Red Lentil and Quinoa Stew

This was so good that when I tasted it to adjust the seasoning at the end, I uttered something that was both really profane and really, really obscene. For the sake of people's sensibilities, I won't repeat it here.

Once again, I am at the scraping the pantry stage of the grocery cycle where I challenge myself to create delicious dishes with just what I have on hand, forcing myself to make substitutions as needed. Since I am eating vegan again, this brings along an additional layer of complexity as I may try to veganize old recipes.

At the moment, I have very few vegetarian/vegan specialty items like tempeh or seitan, but one thing I do have in abundance is a whole mess of dried legumes. I am silly with them, in fact, from black-eyed peas, to black beans and great northern beans to a variety of split peas and lentils. I made my wonderfully spicy lentil soup yesterday with those earthy brown lentils, and today decided that I needed more spice and more lentils, so I adapted my take on red lentil dhal and created a red lentil and quinoa stew.

After I had devoured my bowl of the stew, my 7 year-old daughter came over and sniffed the bowl cautiously before asking me, "Is this some kind of soup, Mommy?" I told her that it was, and that it was yummy, and she asked for some, saying, "It looks like a carrot soup," "Yes," I said, "There is some carrot in there," and ladled out a bit for her to try.

"YUM!" She said, giving me a thumbs-up.

Sometimes Mommy just flat-out rocks the house and gets it right. ☺


Edit: The kid scarfed down two bowls of this stew. That's right, TWO.

Red Lentil and Quinoa Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 stalk celery, diced finely
• 1 medium onion, diced finely
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced finely
• 1/2 cup of grated carrot
• 1 large clove garlic, chopped (about 2 T)
• 1/4 cup diced tomato
  
• 3/4 cup red lentils
• 1/2 cup quinoa
  
• 5 cups water or broth
  
• 1 T tomato paste
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• chili powder
• coriander
  
• cumin
• turmeric
  
• 1 bay leaf
• hot sauce
  

Directions:

1. Heat 2 T olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
   
2. Add the chopped onion and celery and saute for 2 minutes.
   
3. Add the bell pepper, carrots and garlic, stirring well.
   
4. After 5 minutes or so, when the vegetables have softened significantly, add the tomato and stir well.
   
5. Add the spices and let cook for a minute.
6. Add the red lentils and quinoa, turn the heat to high and add the water and the tomato paste.
   
7. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, keep covered and let simmer for 30 minutes.
   
8. Taste and adjust seasoning. Here's where I add the hot sauce.
   
9. Simmer uncovered another 15 minutes until the lentils are no longer crunchy. Fish out the bay leaf.
   
10. Serve, adding more hot sauce as your palate dictates. Today, my palate commanded a heavy hand with the Cholula.
    

Notes:

• I used half red quinoa and half white quinoa (1/4 cup each), but it would be delicious with either one of those or black quinoa if you can find it.
  
• I could not find my coriander powder in the horror show that is my spice cabinet, but I did have a jar of coriander seeds, so I broke out my handy mortar and pestle and crushed them up.
  
  If you decide to do this, be sure to crush the seeds very thoroughly so you don't have to bite down on the sharp husks of the coriander seeds. Although I use whole coriander in some Indian dishes, those sauces tend to simmer for a very long time, softening the seeds. If this is too much work for you, then make sure that your coriander powder is easily accessible.
  
• I was purposely vague about the seasoning amounts today because, well, I didn't even measure anything out, I just "salted" everything, although I can tell you that I used about 1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds and about the same amount of ground cumin, and only 1 bay leaf.
• Speaking of salt, as you can see, I used none in this recipe, though you are certainly free to S&P this dish to your liking.
  
• If you are itching to garnish this with something, I'd go with chopped cilantro. I realized way after the fact that I have a bunch of cilantro languishing in the crisper of my fridge. Sometimes I think that the crisper is where veggies go to die. Things get lost in there. Tsk.
  

• Hot sauce - After years of being a Frank's aficionado, lately I have been reaching for Cholula, but have been meaning to try some of the hot sauces made by the folks of our own Dinosaur BBQ right here in Syracuse.
  
  They have Devil's Duo Pepper Sauce and a Garlic Chipotle Pepper Sauce. If those sauces are near as good as their barbecue slathering sauces and rubs, I predict that they'll be out of this world.
  
  Click the picture to go to the site.
  

January 14: A Food Journal Again and Thoughts on Choking

I'm keeping a food journal again to help me keep track of what I'm eating. There is just something about seeing it written down starkly - as long as I am completely honest with myself - to give me perspective on what I am putting in my body.


Thursday, January 14

Breakfast:

• Scrambled tofu with tomato, onion and carrot
• 1 10-oz. glass of water with multivitamin and 3 SlimQuick Hoodia tablets
  

Snack:

• 1 mug of authentic Korean ginger tea - Ginger is supposed to help digestive ailments.
  
  I don't know if I'm having reflux issues or what, but it's worth a try. The thought of seeing a gastroenterologist and getting scoped is enough to make me cry. I have no problem being knocked out and cut open for a surgery, but scopes skeeve me. :/


• 10:30 snack - raw apple "granola"
  
  
  • 1/2 Granny Smith, cored, but with the peel still on
    
  • 1/4 cup of oats
  • 2 heaping T raw sunflower seeds
  • 2 T almond butter
  • drizzle of agave nectar
  • pumpkin seeds
    
  • 1 T ground flax seeds
    
    Process the apple, oats and sunflower seeds until finely chopped, then add the almond butter and pulse a few times until mixed well. Top with ground flax seeds, agave and pepitas.
    
  
  
  
• 1 10-oz. glass of water

Lunch:

• Zucchini pasta and raw marinara sauce
• 1 10-oz. glass of water
  

Snack:

Dinner:

---

Notes:

• I really did well with my food yesterday even despite the sour cream on my 2 bowls of lentil soup. Not vegan, I know, but I wanted it. And it was good.
  
  Two of my meals were flat-out raw: the Raw Apple Breakfast and Zucchini Pasta with Raw Marinara sauce. I made a spicy lentil soup which was vegan, but then I nixed that by topping it with a dollop of sour cream.
  
  My snacks were all vegan and raw except for the occasional mug of hot tea.
  
  Also, I drank water regularly, every few hours, every time I had something to eat. I think that really helped keep cravings under control.
  


• Something weird - last night I woke up choking on something. Before I went to bed last night it felt as though there might still be a fragment of a lentil stuck way back on the soft palate part of the roof of my mouth. Maybe I breathed it in last night and choked? Sometimes I do wake up choking on nothing but my saliva.
  
  When I woke up last night, after trying to cough it out, I got up and drank some water. Nope, didn't help. Then I got back up and had 4 whole wheat crackers with cheese and another glass of water.
  
  I can still feel something in there though and no amount of clearing my throat or coughing is helping.
  


• Something gross - I have a choking phobia. This may be a bit TMI, but one time during my last pregnancy I woke up choking on a tiny bit of vomit. I was actually choking and panicking until I could cough it out, but the acids burned my throat for days. I have only ever had problems with reflux and heartburn when I was pregnant, but maybe now that my weight is up, it's recurring?
  


• Another weird thing - I have that same sensation that everything is being forced up inside me as I had when I was pregnant during the end of the 2nd trimester and the 3rd trimester. It just feels as though there is something more in there than just my organs. I don't know, could that be just a sign that I've got too much fat hanging around in there? I mean I am nowhere near The Biggest Loser-morbidly obese, so I wouldn't think that that would be a problem.
  
  I mean, sure wouldn't it be cool to find out that there is one of those 50-lb, benign tumors loitering in my abdomen? So maybe I'm not overweight because of lack of exercise and eating too much. *sigh* I can dream, right? I'm always hoping for a Deus ex Machina, but no. My only choice to to make better choices for myself, NOT hope for some freakish medical anomaly!
  


• So anyway, it feels as though something is literally shoving things back up my throat. I am not eating a lot in one sitting (except for my 2 small bowls of soup last night), so why should I feel over-stuffed?