Daniel’s Veggie Platter
Roasted veggie skewers and falafel on a bed of garlic hummus drizzled with avocado dressing.
From Daniel 1
Daniel’s veggie platter - Roasted veggie skewers and falafel on a bed of garlic hummus drizzled with avocado dressing.
Chosen People Choose God
A very few people in the Bible were given a clean slate. Daniel is one among them. Abraham was known for his faith, Job was known for his perseverance, Noah is known for his obedience and David is known for his devotion. You know what Daniel is known for? His righteousness and wisdom. That is quite something, isn't it?
As I have mentioned before in my previous blogs, the meaning of one's name interests me. I often find that the meaning of our name could sing a theme of our life. I get this thought from the Bible, of course, as the names in the Bible often have a symbolic/prophetic meaning to it. On a side note: this is why we need to prayerfully name our kids. The meaning could very well be the song of their existence.
The name 'Daniel' means 'God is my Judge'. And so was He all of Daniel's life. The theme of Daniel's life is God's sovereignty over his life and the world around him. Whenever he had to choose between God and the world, he always chose God. Today, let's look into this chapter of Daniel's life.
What comes to mind when you think of prophet Daniel? Lion’s Den? Visions? His friends Shadrach,Meshach and Abed-nego? Today our focus isn’t any of that. Our story comes strictly from the first chapter of Daniel.
The book of Daniel is written by Daniel himself. And this is how he starts it,
Daniel 1:1
‘In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.’
I think he started this way because his intentions were not to record his life’s story. He wanted to record the work of the Lord through his life. See, the hero of any story in the Bible is the Lord.The Bible is a tool for us to learn about God and to learn how He uses normal, sinful, mortal, ordinary people like us to do extraordinary things to build His kingdom. Every time we read the Bible, we are reminded that all of creation is one big continuum. Sorry I digress. Let's get back to the point.
The Lord delivered the king of Judah into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. After besieging Judah, he carried off some of the articles from the tabernacle and kept them in his god’s temple treasury. He didn't just take the material belongings from Judah, he also took people into exile from there. He ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and nobility. Young men without any physical defect, who are handsome, bright, sharp, smart, well read and fit to serve in the king's palace. Daniel was one among them. Along with Daniel was Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.
Right after they were brought to Babylon, they were given new names. Why? Because they were given a new identity with an intent to shift their allegiance.
Look below and see the contrast of their name meanings.
Daniel (God is my Judge) —- into— Belteshazzar (May Bel protect his life)
Hananiah (God is gracious) —- into —- Shadrach (command of Aku)
Mishel (who is like God?) —-into —- Meshach (who is like Aku?)
Azaria(helped by God) —- into —- Abednego (servant of Nebo)
Imagine, you were forced to change your name from ‘Glory of God’ into ‘Hell’s pet’!!!
These young men were brought to Babylon, and were taught their language and literature. They were given new Babylonian names, assigned food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
By doing this, they would be given the best Babylonian experience, and thus carry the Babylonian culture and will be fit to serve the Babylonian king and their gods. That is the plan. On paper, the plan sounds pretty clever, if you ask me. Their loyalty and efficiency was not demanded by force, it was extracted with their will.
But there is a flaw in this plan. He thought he was bringing in bright resources to his kingdom but he was actually bringing in God’s people into the mix. People who are rooted in God’s word, people who have a purpose in building the kingdom of God… chosen people. Some of the people the Babylonians chose were actual chosen people. The irony! ’
The young men were given royal food and wine but it says in vs. 8, Daniel (now Belteshazzar) requested not to eat them. Why? It says, Daniel didn't want to defile himself by eating the royal food. Meaning, they were either served unclean foods (unclean according to the Mosaic food laws) or their foods were offered to the Babylonian gods or both. I am guessing both.
Daniel finds favor in the eyes of the official but the official was scared for his life to carry out this request. He said, ‘I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. If he sees you looking worse than the other young men your age he will kill me.’
Daniel then said, ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare us with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’ So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
What Daniel was rejecting was not just food and drink. He was rejecting their culture. Think about this for a minute, Daniel was a teenager. He had the conviction and strength to reject something which I am sure was tempting. He had all the opportunity to be on trend, but he would rather be faithful to God and protect his body, which is the temple of God, than be trendy/one among them.
What would it look like in our culture? Lets see,
1. Is following God a trend now or following a celebrity?
2. Is it trendy to be pure with your body or to exploit it? (with what you see, what you think and what you do)
3. What is more trendy, doing what is right or doing what is convenient?
Daniel and his 3 friends were the only ones to reject the trendy culture while everyone else followed the trend. Because chosen people choose God.
Is it hard to choose GOD in this technology-filled world? ABSOLUTELY.
Would you fail sometimes? MOST CERTAINLY.
But we try and try again. And it is all worth it.
Because we serve a God who is Holy. He is worthy of our every effort when we choose Him. And we were not left desolate. When Jesus died on the cross, He defeated sin. Not just that He sent us the Holy Spirit to be our counselor. So when things get hard to choose between God and the trend, we can ask Him for help and He never fails to help us. We are not left to fend ourselves. We have our savior Jesus Christ who intercedes for us with the Father day in and day out.
Hebrews 4:15, 16 says,
‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’
Daniel was granted permission to eat just vegetables and water instead of royal food and wine. In 10 days these four men looked better than the other trainees. So the official granted them permission to carry on with their vegetable and water diet for the rest of their training time in the court. At the end of their training, the king found that none were equal to these four men and they entered the king's service.
And God gave those four men knowledge and understanding of all kinds or literature and learning. Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds, which would come in very handy - read the following chapters of Daniel to learn more.
Faith the size of a mustard seed can indeed move a mountain. All God is asking is for us to take the first step in faith. Choose God. Because chosen people choose God.
On to our recipes now
As you know by now, it's going to be a vegetarian platter. There are no eggs, meat or cheese in this recipe. But I can assure you, it's delicious and healthy!
Daniel’s veg platter:
Roasted veggie skewers and falafel on a bed of garlic hummus drizzled with avocado dressing.
Suggestion: Try making a naan taco with this recipe.
This calls for four recipes. Let's see it one by one.
Roasted veggie skewers:
Ingredients:
1 cup of Cauliflower florets
1 medium sized yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
1 box of mushrooms
1 yellow zucchini
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of garlic powder
½ tsp of onion powder
½ tsp of pepper
2 Tbsp of butter
2 Tbsp of coconut oil
Wooden skewers
Method:
This is a very easy one. Get all your favourite veggies that will be good for grilling. I happened to use cauliflower, yellow onions, green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and yellow zucchini.
Group the veggies according to the cooking time. (I grouped onion, bell pepper, mushrooms together, cherry tomatoes and zucchini together and cauliflower by itself.)
Season them with salt, garlic power, onion powder and pepper.
Sautee them in 3 groups with butter and coconut oil till you see a good char.
Skewer them. I don't like to skewer uncooked veggies and grill them. Because some veggies will be over cooked and some will be undercooked. By sautéing first and then skewering them, we can ensure everything is perfectly seasoned and cooked.
Falafel:
Ingredients:
2 cups of soaked chickpeas/garbanzo
(buy dried chickpeas and soak them 8 to 10 hours or overnight - boiled beans from the can WILL NOT work for this recipe)
1 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic
½ medium sized onion
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp salt
½ tsp chilli powder or paprika powder
1 combined cup of mint, cilantro and green onions
1 tsp baking soda
Vegetable oil to fry
Method:
In a food chopper, add the soaked raw garbanzo chickpeas and coarsely blend it. It should neither be a puree nor like wet sand. You should be able to make a ball out of it and it should stand the shape.
Take the beans out and then in the same chopper, add the greens, fennel, onion, garlic and chop them all coarsely.
Add them to the beans along with salt, baking soda and paprika.
Mix them all up and keep it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Then make small balls out of it. While making the balls, make sure you squeeze out any water that could be in there. Refrigerate the prepared balls for another 15 minutes
In a shallow pan, add vegetable oil, enough for the balls to immerse at least three fourths of the way. Let it stand for a minute before turning it to the other side.
Fry them until golden brown.
Garlic Hummus:
Ingredients:
1 can of cooked garbanzo chickpeas or 1 ½ cups
3 cloves of garlic
4 Tbsp of olive oil
½ tsp cumin powder
¼ cup of tahini (you can make your own but I find the store bought ones work just the same)
¼ cup of lime juice
¼ tsp of paprika
3 Tbsp of ice cold water or 3 ice cubes
Method:
In a small pan add 2 tbsp of olive oil, once it's heated up, add in the 3 cloves of garlic and switch off the flame. The garlic will get roasted in the oil. Keep the garlic till it gets golden brown.
In a high power blender, add in the tahini and lime juice. Blend it for 30 seconds. Add in 1 ice cube and blend for another 30 seconds or until nice and fluffy.
Add in the roasted garlic, the oil we used for roasting the garlic and cumin powder and blend for another 20 seconds.
Add the drained cooked garbanzo beans, ice cubes and blend it for a good minute, occasionally scraping the sides of the blender. It should get the desired fluffy and smooth consistency.
Once fluffy, transfer it into a bowl. Drizzle in the remaining olive oil and sprinkle some paprika on top. Hummus is ready to serve.
Avocado dressing:
Ingredients:
3 ripe Avocado
2 cloves of garlic
½ cup of chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp lime juice
¼ tsp of salt and pepper
Method: Blend everything together until silky smooth. Store it in the fridge.
Naan:
Find the naan recipe from one of my previous blogs ‘Abigail platter’.
Suggestions: Try making a Naan taco with this recipe. you can also cut the naan in wedges. it calls for a great finger food.
