I had some very dear friends stay at my place this weekend.  There were trips to the doggy beach, multiple Mexian-eating outings, gobs of walking in downtown Chitown, and of course….some cooking on my part.  They were arriving around dinner time on Friday evening so I wanted to have some ready for right when they got there.  I dug out my Veganomicon book and their Snobby Joes immediately jumped out at me.  First of all, I LOVE lentils and chili powder.  Second of all, pretty much everyone like sloppy joes.  And finally, it was something I could make ahead and easily reheat quickly once my guests arrived.

They were not the greatest meal I’ve ever created, but they were filling and tasty.  I served them with simple sides of steam broccoli and sweet potato fries.  NOTE: If you don’t like heat, you should cut down on the chili powder.  It packs quite the punch….

And sorry, no picture yet!

Snobby Joes

Adapted from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

Ingredients –

• 1 cup uncooked lentils
• 4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 1 green pepper, diced small
• 1 large carrot, diced small
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard (wet mustard)
• 4 to 6 kaiser rolls

Directions -
1. Put the lentils in a small sauce pot and pour in 4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until lentils are soft. Drain and set aside.

2. About 10 minutes before the lentils are done boiling, preheat a medium soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onion and pepper in the oil for about 7 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and saute a minute more.

3. Add the cooked lentils, the chili powder, oregano and salt and mix. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup and mustard and heat through.

4. Turn the heat off and let sit for about 10 minutes, so that the flavors can meld, or go ahead and eat immediately if you can’t wait. I like to serve these open faced, with a scoop of snobby joe on each slice of the bun.

I love apples.  I love walnuts.  I LOVE lentils.  So, it only makes sense that I thought this loaf was amazing.  Its completely vegan and packs some great nutritional punches – lentils, flax seeds, carrots, onions…  I almost completely pureed my vegetables and the result was a delicious creamy texture that practically melted in my mouth.  And double the sauce when you make this.  Its so good you’ll be glad you did!

Apple Walnut Lentil Loaf Muffins may not be pretty, but they have me looking forward to eating my lunch while I’m still eating breakfast. 

…..and just when you think your life cannot get any more boring (its Spring Break here and with no students I’m chained to my desk trying to get projects done), you get a great email and new hip bands and a new food blog to check out.  Do yourself a favor and check out http://www.nypartyofone.com……………………

Lentil Apple Walnut Loaf

adapted from Terry Walters’ Clean Food

Ingredients -

For the loaf

• 1 cup dried lentils (I used brown, though any type would work.)
• 3 cups vegetables stock (I used chicken stock)
• 1 thumb-size piece of kombu (I left this out…though I’m going to look for it the next time I’m in Whole Foods.)
• 3 tbsp ground flax seed (I used whole seeds, not ground)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 stalk celery, minced (I left this out)
• 2 tbsp mirin (Japanese cooking wine.  I used 2 tbsp white wine instead.)
• 1 apple, peeled, grated and mixed with 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 6-7 dashes ume plum vinegar (I don’t have this and was going to substitute  with balsamic vinegar, but I forgot.  So, mine had no vinegar in the actual loaf.)

For the glaze (The following is what the original recipe calls for, but I doubled it and was glad I did.)

• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp apple butter (I didn’t have any on hand so I used some strawberry-rhubarb jam with a consistency of apple butter…delicious!)
• 1 tbsp arrowroot (This is just Nature’s healthy version of cornstarch so feel free to use regular cornstarch instead.)

Directions -

For the lentils

1. Rinse lentils, place in rice cooker or pot and add stock and kombu.

2. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed and lentils are tender.  Remove from heat, discard kombu and set aside.

For the loaf

1. In a small bowl, combine flax seed with water and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion, carrot and celery in olive oil for 2 minutes.  Add mirin and saute 3 minutes more.  Add grated apple, raisins and walnuts and saute another minute.  Add thyme, vinegar and pepper to taste.

4. Remove from heat and fold in cooked lentils, breadcrumbs and soaked flax seed until evenly distributed.  Press mixture firmly into lightly oiled loaf pan and set aside.  (I used a muffin tin instead.  I saw Kath do this by accident and loved the idea of individual servings.)

For the glaze

1. In a small saucepan over no heat, combine all glaze ingredients.  Place over medium heat and stir continuously until thick (about 2-3 minutes).  Spread evenly over loaf (or muffins) and bake, uncovered, 40 minutes (or ~ 30 minutes for muffins).  Remove from oven and serve.

PS….I made 14 muffins that came in at 200 calories each.

I love green beans. I will buy bags of fresh green beans in the produce section, trim them, steam them, and eat a plate full of them with a little healthy balance butter and salt.  But with my increase production in cooking and baking, my palette seems to be demanding -or at least appreciating- more complicated flavors lately.  As soon as I saw this recipe on 101 Cookbooks I knew I had to make it.  There was so much to love about it….green beans, wine, paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes, sour cream…..

Verdict? Near perfection. Really.  I had to keep reminding myself not to feel guilty while eating them because they taste so good you assume they have to be unhealthy for you.  But really, the *bad ingredients* aren’t very bad at all…extra virgin olive oil and almonds are full of healthy fats, wine has flavonoids (but really you evaporate most of the wine anyways when cooking it), and I used fat free sour cream which didn’t diminish the dish at all.  So, eat and be merry!  These veggies are tasty AND healthy.  (Are you listening Paula Deen???)

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Feisty Green Beans

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients –

• 1 pound green beans, thinly sliced (I chopped mine into about inch long pieces)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (I used Sunmaid’s Mixed Jumbo Raisins because I knew the leftovers would make for better snacking.  They ended up working great in this dish.)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (I substituted garlic powder here)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/3 cup white wine (Use whatever you like to drink since there will be a lot leftover.)
• 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander (I didn’t have this and just left it out…)
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• scant 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (scant-schmant.  I like spice.  I used a heaping 1/2 teaspoon.)
• 6 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes  (I didn’t include the tofu because 1- I wasn’t sure my guest would like it and 2- there was plenty of protein in the meal already with chicken as the main course.)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup / 120 ml crème fraîche or sour cream  (I used fat free sour cream)
• 1/4 cup / 3/4 oz / 20g sliced almonds, toasted
• 1/3 cup / one handful of finely chopped fresh cilantro  (I left this out since I’m not a big cilantro fan.)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions -

1. Cook the green beans in a pot of well-salted boiling water for about a minute, just long enough that they lose their raw edge. Drain and dunk in ice-cold water to stop the cooking. Drain again and set aside. (I actually steamed my beans instead of boiling and cooked them longer so that they were a bit softer than what the original recipe calls for.  Just a personal preference….)

2. In a small bowl cover the raisins with scalding hot water for five minutes, drain and set aside.

3. Heat your largest skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil, garlic, onion, and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions and garlic start to brown just a bit. Add the wine and cook until it has mostly evaporated. Carefully remove the bay leaves. Stir in the paprika, cumin, coriander, curry powder, salt, crushed red pepper flakes. Stir in the tofu and raisins and cook until heated through, a minute or so. Add the butter and green beans and stir until the butter has melted.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the crème fraiche (sour cream), then most of the almonds and most of the cilantro. Taste and add more salt and some pepper if you like. Serve topped with any remaining almonds and cilantro.

Inspired by a recipe in Anna Getty’s Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic, to be published by Chronicle Books, 2010.

Picture courtesy of 101CookBooks.com because I felt a minute could not be spared to grab the camera.  I just wanted to eat!.