Bringing back a classic

yesterday, I brought back my favorite standby: masoor daal.

The recipe can be found here:
masoor daal

I had the foresight to soak the lentils before I left for rocky horror live on saturday night (say what you will, but it's a fantastic show), so when I got home from work yesterday all I had to do was add in the spices and ginger.

An added bonus is that my apartment smelled like indian food for the rest of the night.

Recipe: Red Lentil Curry

yup, I'm still working on that same bag of red lentils, but I got bored with the recipe I've been using since my junior year of college. This recipe was a welcome breath of fresh air!

ingredients:
2 cups red lentils
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons curry paste
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ginger root, minced
1 (14.25 ounce) can tomato puree

directions:
1. Wash the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear (this is very important or the lentils will get "scummy"), put the lentils in a pot with water to cover and simmer covered until lentils tender (add more water if necessary).
2. combine the curry paste, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, salt, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Mix well. cook over a high heat stirring constantly for 1 to 2 minutes in a frying pan with oil.
4. Stir in the tomato puree and reduce heat, allow the curry base to simmer until the lentils are ready.
5. When the lentils are tender drain them briefly (they should have absorbed most of the water but you don't want the curry to be too sloppy). Mix the curry base into the lentils and serve immediately.

serves 8

this recipe originally called for an onion, but my dislike for onions was reason enough for me to omit the ingredient. Regardless, this was delicious! I thought it was a little on the mild side.

Recipe: Spinach, Red Lentil, and Bean Curry

I found this recipe when I was searching allrecipes for new ways to use my giant bag of red lentils in my pantry. I was sold on this recipe by the title alone. With a few alterations, this recipe was delicious!

ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
1/4 cup tomato puree
1/2 (8 ounce) container plain yogurt
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground dried turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger root, grated
4 cups loosely packed fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
1 (15.5 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

directions:
1. Rinse lentils and place in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Drain.
2. In a bowl, stir together tomato puree and yogurt. Season with garam masala, turmeric, cumin, and chili powder. Stir until creamy.
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and ginger. Stir in spinach; cook until dark green and wilted. Gradually stir in yogurt mixture. Then mix in tomatoes and cilantro.
4. Stir lentils and garbanzo beans into mixture until well combined. Heat through, about 5 minutes.

serves 4

Recipe: Baba Ghanouj

In my continuing quest to finish off the food in my kitchen, I am trying to make the most of the large jar of tahini sitting in my fridge. I finished off my black bean hummus over the weekend and was going to make some more, but then decided to try something different when I went to whole foods to buy some beans. I ended up buying an eggplant and making baba ghanouj, instead.

ingredients:
1 large eggplant, cut in half lengthwise
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1.5 tbsp olive oil

directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees. pierce skin of eggplant all over with a fork and place eggplant cut-side down on a baking sheet lined with foil and bake in oven for 20 minutes.
once the eggplant has cooled off, scoop the inside of it into a blender and discard skin. add the tahini, lemon juice, and sesame seeds to blender and puree until smooth. add olive oil and continue to puree until well blended.

yields 1.5 cups

Recipe: Yellow Curried Tofu with Veggies

This was more of an experiment than anything else. I bought a relatively large container of yellow curry paste during my trip to Jungle Jim's and decided it was time to put it to use. There were directions on the back for a typical curry dish, but I altered it to make it vegetarian friendly and cut it down so it only made two servings instead of five. Below is the ingredients and directions for my version of the recipe.

ingredients:
4 tsp yellow curry paste
1/2 tbsp peanut oil
9 tbsp coconut milk, divided
3 tbsp water
2/5 block extra-firm tofu, drained
2 cups broccoli florets
1.5 cups sugar snap peas

directions:
in a wok or large frying pan, stir-fry yellow curry paste, peanut oil, and 6 tbsp coconut milk. add tofu, water, and remaining 3 tbsp coconut milk and bring to a low boil. add broccoli and sugar snap peas, continuing to stir-fry until the vegetables have softened.

I ate this over brown rice, though in hindsight I should have considered using my soba noodles, instead.

Lentil Recipe

it's hard for me to recall what I did before I discovered the wonder of lentils. they have become a staple in my vegetarian diet for multiple reasons-they are cheap, filling, and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

those of you who are familiar with lentils know that the trick to cooking a successful lentil dish is to soak them before cooking them. Most people recommend soaking lentils for 24 hours before cooking them. Kudos to those of you who have that sort of foresight. I am usually lucky if I can soak them an hour and a half or so before cooking them, though it does make a difference. Luckily, I remembered that I was planning on making lentils for dinner this morning before I left for yoga class, so I managed to start soaking them at around 8:30 this morning. This meant that the cooking time was reduced from the normal 30 plus minutes to about five minutes.

unfortunately, I did not realize that I was out of naan. yes, I could've made a quick run to whole foods to grab some, but I decided that I'd rather just stick some instant rice in the microwave. of course, this turned into the jar of homemade hot cocoa mix i had sitting on top of the microwave falling over and creating a huge mess in my kitchen area. I really need a bigger cooking area.

here is the recipe:

Easy Masoor Daal (aka red lentils)

ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
1 1-inch slice of ginger, peeled and chopped
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp vegetable oil
4 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp cumin seeds

directions:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly and place in a medium saucepan along with ginger, turmeric, salt and cayenne pepper. Cover with about 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that forms on top of the lentils. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and soupy.
2. Meanwhile, in a microwave safe dish combine oil, dried onion and cumin seeds. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute; be sure to brown, but not burn, onions. Stir into lentil mixture

serves 4

the main reason why I chose to make this recipe for dinner tonight was because of my schedule. Some of you know that on sundays I drive down to Gennesee to volunteer at a therapeutic riding facility. Because the facility is a good 50 minute drive each way and I help out with the pm feed, I often don't get home until somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00. I like to be in bed by 10 because I get up at 6 to go to work the next day. This means I have roughly three hours to shower the horse smell off of me, eat dinner, and prepare my lunch/coffee for the next day. this is further complicated by the fact that my school's monthly school governance council meeting is tomorrow, which means I won't get home until 7 pm. obviously, i wanted to make a dinner that was simple and could provide leftovers that were easy to reheat. that's exactly what this dish is.