Almost Meatless Potluck

Welcome to the Almost Meatless potluck dinner at House Chapin: Spinach and Chickpea Pouch edition! If you don't know what the heck this hullabaloo is all about, read about the project at Tara's blog.

If you've spent any amount of time with Erika or me over the past few months you have assuredly heard of us talk about our new favorite cookbook: Almost Meatless. Of course, we're a bit biased as our friend Tara is one of the co-authors. We might have also tested some of the recipes that made it into the book. That said, we've put quite a culinary dent in this little tome and have yet to run across anything resembling a letdown.

Recently Tara asked us to make a recipe and document the outcome. We had our choice of a couple different recipes. We chose the Spinach and Chickpea Pouches because it was something we wouldn't typically make. I've not used filo dough very often. It's one of those "ingredients" that I don't put to much thought toward, but whenever I use it I'm pleased with the outcome. It makes the finished product look like you've put a lot more time into it than you actually did.

This recipe serves 6 and uses only 8 ounces of ground beef. The filling also contains spinach, garlic, fresh oregano, roasted red bell pepper, chickpeas and feta. It calls for a 1/4t of dried chile flakes, but that ingredient was vetoed by my heat-intolerant assistant. We roasted a fresh red pepper about an hour prior to beginning this dish - I cannot recommend this enough. A fresh roasted pepper is a few worlds better than the jarred stuff. It's like comparing fresh herbs to dried. There's just no comparison. I highly suggest that if you choose to make this that you take the extra 5 minutes to make the tzatziki - so easy and so good!

Making this took about 30 minutes of actual prep time including roasting the pepper. It's a complete dinner, but is also good served with a simple green salad. Anyway, here's the finished product:

Reprinted with permission from Ten Speed Press and the authors.