Jay Patruno, Junior Dietetics Student, SAR ’18

Fun Fact: “Dark energy” is what causes our universe to expand. It can’t be measured, but astronomers know it exists from comparing actual supernova remnant particle distance to predicted distances… Overwhelmed or confused? Don’t worry because I needed to ask a ba-zillion questions to wrap my head around it. The presentation about Galaxy Clusters given by Emmet Golden-Marx from BU’s Department of Astronomy was enlightening. I’m thankful people like him are working in this field of science because I could never do it myself.

Our roasted cauliflower and chickpea taco recipe was like a supernova in our mouths; explosive homogeny of flavors. The meal is composed of three parts; the filling, garnish, and the crema; all three of these can be varied to please diverse palates.

Some tips:

1. If you’re vegan, don’t use Greek yogurt to create the cream topping. Instead use the avocado slices to make guacamole. This will still achieve the “cooling” contrast to the spice of the filling and the heat of the jalapenos.
2. If you’re a meat lover you can cut up you own chicken or use ground turkey (remember your lean meat options!) and toss that with the cauliflower and chickpeas or replace one of the two. Just make sure to adjust the cooking time so that the chicken cooks all the way through to a safe internal temperature (165°F).
3. If you don’t like spicy food, you can replace the jalapeno peppers with yellow or red bell peppers that are sweet rather than spicy.
4. Aside from chickpeas we also used black beans and kidney beans. It’s important to know how to compliment plant protein sources in a meat-lacking diet. So any bean would work well when paired with the corn tortilla. Just get what’s on sale.

Reminder! On the 26^th floor of StuVi 2 on November 8^th Karen Jacobs and the RHA will be hosting an Election Day event where we watch there results of this long election season. There will be free KIND bar samples, snacks, and lots of company!