Lentils and Quinoa and vegetables

Yesterday my cousins presented me a fairly easy challenge - gluten-free vegan dish that serves 8 people.  This is what came out.  It was delicious and well-received, but still, I have enough leftovers for the rest of the week.  Which is fine by me (and possibly also my co-workers).

Susan had asked me if I wanted to make dinner togethe

I do think that over the last year or two, my palate has been refined for a mostly-fresh-vegetable fairly vegan diet.  I enjoy the vegetables that flavor this dish, not the seasoning thaf flavors in this dish.  I can taste the cauliflower and lentils and cabbage and parsley.  There is no overwhelming cumin or vinegar or sesame flavor, just quiet, subtle hints that build upon the flavor of the whole ingredients.

Anyway.  Here's how it went:

-at about 11 am I called Peter in response to his text message about dinner, stating that Quinoa as a gluten-free main dish was probably adequate, and that I would put some beans in the slow-cooker so that we could add them for additional/complete proteins.  Then, at 2 pm, I realized I had never put beans in the slow-cooker and was out of time to cook them properly.  So I went to look for some nice French green lentils I thought I had - which are perfect for pilafs like this because they are very firm, and don't mush up into dal quickly (like a red lentil) or eventually (like a brown lentil.)  I proceeded to only find brown and red lentils, and settled on brown.  I put them in the slow cooker, turned it on, and forgot about it until the smell reached me on the couch about an hour later.  This actually proved my theory: the moment something smells done, it is done.  I immediately worried I'd over cook the lentils, removed them the heat, rinsed them in cold water to stop the cooking, and then stored them in the freezer for good measure.  They were cooked perfectly.

The rest of the meal was cooked at my cousins' house.  We chopped up a whole cabbage (Mariann used the Vitamix for this), a whole head of cauliflower, two leeks, and rainbow chard.  I meant to use garlic but forgot.  In the end, there were so many vegetables that I couldn't saute them as planned, I simply put them in the huge cast iron frying pan and added some water and steamed them - they all cooked perfectly.  I also cooked an entire bag of quinoa, and stemmed a bunch of parsley.  Then it was time to mix.  And Season.  This was the challenging part.  It ended up being about a teaspoon of cumin, a few tablespoons of Ume Plum Vinegar (which isn't very acidic and is very salty), a few tablespoons of sesame oil, and a little salt.  I was adding the salt probably too slowly for that side of the family.

There will be pictures after I run off to swim - I left my phone in the car.

The leftovers are prettier because the red chard bled into the rest of the dish, providing a little more color.

Red Chile Sauce

Hello, mom.  Please replace the freezer's enchilada supply while in California.

SAUCE:

olive oil

2 large onions

a head of garlic

1 can chipotle chile in adobo sauce - i would just use the hand mixer to blend it all up, but they don't have one, so maybe use the food processor.

a few teaspoons shiitake mushroom powder (it's in the cabinet but might not be labled)

1/4 c chili powder

2 T cumin

1 T + 1 t coriander

2 t oregano

4 c tomato sauce (or diced tomatoes)

3 c water

1/4 c lime juice

Cook the onions, add the garlic, until everything is very soft.  Add the spices and the can of chipotles, stir for about two minutes, then add tomato sauce and water and cook to let the flavors develop.  Remove from heat and stir in lime juice, to taste.  It might need a little soy sauce.

TO MAKE ENCHILADAS:

Each corn tortilla should be dipped in sauce (both sides covered).  I did lasagna style - a tortilla layer then a filling layer then a tortilla layer, and if there were more fillings, then more layers.  

Sometimes I pre-cooked the vegetables, sometimes I didn't, sometimes I added a bit of seasoning, but usually not much - just a bit of cumin or oregano.

I meant to sprinkle some shredded cheddar on the tops, but I think I mostly forgot.

Baby Prep

Over the Presidents' Day long weekend, I took some extra days and traveled to California to fill my sister's freezer with goodies before the baby arrived.  (In between me departing her house and writing this post, Brock arrived, which means they can attest to the deliciousness of this food, because they're finally allowed to start eating it.)

I'm not going to log everything made, but it is past time I provide some pictures of food.

First up was the enchilada sauce - this picture tries to convey the general height of the spices added to the sauce.

That's a lot of spice.

The various enchilada/lasagna fillings were prepared before assembly - carrots, onions, tofu/cottage cheese 'ricotta', spinach, kale, leeks, beans, zucchini -- there were a lot of options, and almost all of them made it into one dish or another.    I don't even know how many pans of enchiladas were made, I just know that the freezer was full, and a couple of leftover ingredients made a delicious soup.

Millet 'polenta', with sun-dried tomato pesto 'frosting'.  I cut them into bars and froze them on this pan before moving them to smaller bags (so there was more space for other deliciousness in the freezer.)

Vegetarian Meatballs - sorry the pic is crooked.  I guess they look delicious either way.  I had never before encountered such a delicious recipe for vegetarian meatballs.  I didn't know such a thing existed.  They're fantastic.

Raw Vegan Snickers Bars - this is actually the pan that I made in Chicago the weekend before I traveled, but I also made some for her.  

Tortilla Soup

The pattern is this:  I cook a huge pot of something at home - way more food than I intended or could possibly consume - and then I bring it to work and try and force it upon others.  But this time, I am keeping all of the delicious soup to myself.  If I could only eat one soup for the rest of my life, it would be this.  Which is saying a lot - this is a blog of my favorite food:  soup.

For the Soup:
4 small onions, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic
a couple of dried chili peppers, ground to powder
2 dried shiitake mushrooms, ground to powder
3 serrano peppers, seeded and diced
1 small eggplant, peeled and chopped
2 large zucchini, peeled and chopped
2 T cumin (or to taste)
4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved, sprayed with olive oil, and roasted in a 350 oven for about an hour (until completely wilted and some browning has occured)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro
1/2 c dried black beans, cooked
soy sauce, to taste


Cook the onions in olive oil over low heat while you chop the vegetables, they should be well-cooked (getting on to carmelized) but not too brown.  add garlic, eggplant, peppers, zucchini.  Add spices - the cumin and chili peppers and mushroom powder.  Oregano might also be good.  Add water and tomatoes, bring to boil, simmer until vegetables are falling apart.  Add beans, add cilantro, add soy sauce (but not too much, especially if you're adding a salty garnish.)

I thought it would need lime juice (but forgot to buy limes), but even without the yogurt (which is a sub for sour cream) it was perfect.

Pictures forthcoming.

TOPPINGS:
tostadas, broken
Cilantro Cream:  Combine 1 cup yogurt with one bunch cilantro and 5 green onions and several cloves garlic in food processor, blend until smooth