December 12, 2012 by Cate

Soup Weather: Red Lentil Soup Recipe

I never ate soup until I was an adult. I didn’t like my vegetables to be soft; although I think that my disdain for soup was also a projection of being a picky eater generally. When I think back on all the things I refused to eat as a child, I can’t believe my parents didn’t ship me off. Thankfully I have since grown up (at least a little), and now I appreciate the warmth and comfort a bowl of soup can provide. Well, I haven’t exactly embraced pea soup yet.

I know lots of people turn their noses up at the thought of lentil soup. The poor, little lentil being snubbed left and right. So undeserved. It’s time to give the lentil a chance. Just look at the beautiful color of red lentils, and think of all the protein and fiber they deliver. The recipe below is adapted from Heidi Swanson’s red lentil soup recipe on her blog 101 Cookbooks. This was actually the first soup I ever made from scratch. Heidi’s blog features some wonderful meat-free recipes using natural ingredients, not to mention some truly gorgeous photography. My version uses meat, but can easily be tweaked into a vegetarian version.

Red Lentil Soup

Serves 4-6 as main course; adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Pancetta, two quarter-inch slices, diced (or substitute 2-3 slices of bacon)

One large onion (I usually use a sweet onion) or 3 shallots or combination, chopped

Red pepper flakes, a couple good shakes or more, as you please

Cumin, one Tablespoon

Smoked Paprika, one and a half teaspoons

Celery, two stalks diced

Carrots, 1 cup diced

Chicken stock, 3 cups (you can sub vegetable broth or water)

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Brown rice, three-quarters of a cup (rinsed & picked)

Red lentils, one cup (rinsed & picked)

Sea salt

Fresh cilantro, to garnish

In large pot, sauté pancetta (or bacon) over medium-high heat until it renders its fat and is becoming crunchy. Remove pancetta to bowl lined with paper towels and set aside. Add onion/shallots to pot at medium heat, along with pepper flakes, cumin and smoked paprika. Stirring occasionally, sauté for about 5 minutes. Add celery and carrots, and continue to sauté for 5 minutes more. (You may need to add some olive oil or butter to the sauté if it starts to become too dry.) Once the vegetables are soft and the onion is browned, add the stock and water and bring to a boil. Add brown rice and red lentils. Bring to a boil again, and then reduce to simmer. Simmer, covered, until the rice is thoroughly cooked, about 35-40 minutes. Note: the red lentils will lose their shape during cooking. As you approach the end of the simmering time, taste and add salt as needed. The soup tends to taste very flat until appropriately salted. I also like to add the pancetta back to the soup during the simmering portion, which contributes saltiness and additional texture to the soup – just be careful with salting if you return the pancetta to the soup, since you don’t want a salt overdose! Serve with a healthy amount of cilantro garnish.

Cooking notes:

If you prefer to skip the meat portion of this recipe, simply sauté in olive oil and/or butter, and use vegetable broth and/or water.

I like to run my veggies through the food processor for quick and easy chopping. You could actually combine the onion, celery and carrots in processor until they’re a nice veggie slush, and add to the pot together.

I love cumin and smoked paprika. The amounts listed are merely suggestions. I typically load ‘em up in this soup.

I usually add the chicken stock and about 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. I then add an additional cup of water or more during the simmering phase, if the soup starts to look too thick. I have let this soup simmer for hours – just be sure to keep an eye on the liquid level and add water or stock as needed.

Printable version of recipe here: FWC Lentil Soup Recipe.

And by the way, I swear I am still sewing these days. Quite a bit actually! I’ll have to do a re-cap once I catch my breath.

November 20, 2012 by Cate

Farro Salad with Pignoli Nuts, Tomato & Mozzarella

I know most of us are thinking “Turkey!” this week, and believe me I’ve already called dibs on a big helping of turkey, stuffing, green beans, etc., but I couldn’t resist sharing this grain salad recipe. I’m not suggesting it make its way onto your Thanksgiving dinner table, but maybe next week when you’re looking to detox from turkey day overload you’ll be up for trying something new.

Grains have taken their fair share of heat lately. It seems like the “whole grain” mission finally broke through to mainstream acceptance when – slam – certain groups start banning grains or severely cutting back on grains in their diet in the name of health. I am a fan of grains. So while I generally try not to overdo starches, I do love discovering a new grain to add to my limited cooking repertoire.

I had never experienced farro until about 3 years ago when this Italian restaurant that my husband and I frequent added a farro salad to their winter menu. Unbelievable. I could eat it by the bucketful. But, I couldn’t find farro in my supermarket aisles and was too lazy to make a trip to a specialty market for it. Then, last summer, when I wasn’t even looking for it, I noticed it in the small market within walking distance of our new neighborhood — serendipity!

So what’s farro? And how the heck do you pronounce it? It falls into the group of “ancient grains”, like quinoa, for example (hey, gee, another grain that people don’t know how to pronounce!). As far as I can tell, it’s pronounced “far-oh”, and not like “pharaoh”. Of course, perhaps the waitstaff at the local restaurant is far too polite to tell me I’ve been mispronouncing it with each order! Need a mnemonic – try “farro is far out”.

According to the packaging (which doesn’t include a pronunciation key), it has a pretty good protein profile and some iron, too. It’s high in fiber and some minerals. And the farro plant is a pretty rugged plant, so it generally doesn’t require pesticides or fertilizers during growth. Price-wise, farro is more expensive than other generally available grains, but it goes a long way and has a pretty high yum-to-cost quotient.

It looks like this before cooking (pignoli nuts on the left for scale):

I’d compare the cooked texture to a dense rice texture — kind of like risotto perhaps? It doesn’t have an unpleasant crunch, which – as an aside – puts it head and shoulders above wheat berries from my perspective. I like the taste of wheat berries, but don’t really enjoy their crunch. I always feel like I’ve undercooked wheat berries, which distracts from my ability to enjoy them. Okay, back to farro…

This recipe is really my attempt to recreate the wonderful salad I enjoy at L’Orcio. It’s straight forward and easy, because once cooking becomes too involved, I’d rather just go out to eat.

Farro Salad [printer friendly recipe here.]

Serves 4-6 as side dish

1 cup uncooked farro

2 cups chicken stock or broth (you could go veggie here, if you prefer)
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2 cups water

1/3 cup pignoli nuts, toasted

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup fresh basil chopped or shredded

1 cup fresh mozzarella, cut into bite sized pieces (I use bocconcini and cut in half)

2-3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (the better the quality, the better the undertone of this salad)

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Soak farro in water for 20 minutes, rinse and drain. Cook farro in large pot with 2 cups chicken stock and 2 cups water – bring to boil, then cover and simmer for about 25 minutes (farro should not be toothsome, but will retain structure). Drain and remove to medium bowl; allow to cool about 10 minutes. Stir in olive oil; then add pignoli nuts, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella and stir well to mix flavors. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow to sit so flavors meld.

I prefer to eat this salad at room temperature, but it can be made ahead and refrigerated – just be sure to remove and allow it to warm up before serving to enhance the flavor.

[Printer friendly version of this recipe here.]

Definitely don’t skip toasting the pignoli nuts. It brings their lovely flavor to a whole new level of goodness. I toasted them in a dry skillet on the stove top, although I wasn’t quite as attentive as I should have been. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve burned nuts when toasting them this way. As much as I know that I need to stay close by and flip or turn them frequently, somehow I always get distracted…. Usually it’s the very, very fragrant scent (i.e., burnt smell) that snaps me back to attention. It didn’t get that far today, but my mind did start to wander.

I’d also suggest that if you have a special bottle of extra virgin olive oil that you save for certain recipes, you use it here. This recipe doesn’t rely on a fancy dressing for flavor, so it’s the olive oil that really provides the undertones of this salad. That being said, I’ve used up all my “special occasion” olive oil and haven’t replenished, and this recipe was still good with the everyday stuff. The good stuff would kick up the earthy nuttiness, though — yummmmm.

Okay, I’ll let you get back to your Thanksgiving menu daydreaming. Can’t you just smell that turkey roasting already? And how about a slice of apple pie for dessert? Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

August 6, 2012 by Cate

Suh-weet! Recipe: Smoky Sweet Potato Patties

It’s sometimes hard for me to believe I never ate sweet potatoes until about 3 years ago. How did I avoid them for so long when they are soooo good? I still remember my first bite of sweet potato; my instant reaction was “wow, it’s sweet.” Duh! I guess somehow, despite the telltale name, I really didn’t believe they’d be sweet. Maybe their color made me think they’d taste like turnips – a vegetable I’ve yet to embrace.

On that first tasting, the sweet potato was sliced, dressed in olive oil, salt and pepper and direct grilled. Simple yet so delicious. That version was compliments of one of my stepsons, who is quite talented in the kitchen. He’s the guy who can look in the refrigerator and see about five different things he could make for lunch; while I’d look in and say “there’s nothing to eat, we need to go grocery shopping.” I love how some folks just have a natural vision about what can be accomplished with food.

I guess sweet potatoes have been one of those in vogue vegetables for the last few years. Kind of like kale and, more recently, parsnips. And heck, why not, they’re delicious and good for you. I feel like an old-timer telling my children, “when I was your age, you couldn’t find sweet potato fries in the frozen food aisle. Nope, had to peel, slice and fry ‘em yourself if you wanted orange fries. Yessiree.”

If you follow any food boards on Pinterest, you’ve probably seen this recipe from Happy Healthy Life pinned, and repinned, and liked, and liked a whole lot more. It actually inspired these patties. I had been trying out a few veggie pancake recipes, but they always seemed too heavy on the wheat flour and lacking in veggie taste. But, aahhhh, the sweet potato’s gorgeous color, sweetness, nutrients and lovely, creamy texture make it a no-brainer for patties.

It’s great how sweet potatoes are so flexible and easily combined with different flavors. My favorite combination is to pair them with smoky flavors, like cumin and smoked paprika, as featured here. And I never pass down an opportunity to add cilantro to a dish. You could even amp up the Tex-Mex flair by adding some black beans and corn. But I suppose these patties could be just as easily paired with cinnamon and apple if you wanted to try the opposite end of the sweet potato pairing spectrum. There really is so much you can do with the recipe, and it’s simple as (er, sweet potato) pie.

As you might suspect of something made from a root vegetable, these patties are pretty filling. Again, there’s a great deal of flexibility on how to enjoy these patties. Like traditional burgers on a roll or bread, either full-sized or as pop in your mouth sliders. Oh, but why cover up the beautiful color of the sweet potato when you can go bun-less! These patties are good enough to stand on their own, but I like to use the patty as a base (no bun) and then start stacking on more good stuff. My favorite is topped with sharp cheddar cheese, a slice of tomato and sprouts, with a green salad on the side.

So have fun, play around with the recipe, play around with how to eat them. Fill your belly with some sweetness.

Recipe: Smoky Sweet Potato Patties

Adapted from Happy Healthy Life

Makes about 9 small patties or 6 large

1 sweet potato

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed (I use what’s on hand, and have made the patties using a 15.5 oz can of navy beans, or 19 oz. can of cannellini beans; the more beans, the creamier the mix becomes, so you may need to up the breadcrumbs or flaxseed to compensate when forming patties)

2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed or breadcrumbs (using crumbs from toasted sprouted bread is a great addition)

1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped

1 Tablespoon tahini

1 teaspoon agave nectar

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

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1 clove garlic, minced

generous dash of salt

several grinds of fresh black pepper

Panko, for coating

Safflower oil for pan

Bake potato (425 degrees for about 45 minutes). When soft, cut open and scoop out flesh into a small bowl and set aside. Fill bowl of food processor with white beans, tahini, agave, flaxseed/breadcrumbs, herbs and spices.

Process to combine, but still chunky. A couple pulses of the food processor should do the trick.

After the first spin

Hey Sweetie, let's go for a spin

The mixture should not be chunky, but a thick smooth texture – avoid overprocessing. Note: An alternative approach (if you’re not as lazy as I can be) is to combine the bean mixture and the sweet potatoes by mashing by hand. This method makes it easier to avoid an overprocessed (ie., too smooth) mixture. I have found that when I use the food processor, I usually have to add a bit more flax and/or breadcrumbs to the mixture to firm it up a bit.

Mixed

Form patties and coat with panko. They will be pretty soft but should adhere. If they won’t form, add a bit more breadcrumbs or flaxseed to thicken. Heat nonstick pan with safflower oil over medium high heat. Cook until both sides of patties are lightly browned. The patties will remain relatively soft with cooking, so try to minimize flipping to reduce risk of breaking the patty apart. Depending on size, a few minutes per side seems to work well.

Naked patty, how risque!

Enjoy with or without bun, with or without toppings. Go crazy.

Guess what we’re having for dinner?