Vegan Lentil Vegetable Soup

2 cups green or yellow split peas
8 cups of water
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
2 cups chopped onions
1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cups diced potatoes
1/4 cup red miso
1/2 ounces dried mushrooms soaked in 1 cup hot water
salt and pepper to taste

Add everything to the pot except the miso (I have cooked the lentil a bit before adding the vegetables)
When mushrooms soft, strain liquid, chop mushrooms and put both mushrooms and liquid in pot

Cook until split peas are soft and creamy.  Add miso.  

Stir occasionally.

Black Lentil and Broccoli Salad

1/2 cup black lentils
1 bunch of broccoli broken into florets
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 red onion

Cook lentils in 1 cup of water until tender.
Cook broccoli.
Mix oil, vinegar, honey and mustard to make dressing

Toss lentils and broccoli with dressing.

Garnish with thin slices of red onion

Massaged Kale Salad

absolutely delicious

 

Massaged Kale Salad

2 heads kale, spines removed, chopped
1 head garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons Braggs liquid aminos (or tamari or soy sauce)
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar


Mix ingredients together in large bowl (except kale)
Add kale in thirds
Massage for several minutes until kale wilts and volume is significantly reduced.  
Top with pomegranate seeds or edible flowers

Curried Coconut Carrot Soup

 Curried Coconut Carrot Soup
serves 6 to 8

2 tablespoons coconut oil (I used olive oil)
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
6 cups carrots, unpeeled and roughly chopped (this required 8 medium-sized carrots for me)
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock (I like the flavor of 'No Chicken' stock by Imagine Foods)
One 15-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly chopped ginger root
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat the coconut oil in a large soup pot and add the onions. Sweat the onions on medium heat for about 7 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour in the stock and coconut milk. Add the ginger, curry powder and chili flakes. Put a lid on the pot and cook until the carrots are softened, about 10 or 15 minutes.
When carrots are soft, carefully blend the soup in batches in a blender (use a towel to hold the lid down firmly) or use an immersion hand blender and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with fresh herbs (I used cilantro) and more chili flakes, if desired.

Curried Chicken Coucous Salad

Curried Chicken Couscous Salad

Chicken:
3 T Unsalted butter
3 lbs. boneless chicken cut into 1/2 inch strips
1/2 red bell pepper julienned
1/2 red onion sliced thin
1 large carrot julienned
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 granny smith apple
2 T curry
1/2 C heavy cream

Saute chicken in butter until cooked.  Remove Chicken. Saute pepper, onion, carrot and garlic. Add raisins, apple, and curry.  Add chicken, cream, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 8-10 mins.  Let cool to room temperature.

Dressing:
Stir together:
1 C plain yogurt
2 T Honey
2 T fresh orange juice

Stir together and add to chicken just before serving

Couscous:
1 C chicken broth
1 C couscous
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 tsp tumeric

Boil broth, stir in couscous butter, and tumeric.  remove from heat.  Cover and let stand 5 min.  Fluff couscous with fork.  Let cool to room temp.
Arrange chicken on couscous
Use romaine lettuce as a bed for both.

Spice Crusted Salmon

1 pound salmon filet

1 Tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 TBSP cumin seeds
1/2 TBSP black peppercorns
1 tsp kosher salt

Heat small skillet over medium heat. Add coriander and cumin, toast, stirring constantly until aromatic (2 to 3 minutes). Let cook and transfer to mortar and pestle (I use the coffee bean griner), add peppercorns and crush. Stir in salt. Coat salmon with spice mixture.

Grill/broil salmon about 5 minutes on each side depending on thickness of filet.

I usually serve this with a fresh salsa from Whole Foods or (if feeling energetic) the following salsa.

Salsa
4 navel oranges
1 small red onion
1/4 cup lim juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 TSBP minced chipotle pepper
1 finely minced clove of garlic
salt and pepper

Use knife to peel orange. Do this over a bowl to catch all the juice. Cut segments from the membrane (cut segments into bite sized pieces) and mix with other ingredients.

All About the Turkey

The stuffing/dressing recipe is for a 10 to 12 pound turkey. Stuff the turkey loosely and put remaining stuffing in baking dish to bake later (I usually do for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees and moisten with a bit of turkey juice from roasting turkey) This is the basic recipe...we add more celery, onion and parsley and taste it until we like it. We use canned chicken broth to moisten - try to find unsalted or low salt. Read through everything before starting. When you are here, we can do a turkey together.

Old Fashioned Dressing

12 cups of bread crumbs (I buy white bread, cut it into smallish cubes and dry out completely in oven)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 cups finely chopped celery
3.4 cup finely chopped parsley
salt
poultry seasoning
sage
paprika (I only use it if I have some around)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten.

Melt butter. Saute onion and celery about five minutes. Mix with all the other ingredients. Moisten with chicken broth...don't want it too wet as you will baste the stuffing with the turkey juices as it is roasting, but it should be moist. Taste and add more onion, celery and parsley. We always add way more. And often add another egg, more butter, etc. Add seasonings until you like it. We make the dressing the night before and refrigerate overnight.

Turkey:

Take out giblet packet. Wash turkey with cold water. Pat dry inside and out with paper towels. Sprinkle inside cavity with a bit of salt and pepper. Spoon dressing into body and neck cavity. Don't stuff tightly...the dressing will expand a bit. Rub outside of turkey with melted butter. Wrap ends of drumsticks and wings with foil. Follow roasting instructions on turkey (you can get ones with the pop up thermometer). Baste, baste, baste. I usually put a tent of foil over the breast to keep from getting too brown. If you do that, take foil off for last 1/2 hour. Aim to have turkey come out of oven at least 20 minutes to 1/2 hour before serving. Put on platter. Cover with foil and then with towels to keep warm. The turkey will exude juices so keep an eye out for those and spoon into cup to use for gravy. (I once forgot and had turkey juice all over the table and floor).


Gravy:

Take the giblet and neck and hack into smallish pieces. I always discard the liver. In a pot, melt 2 tablespoons butter/2 tablespoons oil and saute the giblet and neck until brown. Toss in a can of chicken broth, a cup of white wine or white vermouth, a chunked up carrot, a couple stalks of celery and an onion quartered and let simmer all morning. Strain broth.

Take the pan that the turkey was roasted in (make sure this is one you can put on the stovetop). Spoon out most of the fat...you should have a good two tablespoons of fat left in the pan. Heat. Add a couple of tablespoons of flour. Stir and smush on low heat until the flour and fat are sort of incorporated. You want to cook this enough so the flour is "cooked" but don't want to really brown it too much. Stirring and scraping up browned bits, add the broth, any saved turkey juices to pan and whisk and whisk...bring to a boil...it will thicken somewhat...keep stirring so you don't have lumps....if you need to, you can add a bit of canned chicken broth to thin if too thick and you don't have enough juices. Just important to keep stirring. Off heat strain through strainer and you should have a tasty gravy.