam, snacks and spices. Love having a mini pantry in there!


Dinner came together in a flash thanks to some prep work I'd done in the crock pot earlier that day, using some of the Indian spices I bought at Wegmans on Saturday. Speaking of Indian spices, we put together quite an interesting combo for dinner on Saturday night...Indian "pizza." Don't stop reading - I promise it was delicious!


A few weeks ago I picked up a package of naan at ShopRite, and tossed it in the freezer until I could figure out what I wanted to do with it. I love naan (a crispy yet doughy Indian flatbread), but have only ever had it in Indian restaurants as a vessel to scoop up rice and veggies. At home, though, I wanted to use it as the main part of the meal rather than as a carby side thought. I thought Indian "pizzas" would make a great Saturday night meal, and what a seriously good dinner it was.


In the flatbreads:

- Naan
- Cauliflower
- Chic peas
- Chana masala spice blend
- Tandoori spice blend
- Tikka masala (Indian tomato cooking sauce)
- Fat free feta cheese
- Greek yogurt
- Lemon juice

I started by tossing some fresh cauliflower florets and chic peas with a chana masala spice blend, then roasting them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. There are tons of different masala blends, and I honestly don't know the difference between them, so I just picked one that had a lot of different flavors in it. It's spicy and a bit citrusy, with the flavors of cumin and coriander and fenugreek. If you like Indian food, masala is the spice that really makes you feel like you're at an Indian restaurant. The house smelled amazing when I was roasting the veggies, and when they came out of the oven I couldn't keep my hands off them - the cauliflower was a bit crispy and the chic peas a bit crunchy, all covered with that glorious spice. Mmm.


To make the flatbreads, I started with a base of jarred tikka masala I also bought at Wegmans. Then I topped them with the cauliflower and chic peas, and finally about an ounce of fat free feta cheese. The feta was a last minute addition, but it totally worked. It added a bright saltiness to the spicy veggies.


Matt also added some chicken to his, which he'd marinated in a masala yogurt sauce he made by mixing fat free Greek yogurt with tandoori spice mix and lemon juice. Then I baked them on my pizza stone for 10 minutes, until the naan became nice and crispy.


To finish them off, I squeezed a fresh lemon over top, and added a few dollops of the tandoori yogurt sauce. The yogurt sauce was spicy, but also had a cooling factor and was really great on top.

I loved these. Such a unique twist on a Saturday night pizza. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all the leftover masala I have in the fridge!

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