Problems with cooking

[cjsmith]

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.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

From my friend Merina:

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.)

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

This looks like a great recipe--thanks for sharing. However, pureeing red lentils seems like overkill--I mean they cook down so soft so quickly.

As for leftover tomato paste, just freeze it and you can use it next time you make something.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of bean/lentil soup recipes that call for pureeing part of the soup. YAY DISHWASHER-SAFE STICK BLENDER.

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.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

You can always use the quick soak process...no need to soak overnight.

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.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the quick soak method mentioned by another commenter. I do this all the time. Still, with quick soaking you are looking at 2-2.5 hours for beans from dry to ready to eat.. Red lentils cook fast, faster than other lentils, which is why they are rather appealing for quick soups, and lentils in general do not require soaking. You can also get around the longer cooking times by using a pressure cooker.

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.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Y'know what I want to do with this recipe? Sit in the kitchen and INHALE while it is being made. Continually. No exhaling required. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I like that this one doesn't start with soaking the lentils overnight. My time machine is broken, darn it! :-)

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually made this yet, but the recipe reads tasty, and she says it's great.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't have to let lentis soak overnight...or at all. Its one of those things that make them so great...no need to soak before using.