Hear me out. I'm not getting paid to endorse this book, but I cannot stop telling you how awesome Pretty Delicious is by Candice Kumai. I will not rest till I try every recipe in this book. So far I have made the pumpkin pie pancakes with apple butter, pearl barley with edamame, pumpkin cake cookies, crab ravioli, almond cinnamon buns, and turkey yakitori. The turkey yakitori landed me 2nd place in an office healthy cooking contest (it lost to gnocchi which is definitely not as healthy).
Hence, when Mike wanted to cook dinner this past Mother's Day I handed him Pretty Delicious as reference material. His mom is vegan so he has a difficult time finding meals the whole family will enjoy. He pointed to these Beautiful Black Bean and Banana Empanadas. My nose crinkled. Beans and bananas?
Alas, on the drive down, we forgot the bag of groceries. Figures >.< I didn't drop the empanada idea though. Mike resisted- only picked it for his mom (he's so sweet). I whipped up a batch since we had all the ingredients at home anyways.
Of course... they were freaking amazing.
If you like plantains, you will like this recipe. The warmed banana releases sweet juices that coat the veggies which have a touch of heat. It's not overpowering and is so much more satisfying than dumping sugar on top. We used store bought pizza dough so the most labor intensive part was rolling out the dough and forming the empanadas. The filling itself is very quick and simple! It's unique because of the use zuchinni mixed in with your standard Latin fare. Each ingredient is well paired. We ate them for breakfast and as a snack but they could easily be a meal.
Healthy. Delicious. Different.
Need some more convincing? Try some of these free recipes shown in the Pretty Delicious preview on google books!
