Easy To Make Orange Lentil Stew

 

This is tasty and and so easy to prepare. I just had a batch for dinner.

Ingredients

2 small or more, or larger squashes
medium onion, larger if you're making a larger quantity
1/2 cup red lentils, before cooking
oil, water-- a bit more than double the amount of lentils, seasonings--your choice

Put it all in a pot, cover, first on high heat until boiling. Then lower to a simmer until all soft. Cool a bit and serve/eat. Yes, it's that easy. You can add the seasoning after it's cooked or at the end of cooking. You can also use some sweet potato for half the squash and/or add other vegetables, according to what you like and what's in your house. And if you're wondering, I don't use frozen vegetables. If that's all you have, then add them when the lentils are partially cooked. Frozen vegetables need less cooking.

I'd love to have your reactions in the comments, thanks.

Endives, Recipes Raw and Cooked

I recently blogged that I had volunteered packing mushrooms and cauliflower for sale at Chavat Tekoa, the Tekoa Farm. As a thank you gift, we had been given a bag of endives. Now, to be completely honest, I hadn't a clue as to what endives are or how to serve/prepare them.

From the photo you can't see the size, so I must tell you they're relatively small, about the size of a skinny hand. While working with them, it occurred to me that they're similar to Chinese cabbage, which I haven't seen for decades. There's even a similar texture and taste.

Back to business...

I googled endives and found a variety of recipes, cooked and raw, plus some warnings. I even asked friends, who also warned... that they're bitter. Honestly, I didn't find them bitter at all. 

I used the recipes I saw as "inspiration." I almost never follow recipes exactly. 

Ingredients:

sliced onion

cut the endives lengthwise

apple sliced

olive oil and dehydrated dill

Bake 150c until it "looks cooked."

Our guests all enjoyed eating the endives, so I consider it a success. The reason for the apple was that I thought it would be nice contrast to the sharp/bitter endives.

You can use the same ingredients raw with less onion, or just add it to a salad. Actually, that's what I did. It was delicious.

Nice Healthy Lunch, Vegetables with Eggs

 

A half of a gorgeous orange squash had been staring at me for days from the top shelf of the refrigerator door. I felt inspiration. Did it really want to be the "nest" for an egg? 

I decided to give it a try. 

I cut up onion, squash and tomato and put it in a deep frying pan. Then on top I put two "rings" of the squash, added some oil, covered and cooked it until soft.

Finally, I put an egg in the hole, covered and cooked some more.

The rest is history.

Give it a try making it your own, different vegetables, some cheese on top.

Tell be how yours came out, your variations etc.

Enjoy

Easy and Quick Vegetable and Orange Lentil Soup

 

I've been craving my homemade vegetable soup for quite a while, and I didn't have much patience to wait. An easy shortcut requires a can of beans, but we didn't have any. then I remembered the orange lentils I had bought. They cook up very quickly.

Ingredients (I don't measure exactly, so there's no need to obsess about exact quantities)

• large onion
• medium squash
• nice sized chunk of sweet potato
• celeriac
• coarse salt, pepper (coarse is best,) parsley-- either fresh or dehydrated
• if you have carrots, add one or more, mushrooms also good, ditto for fresh parsley or celery

Instructions: 

• cut in small chunks or slices
• put all in a large pot
• start sautéing in oil
• add at least a half cup of orange lentils
• boil a couple of liters of water
• add the boiling water and cover
• as soon as the soup begins to boil, turn down the flame to just simmer

Cook until it's all soft, and the lentils are mushy.

Easy to Make, Healthy Salad, Mostly From Cans

Yes, I call this salad "Easy to Make, Healthy Salad, Mostly From Cans." And it's not an oxymoron.

It can also be titled Corn, Bean and Tomato Salad, Corona Lock-down Recipe #4, because the canned food was delivered to us as part of the senior citizen care package at the height of the corona lock-down. Following are the first three recipes I developed with canned food from the carton:

• Cooking With Canned Beans, Corona Lock-down Recipe #1
• Cooking With Canned Pineapple, "Apple-Pineapple Compote," Corona Lock-down Recipe #2
• "Sauerkraut Salad," Corona Lock-down Recipe #3

If you had inspected my pantry before getting these COVID-19 "care packages," you'd have found almost no cans, not even tomato paste. The few cans would have been "food gifts" from the Purim mishloach manot. But suddenly I found myself with all sorts of canned food and decided to make up recipes.

This salad is also a great vegetarian-vegan "one pot meal." It contains protein plus raw and cooked vegetables. Of course you can substitute different types of beans and vegetables and add more fresh salad. Just looking at it you can probably guess almost all of the ingredients:

canned corn
canned white beans
diced tomato
diced onion
coarsely ground pepper
dehydrated dill
dressed with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice

Yes, that's it. Think of the recipe more as inspiration than an exact recipe. Try it, and tell me how yours turned out and how you varied it. Enjoy in good health.

Cooking With Canned Beans, Corona Lock-down Recipe #1

Life in Corona Lock-down. This week I "gave in" and accepted the offer to get some ready-made meals. There are perks to being 70+. We're registered as one person, not two, because I do cook. It's just that the idea of receiving ready-made "restaurant meals" seemed irresistible. The meals are like TV Dinners or kosher airline meals with a bag of pre-washed salad.

The day after we received our first meals, we got two cartons of food staples, disposable eating utensils and a few dozen rolls of toilet paper.

As you can see there are lots of canned goods, and I almost never use canned food.

"Never say never."

Presuming that the cartons will arrive about monthly, I decided that our lunches will be based on the food we've received. Since I had baked sandwich rolls the day before, my husband got a tuna sandwich and I ate the other half of the can with cooked vegetables.

The following day I challenged myself to come up with a meal using the Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce. So I cut up an onion and two nice squashes and put the pieces in a pot, added the contents of the can plus some water.

After the vegetables were fully cooked, I served the "stew" with fresh salad, as you can see in the photo below. My husband also got a serving of pasta.


It was delicious,frugal and we ate much too much. This bean vegetable stew was easy to make, healthy and inexpensive. Call that a success, thank Gd.

Tasty and Simple 21st Century Tzimmes

Tzimmes 

Tzimmes is a very traditional holiday food for Ashkenaz (European) Jews. There are still families who make it is a "one pot meal" with beef. That combination is from the days when most meals were thick soups or stews. Today's affluence has enabled the development of multiple-pot meals. Even in the half century I've been married, menus and cooking has gotten much more complicated. There are many more pots in the sink than a couple of decades ago, even though we are fewer people at the table. No doubt my grandmothers would find my tzimmes a bit strange, though familiar.

Ingredients (exact quantities aren't necessary)
1 larger or 2 medium carrots
1 medium sweet potato
piece of dlaat, pumpkin or similar preferable orange-colored squash 4"x4" or 10cm by 10cm
1 large apple
handful of raisins
handful of prunes
cinnamon to taste
approx 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
optional- a few slices of ginger root
2T vegetable oil
water up to 1/3 height of vegetables in pot
bit of coarse salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. slice carrots thick
2. cut other vegetables into large bite-sized pieces
3. place in pot, carrots first, then dried fruit and then the rest
4. top with sugar and cinnamon
5. add oil, water and cover
6. bring to a boil, then simmer until soft
7. add salt and pepper when cooking

Tasty with meat, poultry fish or add tofu or beans as a vegetarian meal.

"One Pot Meal," Dairy Vegetable Kugel

Notice that I used a different, for me, shaped pan, so the frozen kugel will be easy to recognize in the freezer, without having to uncover them.

Since my husband and I found ourselves eating alone on the Shavuot holiday, when it's traditional to eat dairy meals, I tried to come up with practical foods.

I used this Dairy Vegetable Kugel as a side dish, but with the addition of a fresh salad, it (certainly the leftovers) makes a perfect and tasty "One Pot Meal." An additional advantage is that you can make more than one at a time and freeze them.

Ingredients:
1 package broad noodles, (you may use any pasta)
1 package cottage cheese
6 eggs
3 fresh mushrooms
1 large onion
1 squash
2 tomatoes
seasonings to taste
You can vary/change the vegetables to your liking and what you have in stock.

Instructions:

1. boil the broad noodles
2. while they're cooking cut of the vegetables
3. Put the vegetables, cottage cheese, eggs and cooking/rinsed noodles and a large bowl and mix. Add whatever seasonings you wish.
4. Pour the mixture in baking pans. Optional to line with baking paper.
5. Bake in moderate oven 160c or 320f until firm and "bubbly" on sides. 
6. that's it
7. serve with salad if you wish

I used to make a sweet version of it, adding fruit, apples, raisins rather than vegetables, seasoned with cinnamon and sugar.

Nothing Better than Vegetable Soup

Yesterday afternoon I made myself a much too full pot of vegetable soup full of brown lentils, onion, carrots, ginger, squash, garlic and finely sliced mushrooms. Yes, that's all the ingredients, plus a bit of oil and water, of course.

Cooking on my new gas stove top is such a pleasure. One advantage is that it heats and cooks so quickly. I no longer have to boil water in the electric kettle for cooking purposes. The old electric hotplate I had been using was so slow, I was always supplementing with the kettle, whether for pasta, soup etc.

To make this soup, I started a few of hours early and put the lentils in the pot, added water to cover, plus, and then boiled it for a few minutes, turned off the flame and covered the covered pot with a towel to keep in the heat.

Then, about an hour or more before I needed to eat the soup, I cut up all the vegetables and added them to the lentils, topping with some cooking oil, and began to cook it all on a high flame. As soon as it began to boil, I added more water until about an inch, 2cm from the top of the pot. Then I had it reach boil again and lowered the flame to simmer. Actually, I moved the pot from the double-flame to a weaker one.

When the soup looked almost cooked, vegetables were soft, I added some coarse salt and coarse pepper. It's better to add less than you think would be good, since people can always add more, but you can't reduce salt and pepper in cooked food. About ten minutes later I turned off the flame and let the food continue cooking on its own. It didn't need more than a total of forty minutes of cooking time.

This, easy to prepare, vegan vegetable soup is a full meal. If you eat dairy, you can put a slice of yellow cheese on the bottom of your bowl before serving for an extra tasty protein treat.

Enjoy!

Super Simple Salad

My favorite type of food preparation is "easy." The other night I had promised to bring a salad to the potluck dinner my book club enjoys before we get into the meat of the book discussion. Since another member said she was brining a green salad, I decided to make mine a "Walking Salad," as my mother used to call it, a Simple Salad, just cut vegetables, perfect for noshing.

I was planning on using carrots, too, but I forgot. As you can see, the tray was full without them.  And I bought a kohlrabi, but it was rotten inside.

This salad has mushrooms, red pepper, cucumber and tomatoes. That's it.

Simple salads like these are very popular in my community. Whenever we have an event with cakes and cookies there are salads like these, too. I get a kick out of seeing young children filling cups with carrots, cucumbers and peppers, as if they're candy.

Food Ideas for The Nine 9 Days

I really doubt that when chazal, our Jewish sages, decided that during the  Nine 9 Days, we shouldn't eat meat they could have known that fish meals would be much more expensive for us. That was the topic of this morning's post on Shiloh Musings, 9 Days Rather Ironic, Fish Yes, Chicken No.

My husband and I generally eat Shabbat leftovers for the entire week, and I have lots of portions of cooked chicken in the freezer. All you have to do is to recook them with vegetables and carbs. But during the Nine 9 Days, I have to cook every meal. Sometimes I have a stock of vegetable soup, but in all honesty, hot soup on hot days isn't a favorite.
Following are a few recipes. Your comments, recipes, reactions and ideas are welcome in the comments section, thanks.  Sorry, but I don't go for exact measuring of ingredients or cooking time. I encourage variations and would like to hear about yours.

Latest Breakfast, No Cravings
Yummy Cauliflower Casserole/Kugel
Frying Pan "Lentil Stew"
Do you Quinoa?
Simple Chickpea Salad
One-Pan Meal, Tuna Steak and Veggies
Shakshuka Plus
Lovely Lentil and Mushroom Dish
Pancakes
No Mayonnaise Egg Salad
Low-Carb, Crustless Dairy Quiche
This Year's Purim Soups, Yes Two 2

9

Which is your favorite? And what do you suggest from your own repertoire?

Lovely Lentil and Mushroom Dish

Here's another super easy vegan/vegetarian dish that can be either a side dish or a main course for those who need a protein and there's nothing else.

Cut an onion, some garlic and a few mushrooms. Put in a pot. Check then add a cup of lentils. Add a spoon of oil, then three cups of boiling water, cover and simmer until the water is almost absorbed. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Turn off the flame and leave for another twenty minutes.

That's it. It's that easy. Cooking doesn't have to be a lot of work.

Optional: Add carrots, squash and other vegetables, too.

Simple Chickpea Salad

Since we were hosting a vegetarian for a meat meal, I needed to serve a suitable protein for the guest. Summer weather made a salad seem like a good fit.

You need chickpeas, either from a can or cooked. I cooked these. It does take a few hours plus. First you soak them in boiling water in a covered pot for a few hours until they begin to swell, and then you pour out the water and rinse. Add lots more water and boil them for another couple of hours until they are nice and soft. Let them cool.

Once the chickpeas are cool, pour out the water, and in a nice bowl add:
chopped garlic
onion cut in small pieces, red onion is great if you have one
diced tomato

Mix them with the chickpeas, then add some olive oil and then coarse pepper and a bit of coarse salt to taste.  If you wish you can also add leaves or/or additional fresh vegetables. My guests loved it, even those who eat meat.

Perfect Vegetable Soup

Yesterday I was home, sort of "chilling," totally relaxing and cooking a bit. It was a Jewish fast day, the 10th of Tevet. Luckily I'm not one of those "taste as I cook" people. I go by "eyeball" and smell. In the morning until early afternoon, besides lounging on the couch all I did was to take about a cup of dried peas, put it in a pot and pour boiling water over them. I covered the pot and let it all "sit." The peas cook best, get nice and mushy when prepared that way. You also need less time on the stove.

Ingredients, plus the peas and
a chunk of pumpkin

About three hours before the end of the fast, I felt energetic enough to start the soup. I took out the ingredients you can see on the right, plus the peas and a nice chunk of raw pumpkin. You can use an acorn squash or something similar if you can't get the pumpkin. I only cook with fresh vegetables.

The quantity I made was good for a pot of about 3-4 quarts or liters. I don't measure. By the time I put in all of the ingredients, the pot was pretty full to make a very nourishing soup. My Vegetable Soup is a meal, since the peas provide protein, and after fasting I can't eat raw vegetables.

Ingredients:
large onion
fresh garlic
mushrooms
carrots
green squash, zucchini would be fine, too
fresh pumpkin
dried peas, lentils can be substituted or combined with the peas
1T vegetable oil of your choice, optional
coarse salt and coarse ground pepper "to taste"
When in doubt under-season, since it's easier for people to add than to get rid of oversalting etc.

Instructions:
pour lentils/peas in the pot and cover-plus with boiling water
cover pot also with a thick towel to keep in the heat
after at least an hour, even 6 or more, add cut vegetables, except for the pumpkin
add the oil
start cooking
add boiling water to about 2 inches, 5cm, from top of pot
when boiling, lower to simmer
add pumpkin, since it cooks much more quickly than the other vegetables
season with salt and pepper
when it looks soft, turn it off and again cover with a towel until serving

"One Pot" Baked Chicken and Vegetable Feast

Since you can't really see everything in here I'll list the ingredients under the photo. 

• sliced onion
• sweet potato
• chicken breast
• zucchini
• pumpkin
• pepper
• and a bit of vegetable oil

I baked it in a "medium plus*" oven, first uncovered and then covered with foil.

When you cook like this, you don't need to add salt, since the flavors intensify and interact. You can certainly add other vegetables or leave out some. I like using the onions as a base for this sort of meal. You can make it with fish, beef or chopped meat/poultry. Or you can leave out the chicken completely and have it as a vegetarian dish. If you substitute tofu, then add some soy/tamari sauce or tomatoes.

If you want more "tang" to it, then add fresh garlic or ginger.

Think of my recipes as "suggestions." If you try it, please let me know how it comes out and what changes you made, thanks.

*Exact temperatures will have to wait until I redo the kitchen and get one of those new ovens. Mine if very old, and the temperatures, which were never very accurate to begin with, must be guessed at by moving a dial that no longer has numbers around it.

Faux Chinese But Really Tasty Chinese Vegetables

In the culinary world of my childhood, "Chinese food" as we knew it wasn't very Chinese. And so, my concept of Chinese cooking is rather faux, very "Jewish" 1950's, though very tasty.

By the time we sat down, there was double the food on the table.

For my Book Club, we decided to go Chinese this week, since we read, or more accurately for most if not all of us, reread The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

I made vegetables. You can use any and not stick to what I cooked. Actually only now that I'm writing the recipe I remembered that I had planned on using some fresh ginger, too. Here's what I cooked:

• onion
• garlic
• carrot
• peppers
• squash
• mushroom
• kohlrabi
• celery

As you can see, I cut them all into strips of sorts and put it all in a big pot, added a bit of oil, covered and let it cook a bit, not too much. Then I added some "soy"or Tamari sauce, sprinkled some sesame seeds and turned off the heat.

A culinary purist would find it awfully fake, but for me it's "Chinese enough" and absolutely delicious. Give it a try.




PS we had a wonderful time at the Book Club meeting. We got a lot out of the discussion and the book.

And keeping with the Chinese theme we had "fortunes" sans cookies, since most of us are trying to keep weight off.

Sprouts, Do You?

Do you eat sprouts, lentils, beans, seeds etc?
Do you sprout them at home or buy them sprouted?
Do you eat them fresh or cooked?
What's your favorite type of sprout?

I have neighbors whose children are athletic champions, and the family is more than vegan, they're raw food eaters. One of their dietary proteins is sprouts.

I've been getting a periodic supply from the newest member of our family who's vegan and sprouts lentils pretty regularly. But I haven't yet taken the plunge and tried doing it myself.

From what I understand you don't need expensive equipment, but even though I've heard the instructions, I keep chickening out. Oops, maybe a punny word.

Maybe I'd get some of the weight off if I have sprouts as my vegetarian protein more often instead of the sesame paste, but the fat in the sesame paste makes the meal more satisfying. And if I add a good olive oil I'd be increasing the calories...

Any suggestions?

"Sweet" Vegetable Soup, Kosher for Passover and Good All Year

Generally my Vegetable Soups are based on some sort of legume, which I don't eat on the Passover Holiday, but this soup is different. I made it to go with the Vegan aka "Eggless" Matzah Balls, Kneidlach.

As you can see from the photo above, these are the ingredients, cut in bite-size chunks:

onion
carrot
mushroom
parsley root
sweet potato
fresh parsley

I sauteed them in olive oil and then added water, covered of course, to boil and then simmer after adding the matzah balls.

The sweet potatoes and mushroom added the flavor and richness to substitute for my usual peas or lentils. As it cooked the aroma was sweet. This is definitely a filling and festive soup, but so easy to make.

Photographic Guide to Eating Artichokes

Yes, I did blog post about eating artichokes not that long ago, but it didn't include too many pictorial details. That's because I usually eat my artichoke on Shabbat. So last night when I ate an artichoke I took a few pictures and hope that it helps those still in the dark.

Not long ago I discovered that there still are so many Israelis, besides gazillions of others all over the world, who haven't ever tried artichokes. In our family they are considered a great winter delicacy. Of course there are those who eat them just because it's an excuse to eat mayonnaise, but that's not me. If I'm eating one "as a meal," I dip the "petal" in avocado or techina, but if it's a "snack," then I'll just use a bit of olive oil with/without freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Here's the equipment all set up:

• lots of white napkins*
• a bowl or plate for dipping
• a bowl to hold the artichoke and eaten leaves

The is the part you eat.

Dip in good quality olive oil, such as Meshek Achiya משק אחיה, or whatever creamy dip you like, or just eat it straight for the flavor and no fat.

See the teeth marks? This is what an artichoke petal looks like after being eaten. Yes, there is a lot leftover.

*Since "cleaning" an artichoke before cooking never guarantees it will be perfectly clean, keep lots of napkins to wipe on both sides of the petal. The flower is closed, as you can see in the pictures.

Do You Eat "Artichoke?" Here's a "How To" Guide

The artichoke is a vegetable that looks like a flower or the top of asparagus. 

It's one of those foods I had never even heard of, and certainly didn't eat, until we had been in Israel for awhile. Our family loves them and looks forward to having one as a first course at our Shabbat Lunch.

Each artichoke is a portion.

Before cooking, soak the artichokes in salt water to make sure they are clean of bugs. And rinse very well. Then put them in a large pot with lots of water and cook until the "petals" come off easily. We eat artichokes cold or room temperature.

There's a special technique to eating artichokes. Most people like to eat them with dips of some sort, whether techina, olive oil, mayonnaise, freshly squeezed lemon or anything similar you like.

• Pull off a "petal," check that it's clean, and even wipe on a napkin. 
• Dip the fleshy end, which had been attached to the plant, into your "dip," and pull off the flesh and dip with your teeth. It's easier than it sounds.
• After eating most of the petals, you will get to a sort of "bowl," which is known as the "heart." 
• Pull out the hairy stuff filling it. 
• Add some "dip," and enjoy!
• Artichoke hearts can be found in many freezer sections and is considered a delicacy. People stuff them with chopped meat or rice and then cook.

Enjoy, they are worth the challenge.

How to eat Artichokes!