a recipe search

Earlier this week I went searching for a (new to me) recipe for red lentil carrot soup. I found several, settling on a recipe from The Herbeevore, Red Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk Recipe (Vegetarian, High Fiber).

I almost followed the recipe. I didn't use the specified coconut oil, doubled the carrots, skipped the parsley, and added a can of chick peas. The coconut milk is added at the very end. I tasted the soup before and after the addition. It was good without the coconut milk but so much better with it.

I'm so glad I found this recipe!

photo courtesy of The Herbeevore

If you'd like to try it, click to the recipe.

a soup day

An article in the Washington Post last week titled "6 vegetable-filled soups to help you counterbalance that rich holiday food" caught my eye. It includes several recipes that I immediately thought I needed to try.

Since today was chilly and gray, it felt like a good day for soup.

Today's soup was Apricot and Red Lentil Soup. Red lentils form a favorite soup base, and the addition of apricots sounded interesting. I liked the combination of savory and sweet.

If you're not an apricot fan it seems like using a different dried fruit would be a reasonable change.

photo credit: Goran Kosanovic for The Washington Post

If you're interested in trying this soup, click here for the recipe.

a soup day

Today was a sunny warmish winter day; it felt like a good day for soup.

I looked for a recipe for tomato rice soup, starting with cookbooks and then moving on to the web. I found a one that looked interesting on the Tori Avey's site.

The first step in creating tonight's tomato rice soup was to saute chopped onions, carrots, and celery, followed by throwing the tender vegetables into a blender with some tomatoes. This was the start of a smooth base for the soup. That's a step I never would have guessed!

The recipe called for either chopped fresh tomatoes or for canned tomatoes. I moved away from canned tomatoes a long time ago, using Pomi chopped tomatoes instead. Instead of the 3 14-ounce cans called for by the recipe, I used 2 26-ounce boxes. That worked!

I've just started wandering through some of the other recipes on the site. I plan to continue to try recipes from there. It feels like a good time to experiment with food!

If you're interested in trying this tomato rice soup, click to the recipe.

photo courtesy of Tori Avey

recipes!

Someone referred me to the website Forks Over Knives a while ago. It's a site focusing on a plant-based diet, offering recipes as well as articles and some fee-based courses / planners. I wandered through the recipes when I first connected with the site, bookmarking it for future reference.

Last week I tried my first recipe from there, a split pea & cauliflower soup. It was interesting; while the split peas were softening (cooking!) it said to "sweat the vegetables... until the cauliflower starts to brown and the onions become translucent". The term was explained, and the directions were quite clear.

The soup was tasty! I know I will be playing with more recipes from Forks Over Knives; I need to decide which recipe is my next target.

If you're interested in trying the split pea & cauliflower soup, click to the recipe.

photo courtesy of Forks Over Knives

soup day

I had quinoa on my mind today; it seemed like a good starting ingredient for a pot of soup. I searched for a starting point, finding a recipe for quinoa corn soup. My soup didn't match the recipe but it made me happy.

Quinoa, carrot, and corn soup:

12 cups water 3/4 cup quinoa 1 can garbanzo beans 1 bag of frozen bi-color corn 8 carrots, sliced cumin coriander red pepper flakes garlic freshly ground black pepper a bit of salt

I combined the water, quinoa, and spices, placing the pot on high heat until the mixture began to boil. I turned the heat to low, cooking the mixture for about 15 minutes. I then added garbanzo beans, corn, and carrots and continued cooking until the carrots were a good texture. Done!

I always make what might appear (to others) to be too much soup. I like having enough to freeze portion-sized containers for later.

It was a rainy day today, a good soup day!

red lentil magic

Red lentils make a good base for soup, one that is a favorite of mine. Recently I've found that cooking up red lentils as a sauce to toss with vegetables makes a quick, tasty, and healty meal.

Red lentil and vegetables:

4 cups water 1 cup red lentils 1-2 tablespoons ground cumin red pepper flakes garlic 1 block extra firm tofu, cubed vegetables of your choice from tonight's variation: 3 sweet potatoes, cut into cubes 6 carrots, sliced 1 bag of frozen white corn

Place the red lentils and water into a pot and bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, remove the white froth floating on top and reduce the head to low. Add spices as desired. Add the tofu to the lentil mixture (if desired), stir.

Add a lid, leaving it open a crack.

Cook the red lentil mixture on low for 30 to 40 minutes, until the lentils are soft.

While the lentils are cooking, prepare the other vegetables. I usually use the microwave to cook each of the vegetables but any method of cooking would work. As the vegetables are cooked, add them to a large bowl.

When the lentils are cooked, pour them over the mixed vegetables. Toss the vegetable and lentil mixture. Serve.

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This concoction makes enough food for me a dinner plus lunches for the entire week.

You can easily use the recipe as a starting point, decreasing or increasing the amounts to meet your needs.

If you're interested in the nutritional value of red lentils, I found a concise summary at the bottom of this page on Bob's Red Mill site.

recipe variation

It was a beautiful fall day today, a day with a touch of crispness in the air. It felt like a good day for soup.

My big pots of soup usually start with a recipe but they often finish as a variation on a theme. Today I started with the ingredients for Soup #1, red lentil base shown in this blog post, adding a bit, changing a bit. I added quinoa, removed the chopped onion, and changed the spices a little.

This tasty recipe gave me dinner for tonight, plus soup for lunches this week and some for the freezer. I always freeze my soup creations in serving-sizeed containers so I can pull it out whenever the desire hits.

Red lentil and vegetable soup:

10 cups vegetable broth 1 pound red lentils several garlic cloves 1-2 tablespoons ground cumin red pepper flakes basil leaves 1 15-ounce can chick peas 1 pound carrots, sliced 6 stalks celery, sliced 4 sweet potatoes, quartered and sliced 2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1 pound corn (frozen) 1 cup quinoa 1 15-ounce block of extra firm tofu, cubed

I started by bringing the broth to a boil, adding the spices and red lentils, then changing the heat to medium while the lentils cook. At the same time I combined the cup of quinoa with 2 cups of water, brought it to a boil, then lowered the heat. The quinoa finished cooking in about 15 minutes.

When the lentils started to soften (after about 15 minutes) I added the remaining vegetables and tofu, waiting about 10 minutes to allow the the carrots and potatoes to cook before adding the quinoa as well.

It's always good to have a favorite recipe as a starting point - but variety is good too.

a good soup day

The temperature outside today was not quite as chilly as it was earlier in the week but it still felt like a good day for soup. The soup I make most often has a red lentil base but it was time for a change. Today's soup was a good change of pace, starting with a split pea base and then loading it up with vegetables. Yum!

A recipe of sorts:

Split Pea Vegetable Soup Preparation & cooking time: about 2 hours 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped 3 cups split peas 12 cups vegetable broth 1 pound of tofu, diced 1 pound carrots, sliced 3 small potatoes, diced 2 zucchini, sliced 1 bag frozen white sweet corn 1 bag frozen edamame cumin garlic powder red pepper flakes Combine the onion, split peas, vegetable broth, tofu, and spices in a large stock pot. Bring to a boil, then lower heat. Cook over low heat for 1 1/2 hours or until the peas are soft. Place the soup in a blender (in batches) and blend until smooth, returning the soup to the stock pot. Add (your own mixture of) vegetables, continuing to cook over low heat until the vegetables are cooked to your desired consistency. Usually 15 to 30 minutes is the right amount of time for me.

I know, I know, that's a lot of soup!

I had a big bowl of soup for dinner, placing the rest of the soup into serving size containers. Five servings went into the refrigerator for lunches this week, five went into the freezer for meals on days when I don't feel like cooking.

Did I tell you I like soup?

Soup season

Stirring up a big pot of soup, comfort food, warmth on cool (or cold!) days...

I tend to make soup in the colder months of the year, filling a very large stock pot with interesting ingredients, making enough for a number of hearty meals. I freeze the leftovers - yes, most of contents of my big pot - in meal-sized containers. I fooled myself into thinking that I follow recipes, but then...

Someone asked for a copy of the recipe I use for red lentil soup. I grabbed the cookbook, read the recipe, and realized that the concoction that I'd just created had little resemblance to the recipe I thought I was using.

Here's the original recipe, from Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine:

Red Lentil Soup Masoor Dal Shorba Preparation & cooking time: about 30 minutes 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 medium-size onion, peeled & chopped 12 peppercorns 4 bay leaves, crumbled 3 3/4 cups chicken stock 1/2 pound masoor dal (split red lentils), picked over, washed, drained 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 3 dry red chiles, seeded (optional) Salt 1/4 - 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger root, grated Head the oil in a large saucepan over low head. Add the onion & cook until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the peppercorns & bay leaves, cook 5 minutes longer. Add the chicken stock, 1 cup water, the drained red lentils, parsley, chiles, and salt to taste. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. When soup begins to boil, add the grated ginger. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes, or until the lentils are very soft, and serve.

Following this recipe yields a very nice soup, but it appears it's not a soup that I've had for quite a long time - even though I make red lentil soup quite often (during soup season). As it turns out, the last two batches of red lentil soup that I made shared only a few of the ingredients listed above.

Instructions for my version of the soup differ just a little from those shown above. I start by sauteing onions and garlic in a small amount of vegetable oil. Then I add broth and seasonings. Once the broth is close to boiling, I add the red lentils, changing the heat to low, starting a slow (but quick) cook.

I usually use 8 cups of vegetable broth and a pound of red lentils because I like to have lots of soup to put away. One cooking session usually gives me 10 to 12 big servings of soup, some for lunch the following week, some to be frozen for future meals.

Here are my ingredient lists for the latest two variations of this recipe:

Soup #1, red lentil base:

8 cups vegetable broth 1 pound red lentils 1 large onion several garlic cloves 1-2 tablespoons ground cumin red pepper flakes ground ginger 1 15-ounce can chick peas 1 pound carrots, sliced 6 stalks celery, sliced 4 sweet potatoes, quartered and sliced 1 pound corn (frozen) 1 15-ounce block of extra firm tofu, cubed

Soup #2, red lentil + tomato base:

7 cups vegetable broth 1 pound red lentils 1 large onion several garlic cloves 1 tablespoons ground cumin 1-2 teaspoon basil leaves red pepper flakes 1 26-ounce box chopped tomatos 1 15-ounce can chick peas 1 pound carrots, sliced 6 stalks celery, sliced 1 pound corn (frozen) 1 pound edamame (frozen) 2 small zucchini, quartered and sliced 1 15-ounce block of extra firm tofu, cubed

Cooking time is usually under an hour, with my time in the kitchen actively working, combining ingredients, slicing vegetables working out to somewhat less than that.

It doesn't look like I followed the recipe, does it?

So tell me, do you follow recipes, or do you use them as loose suggestions?