East Meets West Veg

Tonight we enjoyed this Chili from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. In my many years of eating chili, I've never had chili with kale in it! Leave it to Kris Carr to incorporate this super green into chili! We enjoyed the addition of the kale. Not only was it tasty and satisfying, but it also made us feel really healthy! Beans, veggies, spices, greens . . . it's a bowl full of good health.

I'm giving away a copy of Crazy Sexy Kitchen here. Saturday, October 5. 2013 is the last day to enter so act fast!

Crazy Sexy Bean Chili

It's TV Tuesday and I have a recipe I discovered on the food network. This recipe is loaded with goodness. Chickpeas, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, onion, spices . . . It's a nutritional powerhouse. There's not much prep work and not much hands-on time. It's no wonder that it has a 5 star rating with over 150 reviews on the food network website. I knew the first time I made it that this recipe was a keeper. It bridges the divide between east and west because it has some of the spices of the east, but also familiar ingredients to westerners.

I might be partial to soups and stews, but I can't help it. I think it's in my DNA. When I was growing up, we ate a lot of soups and stews. I would say they were our favorite meals. My dad's brother and sister used to laugh about the fact that my dad loved eating soup for breakfast! I didn't realize that this was abnormal. I remember my dad's sister asking if my dad still ate soup for breakfast and laughing when the answer was yes. I made a mental note of that. Huh, this is somehow amusing. Maybe people don't normally have soup for breakfast?

My mom told me just recently that when she was younger, she also wanted to eat soup all the time and was sometimes teased for this. She said that when she met my dad, they knew that it was meant to be because the two ridiculed soup-lovers finally found someone share their passion for soup with. Okay, they weren't really ridiculed - more like lovingly teased from time to time.

I remember being home on weekends and smelling the savory aroma of a fresh, homemade soup or stew cooking on the stove. I can still smell the tomatoes, the vegetables, noodles, beans . . . Both of my parents were great cooks, but I looked forward to the weekends when my dad cooked. I don't know why but it seemed special to have something made by my dad.

I was honestly a little skeptical about the cinnamon in this stew, but I tried it without and it's just not the same. It's also not nearly as good without the spinach either. When I tasted this before and after the spinach, there was a huge difference.

This is a really great meal to warm you up on a chilly day, but I could enjoy it any time of the year.

Recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/moroccan-spiced-chickpea-soup-recipe/index.html

I was originally going to make a nice, hearty stew today because we've had some chilly nights (and days), but then I checked the weather and saw that it was going to be 97 degrees F (36 C)!! In three short days the high temperature will be 60 F (15.5C) with a low of 46F (8 C). This is Michigan for you, I guess. Anyway, it was WAY too hot for me to cook or eat hot food today so I had to find a no cook dinner.

I decided to make some super easy burritos with salsa verde. I've never made anything with tomatillos before so I didn't even know if I'd like it, but I thought it tasted fresh and delicious. Alone, I thought it could use some more salt, but it was perfect with the chips.


This Salsa Verde recipe is from Food Network. It is very easy and requires only a few ingredients. There were two versions on the show, but I made the raw version. I just put these items in the blender, then mixed it with chopped onion and salt. Click here for the recipe.


To make the meal complete (though I really could have eaten just the salsa verde and tortilla chips), I put together some simple burritos.

Friday night while I was taking care of Buddy, my mom was entertaining guests. She was the only vegetarian among a generally health-conscious and open-minded crowd so she decided to make Lentil Soup and Middle Eastern Salad. She was planning on bringing the leftovers back to my husband and me, but everyone loved it so much that there was nothing left to bring to us! For a few days she's been hearing how good her soup was so we decided to share it with you! Here in Detroit, it is the perfect day for a big pot of soup and I'm sure there will be more days like this coming soon as fall draws near.

Just like Mom's Simple Pea Soup, this soup tastes great the next day so I love to make it on the weekend and divide it up for lunches and dinners during the week. Also like the pea soup, this is great alone or served over a baked potato, rice, quinoa or with bread or crackers.

Ingredients:
1 lb green lentils
8 cups water
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 - 4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp celery salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp garlic powder, or to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste
2 potatoes, diced

Method:
1. Rinse your lentils.
2. Bring lentils and water to a boil.
3. Skim off froth from the top. (This helps eliminate some possible gas)
4. Add everything else, except the potatoes.
5. Let it simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
6. Add potatoes and continue cooking for about 30 minutes.

This is one of the foods I always ask my mom to make. It's a simple, budget recipe that tastes great the day you make it and beyond. It's the kind of soup you could make on the weekend and then divide into containers for quick, healthy lunches and dinners for the week. You can even reinvent this soup by putting it on a baked potato, over rice, or spreading it between a couple of pieces of toast and making a delicious sandwich. Who said you need to eat frozen food at work?

Ingredients:
1 lb green split peas
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Rinse your peas.
2. Bring peas and water to a boil.
3. Skim off froth from the top.
4. Add everything else!
5. Let it simmer for 45 mins - 1 hour until peas are tender.

My husband is from the Indian state of Maharashtra. If you are familiar with India, you may know that a lot of things are regional, like language, food, festivals, customs, clothing, etc. Friends or relatives will often come up to my husband or me and say something like 'I saw a program about India on TV and _________ happened' and my husband will have no idea what they're talking about. I often try to clarify by explaining to people unfamiliar with India that it is like many different countries in one. You can travel from one state to another and have no idea what the people around you are saying because the language can be THAT different - not a different dialect, a different language! You can also travel to a neighboring state and have completely different food.

When I found this out, I was so excited! Do you mean that there is a much larger variety of Indian dishes than the ones on the menu at the Indian restaurants in the United States??? That's it, I must find out more! So I started researching different regional cuisines of India. I was especially excited when I found a couple of bloggers from the same state as my husband because, let's be honest here, he was really not much help at all. He is good at tasting the food and telling me if that's how it's supposed to be, but when it comes to making the food, he is completely clueless.

One day, I found this recipe for chawlichi aamti (a maharashtrian-style black-eyed pea curry) and decided to surprise my husband by making it. It's good I didn't ask him first if he liked it because he later told me that when he was growing up, he didn't usually like aamtis because they were too sweet (some subgroups of maharashtrians add something called jaggery, which is like sugar, to aamtis). This recipe does not include sugar or jaggery so maybe that's how I lucked out. At any rate, he loved it! Success! But I loved it more! I think this is now my favorite food. I could not stop eating it - to the point where we ran out of chapatis (indian flatbread) and rice so I ravenously ransacked the kitchen until I spotted the tortilla chips. Best. Idea. Ever. This aamti tastes even better with the tortilla chips than the chapatis or rice (my opinion, of course)! And, like a chili, it tastes even better the next day.


This recipe is adapted from Aarti's recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cans black eyed peas
1 can diced tomatoes (or 2 medium tomatoes, chopped)
1 large onion, chopped
10 curry leaves (available at an Indian grocery store)
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1.5 tsp coriander powder
1.5 tsp cumin powder
3/4 tsp turmeric
cayenne powder, optional (this is only if you like really spicy food)
4 tsp garam masala (or to taste - start with less!!)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp oil
2 cups water (start with two cups and add more if you like - an aamti is supposed to be watery, but you may prefer it less watery so this is just a starting point)
Optional Garnish: fresh cilantro, more chopped onion, lemon wedges

Method:
1. Drain and rinse your black eyed peas to remove excess sodium.
2. Heat the oil on medium-high.
3. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing.
4. When the mustard seeds start to sputter or pop, add the onion.
5. When the onion is translucent, add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, cayenne powder and half the garam masala.
6. Stir it and let it cook for a minute.
7. Add black eyed peas, tomatoes, water, and salt, and mix.
8. Bring it to a boil, then simmer until the flavors combine.
9. Mash some of the beans to get the bean flavor more infused in the gravy, if you wish.
10. Add more garam masala or salt if desired.
11. Drizzle with a little oil (optional) and garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve hot with tortilla chips, chapatis, rice, or bread.
Optional: I like to serve with chopped onion and lemon.

Over the summer we always get a share from a local CSA and the produce is absolutely divine! In fact, the vegetables are usually so good that I don't want to cook them. I feel like they are absolute perfection on their own and that if I change the flavor at all, I will be missing out on the veggies' natural goodness. In addition to eating the veggies raw, I usually come up with some interesting salads as well. This is often just a way for me to incorporate beans or lentils into my summer diet when all I want to do is eat fresh fruit & veggies.

Many of the fabulous salads we devour all summer long are just not the same in winter because the vegetables (even organic) from the grocery stores here in Michigan are . . . shall I say, lacking that special something you get when they're vine-ripened and fresh picked by your local farmer. I do still enjoy a nice salad in the winter, even when the pickings are slim. This salad is a great one for winter because you only need a few ingredients which are easily accessible all year round.

They just put in a Trader Joe's by my house and I actually found tasty cucumbers and tomatoes there last week. In fact, they were so good that when I made this, I wanted to just keep eating it all day. I thought I should mix it up a little so I came up with two other versions. This would be a great way to pack three different light and healthy lunches for work. You could certainly add more veggies or herbs, but this is one of those things that I throw together when I'm really hungry and don't have a lot of time for washing & chopping. It's SO EASY! You can whip it up in a jiffy and the results are delicious and nutritious!

To find a CSA or Farmer's Market in the United States, go to: http://www.localharvest.org/

Here's the simplest version, your base recipe.
VERSION 1:

INGREDIENTS:
1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 beefsteak tomato (or 2 roma or 1 pack cherry or grape tomatoes)
1 cucumber
your favorite salad dressing (middle eastern or italian are great choices)
salt & pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:
1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas
2. Chop the tomato and cucumber
3. Put it all in a bowl, sprinkle on your favorite dressing, and mix!
4. Add salt & pepper to taste (optional)



VERSION 2:

Put some of the version 1 Chickpea Salad over your favorite greens. (It tastes great on romaine)
You may need to add more dressing.


VERSION 3:

Boil some quinoa and/or rice (or your favorite grain). You could also use a pre-cooked packet. My quinoa-loving, meat-eating cousin just told me that he eats quinoa and brown rice packets from Costco for his lunch at work.

After it cools, mix with some of the version 1 Chickpea Salad. You may need to add more dressing and/or salt & pepper.