Kathy's Lentil and Barley Casserole

I'm not really sure if this qualifies as a casserole, but I like the sound of it.

Again, this is an original recipe. Mostly I took what i found in the fridge, plus lentils. I like how it came out.

Ingredients:

1 Cup lentils
4 Tablespoons Barley
1 Cup of rice cooked to taste (the cup refers to pre-cooked measurement)
1 Clove of garlic, minced
1/2 Onion, chopped
1 Green Bell pepper, diced
4 Strips of turkey bacon, sliced
4 Turkey sausages, sliced
1 Cup soybean sprouts
1/4 Green cabbage, chopped
1/3 Teaspoon ground cummin
1 Teaspoon oregano, crushed
A pinch of fine herbs, crushed
1 Teaspoon vegetable oil (any kind)
1.5 Liters of water

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a pot and add the bacon. Cook for two or three minutes, then add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion begins to turn translucent. Add the rest of the vegetables and the sausages, and cook until the cabbage begins to soften.

Add the water and reduce the heat to minimum. Add the lentils and barley and stir well. When the water begins to warm, add the spices and stir well. Let the water come to a boil, stirring occasionally. Keep boiling until most of the liquid is consumed or the lentils are tender. At this point add the cooked rice and stir well to mix everything together. let the whole thing sit on the flame for a bit longer, then let it cool and serve. You want as little iquid as possible, but if some remains that's not a problem.

Kathy's Citrus Cabbage Salad

I tried something unusual and entirely original. At leas, I came up with the recipe all on my own. So I'm putting my name on it.

Ingredients:

Salad:
1/3-1/2 a Head of red cabbage, chopped
1 Teaspoon olive oil
2 Cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 Onion, sliced
2 Carrots, thinly sliced (you may want to use a slicer, like a Presto Salad Shooter)
1 1/2 cups soybean sprouts
Ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup orange juice
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4-5 mushrooms, sliced

Dressing:
1 Teaspoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon sesame seed oil
1 Teaspoon honey
1 1/2 - 2 Teaspoons mustard (I used plain yellow mustard, but any mustard is good mustard)
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Ok, in a large, deep saucepan or a wok, heat the olive oil and roast the garlic in it for about a minute. Add the carrots and onions and cook for about two minutes more. Sprinkle some black pepper, stir well. Add the cabbage and soybean sprouts. Continue cooking for 2 minutes. In a cup mix the orange juice and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Add it to the pan and stir well. Cook for about three minutes more, but don't let the vegetables get too soft. Remove from heat.

With a slotted spoon or a large serving fork, transfer the vegetables to a salad bowl, leaving in the pan most of the remaining o.j. vinegar mix. Add the raw, sliced mushrooms.

In a bowl mix the dressing ingredients and whisk well. You want a brownish, thick, homogenous mixture. When you get it, add the liquid left in the pan and whisk some more. Again, you want a homogenous mixture.

Pour the dressing on top of the vegetables and toss well.

I recommend letting it cool before serving. In fact I cooked this rather late yesterday, so I put it in the fridge overnight. I had it for lunch the next day and it was delicious at room temperature. I do like to let salads soak in dressing overnight, too.

Chicken and Lentil stew

I did take a break from the sweet and sour, and the tomato-based dishes. Instead I retook my budding love affair with lentils, which are both tasty and versatile, if not particularly colorful... In other words, this weeks' dish isn't much to look at, but it's tasty.

You may notice some similarities to my Dry Lentil Soup. I've been thinking about using lentils in a stew since then.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken breast without skin and bone, cut in bite-size pieces
1 Cup green lentils
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Large green bell pepper
2/3 Red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Carrots, diced
2 Medium-sized potatoes, diced
1 Cup soybean sprouts
2 Cubes chicken bullion, low-fat, low-sodium
1/3 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1/3 teaspoon fine herbs
1/3 teaspoon dried pesto
1.75 liters of water
3 1/2 Tablespoons corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water

First let the lentils soak for a few hours. Next cook the chicken on a skillet with a little oil or cooking spray and set it aside.

In a pot heat the olive oil, saute the onion, garlic and bell pepper until the onions turn translucent, then add the potatoes and carrots, and sprinkle the black pepper. Saute for about 3 minutes. Add the water and reduce heat to medium. When the water warms up, add the lentils, spices and chicken bullion cubes. Stir well and reduce heat to minimum. When you see any bubbles, add the chicken. Stir again.

Let it cook for about an hour and fifteen minutes (your times may vary), or until both the potatoes and lentils are tender. Add the corn starch dissolve din water for a thicker consistency, stir well. You will then see larger bubbles forming. Remove from the flame, let it cool and serve.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the end result, but right now i can't think of any improvements.

See you next week!

Textured Soy Chili

Here's my take on vegetarian chili, or as I call it, chile sin carne.

And yes, it's another textured soy recipe. I've a few of them. Textured soy is low-fat and a good source of protein, but lacks flavor. So I tend to drown it in sauces, or mix it with ground beef.

Textured soy needs to be hydrated. So soak about 1/3 of the weight you want in water for a few minutes, then drain it. after you drain it, you need to squeeze it to remove excess water. And then it's ready to be used.


Ingredients:

300 Gr. prepared textured soy
1/2 Onion, chopped
2 Cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Cilantro twig, with stem, chopped
1 Teaspoon powdered turmeric
1/2 Teaspoon cumin
1 Tablespoon oregano
1/2 Teaspoon fine herbs
840 Gr. Tomato puree
2 Chicken bullion cubes (low fat, low sodium)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Chipotle chilies, chopped
1 Carrot in cubes
1 Cup snow peas
2 Cans baked beans (560 gr. each)
1 Teaspoon olive oil

In a large pot heat the olive oil. Saute the onion and garlic until the onion turns translucent, then add the cilantro and saute for another minute. Add the textured soy, carrot and snow peas and stir fry until the vegetable soften a little.

Reduce heat to minimum and add the tomato puree, the spices, canned beans, Worcestershire sauce, chipotles and chicken bullion cubes. Stir well, making sure the bullion cubes dissolve (if you can, crumble them first so they'll dissolve easier). Bring to a slow boil, stirring occasionally. When it boils, let it simmer for a few minutes, then let it cool and serve.

This dish goes very well with unflavored boiled rice.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage, Second Draft

I'm more nearly there, I think,  but the recipe still needs some work.
I went in a different direction, foregoing ketchup entirely and using canned pineapple bits in syrup, which happen to be sweet and sour.

Ingredients:

Sauce
1 Cup chicken broth
1/4 Cup Rice vinegar
1/4 Cup white sugar cane vinegar
1/3 Syrup from canned pineapple bits
210 Gr.tomato puree
1 Teaspoon powdered turmeric
3 Tablespoons Soy sauce (low sodium)
3 Tablespoons corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water

1/2 Head of green cabbage
1 Carrot, cubed.
1 Cup snow peas
1 Red onion in thin slices
2 Cloves garlic
1 Teaspoon sesame seeds
1 Cup pineapple bits, drained of syrup

For the sauce mix the chicken broth, both types of vinegar, syrup, tomato puree, turmeric and soy sauce in a  bowl and whisk vigorously. Set aside. As always, taste it and adjust ingredients to your taste.

In a pot heat some olive oil. Saute the onion and garlic for a few minute, then add the sesame seeds and saute for another two minutes. Add the cabbage, carrot and snow peas. Don't add the pineapple yet. Stir fry until the vegetables soften a little. Reduce heat to minimum and add the sauce and pineapple. Stir well so everything is well covered in the sauce.

Let the dish come to a slow boil. When it boils, add the corn starch solution and stir well, again making sure everything gets well covered. You'll feel the sauce thicken while you stir. Let it simmer for a minute or two, let it cool a bit and serve.

I'm not satisfied with the dish as it is, or with the sauce. But I think I'm headed in the right direction. I'll likely rest from sweet and sour, and tomato puree (see following post, eventually) for a week or two, then get back to it.

But the way, the sauce does look a little more red than it shows in the photo.

Barley Stew

Sorry I haven't posted. Last week I tried some new recipes and they didn't come out quite right. But I've fixed them, and here's the first:

3/4 Cup barley
4 Turkey sausages, sliced thinly
2 Cups shredded red or regular cabbage
1 Cup soybean sprouts
1 Carrot, sliced thinly
1 Small green bell pepper
1 Clove of garlic, minced
1/3 Chopped onion
5 Cups chicken broth
1 Tablespoon oregano
420 grs. Tomato puree
Ground black pepper to taste
4 Tablespoons barbecue sauce (I used Kraft Original flavor, but any kind will do)
1 Teaspoon olive oil.

In a soup pot heat the olive oil and slightly brown the sausages and bell pepper, for about 4-6 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the barbecue sauce and bring to a boil. If you use chicken bullion cubes rather than chicken broth, wait for the water to boil before adding the cubes; they don't dissolve well in cold or warm water. Stir well and reduce the heat. Let simmer covered for about an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so. You want to let the fluid almost be consumed.

When there is little liquid left, add the barbecue sauce and stir well. Check to see if the remaining liquid feels thick. if it does, remove from the stove, allow to cool and then serve. If not, let it simmer a little longer, keeping an eye on it at all times. When only a little liquid is left, it goes fast.

If things go well tomorrow, I'll post my recipe for cottage cheese enchiladas.

Ginger Chicken

This is one of my first recipes, the very first to use chicken. It's very simple, but there's a lot of chopping involved.

Ingredients:

3 Chicken breasts
Sesame seed oil
Half an onion, chopped,
2 Cloves of garlic, chopped,
1.5 Carrots, chopped
2 Stalks of celery, chopped.
1/3 of a head of cabbage, shredded
1/3 cup jicama, chopped.
10-15 snow peas
2.5 teaspoons fresh ginger (2 minced, 1/2 grated)
3 teaspoons soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
3 teaspoons corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water
1 1/2 cups chicken broth






First saute 1 teaspoon of minced ginger with some sesame seed oil for 2 minutes, then cook the chicken. Cut it into bite-sized pieces and set it aside. In the same wok, stir-fry the vegetables with the rest of the ginger and 1 teaspoon of oil. Cook until the vegetables are as soft or crunchy as you want them.


Add the soy sauce and turmeric to the chicken broth and stir well. Add the chicken to the vegetables, pour the chicken broth on top and mix well. Add the corn starch mix and again mix everything well. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes, mix occasionally so that everything is covered in the sauce.


This dish goes well with plain white rice or with  curry rice

Cabbage soup

This is the first recipe I tried making on my own. I find it tasty and hearty, yet low in fat. It keeps for about a week in the fridge.

I used jícama in this recipe, but it isn't essential. If you can't find any, just skip it and add more carrot or other crunchy vegetable you like. Celery ought to work well.

Ingredients:

1/4 white cabbage shredded, or 1/2 re cabbage shredded

1 clove of garlic finely chopped or minced

5 small mushrooms chopped

1/2 onion chopped

1 carrot (I cut it into sticks, but go any way you like)

About 1/4 of a medium sized jícama (in sticks, too, or see about the carrot)

Chicken stock or broth (enough to cover the vegetables)

1 teaspoon olive oil (or more or less to taste; and you can use any kind of oil)

Ground black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

A dash of Tabasco sauce or to taste

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a pot for a little while, then add the onion and garlic.Saute until the onions begin to turn translucent. Next add the rest of the vegetables and cook uncovered until they reach the level of softness you want, or until the mushrooms turn brown. Stir occasionally

Reduce heat to low and add the chicken broth or stock. Bring the soup to a slow boil, stirring occasionally. When it starts to boil, add the pepper, oregano, Worcestershire and Tabasco. Once it boils, let it simmer uncovered for about five minutes. Remove from heat, allow it to cool a bit and serve.