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Summer salad the first: Lentil Salad

shadowspar: Pic of rolling pin and dough w/ caption "That's how I roll" (that's how I roll)
Saturday, August 6th, 2011 13:09
  • Dressing
    • 2 tablespoons white or red balsamic vinegar
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • ⅛ teaspoon pepper
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Salad
    • 1 cup dried lentils, sorted, rinsed
    • 2 bell peppers, quartered lengthwise
    • ¼ cup sliced green onions
    • 2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
    • 4 leaves of leaf lettuce (optional garnish)
    • 2 oz. (1/2 cup) crumbled feta cheese

Procedure:

  1. In small nonmetal bowl, combine all dressing ingredients; blend well. Refrigerate.
  2. Heat grill. In medium saucepan, combine lentils and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until lentils are tender but not mushy. Drain; rinse with cold water to cool. Drain well.
  3. Place peppers on gas grill over medium heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium coals. Cook 4 to 6 minutes or until crisp-tender and grill-marked, turning occasionally. Alternatively, roast peppers in a 400℉ oven. Remove peppers from grill; let stand until cool enough to handle.
  4. Optional: peel skins off of the peppers. This will go more easily if you put them into a sealed container after removing them from the grill or oven; the residual heat & moisture helps "sweat" the skins off.
  5. Cut peppers into 1/2 inch pieces.
  6. In large bowl, combine cooked lentils, bell peppers, onions and basil. Pour dressing over salad; toss gently to coat.
  7. To serve, line individual plates with lettuce. Spoon salad onto lettuce. Top with cheese.

Makes 4 (1 cup) servings.

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Greek red lentil soup

shadowspar: Pic of rolling pin and dough w/ caption "That's how I roll" (that's how I roll)
Thursday, February 10th, 2011 21:57

How have I not posted this yet? I DON'T EVEN KNOW.

This is a great warming recipe for winter. It's thick enough, especially after a night in the fridge, that I like to serve it over rice like curry.

It's from the Rebar Cookbook, the best cookbook in the history of forever. Go buy it, and be sure to go eat at Rebar if you're ever in Victoria, BC, Canada. Trust me, you won't regret either decision.

Greek Red Lentil soup

  • 2 cups red lentils, sorted, rinsed
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 ea large yellow onion
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 8 cloves garlic
  • 2 ea carrots, diced
  • 1 tsp cracked black pepper
  • ¼ tsp red chile flakes
  • 1 tbsp minced rosemary
  • 2 tbsp minced oregano
  • 2 ea bay leaves
  • 8 cups vegetable stock
  • zest of ½ lemon
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 2 tsp minced rosemary
  • additional cracked black pepper to taste

Sauté onion with 1tsp salt until translucent. Add garlic, carrot, pepper, chile flakes, herbs, bay leaves & remaining salt. Stir well & sauté until the until the carrots are just tender. Add lentils & stock; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until the lentils are soft and falling apart.

Remove bay leaves. The soup can be puréed or left as is.

Season the soup with lemon zest, lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste. Before serving, stir together the feta cheese + 2tsp rosemary. Sprinkle over hot bowls of soup & serve.

ETA: Two things re this:

  • The herb measures listed up there are for fresh herbs. We usually end up with fresh rosemary, but never fresh oregano -- swapping it out for 2tsp of dried instead seems to give a good result. =)
  • Just a heads-up: how lemon-y the soup gets can be highly variable, depending on how large/sour/juicy the lemons you get are, and how aggressively you zest and juice them. I've ended up giving myself a big lemony punch in the face by dumping all the lemon materiel in without tasting, so, uh, maybe don't do that if that's not the kind of thing you enjoy. ^_^;;
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Weekend breakfast: Buckwheat Hotcakes

shadowspar: Pic of rolling pin and dough w/ caption "That's how I roll" (that's how I roll)
Saturday, October 9th, 2010 09:42

This one's become so much of a ritual that I can pretty much recite it by now.

  • ½ cup unbleached AP flour
  • ¼ cup whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup buckwheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt (omittable)
  • 2 eggs (we use Kingsmill powdered egg replacer in lieu)
  • 1½ cups buttermilk (or, using the standard "mock buttermilk" formula, 1½cups milk + 1½tbsp vinegar or lemon juice. soymilk works in this formulation too)
  • 2 tbsp fancy molasses (or, if you never have it either, 2 tbsp of dark brown sugar makes a nice sub)

Standard pastry drill: mix dry, mix wet, wet into dry. These turn out a bit denser than garden variety pancakes, so I like to cook them a bit longer at a bit lower temp. They're a great platform for funky stuff like cranberry butter as well as the more traditional maple syrup.

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