Lentils: Take 2

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Melissa

Friends, I am in a serious funk. This whole late spring thing combined with a rough month at work is taking its toll. I generally try to stay positive, but my patience is thinning.

Meh.

One of the things that often cheers me up when I’m a little blue is cooking or baking, so it’s an easy go-to solution for me. As cheesy as it may sound, I like the certainty of knowing that if I mix certain ingredients together in a certain way, they’re going to make cookies. Or bread. Or soup. I guess it’s comforting in a way.

Over the weekend, I figured I’d cheer myself up by making some soup. Know why? Soup requires chopping. Carrots. Celery. Onions. All the chopping is very therapeutic. Methodical, you know?

For whatever reason, I decided this soup was going to be of the lentil variety, which is somewhat counter-intuitive considering my first attempt at lentils was, well, kind of a disaster. But I really wanted to make them work. I mean, they’re super vegan, you know? Like, something vegans eat? A very vegan thing to eat? Right? Yes? No? No . . . ok.

Anyway.

I know lentils are really good for me. When other people (i.e., the proprietors of restaurants and grocery stores) make lentils, I like them. My experience with the red lentils, though–no bueno. But several people told me green or yellow or brown lentils were better. While I still don’t understand the differences among them, I figured any lentils had to be better than the mushy red ones.

My cousin had sent me a recipe for a lentil soup that sounded good, but I didn’t have all the ingredients. I decided to invent a recipe based on a hybrid of the one she sent along with a few other ideas I’d found online. What I came up with is pretty freaking fantastic, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Green Lentil Soup with Coconut & Spinach

2 cups green lentils, rinsed and sorted
1 cup sliced carrots
3 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 onion, diced
3 cups diced sweet potatoes
1 heaping T. grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced
1 T. tomato paste
1 t. cumin
1 t. coriander
1 t. garam masala
1 t. tumeric
2 t. salt
1 t. fresh black pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
2 cups frozen chopped spinach
1 can coconut milk

Mix everything but spinach and coconut milk in slow cooker. Set to low heat for 4 hours. Stir in spinach and coconut milk and allow to warm for 15 minutes.

I didn’t grow up eating much Middle Eastern-inspired food, so maybe that’s why this soup tasted so unexpectedly good? The flavor profile is really complex. Smoky and spicy and a little sweet from the coconut milk, plus lots of different textures from the lentils, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Just really delicious.

If you’re like me and have a lentil disaster under your belt, I highly recommend you give this soup a try.

Any good lentil recipes out there?

I need to use up the rest of my lentils, and while I could make more soup, I’d love to try something else. Link it up below!

{vegan} Biscuits & Gravy

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Melissa

One of the things I miss most about being vegan is breakfast food. Well, if I’m being technical, I actually miss brunch food. The difference between breakfast and brunch is that during brunch you drink. #duh

If you’re not aware, basically all brunch food contains eggs in some form. I like eggs. A lot. And it’s not like I couldn’t eat them, but I know if I do that I’m not going to feel good. At this point, it’s not really worth it.

Unless it’s vegan–which some places do offer–I’m typically limited to dry toast and hash browns for my brunch offerings. Don’t get me wrong–I love a tasteless piece of cardboard or a pile of greasy potatoes as much as the next guy, but it can be a bit limiting.

Vegan brunch at Busboys and Poets. Scrambled eggs > scrambled tofu (although this is great vegan brunch)

The admittedly less than ideal solution to this is to make brunch at home. Less than ideal because I want to be waited on and have my Bloody Mary mixed by someone else and served to me, but it’ll do on occasion.

Given that this is the solution, I’ve been shocking all my meat-loving friends with how good this vegan biscuits and gravy recipe tastes. Last night, I made BFD (brunch for dinner) for my sister who’s visiting from Michigan, and she kept saying, “This is really good.” Like, over and over again. And given that she did sound somewhat incredulous each time she said, I’m confident she wasn’t just flattering me. I served her 2 biscuits covered in tempeh sausage gravy and there wasn’t a lick left on the plate. This from a girl who ate more than $5 worth of froyo just a couple hours earlier. I was so proud.

{vegan} Tempeh Sausage Gravy

Makes 4 servings

Slightly adapted from this recipe.

8 oz. pkg. tempeh
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
2 T. fresh sage, finely chopped and divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. soy sauce
1T. + 1 t. olive oil
1 15 oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained
~1/2 cup water
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice

Crumble the tempeh into a medium saucepan. Add enough water to the pan just to cover. Heat over medium-high heat for about 12 minutes, simmering until most of the water has cooked off.

While the tempeh simmers, combine basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, 1 T. sage, garlic, soy sauce, and 1 t. olive oil in a small dish. Set aside.

Puree the white beans with the other tablespoon of sage, one tablespoon of olive oil, and salt and pepper (I used 1/2 t. sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper). I used my food processor, but if you don’t have one, a blender should work just fine. Stream in 1/4 cup water, and set aside.

The tempeh should be good to go by now, so drain off any excess water, and add the basil seasoning mix to the pan. Stir to coat, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Pour the white bean mixture into the pan and stir until everything is incorporated, adding about 1/4 cup of water to thin it out a bit. (You could probably add up to half a cup without changing the flavor if it’s too thick for you).

Serve over vegan sweet potato biscuits. Impress your meat-eating friends.

To differentiate BFD from regular breakfast for dinner, we did this:

Booze = brunch. FYI.

Chana Masala with Spinach

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Melissa

First thing’s first: I loved reading all of your comments yesterday! Keep ‘em comin!

Moving on to a special treat today–a recipe! I know it’s been forever, so let’s get to it, shall we?

In Trinidad, street food is really popular–and for good reason. Their street food? It’s really good. One of the most common and well-loved options is roti, a flatbread that’s usually wrapped around curried vegetables or meat burrito style. Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to try traditional Trini roti. But I did get to try their other famous fare, the Double.

A Double is 2 pieces of a pillowy flatbread (like a naan/pita hybrid) wrapped around chana (chickpeas) with your choice of toppings like cucumber, mango, and hot sauce. Sounds a little different, but I assure you, it’s delicous.

Double in trinidad

Me and my Double–love at first bite.

I got mine with chana, mango, and “slight pepper” which means just a touch of their famously fiery pepper sauce. It was, well, incredible. Cumin spiced chickpeas, a little sweet from the mango, doughy flatbread, and a little kick from the pepper sauce. O.M.G. So so good.

Ever since, I’ve been thinking about that Double and wanting another one. While I wasn’t ambitious enough to attempt the full Double recipe (maybe sometime soon!), I did take a stab at making my own chana the other night, and I have to say, it was pretty darn tasty.

Chana Masala with Spinach and Tomatoes
Serves 4

1/2 T. vegetable oil
2 onions, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
1 T. ground coriander
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. tumeric
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garam masala
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 cup water
2-15 oz. cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
salt to taste
juice of one lemon to finish it off
brown rice and/or pita for serving

Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and ginger and sauté until onions soften, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and add in all the spices–coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, paprika, and masala. Cook onions and spices for a minute or so, then add tomatoes, spinach, and water, scraping bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the chickpeas, season with salt, and simmer uncovered about 10 minutes. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the top and serve over brown rice or with pita bread–or both.