Easy Vegetarian Lunch

 It can be eaten any meal, any time... You can also choose different vegetables...

I never made this before, but I had an "assignment." What's the story? The Health/Sick Fund I'm in has some free programs for the 65+ crowd. One of them is a Weight Loss Group via Zoom. We had our second meeting this morning, and she assigned us to make a balanced non-meat meal. This is mine. 

Ingredients

onion

sweet potato 

          eggplant 

squash 

          orange lentils 

carrot

Instructions

cut the vegetables bite-size

put in baking pan

add water and oil

cover

Bake at 160 C until lentils and vegetables are soft.

I added a bit of soy sauce when I ate it. I never measure exactly, but it was perfect.

Easy and Quick Vegetable and Orange Lentil Soup

 

I've been craving my homemade vegetable soup for quite a while, and I didn't have much patience to wait. An easy shortcut requires a can of beans, but we didn't have any. then I remembered the orange lentils I had bought. They cook up very quickly.

Ingredients (I don't measure exactly, so there's no need to obsess about exact quantities)

• large onion
• medium squash
• nice sized chunk of sweet potato
• celeriac
• coarse salt, pepper (coarse is best,) parsley-- either fresh or dehydrated
• if you have carrots, add one or more, mushrooms also good, ditto for fresh parsley or celery

Instructions: 

• cut in small chunks or slices
• put all in a large pot
• start sautéing in oil
• add at least a half cup of orange lentils
• boil a couple of liters of water
• add the boiling water and cover
• as soon as the soup begins to boil, turn down the flame to just simmer

Cook until it's all soft, and the lentils are mushy.

Red Lentil Mushroom Vegetable Soup

This Red Lentil Mushroom Vegetable Soup tastes unbelievably good, and I could say that I just threw a few things together. 

I served this soup to break the Tisha B'Av Fast on a very hot summer day. It was absolutely perfect and required relatively little cooking. I didn't measure all the ingredients, and one can be flexible and creative. It isn't some sort of chemistry formula.

You can see almost all of the ingredients here.

Ingredients:

• about half a cup of orange lentils (more can be used)
• 1 large onion
• 2 medium squash
• fresh garlic
• a can of mushroom pieces
• dehydrated parsley, fresh would be great
• a spoon or so of vegetable oil
• a bit of coarse salt and pepper

Directions:

• put the lentils in the pot and cover plus with boiling water. Leave covered for an hour or more
• dice up the vegetables, including garlic, then add to lentils, 
• put in pot with the mushrooms and liquid from can 
• top with the oil and some more water and parsley
• bring to boil, add salt and pepper, then simmer
• 40 minutes cooking time, unless you decide to add carrots or any other root vegetable you want in the soup. They take longer to cook.

That's it! ENJOY

One Bowl Meal Salad, Easy to Prepare

 

You can see almost all the ingredients here:

onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and canned peas

What you don't see is the olive oil, pepper and a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

You can substitute cooked or canned lentils or beans for the peas and even add canned tuna, or whatever.  You can also add other vegetables to the salad, like leeks or red pepper, fennel or whatever suits your fancy or you have waiting impatiently in the fridge. 

I'd love to know what version you make. Let me know in the comments, thanks.

Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup

Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup

Nutritionnix

I made this Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup on Sunday to break the fast of the 17th of Tammuz, but I've been enjoying the leftovers ever since. And my husband has had it for lunch with pasta added to make it more filling. It's labeled "light," because the orange lentils cook quickly and disintegrated, unlike peas, rice, barley or pasta.

Since I didn't measure the ingredients, I'll just list them. My cooking is very flexible. Measuring is very rare. 

• orange lentils
• onion 
• carrot
• squash
• pumpkin
• mushrooms
• a bit of vegetable oil, coarse salt and coarse pepper
• water, of course

Cooking was in two steps. First I poured boiling water over the lentils, covered and waited over an hour. Then I added the cut up vegetables and the oil. Once it was boiling, I added more boiling water, plus the salt and pepper. Once it's boiling nicely, lower the flame to simmer for 35 minutes to an hour depending on your pot.

You can add other vegetables or leave some out. Generally I add some dill or parsley-- dehydrated is fine, but since I was fasting my mind wasn't fully there.

This is a very easy to make soup. Enjoy.

Perfectly Filling and Tasty Vegetable Soup

 

I discovered how to make vegetable soups decades ago, and to be perfectly honest now two are ever exactly the same. That's why I'm not very specific about quantities. I don't measure, though I do have a very good eye for quantities. I instantly know how much to put in a pot. You may have to experiment, but on the whole, especially if you're using dried beans, barley, lentils or peas, remember that they swell. So they should only cover the bottom of the pot. 

Ingredients

lentils, pearl barley and split peas
onion
fresh garlic
celeriac 
carrot
squash
coarse salt, coarse black pepper and dehydrated parsley

Instructions

1. Put the lentils, pearl barley and split peas in the pot, and check for small stones or anything that shouldn't be there.
2. Pour boiling water and cover. Wait at least a couple of hours.
3. Cut all the vegetables, and add them to the pot. 
4. Add a couple of spoons of vegetable oil, whichever you like for cooking.
5. Start cooking, and add boiling water, not too close to the top of the pot. Two-thirds full is good, usually.
6. Add the seasoning.
7. Heat to a boil, and then lower flame to simmer. 
8. Simmer for at least an hour.

That's it. Enjoy!

PS You can add other vegetables, seasoning etc.

Easy to Make, Healthy Salad, Mostly From Cans

Yes, I call this salad "Easy to Make, Healthy Salad, Mostly From Cans." And it's not an oxymoron.

It can also be titled Corn, Bean and Tomato Salad, Corona Lock-down Recipe #4, because the canned food was delivered to us as part of the senior citizen care package at the height of the corona lock-down. Following are the first three recipes I developed with canned food from the carton:

• Cooking With Canned Beans, Corona Lock-down Recipe #1
• Cooking With Canned Pineapple, "Apple-Pineapple Compote," Corona Lock-down Recipe #2
• "Sauerkraut Salad," Corona Lock-down Recipe #3

If you had inspected my pantry before getting these COVID-19 "care packages," you'd have found almost no cans, not even tomato paste. The few cans would have been "food gifts" from the Purim mishloach manot. But suddenly I found myself with all sorts of canned food and decided to make up recipes.

This salad is also a great vegetarian-vegan "one pot meal." It contains protein plus raw and cooked vegetables. Of course you can substitute different types of beans and vegetables and add more fresh salad. Just looking at it you can probably guess almost all of the ingredients:

canned corn
canned white beans
diced tomato
diced onion
coarsely ground pepper
dehydrated dill
dressed with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice

Yes, that's it. Think of the recipe more as inspiration than an exact recipe. Try it, and tell me how yours turned out and how you varied it. Enjoy in good health.

Tasty and Simple 21st Century Tzimmes

Tzimmes 

Tzimmes is a very traditional holiday food for Ashkenaz (European) Jews. There are still families who make it is a "one pot meal" with beef. That combination is from the days when most meals were thick soups or stews. Today's affluence has enabled the development of multiple-pot meals. Even in the half century I've been married, menus and cooking has gotten much more complicated. There are many more pots in the sink than a couple of decades ago, even though we are fewer people at the table. No doubt my grandmothers would find my tzimmes a bit strange, though familiar.

Ingredients (exact quantities aren't necessary)
1 larger or 2 medium carrots
1 medium sweet potato
piece of dlaat, pumpkin or similar preferable orange-colored squash 4"x4" or 10cm by 10cm
1 large apple
handful of raisins
handful of prunes
cinnamon to taste
approx 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
optional- a few slices of ginger root
2T vegetable oil
water up to 1/3 height of vegetables in pot
bit of coarse salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. slice carrots thick
2. cut other vegetables into large bite-sized pieces
3. place in pot, carrots first, then dried fruit and then the rest
4. top with sugar and cinnamon
5. add oil, water and cover
6. bring to a boil, then simmer until soft
7. add salt and pepper when cooking

Tasty with meat, poultry fish or add tofu or beans as a vegetarian meal.

Easy Filling Vegetable Lentil Soup

Why do I post so many Vegetable Soup recipes/posts?

That's because, they're all a bit different, and I never follow an exact recipe!

Yesterday afternoon, while observing the Tisha B'Av fast, an important event on the Jewish Calendar, I realized that I had better start preparations for my fast-breaking vegetable soup. Since I wanted a nice hearty soup with lentils and brown rice, it needed time.

Ingredients- Quantities aren't holy, just recommendations:
1/3 cup brown rice (I used round brown)
1/3 cup orange lentils
1/3 cup brown lentils
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots cut
1 large squash cut
1/2 sweet potato (you can use a whole one) cut
pinch plus of coarse salt
coarse black pepper
1/4 cup dehydrated dill
vegetable oil
boiling water

Step #1
Check the rice and lentils. Add to a large pot, pour in boiling water to cover plus, cover and leave for at least an hour.

Step #2

An hour or more before you want to serve the soup, add the rest of the ingredients. Water should not reach more than a couple of inches from the top of the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the flame to simmer. Cook covered.

Step #3

Stir periodically. You may have to add a bit more water. Turn off heat when the lentils and rice are nice and soft. Keep covered until serving. Yes, that's it. Very easy and simple to make. You can add other vegetables, seasonings etc. 

Easy to Make, Tasty Sandwich Rolls, Vegan, Parve

 Sandwich Rolls, Vegan, Parve
very easy to make, and you don't need a mixer

The basic recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe,  FRENCH BREAD ROLLS, which I tweaked. I also doubled the recipe, since I had a kilo of flour to finish off.

These are very easy to make and tasty rolls. I don't have a mixer, just my hands, so they're low-tech too. I baked them with 100% whole wheat flour and brown sugar, which not only is supposed to be healthier, but I find it much tastier than white. I make a point of labeling vegan foods as such, since now I have a vegan daughter-in-law, which makes me more aware of ingredients, besides our being strictly kosher. Parve means neither meat nor dairy, not even the grease or oil.

handwritten version of Tasty Sandwich Rolls, which I worked from
My typed recipe below is more accurate and hopefully w/o spelling errors.

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons dehydrated yeast
4 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
pinch plus coarse salt
1 kilo* (approximately) 100% whole wheat flour

Instructions:

1. mix water, yeast, sugar, oil and about 2 cups of flour in large mixing bowl
2. cover and wait at least 15 minutes until bubbly
3. start adding the flour topped with the salt
4. mix with large strong spoon, or dough hook if you're using a mixer
5. keep adding flour until it doesn't stick to your fingers 
6. start hand (or dough hook) kneading for at least 7 minutes, a bit more if by hand
7. coat with oil, cover and leave to rise, double, (at least 25 minutes)
8. when doubled, punch down and shape on baking pan; I just made balls and squished them
9. let rolls rise and then bake at 400f or 200c, depending on your oven
10. between 17-20 minutes should be all they take to be ready, tap for hollow sound
11. Enjoy! They freeze well too.

*kilo = 2.2 lbs or about 8 cups flour

Coconut Milk "Ice Cream"

The other day I bought myself some coconut milk/liquid to use in coffee, with the hope that reducing cow milk would make my cold better. There was one minor though crucial problem. I just couldn't stand the taste. The coconut milk was creamy and sweet, no need to add any sugar at all, but it totally overwhelmed my very strong French Press coffee bought in Power Coffeeworks.

The coconut milk cost too much money to waste/dump, so I needed to figure out something useful to do with it. Since I remembered from a previous purchase of the "milk" that you can freeze it and make a sort of ice cream, that's what I did. I decided to combine the coconut milk with a couple of perfectly ripe bananas, chocolate chips and some of my coffee and then mix them up in the food processor.

I used the plastic "dough hook blade," hoping that the bananas would get a bit mashed, but the chocolate chips would stay whole.

To thicken the mixture, I added some coconut flakes. I let it whirl until the most of the bananas were mashed. Then I poured the mixture into a plastic container and put it in the freezer.

I plan on serving it Friday night for Shabbat dinner dessert. Coffee liquor will be offered as a topping. If I had some chocolate liquor that would be good, too. I'll look for that in the grocers today, Gd willing I should remember.

Gd willing, bli neder, I'll report on the success of this ice cream after Shabbat.

I highly suggest using coconut milk/liquid for vegan,  parve, non-dairy dairy-like, lactose free desserts. It is much better and far healthier than the totally synthetic factory-made stuff most people use. So many times I've felt sick after eating tempting desserts people have made with Rich's*. Many of the same people who won't let soybean oil in their houses, insisting it's unhealthy and cook with canola oil instead, have no compunction about serving desserts made with the soybean oil based Rich's.

* non-dairy whipped topping based on soybean oil. Wikipedia 

Nothing Better than Vegetable Soup

Yesterday afternoon I made myself a much too full pot of vegetable soup full of brown lentils, onion, carrots, ginger, squash, garlic and finely sliced mushrooms. Yes, that's all the ingredients, plus a bit of oil and water, of course.

Cooking on my new gas stove top is such a pleasure. One advantage is that it heats and cooks so quickly. I no longer have to boil water in the electric kettle for cooking purposes. The old electric hotplate I had been using was so slow, I was always supplementing with the kettle, whether for pasta, soup etc.

To make this soup, I started a few of hours early and put the lentils in the pot, added water to cover, plus, and then boiled it for a few minutes, turned off the flame and covered the covered pot with a towel to keep in the heat.

Then, about an hour or more before I needed to eat the soup, I cut up all the vegetables and added them to the lentils, topping with some cooking oil, and began to cook it all on a high flame. As soon as it began to boil, I added more water until about an inch, 2cm from the top of the pot. Then I had it reach boil again and lowered the flame to simmer. Actually, I moved the pot from the double-flame to a weaker one.

When the soup looked almost cooked, vegetables were soft, I added some coarse salt and coarse pepper. It's better to add less than you think would be good, since people can always add more, but you can't reduce salt and pepper in cooked food. About ten minutes later I turned off the flame and let the food continue cooking on its own. It didn't need more than a total of forty minutes of cooking time.

This, easy to prepare, vegan vegetable soup is a full meal. If you eat dairy, you can put a slice of yellow cheese on the bottom of your bowl before serving for an extra tasty protein treat.

Enjoy!

Low-Tech "Blended" Vegetable Soup

I don't have a stick blender. I did have one many years ago, and since I didn't use it, I passed it on to one of my daughters. She loves it, and I'm pretty sure that by now, that cheap one I got as a bonus, when buying something else, has been replaced at least once.


To be honest, I can't even remember when I last used the potato-masher. It may have been decades ago.

Yesterday's Vegetable Soup was very easy to make. It's my basic one-pot recipe, which I've made before. I don't measure; there's no need to.

Ingredients

• dried peas
• onion
• garlic
• carrot
• squash
• pumpkin
• dehydrated parsley
• whatever vegetable oil you like
• coarse salt and pepper to taste
• boiling water, time-saver rather than tap

Directions

1. Check peas, put in pot, add boiling water to cover plus.
2. Cover and leave for at least an hour.
3. Cut vegetables.
4. Add vegetables and oil to pot.
5. Start cooking on high flame/heat until boiling, then lower to simmer
6. Add more boiling water, no higher than 2", two inches from top of pot. 
7. After half an hour add parsley, salt and pepper. 
8. Cook for at least 10 minutes more. Turn off flame, and let it "sit" for another 10 minutes.
9. Mash optional, and serve.

PS You can always add more vegetables or leave out the pumpkin or squash. And of course you can cook with fresh parsley. I almost added some sweet potato but wanted to cut our the carbohydrates, so added an additional squash. If you want a heartier soup, then add barley or rice to the peas.

Pasta-Chickpea Salad, Pre and Post-Fast Meal

One of the popular suggestions for pre-fast meals is to eat complex carbohydrates, which take longer to digest. The experts consider that a good idea before fasting. So, on Friday I decided to make a Pasta-Chickpea Salad. Of course I had to make sure I had enough time to soak and cook the chickpeas, which I did. You can "cheat" by getting a can of them.

Cooking Chickpeas
First I leave the chickpeas in a covered pot full of boiling water for a couple of hours. Then I pour out the water, add new boiling water and simmer on the stove until chewable. Leave covered for another hour or so.

Pasta-Chickpea Salad Ingredients

• cooked pasta, drained
• cooked or from a can chickpeas, drained
• cut tomatoes, large diced
• diced onion
• olive oil, coarse salt and coarse pepper
• optional other salad vegetables and leaves and/or grated cheese

Mix all of the ingredients together. Yes, it's that simple. It's a simple "one-pot" summer meal. Which additional ingredients do you add? I'd love to hear.

PS for the post fast, fast-breaking breakfast meal, I heated up the salad, since my husband prefers warm pasta.

Food Ideas for The Nine 9 Days

I really doubt that when chazal, our Jewish sages, decided that during the  Nine 9 Days, we shouldn't eat meat they could have known that fish meals would be much more expensive for us. That was the topic of this morning's post on Shiloh Musings, 9 Days Rather Ironic, Fish Yes, Chicken No.

My husband and I generally eat Shabbat leftovers for the entire week, and I have lots of portions of cooked chicken in the freezer. All you have to do is to recook them with vegetables and carbs. But during the Nine 9 Days, I have to cook every meal. Sometimes I have a stock of vegetable soup, but in all honesty, hot soup on hot days isn't a favorite.
Following are a few recipes. Your comments, recipes, reactions and ideas are welcome in the comments section, thanks.  Sorry, but I don't go for exact measuring of ingredients or cooking time. I encourage variations and would like to hear about yours.

Latest Breakfast, No Cravings
Yummy Cauliflower Casserole/Kugel
Frying Pan "Lentil Stew"
Do you Quinoa?
Simple Chickpea Salad
One-Pan Meal, Tuna Steak and Veggies
Shakshuka Plus
Lovely Lentil and Mushroom Dish
Pancakes
No Mayonnaise Egg Salad
Low-Carb, Crustless Dairy Quiche
This Year's Purim Soups, Yes Two 2

9

Which is your favorite? And what do you suggest from your own repertoire?

Lovely Lentil and Mushroom Dish

Here's another super easy vegan/vegetarian dish that can be either a side dish or a main course for those who need a protein and there's nothing else.

Cut an onion, some garlic and a few mushrooms. Put in a pot. Check then add a cup of lentils. Add a spoon of oil, then three cups of boiling water, cover and simmer until the water is almost absorbed. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Turn off the flame and leave for another twenty minutes.

That's it. It's that easy. Cooking doesn't have to be a lot of work.

Optional: Add carrots, squash and other vegetables, too.

Sweet Vegetable Soup Sans Sugar

Yesterday was a fast day on the Jewish Calendar, the postponed 17th of Tamuz, which commemorates the beginning of the loss of Jerusalem and destruction of the Holy Temples. It's a daylong/light fast, beginning with the first light of dawn and ending in darkness. Being that (in the northern hemisphere) we're in early summer, when day's are longest, it feels like it goes on forever, and we finally eat after my usual dinner time. I like to break fasts on vegetable soup. And I enjoy spending the last few hours of a fast puttering in the kitchen preparing homemade vegetable soup.

Before I left for a morning's learning in Matan, Jerusalem, I left some chickpeas to soak in boiling water for the soup. Chickpeas take a long time to prepare, unlike lentils. But I figured that the day would be long enough for the chickpeas to soften.

A few hours before the fast ended, I decided it was time to go to the kitchen and turn the chickpeas into a soup. My soups are never the same. I don't measure, and I rarely plan.

Since I knew there was plenty of pumpkin and sweet potatoes in the fridge, I decided to base my soup on those ingredients. In Israel it's very popular to make an Orange Soup, which then gets blended into a creamy sweet soup. But I don't have one of those blender sticks, and I davka like to chew...

I added more boiling water to the chickpeas and put it on the stove to cook. Then I cut up onion and garlic and added them to the chickpeas.

Next I took out the pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, squash and some ginger root, which I store in the freezer.

I cut up all the ingredients and added them, too. Now, I do have a system when it comes to cooking different sorts of vegetables together. There is a big difference in cooking times between carrots and pumpkin, for instance. Carrots take the longest to cook, so they go in first. After that the sweet potato, squash, ginger and pumpkin.

I added some vegetable oil and boiling water, covered and then lowered the heat to a simmer. Once I could see that the vegetables had begun to soften I added a bit of coarsely ground pepper and some coarse salt. That was it.

The soup cooked for about 40 minutes. And then I left it to finish by itself, no flame. It was absolutely delicious, very sweet, not savory.

Simple Chickpea Salad

Since we were hosting a vegetarian for a meat meal, I needed to serve a suitable protein for the guest. Summer weather made a salad seem like a good fit.

You need chickpeas, either from a can or cooked. I cooked these. It does take a few hours plus. First you soak them in boiling water in a covered pot for a few hours until they begin to swell, and then you pour out the water and rinse. Add lots more water and boil them for another couple of hours until they are nice and soft. Let them cool.

Once the chickpeas are cool, pour out the water, and in a nice bowl add:
chopped garlic
onion cut in small pieces, red onion is great if you have one
diced tomato

Mix them with the chickpeas, then add some olive oil and then coarse pepper and a bit of coarse salt to taste.  If you wish you can also add leaves or/or additional fresh vegetables. My guests loved it, even those who eat meat.

Pre-Passover Custom

Eat a falafel.

Most years we eat falafel after doing  Bedikat Chametz, the religious ceremony during which the house is searched for any drop of the forbidden  chametz. And in order to find chametz, some bagged chametz is hidden in various corners.

This year I changed the custom, the schedule. Tonight is Bedikat Chametz.  Even though we're not making a Seder, and I don't have lots of cooking, we're turning the kitchen kosher for Passover early, this morning. And since my husband is retired, he won't be going to Jerusalem today. And since we've already started with Daylight Savings Time, it will be past my dinner time when we finally finish Bedikat Chametz.

So, I asked him to bring me a felafel yesterday. It tasted OK. I think that the last time I ate one was pre-Pesach last year.

This Year's Purim Soups, Yes Two 2

I feel best breaking fasts on vegetable soup. The Jewish Calendar has a number of fasts in the year, and one of them is the day before Purim. My custom is to spend the afternoon making soup. That's what I did yesterday afternoon.

Since I no longer have, nor usually need, a supersized pot, I made two pots of soup. Another reason was that I had lentils and peas I wanted to use up. So instead of mixing them into one soup, I made two different ones.

Lentil-Ginger Soup

The Lentil-Ginger Soup ingredients:

lentils
onion
fresh garlic
carrots
sweetpotato
fresh ginger
parsley root and leaves
a spoon or two of vegetable oil
salt to taste, or a just a bit less

Instructions:

• A few hours before I plan on cooking the soup, I put the checked lentils in a pot and add boiling water to cover and then cover the pot.
• Afterwards I cut all the vegetables, add them, except for the parsley leaves, to the lentils, add the oil and some more boiling water. 
• Cover, start cooking on a high flame, then lower it to simmer for at least 45 minutes.
• Add the parsley and salt.
• Cook a few more minutes, and then let it sit covered.

Enjoy!

Simple Pea and Carrot Soup

The  Simple Pea and Carrot Soup Ingredients:

onion
garlic
carrots
squash
parsley
root and leavesvegetable oil
coarse black pepper and salt "to taste"

Instructions:

• A few hours before I plan on cooking the soup, I put the checked peas in a pot and add boiling water to cover and then cover the pot. 
• Afterwards I cut all the vegetables, add them, except for the parsley leaves, to the lentils, add the oil and some more boiling water. 
•  Cover, start cooking on a high flame, then lower it to simmer for at least 45 minutes. 
• Add the parsley and salt. 
• Cook a few more minutes, and then let it sit covered.

Enjoy!

After sampling both soups, I decided to try them mixed/together. 

I hope my neighbors like the soups they'll be getting for mishloach manot, Purim food gifts as much as I did.