Green Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Warm Spices

from Orangette

check out her entry for this soup, with fabulous photos. click here.

Green Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Warm Spices
Per Orangette's recommendation, I served this with a squeeeze of lime, sriracha, and fresh cilantro.

I made it as the following says, without doing the clarified butter:

"Also, about the butter: if you want to use less, I think you could. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll bet it wouldn’t make a wink of difference, flavor-wise, if you added all the spices in the beginning, with the garlic, rather than adding some then and some later. That way, you could nix the clarified butter – a bit of a fussy step, anyway – and scratch three tablespoons of butter from the recipe."

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 ½ tsp. turmeric
6 cups vegetable stock, preferably from this recipe
1 ½ cups French green lentils, picked over for stones and other debris
½ tsp. ground cardamom
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
A pinch of nutmeg
A few grinds of black pepper
1 ¼ cups coconut milk
¼ tsp. fine sea salt, plus more to taste

In a soup pot or Dutch oven, warm 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is translucent. Turn the heat down to medium, and add the garlic, thyme, and turmeric. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is lightly browned and very soft.

Add the stock and the lentils, bring to a simmer, and cook for 25-30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and tender.

In a small saucepan, warm the remaining 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat. When the butter is entirely liquefied, there will be a foamy white layer on top. Skim it away and discard it. What you’ll have left is clarified butter – a clear, yellow liquid – and a bit of white sediment at the bottom of the pan, which are the milk solids. Carefully pour the clarified butter into a small bowl or cup; then rinse the sediment out of the pan. Return the clarified butter to the pan, and place it over medium heat. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, and warm them, stirring, until they are very fragrant, a minute or two.

Pour the clarified butter and spices into the soup. Add the coconut milk, and stir well. Cook for about 15 minutes to blend the flavors. Taste, and adjust the salt as necessary. Serve.

Note: Like many things with complex spicing, this soup improves with time. It’s great on the first day, but it’s even better on the second.

Yield: 4-6 servings

spinach

after countless times of spellcheck fixing the way i've tried to spell it,

i have finally learned my lesson:

spinach.

speaking of spinach, i'm drinking it now and it's NEVER tasted better.

i did the same blended salad that i did yesterday/

fresh carrot juice

a huge handful of spinach

a frozen banana

+

a huge handful of frozen blueberries

and i had to add a bit of orange juice because there wasn't enough liquid.

it's so good! i can't wait until my housemates come back from thanksgiving trips so i can give them samples!

blended salad

veggies are so pretty.

i ended up running a bit late to thanksgiving, because i was so captivated by the colors

of the kale and my favorite green bowl.

showing up to a thanksgiving meal late with a salad makes for an

unintended win-win situation.

i ended up bringing much of my salad back home with me, because everyone was already full, but it's so good and i get to have it for lunch today, that's my win.

here's the RECIPE for the garlicky kale salad.

i stopped by the ewings house (the ones who inspired me to start eating this way)

to see the family, as they are all spread across the states

and

be re-inspired for my journey-of-vegetable-love.

patty said one of her favorite things is this:

a blended salad

carrots

spinach

frozen banana

(don't let this fool you, i still have not spelled spinach right on my own)

juice the carrots

blend the carrot juice, spinach and banana.

it was amazingly delicious.

time consuming and my whole dish dryer is full of appliance parts, but it's so worth it to start off the day with something that nutritious.

cabbage

Yesterday during my break between classes I was pondering cabbage. I wasted spent my time getting ideas from my wonderful facebook companions and I also stumbled upon this project. Between two said distractions, I got no school work done. But I feel inspired, both for the art of storytelling and the art of cooking cabbage. Sixteen people who responded to my plea for cabbage inspiration, I compiled all of their ideas into a word doc and printed it (if you want it, email me) Today I tried Kellie's recipe (because it looked super good and I had all of the ingredients on hand) and it turned out really well!

A small handful of pinenuts

A bit of olive oil

Some golden rasins

An apple or two, chopped small

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Cabbage (I used half a head, more would've been fine too!)
1/2 cup water
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Toast the pine nuts on a dry saucepan on a medium heat until they're golden brown. Add a tad bit of oil and continue to toast the pine nuts for half a minute. Add the raisins and chopped apple and saute for a couple of minutes until the apple is soft. Add the balsalmic, cabbage and water. Put a lid on it and put it on a low heat, let it steam until the cabbage is wilted!

Add a bit of salt, pepper and sriracha and it's quite tasty! Sweet & Spicy! Very edible.

gingery carrot juice

i could seriously drink straight carrot juice all the time, it's delicious!

but if i was stranded on an island and had a juicer and only one other ingredient other than carrot, to add to the juice. GINGER would be my choice. if i lived a comfortable life in columbus, ohio with grocery stores in every direction other additions to my carrot juice would be apples, pomegranate juice (POM), cucumber and a bit of OJ. you don't have to use all of those at once, but those are typically the things i experiment with if i'm wanting to keep the color orange!

you can add kale, spinach (confession, i used spellcheck. i'm going to have to do the old school copy-it-one-hundred-times by hand to learn the proper spelling), celery, parsley and i've heard cilantro is great too!

lentils plus

a week ago: the first day i started this fruits, veggies, beans & nuts lifestyle change, i made a pot of lentil soup. thinking i'd eat it the next two-three days. wrong, i've been eating it all 8. next time i'll make 1/2 a pot or less! lentils expand so much! i made it without salt. onions, carrots, peppers, parsley and lentils and cumin. it was less than tasty (as it was) but every time i ate it i tried something new with it. today i hit the jackpot. i reaheated it and added several splotches of sriacha, then put a pile of spinach on top with some salad dressing (tomato and tahini) and a spoonful of cashew butter. it was amazing. spicy, flavorful, filling.

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK:

learn to spell spinich/ spiniach/ spinich spinach

make a delicious black bean soup

love cabbage

not accidentally eat turkey

Kale & Cabbage

I think that a good way to get to know veggies better, is picking out one and working with it for several days on end untilI feel like we're on friendly enough terms that I can start seeing other vegetables without losing touch or trust. The past week, it's been Kale. I've experimented with baked Kale chips, kale in the juicer and a garlicky kale salad (special thanks to the Ewings for sharing the recipe) It was alright on day one, and amazing the second time I made it (I didn't use a measuring spoon the first time and also forgot an ingredient)

Garlicky Kale Salad

1/2 bunch raw kale (washed, de-stemmed and dried)
1 T tahini
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1 T Bragg’s liquid aminos (soy sauce alternative)
2 T cashew butter
1 tsp. minced
minced garlic (2 cloves of garlic)
sesame seeds

Cut the Kale into bite sized pieces.

Puree all ingredients except kale and sesame seeds in a blender or food
processor to blend the dressing.

Pour dressing over kale and massage into the kale with your hands until all pieces of kale are coated. (Massaging veggies is pretty fun)

Sprinkle on sesame seeds!

(*If you have extra time, you can leave it to marinate in the fridge for an hour, which softens the kale and makes it a bit less intimidating. My opinion is that it tastes fine without that though)

The next few days, I will endeavor to fall in love with cabbage. I'll be back to share what I find.

gospel aerobics

something more personal coming later, but here's a fun workout video my housemates and I came across on youtube!

Paul Eugene is our favorite.

six days and counting

the really fun thing about this journey is learning to be creative. using colorful foods, mixing flavors.... being green. i started this meal with the intent of using some veggies i had around (pepper, onion, spinach, frozen corn). i started by sauteing garlic, ginger and a few drops of olive oil and then added the veggies and adding a bit of liquid aminos (soy sauce alternative). it was delicious. like fried rice sans the "fried" and the "rice"

some of my housemates are on board (they're all open to trying the samples i've frequently been offering) with cooking and sharing meals comprised of mostly veggies, and experimenting with the juicer! yesterday and today we ate garlicky kale salad! so good, i'll post the recipe and my thoughts about it later.

so far we've made green and orange colors of juice.

the orange one tastes delicious.

several carrots

a couple of apples

a nice knob of ginger

a bit of orange juice

a bit of pomegranate juice

juice & enjoy!

for what? you ask

Welcome to my new project.

It's more than writing, it requires my hands, my head, my mouth and hopefully my heart will join in too.

This journey is a green one. I'm trying to live on a simple diet of fruits, veggies and some beans and nuts.

A huge part of this is getting my friends to love veggies with me.

In the first 5 days of this "project" or eating-the-garden lifestyle have been quite an adventure. Costing me my free time, my convenience and my budget. But I think that eating this way is worth it and it's been an interesting route of creativity and innovation, making veggies work.

Monday I posted a facebook status asking if anyone had a juicer they were trying to give away or sell, within 3 hours I had several offers and by nightfall, I had traded a future-photoshoot for Karin & Josh's once-used wedding present.

Since then, I've been experimenting and some things have worked really well. This blog is not only a place to rant, process and show-n-tell but also a place where I can keep a record of recipes, concoctions and "to-try later's" Encouraged by roommates who liked the "samples" I've been passing around, I will try and post frequently, and keep this blog well fed with updates on my relationship (with veggies, that is).