Moroccan Lentil Stew & Bisquick Apple Cake

I love lentils, especially in a warm and comforting stew like this Moroccan lentil stew with eggplant and a variety of vegetables flavored with spices: cumin, curry powder, ras el hanout and cayenne.

I got this recipe from sexy Vegan Mama.

Red lentil soup and a vintage sandwich spread recipe.

Red lentil soup recipe from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook. I added potatoes and spinach. So good and easy to prepare.

I've been reading books in bed all morning, one of which is Mary Meade's Magic Recipes for the Osterizer (blender) and I found this sandwich spread recipe made with apricots, walnuts and mayo. What the heck? I had all the ingredients so I gave it a go. I added more vegan mayo and nuts to balance out the amount of fruit. To the sandwich, I added a slice of Tofutti cheese. This was surprisingly good. The crunch of the walnuts are nice against the tangy mayo and slightly sweet apricots. I made sure to use dried apricots without any sugar added.

This book was published in 1952 and it has fantastic recipes in it. The cocktails section is great.

Dainty sandwiches! haha!

Heads up! Rite Aid pharmacy carries these vegan british crisps. Yummy!

Masoor Dal & Vanilla Tapioca Pudding!

I made a pot of red lentil dal today from The Flavors of India cookbook. I love all the wonderful flavors in this: cumin, mustard seed, ginger, turmeric and chile. I had a bowl for lunch with a hot buttered flour tortilla.

And check this out! I made tapioca pudding! I used to love tapioca pudding so much as a little girl and my mom used to buy those little packs of Swiss Miss puddings. Then I upgraded to Kozy Shack haha. I thought I would never taste tapioca again after going vegan but I found a super simple recipe here. I can't believe how easy it is. I served it with a generous topping of soy whip! It's so creamy and just like I remember.

Moroccan Stew.

Today's lunch (and dinner too): Moroccan red lentil stew, couscous, baba ganoush, bread and salad.

Lentils and Rice: Quintessential Vegetarian Food.

I think a lot of us veggies enjoy eating this basic meal of lentils and rice. They offer a low-fat, nutritious source of complete protein, fiber, iron and other minerals. Switch out the white rice for brown rice and you've got whole grains in your favor. It's very easy to prepare and is helpful when you're short on time and uses ingredients from your pantry. I made this today out of sheer laziness. While the red lentil dal was cooking, I threw some rice, a handful of frozen peas and a pinch of turmeric in the rice cooker. In about 20-30 mintues, lunch was ready. I added some tomato salsa (which works great as a chutney) on top.

Red Lentil Dal

1 cup red lentils
5 cups water
2 TB olive oil
1 TB minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno chile pepper, minced
1/2 tsp each: cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, garam masala
salt to taste
1 TB tomato paste

2 TB olive oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
a pinch of asafetida
Chopped cilantro
Lemon wedge

Heat 2 TB of olive oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. Saute ginger, garlic and chile for a few minutes. Add water and lentils. Bring to a boil. Add spices, salt and tomato paste. Lower heat to medium low and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.
In a small pot or pan, heat the other 2 TB of oil. When hot, add mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, asafetida. When mustard seeds begin to pop, pour the whole mixture into the pot of lentils. Cover lentils with a lid immediately and turn off heat. Let sit for five minutes. Stir in cilantro, lemon juice and season with more salt if needed.

Curried Butternut Squash, Red Lentil and Noodle Soup

I woke early at about 7:30 in the mood to cook something but not really sure what. I dithered about in the kitchen for a few hours, leafing through cookbooks while having my tea and toast. I noticed the butternut squash that had been sitting on my kitchen table for the past week and a half that I decided I was going to use but not sure how. At first I was going to make a raw grated butternut salad but as I was peeling the thing (not fun), my comfort food monster came out and decided to chop it all up and make soup instead. I followed the butternut squash and red lentil soup recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes and added cut vermicelli at the end to up the comfort food factor. The ginger, curry powder and cumin flavors are warming and delicious and the noodles make it extra good.

Ok, bear with me...

I know I haven't posted a lot in the past weeks so I apologize in advance that the photo you are going to see in this post is of the poorest quality. I just had my house fumigated you see, and after moving back in tonight after work, I was desperate for a warm and quick meal. I rooted through all my double bagged pantry goods and came up with red lentils, spices, vermicelli noodles, an onion and garlic. This is what I made, which is my take on a middle eastern lentil and noodles soup. Try it, it's so comforting and delicious! I was in such a hurry to eat, I forgot to take a photo of my bowl, so you'll see a pic of the leftovers at the end of this post.

Lentils and Noodles

1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp. cumin (I couldn't find my cumin so I used garam masala, which is an indian mixed spice blend of cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Hey at least there's cumin in it!)
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1/3 cup vermicelli noodles, broken up
1/2 onion, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste.

Place lentils, water and garlic in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer until lentils get soft. In the meantime, saute the chopped onion in olive oil until nice and browned. Add the cooked onions, tomatoes, spices and noodles to the lentils and simmer on medium low until noodles are done. Stir as you go so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Season with salt and pepper. The soup will thicken up as it sits. You can eat this on it's own or on top of rice with a squeeze of lemon.


Picture of my leftovers that had been sitting for a while.

Persian Red Lentil Dip

Made a yummy dip today with red lentils. The recipe calls for sweet potato but I didn't have any so I used a regular potato and added some cumin and lemon for a different flavor profile. It is really yummy. Recipe here. Oh, and before you ask, I have no idea if this recipe is really persian!

Indian in less than an hour.

Check out this lovely plate of food. My co-worker Cynthia and I were talking indian food at work and we got so hungry and inspired that we decided to go to my house and make what you see here. I made the red lentil dal and mint chutney and Cynthia made the saag aloo (spinach and potatoes). It all turned out delicious and was so quick to make. It was really just throwing everything in a pot and letting it simmer. In case you're wondering, the mint chutney was made with Tofutti sour cream instead of yogurt.

Soeur Leila's Red Lentil Stew

This may not look like much but believe me when I say that is the most flavorful combination of comfort food ingredients: red lentils, noodles and crispy pita croutons. I've made this once before about a month ago and I was so impressed with it. Today was the perfect day for it as we just got a bit of rain outside. I got the recipe from a food memoir called "Memories of a Lost Egypt". You can find the recipe posted online here. Substitute water for the chicken broth and use a couple of quartered fresh tomatoes instead of canned. And do make the pita croutons. They are the perfect crispy accompaniment to the thick, luscious velvety stew. A squeeze of lemon prior to serving is nice as well.

Red Lentil Stew adapted from "Memories of a Lost Egypt"

2 cups red Lentils
4 cups water plus 2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, quartered
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into 1" pieces
2 small zucchini, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon cumin
1/3 pound vermicelli or angel hair, broken. I used fine cut vermicelli like this.
Salt And Pepper to taste
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Croutons:
Olive oil
Pita bread cut into pieces

Method:
Combine lentils, water, 2 TB olive oil, onion, tomatoes, carrot, and zucchini in a soup pot. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until lentils are very soft. Puree entire mixture in a blender or food processor. Return to pot and add cumin, pasta, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. In another pan, saute chopped onion in 2 TB. olive oil until well browned. Add to stew along with the parsley and simmer for 5 minutes.
To make the croutons, heat some olive oil in a pan and fry pita bread pieces until browned. Drain on paper towel.

Cake Balls! and Red Lentil Stew

What?!?! Yes sir, I made cake balls! I've seen these things before at the post punk kitchen forum and I knew that they were going to be made one day. When I made Marc's birthday cake a few weekends ago, I had messed up the first cake. It came out overdone on the outside and fell apart when I plopped it out of the cake tin. It was still perfectly good though so I kept the pieces in the freezer for cake balls later.


I felt like a candy maker rolling smooshy cake mixture into little balls and then dipping them in chocolate. I added colorful sprinkles to entice you even more.


These little guys are dense and very rich. I had one so far and I was totally satisfied! I will be sharing them with my co-workers tomorrow. If you want to make these, follow this recipe as a guideline. It says to use a whole can of cake frosting but that was a little scary for me. I used almost half a can which worked just fine.


This was my lunch today. I've been wanting middle eastern food and was flipping through a food memoir I read a while back called "Memories of a Lost Egypt" by Colette Rossant. There is a recipe for Soeur Leila's Red Lentil Stew which sounded real good. Pureed red lentils and vegetables simmered with vermicelli noodles and sauteed onions. I added spinach for some color. I served it with olive oil-fried pieces of pita bread. The stew was thick and velvety and was so good with the fried bread and a squeeze of lemon. This one's a keeper! Recipe here. (Replace the chicken broth for veggie broth or water. Also instead of a can of tomatoes, just use 1 tomato, quartered.)

Kichadi Soup, Carrot Raisin Salad, Ginger-Date Cake

Enjoying my new Ayurvedic cookbook. In front is kichadi soup. Kichadi is a simple stew of basmati rice and split mung dal which is the core of Ayurvedic nutritional healing. This is a watered down version, cooked very plainly to make a soup. I didn't have split mung dal so I used masoor dal (red lentils) which turned yellow in the soup. The only ingredients in this soup are sunflower oil, basmati rice, lentils, cumin and mustard seeds, sea salt, ground cumin and water. I added minced ginger root, green hot chili peppers and coriander leaves (cilantro) as a topping. The dish in back is also from the cookbook and it's a simple carrot salad with raisins.


I was dying for sweet but didn't want to indulge in something sugar laden so I made this vegan date cake and used extra dates and also date syrup to sweeten. I added lots of grated fresh ginger root for some spiciness. It turned out so moist, almost like gingerbread (without the molasses) and lightly sweet. It's perfect with tea.
Recipe is here. In place of sugar, I added about 9 more dates and used about 1/2 cup date syrup and maybe a tablespoon of grated ginger. I also added a touch more spelt flour to make up for the extra liquid. I'm sure if you up the date syrup, it would be sweeter. Oh, and sub soymilk for the milk of course!

Leftovers Burrito and Indian Dinner.

Lunch. Yesterday's leftover refried beans, tvp meat and rice got shoved into a tortilla and was then covered in red chile sauce. Absolutely yum.


For dinner I wanted something simple yet tasty and easy to prepare. The masoor dal with beautiful flavors of ginger and light spices simmered away while I sauteed the kale that was flavored with garlic, onion, cumin, cayenne and lemon juice. Both recipes are from "Flavors of India" cookbook.


Closeup of masoor dal.


Closeup of kale bhaji.

Lentil Dal and Alu Matar

Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. Today I made two dishes: Red Lentil Dal (adapted ppk recipe) and Alu Matar from "Flavors of India" cookbook.

Healthy Stuff.

Fresh fruit bowl for breakfast followed by a bowl of oatmeal (not pictured).


A big tupperware of red lentil soup. I know you're probably sick of seeing this soup. I make it all the time. I'm like a one trick pony when it comes to soup! I did make it a little different this time by adding chopped zucchini. I will be eating this every night this week. It's so good. Recipe is from Olive Trees & Honey.

Ethiopian Berbere Stew

I am very new to Ethiopian food (my first taste being the glorious 'Rahel' in L.A.) and I would love to explore more of the cuisine, both at restaurants as well as at home. I found this spicy lentil stew recipe at Susan V's fat free vegan blog. You'll find it here. I added green beans to my stew for color as well as add a vegetable to my meals. I plan to eat this all week with either rice or bread. It's delicious, spicy, earthy and full of flavor.

Red Lentil Dhal and Peas Pillau

I was going to make a plain soup today for dinner but I wanted to use up the vast quantities of basmati rice and red lentils I have in my pantry. So what better meal to treat myself to than an indian feast? I adore the red lentil dahl recipe posted here. I was lazy and didn't grind up and toast the spices like the recipe says but I had a little taste and it was amazing, especially with a squeeze of lemon juice. To go with the dahl, I made the 'Peas Pillau' recipe from a lovely little vegetarian book called 'Flavors of India'. This rice is beautifully fragrant with the aromas of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove. I took these pictures in the afternoon to get the best light but I won't be eating until tonight after I get home from work. Can't wait!


Peas Pillau in all it's glory.