DDOW Black Lentil Salad

This week from Delivered Dish...

Lentil Salad!



From the website:

Black Beluga Lentil Salad in Sesame Ginger Dressing (V, GF, no added sugar; will contain a little soy) These beautiful organic lentils were another fun special-order from Purcell Mountain Farms (Idaho). I’m hoping they don’t lose their jet black color when cooked.

This was delicious! I really enjoyed the black lentils - the cabbage, celery, and cucumber gave a great texture and the light dressing gave a nice zing to the whole thing. I ate this both warm and cold over greens (spinach & kale). I also added a little chile pepper action because I love spice!

I also got a Thai Coconut vegetable soup, which I will review tomorrow.

Afternoon Snack: Ants on a Log & Carrot Sticks

A snack blast from the past. "Ants on a Log" is a snack from many people's childhood, including mine. It involves filling celery sticks with peanut butter and covering with "ants" or raisins. To this snack I added chopped dates in addition to the classic raisins. I also had some carrot sticks. Just a simple snack, healthy and satisfying.

Chickpea Noodle Stew

My soup/stew of the week: Chickpea Noodle Stew! Another "throw a lot of things in the pot" stew, so again, I apologize for not having a concrete recipe.

Ingredients:
diced onions, carrots & celery for mirepoix
one can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
vegetable stock
olive oil for sauteing the mirepoix
garlic, 2-3 cloves, minced
salt, tt
elbow macaroni noodles (or any noodle at all)
vegetables (I used frozen broccoli and peas)
vegetable stock (1.5c/2c)
water

Instructions
1. Saute the mirepoix on low heat with olive oil and some salt until onions are soft and translucent. (do not brown the onions; looking for soft, maybe yellowish from oil, but not brown) This may take 5-15 minutes. I kind of wanted some texture from the carrots so I started adding other ingredients faster than I might for other soups.

2. add garlic & chickpeas

3. add vegetable stock and water

4. bring to boil, add some noodles. I just tossed in what looked like a good amount. My initial plan for this dish was something more brothy but the amount of noodles I added made it more of a stew than a soup. Still delicious, but next time I might back off the noodles a little more.

5. as noodles are nearing done time, add in some vegetables. I added chopped frozen broccoli and frozen peas. I also added more salt, but I'm a salt fiend.

6. Done! Scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

Hearty Vegetable Soup with Toasted English Muffin

Homemade soup with lots of fresh vegetables, served with a toasted sprouted grain English muffin.

Ingredients:

2-3 garlic cloves, minced
Mirepoix (onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery)
3T olive oil (optional)
frozen veggies
1-2 Potatoes, diced/chopeed

seasonings: poultry seasoning, SALT, pepper, celery salt, oregano

1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, along with 2 of those cans filled with water added to pot


1. Sautee the onion, garlic, carrot, potatoes, and celery and the dry seasonings.
2. Add frozen veg and oil.
3. Add tomatoes with juice, stir, add water.
4. Boil, then bring to simmer.
5. Cook until poatoes are tender.

DONE!

Juicing Experiment #1

Ok, after only having 3 hours of sleep last night, I gleefully slept in until nearly 10am today! wheee!

I sat on the couch drinking water for a bit, pondering what to do with some of the ingredients in my fridge and cupboards. I know! JUICE!

On Christmas of 2006, I received a Jack Lalanne Juicer.

For those of you who don't know all about Jack Lalanne, he's insane. He's about 92 years old now, and swears by juicing everything. He does crazy stunts every ten years on his birthday, like when he was 60 years old, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf for a second time handcuffed, shackled, and towing a 1,000-pound boat.

yeah. The juicer is great. I LOVE it. It's small, sturdy, and clean up is straightforward. I haven't been using it as much as I should, so I decided to experiment a little bit.

What you need:


Hardware:
A Juicer

Software:
200g cucumber (I've got young babies fresh from a friend's garden)
100g celery, segmented to go into juicer easier
8g ginger root, peeled
160g apple, quartered (ok to leave peel, stem, and seeds)

Juice ginger first, then celery and cucumbers. Put apple through last.

Here's what it looks like:


GREEN. So what does it taste like?

Ass. Total and complete ass.

Haha! Quite the setup for a disgusting drink, huh? I need to document it so I know how to change it next time. I like cucumber juice, but this is the first time I've used celery in juicing and it is definitely strong. The ginger is great, but I like eating ginger. Overall, I'd up the cucumber, take back celery, and maybe add more apple.


Ok, ok. That was cruel. How about a tried and true juice recipe?

"Real" Lemonade

What you need:


1 whole lemon, with peel (mine came to about 150g)
3 whole apples

The type/flavor of apples makes a HUGE difference. The whole lemon is very tart, but balances with the apple for a very tasty drink. So, if you like super tart, Granny Smith will achieve that. 3 Red Delicious apples make it much more sweet. 2 Red Delicious and 1 Granny Smith is a nice combination. Pink Lady, McIntosh, whatever, go crazy and experiment!

Slice the "nubs" off the ends of the lemon:

Quarter all the apples (or slice in half, whatever fits in your juicer). Leave teh skin, stem, and seeds.

Put lemon through first, then all the apples. Makes about 2 cups of liquid. Drink and enjoy: