Spicy Red Lentil soup

Ok....I have a confession.....I like lentils. I really do. They are easy, tasty, so versatile....AND CHEAP! Maybe that is why I like them so much hehehe. I am a penny pinching princess. Now I am sure you have not guessed that from my previous postings confessing my love for thrift stores.

Now back to lentils I always keep a few pounds of them around but I normally use the standard greenish laden type. Thanks to WinCo and their wonderful bulk foods section I have been trying out yellow and red lentils. Now I WISH I could remember the price of them per pound. I want to say roughly 75c a pound? Which for this recipe, you will use approximately one pound of red lentils. Now I KNOW this is another soup recipe...it's cold here in Utah and my husband and I are outside quite a bit and nothing warms us better than a nice hot bowl of soup.

So, let's start shall we? Start out with 1 cup red lentils (if you are celiac and purchased them at a bulk food bin like I did, RINSE them thoroughly. Just want to make sure there isn't any trace bits of glutified ickiness in them. You never know what scoops have been in the bin and it's just not worth it NOT to rinse.)

Place the red lentils in 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Use a whisk to break up the chunks of lentils.

Next, add one 1" piece of ginger minced up to the water (or if you found the wonderful bottled minced ginger, use 1 teaspoon). I would use 1/2 a teaspoon ground ginger if you choose to go that route.

Next, add 2 pinches turmeric to the boiling soup. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 10-15 minutes.

(now I took this picture more for looks then anything lol! You will need all of the ingredients listed, I just thought they looked pretty all put together)

Included are fresh sprigs of cilantro, tumeric, cumin seeds, 1 cup halved grape tomatoes, and 3 dried red chiles. I used 3 of my Thai Red Dragons I grew then dried from my garden. You can use just about any sort of red chile pepper. Even left over ancho chiles from your Yucatan Stew ;) If using Anchos, use a half of a pepper and cut into three large strips.

After your lentils have simmered for roughly 10 minutes, start preparing the spices. In a small skillet, warm up 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat. Then add the chili peppers, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon bottled garlic (or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or 2 minced garlic cloves). If the garlic starts to brown too quickly, reduce your heat. You only want to lightly saute the spices in the oil.

After about 5 minutes, add the tomatoes to the spicy oily mix.

Raise heat to a moderate high and saute stirring frequently until the tomatoes start to become tender and the skin is slightly wilted. *note* do not cook the tomatoes to a mushy state. You just want them partially cooked so they retain their structure but are nice and tender.

Once tomatoes are cooked, pour the contents of the skillet into the soup mixture blending well. Stir in a small handful of fresh cilantro (stems removed). Let simmer an additional 5-10 minutes. 

Serve, enjoy, and I DO appologize for the legumely after affects. It IS worth it. I promise hehehe ;)

 

Spicy Red Lentil Soup

cups Water

1 cup Dry Red Lentils

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 whole Dried Red Peppers

1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds

2 pinches Turmeric

1 piece Inch-long Of Ginger Peeled And Minced

2 cloves Garlic (2 Cloves Fresh Equals 1 Teaspoon Of The Bottled Kind)

1 cup Grape Tomatoes, Halved

½ bunches Fresh Cilantro Leaves

Salt And Pepper

In a large sauce pan bring the 4 cups of water and a couple dashes of salt to a boil on high heat. Stir in rinsed red lentils, lower heat to a light simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes.

After 15 or so minutes, warm up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small saucepan on medium heat. Add red peppers (I used Thai Red Dragons, but any spicy red pepper will be great), cumin seeds, turmeric, ginger and garlic. Simmer for 5 minutes then add the grape tomatoes and lightly salt and pepper. Continue cooking on medium until the tomatoes start to become tender. Then, stir tomatoes, spices, and olive oil into the simmering lentils and stir in the fresh cilantro. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.



I need your votes please!

Hello my few but devoted blog followers :) I recently entered a contest for the "Best Gluten Free Recipe" on an online challenge and I need your votes. It's very simple to do and for anyone who has not done so, please please please leave a comment on my thread (that is how the voting works). At the end of the month, the three top recipes with the most comments will be made by the judges and they will then select the best recipe. So for now, I need as many comments on my thread as possible. It's very easy to do and I will be eternally grateful for anyone who leaves a comment :)

First, register Here close that window then go Here to leave a comment. Thats all :) 

If you know anyone who would be willing to vote, pass this along. Please oh please?

Thank you so much and I will have some more tasty gluten and corn free recipes to be blogged shortly.

Jill

Breakfast Quinoa

Happy Wednesday, hump day, week is nearly over day. Lately I have been needing something OTHER than eggs for breakfast. I mean, I love em...but there is only so many ways you can scramble, fry, poach, or cook em up. I needed something different. The tastebuds needed something different. Mornings are also the busiest time for me as I'm getting the hubby ready to go out the door, feeding the munchkin, picking up the house, and figuring out what needs to be on my daily agenda. I need something that is easy and quick. Fortunately this recipe is pretty danged easy (just not as quick as a 5 minute egg hehe). Still, it was worth the wait, full of protein, and oh so delish. Not to mention healthy and a great meal to start out the day. In fact. I am going to warm up my left overs in about 5 minutes...or once I get this post finished up. 

So here you go:

Start out with 1 cup water, 1 cup milk, 1 cup rinsed quinoa, 1 cinnamon stick, and 1 dash of salt. Seeeeee how easy that is? I mean, even ditzy Jill in her most airheaded blonde moment can remember that recipe when she's in a pinch ;)

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan or rice cooker. Bring to a light boil, lower heat, cover, then cook for about 35 minutes. You will want to check it periodically as sometimes the quinoa will get stuck on the sides. Just give the pot (if you are using a saucepan) a good swirling. Otherwise that is it...not a lot of babysitting needed here.

Once cooked, remove the cinnamon stick then top with your favorite fresh berries, milk, cream, half and half, or vanilla almond milk and your choice of sweetener. I'm tellin ya, it's a tasty breakfast. The subtle hints of cinnamon meld so well with the nuttiness of the grain. Not to mention the tart tangy tasty berries you've generously piled on top ;)

Hope y'all enjoy!

Recipe:

Breakfast Quinoa

1 cup water

1 cup milk

1 cup rinsed quinoa

1 cinnamon stick

1 dash salt

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan or rice cooker. Bring to a light boil, lower heat, cover, then cook for about 35 minutes.

Yucatan Pork Stew

Are your tastebuds ready for this? Yucatan Pork Stew. Do I need to say more here? To quote Penelope Cruz in the Kahlua commercial....Deliciouso hehe. Yes, I know, I enjoy watching that commercial (probably not as much as my husband LOL) but yes. I like it. I also like Kahlua too...but that's a whole nother story. We are here to talk pork. Pork roast to be precise.

Start out with a nice well rounded individual...weighing in at about 1lb and cut it up into 2" chunks.

Now drizzle about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and warm it up till it is ripply.

Place the pork chunks in the pan and give some good dashes of salt and pepper. Cook over moderately high heat stirring the meat to brown on all sides.

Next....get yourself a nice yellow onion.

Now dice it up

 While you are dicing up that yeller onion, don't forget about the meat sizzling on the stove. When the chunks are mostly browned, turn off the burner and remove from the heat.

Next....get yourself 1 1/2 large ancho chiles (or in my case, one grande and one pequeno)

Lob off the tops and remove the seeds

Now, get yourself some kitchen shears and cut them into thin strips.

I just adore ancho chiles. The color, robust taste, the textures.

Now, in a large crock pot or slow cooker, add the onions, ancho chiles, 1 heaping teaspoon bottled garlic or 4 crushed cloves, a pinch of ground cloves, 2 bay leaves, 8oz (or roughly 1 1/2 cups) chopped carrots, 1/4 cup cilantro, and 3 cups chicken broth.

Next stir in one 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes and spoon in with a slotted spoon the cooked pork pieces.

Cover and cook on high for at least 3 hours or until the pork is tender. 

Serve over rice (preferably brown rice...it lends a fuller nuttier flavor that compliments the earthiness of the stew). Garnish with fresh cilantro, jalapenos, and lime juice. 

Delicioso

Yucatan Pork Stew

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb pork roast (shoulder or sirloin)

salt and pepper

1 yellow onion diced

1 1/2 large ancho chiles cut into thin strips

1 heaping teaspoon bottled garlic or 4 garlic cloves minced

8oz or roughly 1 1/2 cups chopped carrots

2 bay leaves

pinch of ground cloves

3 cups chicken broth

1 14oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup diced cilantro

Start by warming the olive oil in a large skillet until it’s rippling. Add the pieces of pork roast to the pan and dash with salt and pepper. Cook over moderately high heat stirring constantly allowing pork to brown on all sides (for approximately 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, slice the tops off the ancho chiles and remove the seeds. Using kitchen sheers, cut them vertically into small strips.

In a large crock pot add the onions, jalapenos, broth, garlic, chopped carrots, ancho chile strips, whole can of diced tomatoes, bay leaves, cilantro, and ground cloves.

Next transfer the pork using a slotted spoon into the crock pot. Cook on high (for a slow cooker) for about 3 hours or until pork is tender.

Serve over steamed rice (preferably brown rice, it adds a wonderful nuttiness). Season with additional salt and pepper then garnish it with lime juice and additional cilantro.

Sweet Carrot Soup

Carrots

Did you know that have the highest content of beta carotene (vitamin A) of all vegetable? Or that there is as much calcium in 9 carrots as there is in a glass (250ml) of whole milk? I love carrots. In fact, we go through a behemoth bag of them about every week and a half. I love to sprinkle a little bit of Jonny's seasoned salt on them as a crunchy filling snack. Anyway, one of our favorite carrot dishes (be prepared to enjoy many more carrot dishes in the future) is a simple sweet carrot soup. There are some variations to change it up a bit, but otherwise what makes this soup so delicious is the simplicity of the flavors and the wonderful velvety texture. Yum.

Start out by dicing about a cup's worth of an onion

Meanwhile, warm up about 2 tablespoons olive oil. Once warm, toss in the onions on medium heat. Saute until they start to become tender.

Now, lower your heat and drizzle in 2 tablespoons honey and a dash of salt. Let simmer for roughly 5 minutes. Meanwhile, rinse and chop up 3 cups carrots.

Once your carrots are chopped and the honey and onions have simmered for a few minutes, pour in 2 1/2 cups chicken broth and the carrots. Raise burner temperature to high and bring broth to a boil. Cover then lower heat to a med/high. Simmer for a good 25-35 minutes to allow carrots to soften. While we are waiting for the carrots to cook here's a little bit of carrot humor for ya.

One day two carrots, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over.

The uninjured carrot called 911 and helped his injured friend as best he was able. The injured carrot was taken to emergency at the hospital and rushed into surgery.

After a long and agonizing wait, the doctor finally appeared. He told the uninjured carrot, "I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that your friend is going to pull through."

"The bad news is that he's going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life".

Hehehehehe ;)

Ok, so once your carrots have simmered and are nice and soft. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Then pour into a blender. Puree the soup until it is nice and velvety. 

Serve with sour cream, greek yogurt, cream, or toss in a pad of butter (it's an amazing combo, let me tell you). A variation is if you want a curried kick, stir in 1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder and 1 teaspoon coriander.

Recipe:

1 cup onion diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

3 cups chopped carrots

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

S&P to taste

On medium heat saute the onion with the olive oil for at least 5 minutes or until onion starts to become tender. Drizzle in the honey and add a dash of salt and simmer for another couple minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and carrots and raise burner temperature to high to bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, lower heat to medium/high, then allow to simmer rapidly for at least 25-35 minutes. Once the carrots are tender remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Puree in a blender then transfer back into the pot for easier serving. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with sour cream, Greek yogurt, or a pad of butter. Can add 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder and 1 teaspoon coriander for a curried kick.

Gingered Quinoa

As I have mentioned in prior posts...I love Ginger. Ginger ale, ginger snaps, candied ginger (dip it in some dark chocolate and I nearly go comatose), and cooking with ginger. As I recently found the bottled grated ginger I have been able to experiment more and enjoy it's tangy spicy flavor to my little hearts desire. As rice has been one of the main side dishes to most of my dinners, I really needed something different. Quinoa is such a nutritional powerhouse so I try to make it frequently. The husband really isn't a huge fan of the little seed, but I found that he gobbles it up when I prepare it this way (as well as my munchkin). 

It's very very simple to prepare. If you can cook rice, you can cook quinoa. Normally my "go to gadget" for cooking rice is my little Red Rival rice cooker, but as I am using oil and sauteing I use my cast iron rice pot (I THINK that is what it's called. 

I don't have any pictures of the process today :( BOO! I know. It's so easy to prepare though, there really wasn't much to take pictures of. 

Anyway, start out with 2 teaspoons coconut oil and warm it up on medium. Once the oil is melted and warm (not hot), toss in 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (or that fabulous bottled garlic or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder), 1 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder), and 1/4 cup diced onion. Saute on medium for a good 5-8 minutes or until the onion is tender. Sprinkle in a couple dashes of salt (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) then pour in 2 cups water. Raise the burner temperature to high and bring to a boil. Pour in 1 cup of VERY rinsed quinoa, lower heat to medium/low, cover and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Great thing about quinoa is you are not going to cause it to become sticky and mushy (as rice does) if you lift the lid to check. You can even stir it around a bit when your peeking to see if it's done. 

Recipe:

2 teaspoons Coconut Oil
¼ cups Onion, Diced
1 teaspoon Minced Or Bottled Garlic
1-½ teaspoon Grated Or Bottled Grated Ginger
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 cups Water
1 cup Quinoa

Begin by warming up coconut oil in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Dice the onion and place it in the saucpan along with the garlic, ginger, and salt. Stir and saute on medium low for 5–8 minutes or until the onion becomes tender and translucent. Pour the water in the pan and bring to a boil. Add the rinsed quinoa, lower heat to medium low (medium simmer), cover and cook for 20–25 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked.

Salt and pepper as desired. You can reduce the ginger to 1 teaspoon if you would like a more subtle ginger essence.

French Macaroons

One of my favorite things about learning to cook gluten free is finding recipes that are gluten free, but not meant to be gluten free. This little treasure was found in a cooking magazine I picked up at a local thrift store. I cannot believe how simple they were and how few ingredients you will need. The most expensive item was the Almond Meal/Flour, but even then, it wasn't THAT costly and you don't use a whole lot of it (so you can plop that bag in the freezer for longer keeping).

Line two baking sheets with wax paper (lightly grease if you feel the desire to. It WILL making peeling the little guys off a bit easier). So to start off with these tasty nibble worthy cookies, beat 1/2 cup (3 egg whites) and 2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon sugar in a beater until stiff peaks begin to form.

Not sure why I took the picture at this stage of the beating of the eggs....there are most definitely no stiff peaks hehe.

Next, sift together 1 cup nut meal flour (almond or hazlenut), 2 cups powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl until thoroughly blended.

Next fold in the stiffly peaked eggs.

Now here is where the picture tutorial stops for a moment. The hands got a wee bit sticky and goopy during the next step in the cookie making process. Spoon half of the batter in a pastry bag with a round 1/4" pastry tip. The batter will be runny and is going to drip from the tip. On the wax lined baking sheets, pipe out little piles of goo measuring about 1 1/2" in diameter.

Spoon the remainder of the batter into the pastry bag and repeat. Set cookie sheets aside and let the cookies rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375 at about 15 minutes.

Bake your cookies one cookie sheet at a time at 375 for 5 minutes on the middle rack. Then lower the heat to 325 and bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until the tops start to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and carefully pull the wax paper off the hot sheet and onto the kitchen counter to cool. Repeat the process with baking sheet #2.

While the cookies are cooling prepare the burnt caramel filling by warming in a saucepan 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon honey, 3 tablespoons water, and a pinch of salt. Stir constantly on medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Once dissolved, raise the temperature to high and allow to boil (swirling the pan occasionally).

Allow mixture to continue boiling until it starts turning a golden brown. At that point, remove from heat momentarily and stir in 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream. Stir vigorously until the cream and butter are nicely blended in. Place back on medium heat and simmer until mixture gets nice and carmeley ;)

Set aside and allow to cool partially. Peel cookies off the wax paper (if you haven't done already) then spoon roughly a teaspoon or less worth of caramel in the center of the cookie then lightly press another cookie onto the caramel creating a nice little sandwich. Repeat until you have a lovely assortment of fun little macaroons. 

The cookies had a GREAT flavor and are very crunchy and crispy. Another filling that was quite tasty was a bit of cream cheese and a dollop of jelly of your choice. I think a bitter dark chocolate ganache would also be so divine. Mmmmmmm.

Recipe:

French Macaroon

1 cup nut meal flour (almond or hazlenut)

2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup egg whites (3 egg whites)

Beat egg whites with the 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon sugar until stiff peaks form. Meanwhile sift together nut meal flour, powdered sugar, and pinch of salt. Carefully fold in egg whites to flour mixture. Spoon half of the batter into a pastry bag with a 1/4" tip. Pipe small cookie rounds measuring 1 1/2" in diameter on lightly greased wax paper. Repeat the process with the remaining batter. Set cookies aside and allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. At about 15 minutes, preheat the oven to 375. At 20 minutes, place first baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 5 minutes. Lower heat to 325 and bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until tops of the macaroons turn golden brown. Repeat the process with the second baking sheet. Carefully remove the wax paper with cookies from the hot sheets and onto the kitchen counter to cool.

Caramel filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon honey

pinch of salt

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tablespoon butter

In medium saucepan warm up the sugar, water, honey, and pinch of salt on medium heat stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Increase burner temp to high and allow to rapidly boil until the mixture turns golden brown (picking up pan and swirling periodically). Once mixture is golden brown, briefly remove from heat and stir in butter and cream. Stir rapidly to completely blend ingredients. Place back on medium heat and simmer until mixture becomes thick and caramel-like.