30-Minute Vegan Dahl (Dhal/Dal/Daal)

    There comes a time when you realize that you've been using a recipe religiously for years.....but have yet to share it with all your friends. So greedy, right? Well, thanks to my friend Nicole who asked for my Dahl recipe the other night, I've taken the recipe off my fridge to share it with all of you wonderful people!

     I guess part of the reason it has taken me so long to publish this recipe, is that Dahl really isn't the prettiest of dishes. A delicious ladle-full of yellow slop anyone? But served with rice, chapati or naan and perhaps some other dishes like aloo gobi or a vegetable curry and you can have a pretty darn tasty meal.

     Dahl is a thick stew made of split pulses, typically split red lentils, that originates from South Asia. Variations of this dish can be found throughout India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. This version, being vegan, omits some traditional aspects, like Ghee, a type of clarified butter commonly used in India. But rest assured, this recipe is still just as delicious!

Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 x 1 cup portions (as a main) or 8 x 1/2 cup servings (as a side)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive or canola oil
• pinch of red chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds (optional)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (can put through the food processor)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger (about a 1/2" knob)
• 1 tsp turmeric 
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp salt (reduce if using tomato juice, as appropriate)
• 2 cups dried red lentils 
• 4 cups water (or part tomato juice)
• Juice of half of a lemon, to finish (optional)

Preparation

1. In a medium pot, heat oil with chili flakes and cumin seeds over medium heat. When warm and fragrant, add onion. Sauté for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and ginger.
2. Sauté for 3 additional minutes, meanwhile, rinse red lentils under cold water. Add spices and salt to the pot. Then stir in the lentils. One the lentils are coated with oil and spices, add water (or tomato juice) and stir. 
3. Cover and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, uncover and reduce heat, and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until lentils are cooked and the majority of the water is absorbed (will continue to thicken as the dahl cools).
4. Remove from heat and stir in lemon.
5. Serve with rice or naan

Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew

       Oh, stew. How you warm my heat. Sunday was day light savings (Spring is slowly coming to Canada) so amazingly, we actually ate dinner in daylight....though it was more of a lupper, seeing as we had brunch at 12.30. Anyways, we wanted some comfort food, so we decided on a hearty red lentil soup. Ryan wanted a soup, but I prefer stew, and it just happened that the pot wasn't big enough for him to add anymore liquid, so I won the soup vs. stew battle and we settled on a robust red stew with buttery drop biscuits.

       Also just to give you guys a heads up, I'm going to be offline for the next two weeks and will return on the 21st of March for a my birthday post (oh the options!). Two weeks four projects and four papers. Its going to be a very busy next couple of weeks. But don't worry, just because I'm not publishing recipes, doesn't mean I'n not making new recipes or testing old ones. A girl's got to eat after all.

       But anyways, back to the stew.... This stew is inspired by Indian dhal, and so uses some warm spices, like cumin and turmeric, but also some more floral spices like thyme and oregano. This stew is hearty enough that it doesn't need an accompaniment, but if you, like myself, enjoy dipping bread or biscuits into your stews and soups, give my vegan drop biscuit recipe a try.


Serves: 6-8
Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 medium-large carrots, sliced into rounds or semi-circles
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• I bunch red or rainbow swiss chard, stems separated from greens, stems chopped, greens chiffonaded
• 2 cups red lentils (dry)
• 1/4 cup white wine (or 2 tbsp white or red wine vinegar)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 can or jar tomato puree, or alternatively diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1-1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 3 medium white or red potatoes, chucked 
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

1. In a large soup or stock pot, heat olive oil on medium heat. Sauté onions, carrots, garlic and chopped swiss chard stems for about 3 minutes or until onions are translucent. 
2. Add lentils, stir and let toast for a couple of minutes. Add the wine and let the alcohol burn off for an additional two minutes.
3. Add broth, water, tomato products and spices. Cover, bring to a boil on high heat, and then reduce and let simmer for 10 minutes. The lentils will absorb a lot of liquid so add more water as needed.
4. Add chopped potatoes, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes on medium heat.
5. When the potatoes are starting to get tender, add the swiss chard greens, slowly while stirring the soup to avoid greens from clumping together. Let simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes until all vegetables are tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.
6.  Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice. 
7. Serve with biscuits or garlicky toasts and enjoy.

Meatless-Meatloaf

Finally done all my exams! So it's about time I get to publishing the tasty recipes I've made, and kept to myself over the last few weeks.

I've been wanting to experiment and make vegan meatloaf for some time now. Ryan has never had meatloaf, and my parents rarely ever made it when I was a kid. So it's about time I vegan-ize this meat heavy dish. 

There are two things that all great meatloaves need: soy sauce and ketchup. If you are out of either of these ingredients, go out and pick up some supplies. I'm sure you could make the dish without them, but my loaf needs them.

I knew that I wanted to use TVP, but I also wanted to incorporate lentils. Both are very common in vegetarian meatloaves, and together they give texture and complexity to the base. As for the rest of the goodies, creative freedom is always welcomed. I used some of my favourite seeds, herbs, and of course mushrooms.

Serves about 6

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Ingredients

1 2/3 TVP (textured vegetable protein, granules)

1/2 cup dry red lentils, triple rinsed

1 cup boiling water

1 cup hot vegetable broth

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup panko or bread crumbs

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1/4 cup sunflower seeds or chopped walnuts (optional)

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 medium onion, minced

4-6 medium crimini mushrooms, chopped

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp  basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp chopped chives

BBQ sauce: use your favoutite or combine 1/3 cup ketchup, 1 tbsp soy sauce and several dashes of chipotle smoky hot sauce and make your own BBQ sauce

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the TVP and the lentils with the water, broth, soy sauce and ketchup. Mix to combine and let sit for 10-20 minutes.

Once all the liquid is absorbed, add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pack the meatloaf mixture into a loaf pan and press down firmly on mix.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and lather on the BBQ sauce.

Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Let cool a minimum of 10 minutes before cutting into the loaf.