This is one of my favorite vegan snacks which can easily become a meal if paired with some fruit and/or veg. I put some white beans (that I soaked the night before and then cooked that day) into the Cuisinart. Maybe about two cups or so. I don’t measure, because I don’t believe in measuring. This explains so much about me, doesn’t it?

Then I throw in olive oil, Himalayan sea salt (because it’s pink, pretty, and supposedly cures everything), some tomato (never more than half of one, and sometimes just tomato sauce if that’s all I have),  some garlic, and some lemon juice. Weird, right? Okay, sure, but blend that stuff up into oblivion, and spread it on some toasted fresh rosemary bread (La Brea is the bomb diggety), maybe put a little parsley on top if you’re so inclined, and PREPARE TO EAT YOUR WEIGHT IN BEANS.

It’s all savory goodness. Of course, you might want to consider adding just a weeee bit of salt. I added too much to my batch last night, and today I weigh five full pounds (I am not even making that up) more than I did yesterday.

I made SOUP! Finally. How many times have I talked about making soup, and yet NO SOUP? I asked recently about recipes for savory bean soups, and among the comments was a recipe from someone identified only as Unwisely. There was also some recipes posted from friends I know in real life, but whose soup do I make first? The person calling themselves Unwisely. 

For some reason, I grabbed my little camera and decided to make a movie of the soup. That’s right, a movie. OF SOUP. Because my dogs wouldn’t fart on command, and you know that has to be more interesting than a movie about soup, right? You might be right. This is maybe the dorkiest cooking soup trilogy out there on the internet right now, which heck, I’m honored to be a part of. If it’s dorky, I’m in. Speaking of which, I would like to thank my good friend Sonja, who is the first person I’d ever heard utter the word dorkumentary, illustrating once again both her own dorkiness, and why I adore her. 

Here’s the recipe, without Unwisely’s commentary (which was good, and I should have read it first, because then I would have known what the heck to do with a leek – see movie #1). 

Ginger Lentil Stew

1 cup chopped leeks, white and light green parts (about 1 small leek)
1/2 unpeeled carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 T olive oil
1 T minced fresh ginger
1 T minced garlic
3 cups veggie stock
1 cup lentils, preferably French green lentils
1 t ground cumin, preferably roasted
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t salt
2 T soy sauce

1. In a large, heavy-bottom saucepan, sauté the leeks, carrot, and celery in the olive oil over medium heat until they begin to wilt, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in the stock, lentils, cumin, and pepper. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

3. Add the salt and soy sauce and cook until the lentils are soft, another 15 to 30 minutes. Serve with Rice.

The stew can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated.

Ginger Lentil Stew
Dorkumentary

Since that movie only took us through the messy kitchen and utter confusion stage, we needed another movie that went into the crisis stage:

Finally, the soup is done, and it is DELICIOUS. I tasted it and loved it, but I had to get a movie of Greg tasting it too, so that you’d really believe me:

We’ll be eating this for the next couple days, and I’m tucking this recipe away as a weekly meal! Thanks Unwisely! Not so unwise after all! 

Here’s the rest of Unwisely’s soup commentary (which you can also read in their comment to the soup question here), in case you decide to make some for yourself: 

OK. I *always* double this (sort of – more like 2.5-3x, but I don’t worry about excess veggies, I just throw them in). As to the ingredients, I usually use way more carrots than that – I’ll buy a small bag and throw them all in. I don’t mess with dicing them, though. Just into carrot coins. (It’s stew, it’ll be mushy.) I have skipped the celery, it doesn’t seem to matter. Oh, and I use the leeks all the way up to where the tips of the leaves get gross.

I adore ginger, and the first time I made this recipe I was actually pretty faithful, but doubled the ginger…and I couldn’t taste the ginger at all. So now I don’t bother with it. I add the garlic if I have it, but if I don’t, I sprinkle garlic powder or skip it. I never have stock, I just use water + maybe a veggie boullion cube or two. (I skip the salt.) Am liberal with the teaspoons of cumin. (Which I don’t roast, because I am lazy and not that classy anyway.)

OK, so, when it gets to the adding soy sauce part, I add it plus an equal amount of vinegar. (Plain white vinegar.) This makes it sort of like the yummy yummy lentil stew we made in Germany, except vegetarian. At the end, I taste it, and if it lacks salt, I add more soy sauce. Then I mix in some short-grained brown rice (which I was cleverly cooking while this was bubbling) until it looks about right. Then I decant into individual containers and freeze some and take it in to work all week and gross out my coworkers. Yum.