Search Results for "lentil"

It’s summer. It can get HOT. You might be cranky. You definitely don’t want to turn on your oven, or even stand over your stovetop. But you want fresh food that’s good for you, right? [Read more →]

Ah, the best laid plans of bloggers and mothers . . . I’ve been away from the blog, friends, because I’ve been sampling the finest our medical system has to offer here in Boston. [Read more →]

I get asked, a lot, about what’s in my pantry and what others should stock in theirs. [Read more →]

I’m straying from my promised Thanksgiving prep theme here – let me know if you want me to veer back . . . I’m just having so much fun with all these vegetables.  When I started my gig as a stay-at-home mom (which as many of you know, I NEVER in a million years thought I would do), I found (still do) great pleasure and intellectual stimulation in seeking out new ways to cook different foods.  This share’s brought back that old feelin’ again – yesterday’s challenge was what do I do with 10 lbs. of apples and I don’t love radishes, what to do? 

L. loves applesauce.  She also loves to cook – so the logical solution to the too many apples problem was applesauce (better for mama not to have a pie, or apple goodie around the house anyway).  This easy recipe was our afternoon activity yesterday – peeling apples is a kid-friendly task, as is MASHING.  Kids love to mash.  Who can blame ‘em? (BTW, still have 8 apples left . . . hmmmmm).

Baked Apple Sauce

Set aside 2 9×13-inch baking dishes.  Place the apples in the dishes, dividing evenly between the two dishes.  In a small bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla; mix well. Sprinkle over apples. Cover each dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender.  Uncover and mash with a fork or a potato masher.   This stuff is SO delicious.  Depending on your tastes and what sort of apples you use, you can play with the amount of sugar.  This is sweet as is, but not sickeningly so.  It’d be great on oatmeal, atop some fat-free Greek yogurt, mixed into wholegrain pancake batter (or on top of pancakes), as an accompaniment to latkes, etc. etc. 

Next task was radish rescue.  I’ve never been a fan of radishes – I mean, they’re OK, but I’d never buy some to nosh – only to make a salad look pretty or to use as garnish.  I had a beautiful bunch of bright red radishes from the CSA share . . . so I consulted Deborah’s Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone and made up this little ditty.  Cooked radishes are much mellower than their raw cousins - I like them a lot better.  The thyme in this went nicely with my leftover lentil soup.

Braised Red Radishes

 Trim the leaves from the radishes and scrub them clean.  Leave small radishes whole and halve or quarter the larger ones – you are aiming for uniform size (and therefore cooking time) here.  Heat the olive oil in a saute pan and add the shallot and the thyme and cook for 1 minute on medium heat.  Add the radishes, a bit of salt and pepper and enough chicken broth to cover the radishes about halfway.  Cover and simmer, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the radishes are tender, about 20 minutes.  Remove the radishes to a serving dish.  Boil the remaining liquid (there won’t be much left) until only a little bit remains – it’ll be a lovely pinkish color and will be loaded with shallot and studded with the thyme.  Pour this over the radishes, taste for salt and pepper and add more if you wish, and serve.  Serves 2.

Happy Saturday, all.  Today was beautiful ’round Boston - crisp, dry and brilliantly sunny.  This afternoon, I picked up my first Shared Harvest CSA distribution and wowza! do I have some gorgeous looking stuff to prepare in the coming weeks.

Here’s what I got:

• Brussels sprouts
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Sweet red peppers
• Radicchio
• White potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Yellow onions
• Garlic
• Baby bok choy
• Escarole
• Napa cabbage
• Spinach
• Cilantro
• Red radishes
• Red and green leaf lettuce
• Hakeuei turnips
• Butternut squash
• Leeks
• Rutabaga
• Kohlrabi
• 10 lbs. of assorted apples
• 1 lb. of black calypso beans

A ton of stuff.  I’ve already mapped out some recipes for the coming week, including garlicky lentil soup, roasted lettuce, roasted radishes, curried Hakurei turnips, lentils with butternut squash and walnuts, pork tenderloin stir-fry with baby bok choy and clementines, and mmmm, a warm escarole salad with apples, candied walnuts and Saint Andre cheese.  Can’t wait! 

I’ll be posting recipes and providing commentary as I go along – there are a few things here I’ve never had . . . .  Stay tuned!

Some of you who know me know that I’m currently sporting this crazy brace – I have terrible tendinitis in my left leg/ankle and this thing is supposed to give my leg a rest and help decrease the inflammation.  The jury’s still out on whether it’s making any difference in the tendon, but the verdict otherwise is that it’s a huge pain in the a** to wear around.  It weighs over 5 lbs. on its own, and comes up to just below my knee.

For some, takeout would be the way to go, but now, more than ever, I want a healthy meal at dinnertime.  I can hardly exercise at all, and, well, I’m “of a certain age” such that exercising is pretty much a necessity – unless I want to show off everything I eat on my lower-half.  So I’m trying to find more convenient dinners that minimize prep but which also emphasize healthy components.  And where do I go for inspiration?  Trader Joe’s, of course.  [Read more →]