Warm and Comforting Vegetable Lentil Soup

Tags

leek, lentil, pita chips, pumpkin, Soup

 

 

Easy, fast, healthy, and so very good! Torn toasted pita bread in olive oil is a good addition to this soup.

Everyone have a special lentil soup recipe in their lives, one that sustained them and kept them warm during cold winter days.
It was unexpected, at my friends lunch little party, when she served us a hot warming soup in an espresso cup. A gorgeous soup, it was warming, hearty, and possessed a velvety texture that recalled some kind of pureed legumes, but it had a zesty and spicy flavor.
” It’s nothing, just a lentil soup” she said.
Lentil? It didn’t taste as lentils.
“Yes, red lentils, with some other vegetables, pureed and spiced with a little chilli powder and lemon juice.” She added.
As for me, I always cook my lentil soup with red lentil, but the other flavors that make that soup so special. I took the recipe and planed to be on my next day dinner menu. It scored high in my family records, my kids love it.

Unlike their more familiar brown and green cousins, red lentils are hulled and split when you buy them. This lets them cook much faster than their relatives, though they don’t hold their shape as well, making them problematic for salad and ideal for soup.
The Leek and pumpkin, the stars of this rich soup. The leek, is a vegetable in the same family as onions and garlic but have a more subtle flavor. It is perhaps best known for its use in soups. The pumpkin, when you say fall, you’ll always remember pumpkins, I love it.
Puree the finished soup will result in a creamy and thick soup. A good way to include the vegetable in kids meal, thus more appealing for the kids to eat it. To make it more kids friendly, I omit the chilli powder from the original recipe.

Top the soup with toasted pita bread pieces when serving, some chopped fresh parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice for extra lemony flavor.

 Vegetable Lentil soup

2-3 tablespoon olive oil
2 cup red lentil
2 large leeks, trimmed, cleaned, and chopped
2 cups cubed fresh pumpkins
1\2 cup chopped onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and ground black pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
juice of 1 lemon, plus more for the garnish
fresh parsley chopped
toasted pita chips

In a large pot, heat the oil, add the onion and the garlic, sauté until golden. stir in the leek, the pumpkin and the lentil, sauté for 4-5 min. Add the stock or water, the cumin, salt and pepper. Cover and let cook for a bout 20 minutes.
With a hand blender, or any blender available, purée the soup. Add lemon juice and adjust the salt and pepper flavour. serve with some toasted pita chips and some chopped parsley on the top.

For the toasted pita bread
Sprinkle the bread with olive oil, cut the bread in triangle shape, spread the bread pieces in an oven try, bake on 300 f for 10-15 minutes, it depends who thick is the bread.

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Mujadara is all about: Lentil, Rice and Onion

Tags

easy dish, fast prepared dish, legumes, lentil, main dish, middle eastern, mujadara, rice dish, vegetarian

At first, I have some picture of our last vacation trip to Colorado, it’s my pleasure to share with you for now, until I write the whole trip report in a separate post later, here is some to enjoy the scenes.

The scene of the suspended bridge from the highest point in the region.

Rated as the world’s scariest ride ever near the edge of the mountains at royal gorge region in Colorado spring, Colorado.

The bridge and the cable car while riding The Royal Gorge Railway.

This is our second time to Colorado, this time we spend it in Colorado spring region most of the time, the fascinating canyon city (where the highest suspended bridge, along the Arkansas river) Colorado spring is a place that’s more than just another destination; it’s the experience of a lifetime.

Here is me, my beloved husband and my three little cowboys at Garden of Gods.
Hope you enjoyed those pictures, and be ready for the rest.

But for now, let’s talk about my very favourite dish ever.

Mujadara is a very popular middle eastern dish. Will known in levant countries of Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and egypt as a poor man’s dish,  but it’s also a very nutritious vegetarian meal especially if served with fresh vegetable salad.

Very light, easy and fast preparing, for me, it’s the rescuer dish, since I sometimes have no interest in preparing anything, then think of mujadara as it’s the fast and all of my family love it. My husband’s work mates first time tried it, they asked for the recipe, my husband told them it’s the famous Palestinian’s noodles version.

Mujadara

1 cup brown lentil
1 1\4  cup basmati rice
2 onions sliced
olive oil
1\2 teaspoon cumin
1\4 teaspoon ground all spice
1\2 teaspoon sumac
1\4 teaspoon ground coriander
1\4 teaspoon Turmeric (for the yelow color)
salt and pepper

wash the lentils thins cover it with water and bring it to boil, let it cook covered on medium low heat until nearly tender, about 10 min.
At this time, in another pot sauté the onions with 3-4 tablespoon olive oil, add dash of each of the spice, sizzle the onions until nearly brownish but still crispy.
To the cooked lentils, add the washed rice, 2 tablespoon of the sautéed onion, 2 tablespoon olive oil, all the spices, 1&2\3 cup hot water or stock (I used chicken stock), bring it to boil, cover and continue to cook in very low heat until the rice fully cooked about 10 min.
Serve it with the sautéed onions on top, with a side of fresh vegetable salad, or cucumber and yogurt dip
Enjoy.

Daring Cook Challenge: Potato Salad

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avocado, avocado potato salad, cauiliflower, daring kitchen challenge, eggplant, lentil, lentil potato salad, pomegranate molasses, potato salad, Salad, sweet potato, sweet potato salad, sweet red bell pepper, yogurt dressingroasted vegetable salad

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

Here is some potato salads recipes I usually make:

Sweet and White Potato Salad with Pomegranate Dressing

This salad is gorgeous, it combine between the sweet and the sour, when using the sweet potato and the white, then the pomegranate with its sweet and sour flavor along with the arugula, very very delicious.

1 sweet potato
2 medium white potato
arugula
sweet red bell pepper
green onion
pecan
for the dressing
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper

Boil the potato with the skins on until tender and cooked, peel the skin and cut the potato into small cubes and let it cool, cut the pepper into 1\2 inch dices, slice the green onion thinly, add the arugula and pecan.
To make the dressing, add all the ingredient in a bowl and whisk until incorporated, add to the salad and mix all together.

Avocado Potato Salad

It’s really great as a refreshing light lunch as will as a very good choice to serve at gathering along with pita chips.

2 medium White potato boiled, peeled, and medium diced
1 avocado cut into medium dices
2 small roma tomato medium diced
1 small cucumber medium diced
3 tablespoon parsley chopped
some mint leaves chopped
2 tablespoon onion small diced
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix the potato, avocado, tomato, cucumber, parsley and the onion all together in deep dish. Add the lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper, mix and server in small dish.

For the pita chips slice the pita bread into triangles drezzel with olive oil and sprinke a dash of salt, spread the triangle on a baking sheet and put it in the oven at 300 f for 10 -15 min.

Oven Roasted Potato veggies salad with yogurt dressing

this salad is a twist on a famous mediterranean fried veggie layered salad, so instead of frying the veggies why not to grill it in the oven as I did or on the grill. the sauce from yogurt and taini gives it that creamy sour fresh tangy taste.

red potato peeled and cut into wedges
paprika for seasoning
eggplant cut into large cubes
cauliflower cut into large floret
frozen sweet corn
chopped parsley
toasted pine nuts
salt and pepper
olive oil for roasting the veggie
for the dressing
1\2 cup greek yogurt
3 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Heat the oven at 350 f, on a sheet pan season the potato with salt, pepper, paprika, add olive oil to coat completely, mix all together, layer the potato into the pan and put it in the oven for 20 – 25 min. until cooked and soft inside (you can check it with the fork).
layer the eggplant and cauliflower after coating with salt and pepper and drizzle some olive oil to coat completely and put it in the oven at 350 f for 15 -20 min.
in a pan put some olive oil add the corn and sauté for 5 min.
To make the dressing mix the yogurt the tahini and the lemon juice.
On the serving dish layer the potato the eggplant then the cauliflower the corn add another layer of each, top it with the yogurt sauce, pine nuts and chopped parsley.

Lentil Potato Salad

potato boiled peeled and diced to medium cubes
lentil cooked to tender
parley chopped
sweet red bell pepper
2 tablespoon onion diced fine
cumin, dried coriander,salt and pepper
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
some romaine lettuce for serving

mix all ingredient together spoon it into the letuce cups and serve.