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Problems with cooking
I was about to head over to the store for more baking ingredients when I thought "Gee, I could toss something into the slow cooker, too. What would I need to pick up for that?"
I refuse to buy anything perishable that I will not use up. I refuse to cook anything I can not or will not eat. There is no point to me cooking unless the result is healthier than I can get elsewhere. Also, for this exercise, I really did want something I could just throw together, since I'd planned to spend the afternoon baking, so no brown this and dice that and pause halfway through to count the number of cloves to tie into a cheesecloth. I wish I were making this up.
I glanced through two cookbooks, scanning the recipe ingredients. Every single time, I didn't finish reading the list before at least three of the items violated the above requirements. One of the cookbooks was supposed to be healthy, but every recipe I saw has between a 3:1 and a 5:1 sodium mg to calories ratio. (I begin to realize why folks might not like my lentil soup. I forgot to add the salt lick.) Healthy? Pull on the other leg.
There's no point in even trying. I am now glum enough that I don't even want to go get flour and eggs. A pox on all of it.
I refuse to buy anything perishable that I will not use up. I refuse to cook anything I can not or will not eat. There is no point to me cooking unless the result is healthier than I can get elsewhere. Also, for this exercise, I really did want something I could just throw together, since I'd planned to spend the afternoon baking, so no brown this and dice that and pause halfway through to count the number of cloves to tie into a cheesecloth. I wish I were making this up.
I glanced through two cookbooks, scanning the recipe ingredients. Every single time, I didn't finish reading the list before at least three of the items violated the above requirements. One of the cookbooks was supposed to be healthy, but every recipe I saw has between a 3:1 and a 5:1 sodium mg to calories ratio. (I begin to realize why folks might not like my lentil soup. I forgot to add the salt lick.) Healthy? Pull on the other leg.
There's no point in even trying. I am now glum enough that I don't even want to go get flour and eggs. A pox on all of it.
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Red lentil soup with lemon
3 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 (or more) garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon tomato paste (what I'm going to do with the rest of the can remains to be seen - I suppose I need to make up a pot of sauce!)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or so)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
pinch of chili powder
OR
pinch of cayenne (I used both!)
1 quart vegetable stock (you can use chicken stock too, but I don't think beef stock would work as well)
2 cups water
1 cup red lentils
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1. In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic and saute until golden, about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne and saute for two minutes longer. Cooking the tomato paste like this deepens the flavor!
3. Add broth, water, lentils, and carrot. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover pot and turn heat to medium-low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt if needed.
4. Using an immersion blender, a regular blender, or food processor puree about half the soup and add it back to the pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.
5. Reheat soup (if needed) Stir in lemon juice and cilantro. Serve soup - for a nice touch serve drizzled with olive oil and dusted with chili powder. Really nice with a crusty bread.
If you are going to make this for your freezer, I'd add the lemon juice and cilantro when I reheated it just prior to serving.
(If doubling, don’t double the olive oil.)
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As for leftover tomato paste, just freeze it and you can use it next time you make something.
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Another part of many recipes that I wasn't prepared for today: "soak overnight" (beans, lentils, etc). I've got nothing against it on philosophical grounds, but I couldn't go back and start last night. Drat this lack of a time machine.
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Quick soaking is where you boil beans hard for a minute or two, take the pan off the heat, cover it, let it sit for an hour, then drain the beans and call them soaked.
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As for pureeing part of the soup, yeah, totally standard, I just thought it odd in a soup that uses red lentils as they go pretty much to lentil mush in thirty minutes. Not in a bad way, they are just one of those things that I don't think of as needing to be pureed, though I could see how pureeing would help achieve a uniform texture. I am just puree-avoidant as S. is afraid of anything that makes a loud noise such as the blender, food processor, vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, etc., so it is kind of a production when I have to use a noisy kitchen appliance because he has to be removed from the front part of the house and kept entertained elsewhere while the appliance is in use.
But, yeah, the time thing. It gets me a lot, especially when I am sitting at 6:30pm and have no idea what we are going to have for dinner.
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I like that this one doesn't start with soaking the lentils overnight. My time machine is broken, darn it! :-)
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Slow cooker
Re: Slow cooker
Healthy chipotle pork stew
-1 package of frozen whole kernel corn, 16 oz. (I recommend sweet corn) or you can use 2 1/2 cups of fresh corn kernels.
-1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained.
-2 cups (or more) chopped celery.
-1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
-3 cloves of minced garlic.
-2 or 3 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped. (you can find these in the spanish food section)
-1 28 oz can of chopped whole tomatoes, undrained.
-1 can of black beans, preferably Old South brand (if it is Old South, don't bother draining. That adds to the tasty.)
-1 can of tomato sauce.
-1 teaspoon of salt
-a few shakes of pepper, preferably lime pepper mix.
-1 tsp of dried thyme
Dump everything into slow cooker. Cook on High for 5-6 hours, or 11-13 on low. Pork can then be dipped out and sliced or simply shredded between two forks, as it will be falling apart at this stage. Enjoy hot or cold. Wrapped in burrito form is optional. You can also do it without the pork for an extremely healthy veggie stew that freezes very well!
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Amusingly enough,m I'm trying a variant on it tonight with adding raspberry vinaigrette dressing, since I've had very good raspberry-chipotle dishes in the past... we'll see if it works!
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Me, on the other hand, I have yet to try it. I couldn't find chipotle peppers at my local grocery store. (I'm probably in one of the whitest white-bread sections of the California bay area. I'm sure trying another grocery store will do the trick.)
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Am I the only ding-dong who chops up some big honking onions and then sticks them in the freezer? I have all these lovely cups of chopped onion waiting for me. (I hate chopping onion. Hate hate hate.)
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Especially if I can talk Jason into doing it, he's less sensitive to onion fumes than I am.
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
On the other hand, I'm one of those people who has to stop chopping every few minutes and go cry, so it's only cool in the abstract.
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
Re: Healthy chipotle pork stew
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Dried black eyed peas
Ham chunks or bacon chunks or salt pork chunks or, really, any kind of pig meat
Chopped onions
Water
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Put in slow cooker, or just in a saucepan on low heat for most of the day.
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i've done lentils and brown rice in the 'cooker, too. i think i did a 3:1 water:grains ratio, added potatoes and carrots and veg boullion. this one gets done in less than 8-10 hrs, so it's better for times when you're going to be around to check it.
*hugs*
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1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
Trim, quarter, and core fennel, then slice into medium-sized pieces, reserving 2 tablespoons of feathery leaves. Heat the butter and olive oil together in a medium pot over medium-low heat; when melted, add fennel, shallots, and 1 cup of stock. Cover and simmer until the fennel is translucent (about 15 minutes).
Raise heat to medium, add potatoes and remainder of stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gently until the potatoes are very soft (about 25 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mash the vegetables with a potato masher until the soup is thick and chunky (do not blend). Chop the reserved fennel leaves and stir into soup. Remove from heat and let stand five minutes. Eat hot or cold, both are great.
Serves four.
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