Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

It's the end of my food week so I clearly needed to get rid of some veggies. This is a meal that dirtied a ton of dishes and was not really quick. But it was fun and delicious.

Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

• .25c lentils
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped/diced

• 1-2TB olive oil
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 3-5c green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

• 3/4c dry rye pasta, cooked

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a pot, cover with water, and boil until lentils become very tender, adding water as necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend 1/2 of it together.

Heat oil in skillet or pot. Add eggplant and cook 5-10 minutes until starts to become tender. Add green beans and cook to desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Mix pasta and eggplant/green beans together. Top with sauce. Sooooo good.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew with Quinoa

Earlier this week I decided to do a quick run by the grocery store after work, and evidently every single other person in the city decided to do the same. I popped in for the essentials- dog food and nut butters, but I also needed some cumin for a pink bean dish I made but didn't blog about because I was lazy. Some how I meandered into the international food aisle and stumbled upon dirt cheap spices, including smoked paprika (something I've never had but always wanted), cumin, chili powder, and curry powder. My last curry efforts have been less than stellar because I'm fairly certain the curry somehow went bad. Really bad.

My old curry was always in a teeny jar and that always spoiled, so of course I bought this giant jar that had no information other than a simple label with the word curry (it was from Mexico). Undaunted, I threw it in my basket and headed to the checkout with the rest of the world.

I wasn't exactly looking for something easy tonight, it just happened that I needed a lot of protein since I had catered lunch at a meeting with no real veggie option. So I went for my go-to lentils.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew
.5 cup lentils
3 cups water
1 medium/large red onion, chopped
2 red potatoes, chopped
15 baby carrots, quartered
salt
3-4 tsp curry powder (adjust to your level)

I brought the water to a boil and added all the ingredients. It looked for 15-20 minutes. With about 5 minutes left I added 2 tsp of the curry. Once it was done, I removed from heat and added the rest. It sat for a few minutes so the flavors could mingle, then I served atop a bed of quinoa.

This dish was one of my favorite things I've cooked in quite some time. The lentils were a bit mushy, which is how I love them, and the curry flavor was perfect. It made 2 portions at about 375 calories each (including the quinoa). Yum!

Lentil Creamed Spinach with Garlic Quinoa

I thought I'd be creative and make a creamed spinach with soy milk and pureed lentils. I envisioned a thick "cream" sauce so I could eat my spinach on a plate next to my quinoa. That's not quite what I got. And I dirtied 3 pans and numerous other utensils in the process. It was better than watching TV.

Lentil Creamed Spinach
2 small/medium red onions, chopped
1TB olive oil
2 TB flour
1 bag spinach, chopped
3 portabellas, cubed
.25 cup lentils
.75 cup soy milk
touch of nutmeg (1/4 tsp)
salt/pepper to taste

Cook lentils in small amount of water until all of it is soaked up and the lentils are mushy. You may need to keep adding water as necessary. In a blender, puree lentils with soy milk and nutmeg.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat olive oil and add onions. Cook on medium-low heat until they start to brown and carmelize, which may take 20 minutes or so. Add flour and stir. Add cream mixture and stir like crazy. I had to add water because it was too thick (and evidently I added too much). Add spinach. Let it cook down for a minute or so, then stir in with the sauce. Add mushrooms and let cook until spinach is bright green but wilted. Remove from heat and let cool, praying the sauce thickens.

On the side I made some garlic quinoa (toast some garlic in olive oil, then add quinoa and cook as usual).

The dish was not amazing, mostly because it wasn't what I pictured when I dreamed it up. It was alright and could have used some more flavor, though I'm not sure what. Maybe some lemon would have helped it? This will not be my last lentil sauce attempt, but I probably won't make this again.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Sauteed Beets on the Side

There was a lot of tension in the kitchen tonight as I took on both stuffed tomatoes and beets. Tonight, unlike the past, I came out a champ!

Sauteed Beets
4 beets, washed thoroughly, peeled, and chopped/diced
1 red onion, chopped/diced
1 TB olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Add oil to frying pan. When hot, add onions and cook 10 minutes until translucent. Add beets and cook 20 minutes until done.

Stuffed Tomatoes
2 beefsteak tomatoes
1/2 c lentils
1/2 c bulgur
1.5 cube veggie bouillon

I cut out the middle of the tomatoes, scooping the pulp into the pot. Then I simply boiled the lentils and bulgur together with the tomato for 15-20 minutes, adding the bouillon towards the end. I use vegan veggie bouillon with sea salt and herbs. It's amazing.

Once it was cooked, I scooped it into the tomato, which I did not cook this time.

I was pleasantly surprised by both. Last time I made the beets, I boiled them and ate them by themselves. It was a little too much. The onions helped tone it down some, and I think the cooking method improved the flavor some. The tomato was perfect as the stuffing was amazing. Delicious!

Lentil Burgers Pt II: Repurposed and Back with a Bite

Since my lentil burger recipe made a million burgers, I had some for dinner last night and lunch and dinner tonight. I figured I'd do something a little different for tonight, so I changed them up a little bit. Not much, but enough.

To the cauliflower cheeze sauce I added a little spicy brown mustard. It was the best move I've ever made. Since I bought bread today, I made an open faced sandwich with my new sauce on the bread side and on the top so my roasted onions seasoned with salt and pepper would stick. Amazing.

Sweet Potato Lentil Burgers

I had an extra sweet potato, and, while I was tempted to make another pot of soup with it and some peanut butter, I opted for something new. I did some Googling and found someone else who's done some Googling and came up with something similar to what I wanted. These red bean, sweet potato, and quinoa patties seemed great, so I took a crack at it and made a few substitutions.

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup uncooked lentils

1 medium (fist-sized) sweet potato

1 medium red onion

4-5 cloves garlic

6-7 baby carrots

1-2 TB chopped fresh basil

1-2 tsp dried basil

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 TB red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 cup uncooked couscous in lieu of breadcrumbs

This used up a lot of pots, so I inititally cooked the lentils until tender but not quite mushy. Then at the same time in different pots, I:

1. Boiled the sweet potato that I'd cut into small chunks
   
2. Cooked the quinoa


3. Cooked the onion in a little olive oil until clear, then added garlic and carrots for another few minutes.

Once done, I added them all to a bowl that could have been slightly bigger, along with the basil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I smushed the sweet potatoes on the side of the bowl and mixed everything together. I added the couscous at the end and gave it a few more stirs. Then I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready for it.

I'm not a big fan of frying, whether it's deep or pan. After shaping into patties, I sprayed some olive oil (my mom gave me a great pump thing so it sprays just a little pure oil) on both sides and put on a baking sheet at 350 for 20-30 minutes, flipping mid-way through the cooking time. I cranked it up to 400 for the last 10 or so minutes to get it crispier. It made 7 large patties, though I ate one before I cooked it. You can easily stretch it to 8, and I calculated there are about 1000 calories in the whole batch.

I didn't have any bread, and didn't want to make roti since the patties were slightly labor intensive. So I steamed a head of cauliflower and made a cheezy cauliflower sauce for the patties. I put about 1/2 cup of the cooked cauliflower in my immersion blender attachment (a blender is fine) and added some salt, pepper, fresh cilantro, soy milk, tahini, and nutritional yeast.

Purple Basil Tomato Soup

This isn't really different from my last attempt at tomato soup. I sauteed 1 medium red onion in a little olive oil and added water, 1TB tomato paste, 2 large tomatoes, and 6 roma tomatoes. I brought to the boil and added a few leaves of purple basil since I think the regular basil in my aerogarden killed it. (The purple basil had fallen over last night when I got home. I suspect the regular basil was blocking light or otherwise bullying it.)

Once it boiled for about 15 I added 8 or 10 white mushrooms that I'd chopped up. I let these cook for just a few minutes and then scooped out half of the chunky parts so I could use my immersion blender on the rest. I also added in about .5 cup of soy milk just to make it a little creamier and a few more basil leaves for flavor.

The real best part of everything was the lentil couscous salad I made to go in the soup. First I cut up 3 cloves of garlic, added some salt, a few chopped basil leaves, and 1TB olive oil. I let it sit as long as I could so the garlic and basil would infuse into the oil. Meanwhile, I cooked 3/4 cup lentils until just done so they weren't yet mushy, and I made 3/4 of couscous. Once all the cooking was done, I mixed the oil mixture, lentils, and couscous together and put about 3/4 cup into each of the 4 servings I made. Then I garnished with a gigantic purple basil leaf.

It was great- the raw garlic added extra zing to the soup. I promise I'll get more creative with tomato soup in the spring.

Roasted Veggie Delight

I had a (not unusual) craving for onions this afternoon but I didn't feel like standing over the stove to cook them. So I found a great alternative- I roasted them. While those were going, I cooked some lentils and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and basil. And I made cooked whole wheat rotini. Strangely I had some leftover Brussels sproutsd (which is a sin), so I tossed those in a bowl with everything else.

Crap, I just realized I meant to put capers in it but forgot. Oh well, it was tasty.

Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup

In the past I have professed my love for the sweet potato. Sometimes I struggle with moderation, and I overdosed on the poor tasty tuber a few too many times. I was running out of new ways to enjoy it and reverting to my regular fallback recipes.

In trying to figure out what I was going to finish up in my fridge before the holidays, I stumbled upon some sweet potatoes. So I Googled "sweet potato soup" and found this recipe for Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup, which is kismet because I had all 3 of the titled ingredients. I didn't have celery or, gasp, onions, so I just sauteed some diced baby carrots until tender. I, of course, had no cumin, so I added some chipotle flakes and chilli powder along with grated lime and ginger leftover from my delicious homemade ginger ale. I added 4 med-large sweet potatoes (cubed) and boiled until done. Then I got out my favorite tool of all time, the immersion blender, and blended half of it (ladeled out the other soup into a bowl because I like chunks). I added the 1/2 cup of soy milk and swired it around so it looked pretty until it mixed in. Meanwhile, I boiled 3/4c lentils and 3/4cup quinoa. When it was done, I added some salt and lime juice.

It made 4 very large but low-cal servings. It really would have been fine doing .5c each lentils and quinoa, but I needed some extra protein for dinner, so tonight's bowl was a little fuller than the others.

I never would have imagined using these flavors together, but it was amazing. I could definitely taste the lime and the ginger but not in an overpowering way. It was just so unique. I think the lime turned my lentils and quinoa into crack, too, because they were amazing on their own. Next time, it gets some Better Than Cream Cheese instead of the soy milk.

The Blog is Back!

The past 3 months have been insane with travel taking up nearly 50% of my time. So now I've decided to go back to food blogging- but really only because I've been eating some good things and can't remember them. So, no, it's not about the 10 of you who actually read this. It's about my failing memory....



One of my greatest creations that saved me on 2 separate trips in November was lentils, green beans, and whole wheat pasta with some salt and garlic olive oil. I simply made it the night before (well, the 2nd time I made it the morning I left), let it sit and marinate, then enjoyed on the plane as everyone else was eating the crappy plane food. I even got desperate the second time and grabbed some canned green beans and it was still delicious.



This week I also experimented with stuffed acron squash and lentil loaf. Yes, I said lentil loaf. I followed this reciple for the squash, but made it my own so that it ended up being:



2 gigantic acorn squash

.75 cup wild rice, .25 cup brown rice

2 veggie bouillon cubes 2 cans veggie broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

a large yellow onion

2-3 stalks of celery

1/4 cup (or so) chopped walnuts

2TB each fresh tarragon and sage

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup fresh cranberries

salt

ground black pepper to taste



Then I followed the general cooking instructions, adding the cranberries at the same time as the walnuts and the herbs as close to the end as possible. I either undercooked the rice inititally or overcooked it when reheating in the oven because it was pretty crunchy, which was a little less than ideal. But it was still very tasty.



The lentil loaf was lentil, yes, but not loaf. I think some of my issues were that I didn't know if 2 cups of lentils meant 2 cups dry, cooked, or 2 cups of cooked lentils. Then I didn't have breadcrumbs so I substituted 2 pieces of stale bread. And I had no marinara sauce, so I added some tomato paste and chili powder. Looking back, I should have added more tomatoes and spices and let it sit in the loaf pan to cool. Instead, I wasted no time in turning it out onto a plate where it quickly became lentil mush. But I didn't touch it, mostly because my dinner guest had to postpone until the next night. So the next night I got it back in the loaf pan to heat it up (I'm scared of the microwave) and it was more loaflike, but less flavorfull than I hoped. I made a sauce for the top that consisted of 3 roma tomatoes, cilantro, chili powder, and 2 tb tomato paste blended together. It was alright the first night but inedible the second night. You know I still ate it though.

Lentil Soupish

I threw together lentils, corn, red onion, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, and a little salt. It was good and easy (just like jennilicious).

Lentil Delight

Lentils rock.

I wanted to try something a little different (for me) with lentils so I dreamt up this concotion. I cooked .25 cups lentils for about 10 minutes, added a cup of diced yellow squash, a cup of frozen diced zucchini, and .5cups frozen chopped spinach (trying to get rid of stuff in the freezer to make room for the aforementioned soup). While that was going, I used my badass immersion blender attachment to blend together .25 block silken soft tofu, some dried dill, a little (too much) salt, and a splash of soy milk. I put the "sauce" in the fridge to keep chilled and when the lentils/veggies were done, they went in the freezer to quickly cool. I mixed the two together for a lentil delight. And it makes a big bowl that's around than 200 calories.

I dried draining the lentils/veggies and throught I got most of the water out. Not as much as I'd hoped, so instead of a creamy mixture, it's a little more watery than I envisioned. But at least the oversalting of the "sauce" wasn't noticeable since I didn't flavor the lentils/veggies otherwise. To make it a more complete meal, it might be good with some bulgur or quinoa.

The "sauce" is actually really good and I might start making this often and using it as a dip for my baby carrots. I can imagine it with some sundried tomatoes and basil or maybe rosemary and garlic. Yum.