Moroccan Lentil Stew and Homemade Harissa

I love to throw stuff in a pot and call it dinner. This is what happened tonight after a long day at work. I've made this before using this recipe, but this time I took some liberties and used red instead of brown lentils, and added other veggies like corn and zucchini. On top there is a blob of North African style chili paste, also known as "harissa". I love to eat this stew on top of rice. Lentils and rice. You can't go wrong.


I must have been anticipating a Moroccan/North African flavor because I made the harissa over the weekend. I used New Mexico and Japones dried chilies, LOTS of garlic, mint, coriander, caraway, cumin and olive oil. It is SO FREAKING GOOD.

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.

A Moroccan Lunch.

I made two beautiful Moroccan salads for myself today to enjoy on my backyard patio. The one in front is called 'zalouk' which is a cooked eggplant salad with onions, garlic, tomatoes and green peppers flavored with cumin and paprika. The one in back is called 'khizou harra' which is a cooked carrot salad that is flavored with cumin, paprika, lemon, olive oil and cilantro. The zalouk recipe is from 'Olive Trees and Honey' cookbook (one of my absolute favorites!).


Such vibrant color! This carrot salad recipe is from a book called "Food of Morocco".


Served with warm whole wheat bread and a little bit of cauliflower bean dip that I made last week. Gotta have some protein!

Moroccan Lentil Stew (again!)

I made Moroccan Lentil Stew again and served it on top of rice for a change. It is so comforting and so good! I added a tsp. or so of ras el hanout to make it more Moroccan, haha! That's a blob of fiery homemade harissa on top. I can't wait to have leftovers tomorrow! Recipe here.

I'm going to repost this recipe here in case you have trouble with the link. Recipe taken from americanheart.org

Moroccan Lentil Stew
Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped Spanish or other mild onion
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
28-ounce can no-salt-added crushed tomatoes, undrained
8 ounces red potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup lentils, sorted for stones or shriveled lentils and rinsed
1 medium carrot, chopped
Low-sodium vegetable broth or water (as needed)
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 cup fresh parsley, snipped or chopped
Cooking Instructions

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Pour the oil into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom. Cook the onion for 3 to 4 minutes, or until translucent, stirring frequently.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Stir in the cumin, curry powder, and cayenne; cook for 30 seconds to release flavor. Stir in the tomatoes, potatoes, broth, lentils, and carrots. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the lentils are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more broth or water if needed to keep from sticking. Stir in the peas; simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley.

Cook's Tip
If lentils have been stored for an extended time, they may take up to 1 hour of cooking time to become tender.

Nutrition Analysis (per serving)
255Calories
3.0 gTotal Fat
0.5 gSaturated Fat
0.0 gTrans Fat
0.5 gPolyunsaturated Fat
2.0 gMonounsaturated Fat
0 mgCholesterol
88 mgSodium
46 gCarbohydrates
12 gFiber
12 gSugar
13 gProtein
Dietary Exchanges
2 starch, 3 vegetable, 1 very lean meat

Homemade Harissa

Happy Mother's Day! My mom took a shift at work today so she won't be off untill dinnertime when we will order her a pizza. Her request! She's not a fussy lady, she likes everything simple. Pizza is her favorite treat and that's what she'll have. Since I didn't have to cook for her or the family today, I had time to experiment in the kitchen. I was flipping through "The Essential Mediterranean Cookbook" today and came across a harissa recipe. Harissa is a North African chili paste that is fiery hot and flavored with things like cumin, coriander, caraway and mint. I had all the ingredients so I decided to make a jar for the fridge.


Here are all the ingredients: olive oil, red chilies which had been soaking in hot water for an hour, garlic and spices: mint, coriander, caraway and cumin. All of this gets thrown in a food processor.


I guess it depends on what kind of chilies you use to determine what the color will be. Mine was a bright orangey red and I used de arbol chilies.


I filled a little jar which had been washed in hot soapy water and dried in an oven for 20 minutes. It's kind of cool that I made my own. It cost me pennies and it'll last for about 6 months. Now I have this spicy condiment to use with dishes like couscous, soups, Moroccan stews, bean salads and pastas. Here's a good pasta recipe that uses harissa.

Rockin' Moroccan.

Zeilouk d'Aubergine. (Moroccan eggplant relish). I think I may have overdid it on the tomato paste because it's a lot redder than I think it's supposed to look. Looks aside, this was wonderful. A tangy relish of cooked eggplant, green bell pepper, onions and tomatoes. Recipe from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook.


Delicious meze platter: eggplant relish, baba ganouj (store bought), lavash bread and assorted olives.


Moroccan vegetable stew with couscous and onion-cinnamon raisin topping. Recipe also from Olive Trees and Honey cookbook.

Using up what's in your kitchen!

I had this plan to make pizzas this weekend with some vegan mozzarella that I bought but I didn't have any of the other ingredients that I needed like pizza dough and the right veggies for toppings (I was in the mood for red onions, green peppers, olives and pineapple). I am trying to save money by not going to the market every other day for stuff so I opened up my fridge and pantry and perused my stock. I had quinoa. I had black beans. I had canned tomatoes. I had fresh kale. I had fresh mushrooms. I had flour tortillas. "Burritos!" I said.

Pantry staples used:
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
tomato sauce
quinoa
flour tortillas

Other vegetables/fruits/misc. ingredients etc:
kale
onion
garlic
mushrooms
vegan mozzarella
vegenaise
lemon

Ingredients I had to purchase: none

So here they are, wet burritos (aka "enchilada style" burritos) with a delicious quinoa, black bean and kale filling, topped with tomato sauce, a bit of the vegan mozzarella and drizzled with lemon spiked vegenaise. I based the recipe off of the burrito recipe I posted on my blog several months ago. Find it here.


Looks like enchiladas and they smelled like pizza!


Insides.


I got this cookbook recently and it looks really good. There are a variety of vegetarian recipes from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria that I can't wait to try.


I made a Tunisian Boisson aux Fraises, a refreshing strawberry drink flavored with lemon, orange flower water and sugar.

Moroccan Tagine of Chickpeas

I got this recipe from a cookbook I just bought called 'Food of Morocco'. It has mostly meat recipes but a few were vegetarian or vegan. The Tagine of Chickpeas recipe was completely vegan to my delight. This stew is beautifully flavored with a medley of spices: paprika, turmeric, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and harissa (a North African red chili paste) and is bathed in a rich tomato sauce. I didn't feel like couscous tonight and I don't know where to get Moroccan bread, so I enjoyed it with a loaf of Iranian Barbari bread (wheat flour, water, yeast, salt) that I picked up from Payless Produce on the way home from work today.

Moroccan Carrot-Orange Salad

My cousin Oraphan (of Easy Veggie blog) came to my dad's b-day party on Saturday and made this beautiful salad. I loved it so much. Hers was flavored with orange, lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and pine nuts! I re-created it this morning and didn't remember the exact proportions of ingredients but I was able to add little by little until it tasted just right. The bright citrus notes of the lemon and orange contrasted beautifully with the sweet carrot and spicy cinnamon. I added agave syrup to mine instead of sugar and toasted almonds instead of pine nuts. This salad is very refreshing and perfect for a mild spring day like today.

Edited to add recipe.

This is approximately what I did to make this salad:

3-4 carrots, grated
1 orange, peel and pith removed, cut into chunks
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 TB olive oil
1 TB agave syrup (you may use less to cut down on sweetness)
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Mix all ingredients together and chill.

Moroccan Pumpkin Soup (Shorabit Yatkeen)

After barreling through the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers (sniff sniff...bye bye mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy!), I wanted to make something low key and easy yet kinda sorta staying with a fall theme. This beautiful yellow-orange pumpkin soup was in order. It's from one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks "Olive Trees and Honey". A few of the recipes in the book uses eggs and dairy and I was happy that this recipe was completely animal free. I checked online and found it posted here in case you want to try it.



It's a fairly thick and hearty, warm comforting soup with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg which melds well with the sweetness of the pumpkin (I used butternut squash). I added yellow split peas instead of chickpeas because I realized mid recipe that I ran out of chickpeas which is a far superior bean in my opinion. But the split peas are very nice too. I also added a bit of cumin which is not called for in the recipe because I wanted to add some earthiness to it. It was a good call. A bowl of this and a warm pita was a perfect dinner for me.