Someday, oh someday, I will buy a camera that is not the first generation of digital picture-taking and the pics I post will be lovely. That day, of course, is not today. Not-so-nice picture notwithstanding, this is a delicious stew that came together (despite me forgetting what I wanted to be the main ingredient- red lentils).
Since I have all of this time on my hands sans job *until Monday* I have been taking time to make interesting food this week. I made garbanzo bean and roasted broccoli pasta with sundried tomato and roasted red pepper quinoa pasta with a friend on Monday, this dish (sort of, I used tahini instead of vegan mayo, because vegan mayo tastes like egg mayo and is therefore yucky, plus mine had tons of red cabbage in the mix) two nights ago and stew last night. It's been nice- I have also been making lots of steel-cut oats for breakfast and making green juice almost everyday.
Anyways, I had the idea for an Indian-esque red lentil and mushroom stew... but then I forgot to buy red lentils. So, I decided to use the green and black lentils I had on hand. This changed the stew texture immensely- it's more like plain-old cooked lentils with some sauce and not like stew-ish- which meant that the lentils provided the bite as much as the mushrooms (so I used less mushrooms and have been throwing them in salads instead). The results were still delicious- although not the texture/color I had originally intended.
Quick note- I usually do not blend spices. I thought I would give it a try and used blended chile de arbol and cinnamon stick (it worked, but I will probably just use ground cinnamon and red pepper flakes next time). I also do not really measure spices, as I have said before, so these are estimates- use more or less however you would like.
Ingredients:
-1 cup of lentils (I used green and black, but red would likely be better)
-1 medium onion, diced
-small piece of ginger 1 or 1/2 inch, diced
-3-4 garlic cloves, minced
-4-5 cups of veggie broth (I used 1 veggie cube and regular water. I have a stock bag in the freezer I will get to sometime soon!)
-1 can (mine was 6 oz) of tomato paste
- 4 oz or so of mushrooms (more if using red lentils, as this would provide the texture in the stew)
- oil for frying onions, ginger and garlic
Spice Blend
-1 inch piece of cinnamon
- 1/3-1/4 c of dried red chiles
(Blend first two together in spice grinder-- if you have whole cloves, etc... blend those too!)
-heaping helpful of paprika (1-2 tablespoons. I had smoked on hand, it was good)
- 1 tsp of dried thyme
- pinch of cloves
- pinch of nutmeg
- plenty of cracks of black pepper
- 1 tsp (or more, I really like color) tumeric
After I smelled it and decided it did not smell spiced enough, I also added:
- 1/4 or so tsp of garam masala
- 1/4-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
Directions:
1. Rinse and sort the lentils and soak for approximately 1 hour. Drain.
2. Heat enough oil to saute the onion (1-2 tsp usually works for me if you stir frequently enough) over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft (5-8 minutes). Add garlic and ginger and fry for about a minute more.
3. Add tomato paste and tumeric,stirring to coat everything and a splash of water to deglaze the pan.
4. Add in spice mixture and veggie cube
5. Add in water and lentils and bring to a boil. Lower to simmer, cover and cook until desired consistency is reached (40-45 minutes).
I must say that I like this stew a lot. It would definitely be better with red lentils (I think) for texture-sake-- and might be perfect in the cooler days as well since it is warm and spicy. I served it over plain brown rice, but it would also be good with *vegan* naan or rotis.
I also made curried cabbage from Appetite for Reduction. Since, it's like, totally copyrighted I won't post the recipe, but it's basically cabbage, carrot, pea, onion, garlic, ginger, liquid and curry powder. go crazy. It was super good and simple. I have always really liked raw and pickled cabbage, but am only recently starting to like cooked cabbage. The only time I really eat cooked cabbage is at one of these two vegan Nepali buffets in Boulder, so I thought I would stick with similar flavors for my own attempts at cooked cabbage. There are a couple of other cooked cabbage recipes in AFR that I want to try...hoping that I continue to like it! Anyways, here is a pic of how it turned out:
Delightful.
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