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Best lentil chili ever

(note: Robin said it was okay to post this! Yay!)

A few days ago I made this recipe from the book, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are. The author, Robin Robertson, has a website called Global Vegan Kitchen, and a blog; Vegan Planet (lots of other recipes here!). I’m sure I’ll be visiting both frequently.

I was stunned at how delicious this chili was, and so was non-vegan Greg. I guess I’d never thought of lentils as being something you’d put in a chili, but man, give it a shot.

Sweet and Spicy Lentil Chili

From: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, by Robin Robertson

1 T olive oil
1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T chili powder, or to taste
1 1/2 C dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/3 C dark unsulfured molasses
1/2 t ground allspice
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 C water
1 C apple juice

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chili powder and cook 30 seconds longer.

2. Transfer the mixture to a 4-quart slow cooker. Add the lentils, tomatoes, molasses, and allspice and season with the cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Stir in the water and apple juice, cover, and cook on Low for 8 hours. Add more water if the chili gets too thick.

My notes:

I used a white onion because I didn’t have a yellow one, and it didn’t seem to matter. I thought that a whole tablespoon of chili powder was insanity, but I did it anyway, and it was incredibly delicious. Moments like that I realize what novice cook I am – Robin clearly knows what she’s doing. I completely forgot about salt and pepper, and I used orange lentils because I couldn’t find the dark ones I thought I’d put in my pantry. It didn’t matter: STILL YUMMY.

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That lentil chili recipe

Written on April 22, 2009 by hollie in Questions for the Audience, Recipes, Recipes I Try From Books:

I started writing it out, and then I realized that I should see if the author had a website I could link to, as well as linking to the book. Turns out she does! The recipe is from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are, by Robin Robertson, and she has a blog and a website (both of which have MORE RECIPES!).

I emailed her to ask what her thoughts were on re-posting the recipe. Yet another thing I love about the internet. You can just email an author and ask a question! I’ll let you know what I find out.

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What’s the scoop on posting recipes?

Written on April 21, 2009 by hollie in Questions for the Audience, Recipes, Recipes I Try From Books:

I know there are at least two librarians who read this blog, and I really need some help here. What’s the deal with re-posting recipes on my blog, from other sources? I want to post about some lentil chili I made, and I’d love to post the recipe, but it’s from a book. The obvious answer to me is that you can’t post a recipe out of a book because it’s copyrighted, right?

But then I go to look this up, and find a whole bunch of confusing information. Like how tons of food bloggers seem to do this all the time (both with and without citing sources), and how several people have told me that you can re-post a recipe as long as you change the description of how the thing is made, because only the ingredients are copyrighted. Uh yeah, okay, but isn’t that still basically COPYING THE RECIPE? I mean, if someone took one of my recipes and posted the list of ingredients and then made a description different than mine and thought now it’s theirs, well, I’d have to kick their ass. Compassionately, of course.

Another source says that you can copy “two or three” recipes out of a book, that this is like an excerpt, but like with a novel, you can’t copy whole chapters or large portions without violating copyright. As long as you cite the book, then you’re okay.

What’s the real answer?

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How I Make Croutons

Written on April 20, 2009 by hollie in Recipes

I can’t stand store-bought croutons. They taste too salty and they go stale too quickly. I like to make my own, and here’s how I do it.

Hollie’s Fantabulous Easy Croutons

You’ll need:

A baguette (white or whole grain)
Some oil of your choice (I love sesame or olive)
Some garlic salt

That’s it. That’s all I put on mine. I figure I have enough variety with salads not to go making super fancy croutons. These taste delicious and they get the job done. And by “job”, I mean, “suitable crunch”.

Using a sharp bread knife that won’t make your hand hurt after three slices (mental note: add “bread knife” to birthday list), slice up your baguette into chunks:

Lay the chunks out on a pan, and the spray them with oil. I use a Misto for mine, filled with either sesame or olive oil. Don’t use PAM, okay? Just don’t do it. You’re basically spraying your bread with propellents, not to mention figuring out how to dispose of your aerosol cans, which can be a real PITA.

You can also just fling olive oil right out of the bottle all over them, or put them in a bowl first, pour over some oil, and then hand-toss them. I find this way needs a lot more oil. The Misto does a great job.

As a final finish, add some garlic salt! I do one pass over with the shaker. Sometimes two if the chunks of bread are bigger than usual.

Stick that pan in a 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes. Check to see how they’re doing. I end up going anywhere between 15-25 minutes, depending on the quality of the bread (fresh takes longer than day-old).

I like mine lightly toasted, while others might like theirs darker. Here’s what my pan look like when done:

YUM!

I store my croutons in a plastic tub in the pantry. They last for at least three weeks, often longer. Throw them out when they smell stale. They won’t get moldy, but they’ll start to smell a bit old.

Now get some romaine lettuce and some sesame-ginger dressing, and you’re in business!

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Green smoothie before bed; the best medicine

Written on February 10, 2009 by hollie in Raw Foods, Recipes, Weight Loss

I’ve been eating horribly the last few weeks, which is about how long I’ve been in school. I’m sure these two things are connected. When stressed, I go toward the familiar foods, and I’ve been eating loads and loads of high-fat carbs, chicken (ugh), and sugar. I’ve gained three pounds. I can feel it around my middle, which disturbs me; easily 75% of my excess fat is the stress fat that hovers around the internal organs, the kind that is supposed to be extra-unfriendly to longevity.

Tonight’s remedy: a green smoothie before bed. Specifically about 32 ounces. I began to notice this “medicinal” effect of green smoothies after I’d been drinking them for awhile and then tapered off. I’d start to feel worn down, overwhelmed, and my body would feel achey and slow. If I made a green smoothie before bed and drank a ton of it right before I went to sleep, I woke up feeling like someone sprayed me down with Awesome.

Another benefit is that it seems to calm whatever sugar cravings I’m having. The trick here, when beginning to realize you’ve had a nutritionally bankrupt period, is to actually go make the smoothie, which means getting oneself out of whatever carb and stress-induced torpor you’ve managed to roll yourself into. Often this involves a trip to the store for fresh kale and fruit, which can feel like oh such a burden when you’re already swamped with plays to read, notes to go over, and homework to make sure your first grader does. In the larger scheme of things, these are small problems, but in the moment they can feel like more than enough to send you back to the couch with your Chips Ahoy and your remote control. Just one more cookie won’t hurt, will it?

But I try to remind myself it’s well worth it. If there were a pill they could make that made me feel this good, the side effects would likely be as ridiculous as the cost, and I’m sure I’d stand in line to get it. Green smoothies are available at any grocery store for maybe $2.50 per quart, and are, in my opinion, nothing less than nutritional magic. The one sitting next to me is half of the following recipe:

Recovery Smoothie

2/3rds a head of kale (usually I use half, but tonight I was feeling green)
2 small satsumas
2 T flax oil
2 T lemon juice
2 pears, one very ripe, one still pretty firm

IT TASTES DELICIOUS. I am not kidding. I know people find this blog and they read “green smoothie”, and say to themselves CUCKOO!, but I’m telling you, it’s fantastic. I’ll drink an entire 32 oz jar before I fall asleep, and then let it work its magic. In the morning, before I go to school, I’ll try to drink the remaining jar, or most of it.

Now if I could just get back to drinking them every day, I might end up like Clent.

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