Springtime on a Plate

The weather is warming up ever-so-slowly here, and to celebrate our new-found meltiness, Josh and I made one of our favorite simple warm-weather meals last week: a tomato and pesto panini with a Greek lentil salad.  The panini was so simple as to be unworthy of discussion–if you can buy pesto at the store, just do it.  Slather it on bread with some cheese and sliced tomatoes (this time of year, I only buy grape or cherry tomatoes, since the bigger ones are invariably disappointing), and then toast the whole thing.

For the lentil salad, I cooked about 1.5 cups of green lentils in nearly 3 cups of salted water with whole garlic cloves for about half an hour.  When the lentils were getting tender, I removed them from the heat and let them cool to about room temperature, while preparing the rest of the ingredients for the salad.  To put it all together, combine the following in a bowl:

• cooked and cooled lentils
• grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• one small cucumber, peeled and diced
• one clove of garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp of fresh dill, chopped
• lemon juice to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Toss gently to combine, and enjoy!  The salad is the best of what I love about warm-weather food: big, bold flavors that are still simple and refreshing.  And when the house actually does get hot, this salad is an even better idea.  For now, though, it’s a reminder that, eventually, the snow really does melt!

Superbowl Champion Veggie Chili

This is not *my* veggie chili. But it bears a striking resemblance to it.

By this time, you have no doubt heard that the New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl (which, as my friend Nick points out, is like the Grey Cup, but with 4 downs and no “rouges”).  As a Louisiana native, I am extremely pleased with this development.  I vividly recall the days of bag-headed fans venturing into the Superdome to watch the “Aint’s,” and not getting to see home games on television because the failure to sell enough tickets meant a TV blackout within a 100 mile radius.  So, I really never expected this day to come, but I am pretty stoked that it finally did.

To celebrate the Saints’ competition in this, the most glorious of sporting events, I made Veggie Chili, which, as far as I’m concerned anyway, rose to the occasion.  The recipe is an adaptation of Emeril Lagasse’s Texas-style chili (which is definitely not vegetarian), and is both hearty and complex.  Here’s how it goes.

Begin by sauteing the following in a big pot with canola oil:

• 1 large vidalia onion, diced
• 1-2 jalapenos, chopped
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 4 Tbsp. chili powder
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

After these have cooked for a couple of minutes, add:

• 1 Tbsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. salt
• black pepper
• 28 oz can of diced tomatoes

When this is fragrant, add:

• 1 bottle of dark beer (we used a dark Belgian that we had on hand, but I’ve also used Guinness with pretty good results)
• 4 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, chopped
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Bring this to a boil, and taste it.  If your beer is on the bitter side, you may want to add about a tsp of sugar or honey.  Then, add 1.5 cups of dry, green lentils (make sure that you have washed and picked these over to get rid of any dirt or stones).  Boil for about 10 minutes, then reduce head to med-low and cook, covered, for 1 hour (or until the lentils are tender, but not mushy).  When the lentils have almost finished cooking, add a can of cooked kidney beans, and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes.

We served the chili with cheddar and chive scones, like these (made by Josh, of course),

plus a dollop of sour cream.  I don’t mind telling you that I think this chili is fantastic.  It’s satisfyingly spicy without being too much, and the flavor is big and bold without being one-note.  I also really, really like what the lentils do for the texture.  I’ve previously made this dish with TVP instead, and I think the ever-so-slight al dente character of the lentils is worlds better than the texture of TVP, which can get pretty mushy in soup.  It’s also a fun contrast with all of the other veggies, as well as the kidney beans.

By the end of the night, there were exactly zero servings of chili left–this recipe makes anywhere from 8-12, depending on how much other game-grub you have on hand–so I have a feeling that my chili-feelings here are deserved.    And, thankfully (finally!), so are my feelings for the Saints.

Ugly Duckling Vegetarian Moussaka

I’ve thought long and hard about whether to write about this particular meal, because, while it was one of the more delicious things I’ve put in my mouth in a while, it was decidedly not cute.  It is, moreover, an almost completely by-the-book recipe from another website, so there’s not much to say beyond: This.  It is delicious.  You should also make and eat it.

But because I can’t bear to leave you all in the dark about such a wonderful vegetarian adaptation of a traditional meat dish (moussaka is typically layered with beef, lamb or other meat), that’s what I’ll do.

The recipe, which you can find here, makes a fantastic filling from lentils, eggplant, peppers, onions, garlic, red wine and other goodness, and tops it with a ricotta and white sauce, which is baked until awesome.  I may or may not have eaten two servings of it at one sitting.  So there.  This.  It is good.  You should eat it!

Falafel, Lentils and Rice

Well, it has certainly been a busy month here at the Philosophers’ house!  We’ve just returned from yet another trip back South of the Border (more on that next time), which was so full of excitement that I completely forgot to post on this tasty Mediterranean meal.

This attempt at falafel was one of the most successful ones Josh and I have managed to produce at home…and yet, it was still less than perfect.  We actually used a boxed falafel mix this time, which did bring a great punch of (garlicky!) flavor.  However, in an effort to cut some calories, we tried baking it–which did result in crunchiness, but with the side effect of making the little guys less moist than you might hope.  Lesson learned: street food goodness requires frying.

Still, when paired with some hummus, they were pretty tasty.  The rice and lentils, additionally, were great.  We cooked them with plenty of onion and garlic, lemon, parsley, salt and pepper, plus a bit of cumin, thyme and a pinch of cinnamon.  All good stuff.

What was funny about this meal was how salient it made for me the by-the-seat-of-my-pants style of my cooking: it was my night to do the dishes (no dishwasher in our house), so Josh put things together while I got soapy.  He likes to say that I’m the “brains” of our kitchen operation…but in this case, “semi-directed experimenter” seemed more accurate.  Most of the evening involved me offering vague directions like “now maybe add some garlic?…uh, I dunno, like 3 cloves,” or “oh, probably cumin too.  But not as much as the thyme.  Taste it and see what it needs.”  Towards the end, the poor guy took my spot finishing the pots and pans to avoid the interminable adjustment of seasonings.

Or in other words, my plan worked.   Just kidding.  At least the end result was worth it.

Lentil Pilaf / Dirty Rice

Sometimes you just don’t know what to cook.  There’s an odd combination of foods in the house, or you really just don’t feel like pasta again, or there’s something you could make, but it would just take too long…and in these cases, if you’re anything like me, you just start throwing things together and hope it turns out well.  Last night was one of those nights, and though I had a few ideas brewing, I had no idea how they’d come together.  Fortunately, what came of my confused kitchen was this:

My primary inspiration for this dish was the Lentils and Rice served at a place called Mediterranean Cuisine in Nashville, which are beyond delicious.  I wanted to cook the lentils and rice together in a garlicky, lemony broth, but this posed something of a challenge, given their different cooking times.  Making things slightly more complicated was the fact that Josh wanted to incorporate some TVP for extra protein, which immediately made me think of one of my old childhood-in-the-South favorites, Dirty Rice.  Fortunately, both Dirty Rice and Lebanese Lentils-and-Rice are variations on a pilaf, so I figured there would be some way to bring the two together.

After some seat-of-my-pants calculations about water content and cooking times, I sauteed some onion and carrots (which I’d chopped up before I decided what to make and included just for good measure, despite the fact that they’re not typically found in either South Louisianian or Lebanese cuisine)  in a bit of oil, along with a hefty amount of garlic.  I then added the lentils, a little cumin, a pinch of cinnamon and a good amount of salt, plus an equal ratio of water to lentils.  I let this boil on its own for about ten or fifteen minutes before adding a cup of rice, another two cups of water, and the juice of half a lemon.  While letting this do its covered simmering thing, I got going on the TVP.  After rehydrating it with an equal amount of water that had been boiled with a whole garlic clove, I added salt and more lemon juice, plus a bit of pepper.

While we waited for the rice to finish cooking, Josh made a quick flatbread using our pizza stone–and buttermilk!–which turned out really well.  Once the rice was done, I added the TVP to the lentil mixture and stirred until it became a Lebanese-Vegetarian-Dirty-Rice feast.  I was actually very pleased with the way it turned out: filling and garlicky without being too overwhelming.

That said, I was a little sad not to have any hummus.