LENTILS, CHUTNEY & GREENS

Here is my first foray into the Nepalese food I spoke of last week.  I'm sure I didn't get it exactly right, but it sure is tasty.  I highly recommend venturing into new flavors and spice combinations.  The first thing you'll probably need to do is find the spices.  I recommend going to your local international market and looking in the sections that have spices in bags rather than bottles as it's a much less expensive way to go.

You'll need Fenugreek (methi in Indian markets), coriander seeds, cumin seeds, whole cloves, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg.

In a grinder or spice mill (or mortar and pestal if it's all you have).  Add two tablespoons of coriander seeds, 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon cardamom seeds and 1 tsp whole cloves.  Grind them until you have a powder.  To that powder add 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon turmeric and one teaspoons of ground nutmeg (freshly ground is best as who knows how long the ground has been in your pantry).  This is your spice blend.

LENTILS:

1 cup lentils (I used yellow) rinsed
4 cups Roasted Vegetable Stock
1 onion chopped
1/3 cup freshly chopped garlic
1 tablespoon turmeric
2 tablespoons fresh ginger peeled and chopped
Sea salt to taste

Heat the pan you're going to use for the dish for about a minute.  When it's hot, add the onion and keep it moving around for about a minute while it browns.  When it's brown, add the garlic and when you start to smell the garlic, about 30 seconds, add the RVS Add the ginger and lentils a cook for about 30 minutes after they boil.  Check that the lentils are soft and salt to taste.

TOMATO CHUTNEY:

4 large tomatoes (I cut the core out and roasted them in the oven, but this step is optional)  After roasting I chopped the tomatoes
2 medium onions sliced
1/2 cup freshly chopped garlic (the reason I stress freshly chopped is that 1/2 cup of the already chopped bottled garlic is a whole different ball game, so buy the already peeled and chop your own)
2 tablespoons peeled and chopped ginger
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of your ground spice mix
2-3 cups  RVS
3 Serrano chilies sliced (less if you can't handle the heat)
Sea Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Heat the pan you're going to use for the dish for about a minute.  When it's hot, add the onion and keep them moving around until brown.  When the onions are ready, add the garlic and the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds and saute them for about 30 seconds.   Add the tomatoes and begin to cook the liquids out of them.  As everything cooks together, add 2 cups of the stock, the ground spice mix and the Serrano chilies.  You can use added stock if you need to.  Add the chopped cilantro before serving.

GREENS:

2 bunches of mustard greens (cut the stock of them up into 1 inch pieces and use the rest whole)
5 cups raw spinach
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
1/4 cup RVS
1 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

In a large pre-heated skillet, add the fenugreek seeds.  Keep them moving in the pan so they don't burn.  After about 30 seconds pour in the Stock and begin adding the greens.  Turn the greens so that the seeds will be mixed in evenly.  Keep turning the greens until they begin to wilt, then cover them for about 45 seconds.  Remove the lid and cook out the excess liquid and add salt to taste.

Serve over brown rice.  Put the rice on the plate, add the lentils and some of the juice, top with chutney and serve the greens on the side.

Caramelized Onion Chik'n

I used to make this back in the day with chicken, but you can adapt it to include any protein or just serve it over rice or quinoa.  The trick is getting the onions caramelized   Since I don't use oil when cooking, I am able to achieve the caramelization using flash saute/steam.


Ingredients
1 Maui onion thinly sliced
1 Pint of Crimini Mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, diced
5 cups raw baby spinach
Protein, cubed (either seitan chicken, firm tofu with the water drained, soy protein chicken pieces, or none)
3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
juice of 2 lemons
Cracked black pepper

Method
First, thinly slice the onion (I used Maui onion for this one).  Put the onions in a scalding hot non stick pan.  Also, to the pan, add a pint (one of the smaller containers mushrooms come in) of sliced crimini mushrooms (brown or aka baby portabella mushrooms).  With a non stick pan friendly utensil, keep the onions and mushrooms moving in the pan.  The point is to get them to brown up completely (caramelization).  As they begin to stick to the pan, add water at increments of about 1/4 cup at the time until they are a deep brown.  At this point add add 4 cloves of diced or minced garlic.  Usually didn't add spinach to this, but it's a nice addition and gets lots of greens in the dish.  Add the spinach and more water.  Cover the pan until the spinach wilts and then uncover it to allow the liquids to evaporate.  Add the soy sauce, pepper and lemon juice.  Serve over brown rice, black rice or quinoa.

Nothing for dinner

Quinoa-Spinach Dinner

Ever think "I've got nothing in the fridge to make for dinner"? You have to eat and don't feel like going out or to the grocery store. I went through the fridge and I had some spinach and salsa. In the cupboards lots of dried rice, pasta, couscous and quinoa. I also had the Textured Soy Protein (TSP) pieces that I talked about in previous posts....oh, and some avocados from my tree that just ripened today. This is what how I made it.

3 cups of water
1/2 cup TSP chunks
1 cup quinoa
3 cups spinach
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 avocado diced
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1 Tbl Braggs Amino
Fresh Ground Pepper to taste (or a teaspoon)

Boil the water with all of the dried herbs and spices. Add the TSP for five minutes and remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl and add some of the liquid from the pot. You should keep about 2 cups in the pot.

Put the quinoa in the pot, cover and cook for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, remove the lid and add the spinach. There should be enough water left to cook the spinach. Store it into the quinoa and cook for another two minutes covered.

Slice the TSP into strips When the quinoa/spinach are done, put it in a bowl and add the TSP, salsa, avocado and Braggs Amino. That's it. 15 minutes start to finish, unless you count the "I've got nothing in he fridge to cook time".

Sausage and Mushroom Topping

 Sausage and Mushrooms served over Mashed Potatoes with Lemon Steamed Spinach

This recipe is great as a meal on it's own or to top baked potatoes, use as a pizza topper, put in tacos, burritos or taco salad, enchiladas, pasta sauce...the list goes on.  Can you tell I loved it?

I made this last night and it was really easy.  Here's how:

1 1/2 to 2 cups my Roasted Vegetable Stock or any other you may have on hand
3 Tbl liquid aminos
5 cloves garlic (minced)
1 1/2 cups dry Textured Soy Protein (TSP)
1 1/2 cups dry mushrooms
4 cups boiling water
1 tsp dry thyme
2 Tbl Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (See my vegan Pantry)
1 Tbl Not Beef Bouillon
2 Tbl  Fennel seeds
2 Tbl Crushed Red Pepper flakes
Cracked Black Pepper

Grind the fennel seeds and crushed red pepper flakes until they're almost powdery
In separate bowls add 2 cups boiling water to the Textured Soy Protein and 2 cups boiling water to the
Dry Mushrooms.  Let them soak until they become soft then chop the mushrooms up and strain both.
In a non-stick skillet add all of the liquid and then all of the dry ingredients except the TSP and Chopped Mushrooms.  Once the liquids come to a boil, add the TSP and Mushrooms.  Continue cooking until the liquids are almost gone.  The Spinach is just Steamed or quickly boiled fresh baby spinach (about 3 cups) served with fresh lemon.  You're done.

TUESDAY LEFTOVER BOWL

There were  a lot of leftovers this week from multiple dinner parties, vegan of course, last week.

I had a really big bag of fresh baby spinach, mashed potatoes, fresh dill, tomatoes, quinoa, and carrots for leftovers. So the challenge was to come up with something for dinner using the leftovers and things I had in my pantry. I added in some frozen tofu that I thawed and cut into one inch pieces, a rinsed can of chickpeas, braggs amino, garam masala Indian spice, no chicken chicken stock, red bell pepper, arrowroot and water slurry (for thickener). Added everything together and served over the quinoa.