French Green Lentil Soup with Winter Root Vegetables

When I cook a soup for a meal it has to be so appetizing that I’m not anticipating when the next side of “this” and the main course of “that” will appear. I find a good French green lentil soup to be a full course meal that it can make you forget your next spaghetti dinner.

When using root vegetables such as rutabagas, parsnips, and kale, it’s like the January farmer’s market in February (or late fall to mid winter as that’s when they’re in season).  Root vegetables are packed with minerals and fibers, so they have the type of benefits that you don’t find if you’re in an eating rut eating the same fare.

When in the midst of a long winter season in the northeast, I try to adjust to cold temperatures and do what I do best when not ruminating over the lost hours of daylight-cook with vegetables that are deep as the color of my mood and as stripped down as the trees outside.

French Green Lentil soup with Root Vegetables

The surprise ingredients of coco powder and jalapenos give the soup depth of flavor, a hint of chocolate that goes well with the lentils, a nice addition when not using pancetta or bacon, and a vegetarian lentil soup.

Use an immersion blender to puree vegetables to help with consistency and texture.  If you don’t have a hand blender,  leaving larger pieces of potatoes and vegetables would give this a rustic appearance-more stew than soup.  I prefer a smooth soup consistency with a few large pieces of vegetables. 

The French green lentil is a tighter, smaller, lentil when compared to the red or brown lentil bean. This type if lentil won’t turn to mush when boiled.

The Kale should be the last vegetable added; I usually add this ingredient when the soup is still hot, yet about to be served, approximately 5minutes before, so to retain both texture and deep green color.

Ingredients in order of use:

• 1 cup celery diced
• 1 cup leeks or onion
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 -2 jalapenos (optional)
• 6 cups water
• 1 cup Yukon gold potatoes
• 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup parsnips, chopped
• 1/2 cup rutabaga, chopped
• 1/2 cup turnips, chopped

• 1 cup French green lentils
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine
• 1 teaspoon coca powder
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 1 bunch kale, rinsed

Add Olive oil to a large, heavy bottom stock pot. Sauté chopped leeks, celery, garlic, and jalapenos in the olive oil 3 minutes. Add six cups of water, bring to a boil.

Add the root vegetables and cook for 30-40 more minutes on a rolling simmer until creamy and vegetables are cooked, turn down heat; with an immersion blender puree the vegetables until smooth.

Add French green lentils, balsamic vinegar, fresh ground pepper, and the sea salt, set at a rolling simmer and cook for another 20 minutes.

AdCook for twenty more minutes or until lentils are tender yet still have a bite.

Chop the fresh, rinsed kale and then add to your soup, this step should be done at the very end, so the kale will still retain some of their deep beautiful green color. Your soup is finished. Add a dollop of your favorite creamy topping, vegan sour cream or yogurt.

Pomegranates & Blueberries with Greek Style Yogurt

 

Who would expect to find fresh blueberries, in season, in November and from the Bronx no less? Yet there they were and I found they were plump and delicious.

Pomegranates are found in our grocery stores in November as well. They come from the southern part of the United States, and from places like Arizona and California. I reasoned that they didn’t need a passport. They look just like red rubies, and taste just as beautiful, dark and lusty; and as all lusty things should taste, very tart.  Breakfast would be a  spoonful of these two together, pomegranates and the blueberries grown in the Bronx, dark honey, and thick Greek Style Yogurt.

 Last year at around this time, I went to visit my mother in the south, Florida, I was eager to introduce her to Greek Style Yogurt, it was relatively new to me. I was sure that all the probotic and good bacteria goodness would alleviate all our ills, well maybe?

Though yogurt is easy to make at home, I don’t think most of us would take the additional step to buy cultures, sanitize the jars, set the cultures to the yogurt, etc. The main reason why Greek style yogurt is so nice is because it’s strained, which gives this an appropriately thick consistency. Should you find difficulty in acquiring Greek style yogurt you can get similar results with other “American Style” yogurts by straining the out the excess liquid with a cheese cloth for a few hours. This base will give you a tangy yogurt cheese that is great to use is this dish or most anything calling for cream cheese.

Plain flavored yogurt, a blank canvas for the juice from the fruit, granola, or whole grain topping. The plain yogurt is slightly sour, made sweet by an appropriate amount of raw, dark bamboo honey; each ingredient is brought forth not by an excess of sugar but from sweetness of fruit.   

To cut open a pomegranate, some will tell you to do this in a large bowl filled with water, to dissect the fruit in this manner. Yes, this will allow for full access to the seeds, free of the skin and juice. However, so much of the pom juice is lost, when cutting into a pomegranate I tend to do this over the bowl I’m using so the juices will run over, and you will catch some of this for the parfait.

Pomegranates s & Blueberries with Greek style Yogurt

• ½ cup Greek style plain yogurt
• ¼ cup favorite granola or whole wheat cereal
• 1tablespoon honey
• ¼ cup pomegranates
• ¼ cup blueberries

A layer each ingredient starting first with the yogurt, fruit, then granola and honey. Do this early in the week and make additional servings, wrapped tightly it will keep 4 days in the refrigerator. Better yet, add the granola just before eating, add to the mix of fruit and yogurt.

Rose scented Apple Tart: A day apple picking in a New York State Orchard

A. and I started our day by meeting at Grand Central Station in New York City. Standing in the middle of so many people hurriedly passing, bags in hand, only added to the feeling of anticipation as we headed out to our destination, an apple orchard 50 miles north of NYC.

Apple orchards are known for their cider donuts.   The familiar pleasing smell of cinnamon, boiled apples, and fresh air swayed our appeites, we quickly walked to the open barn that sold the day’s baked goods.  Only you can decide for yourself whether you should head for the barn that donuts or wait until the end of your journey, we had ours first and last.

A broad swooping open plain stretched out before us as each apple tree lined up, a uniformed distance apart, one following the next, in a perfect grid.  We walked through the orchard only to discover that almost every apple had been picked the day before.  Or we hadn’t followed the correct path marked by large orange cones and found apple trees, barren of fruit.  Apples covered the ground ready for cidering.  Once we found the correct path; we filled the bag we shared between us.

Photography on right by Alicia Henry

Photography on left by Alicia Henry

Sitting restlessly on a bench waiting for our train, which would not arrive for an hour we divided our days work.  One bag full of apples and two homes to bring them to. We clearly separated the best apples of the bunch from the less desirable “bad apples”.  We turned over each apple deciding which colors and shapes were our favorites. I loved the mottled red apples with bright patches of green, but not necessarily those that were perfect in shape.

Apples with the tougher, thicker exterior, usually smaller in size, found later in the growing season, will taste best after a few weeks of storage, in a cool, dry space, even until spring.

Softer apples with a thin exterior are found early in the growing season and are best just picked or soon thereafter.

We picked our favorites from both bunches, the slightly flawed–a bruise here an indentation there–from the shiny skinned, smooth exterior. I like a mix of apples; golden delicious and red northern spy that found their way into the rose scented, rose shaped French apple tart a few days later.

Rose Scented Apple Tart

A unique technique for layering apples that captures your attention and looks lovely.  A technique I watched Sara Moulton do on one of her cooking shows on the Food Network, some years ago.

• 8 large apples, peeled and cored, then sliced by 1/4inch
• 3 tablespoons butter or earth balance
• 1/4 cup raw sugar or maple syrup
• 1/4 cup rose water
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

Peel and core 8 large apples of your choice with a mandolin or knife slice into a 1/4 inch thickness.

In a separate bowl, mix the raw sugar or maple syrup with rose water, lemon zest, cinnamon and freshly ground nutmeg.  Add this mixture the sliced apples, gently coating the apples.  Be careful not to break up the apple slices, turn over coating the apples.  Drain the excess liquid.

In a partially blind baked crust, using an 11 inch tart pan, starting from the outside rim, place the apples inside. Lay them overlapping one another, following the last outer layer until you get to the inside.  Dice the 3 tablespoons of butter or earth balance and the dot in between layers of apples.

Bake the tart for 30-40 minutes in a preheated oven at 400 degrees. Optional: Once the tart is done, baste with heated marmalade for a nice shine.

Avocado and Basil Pesto: A favorite small bite

It was the best thing I had ever eaten and it only cost three dollars, a bold statement considering it was such a small bite, no larger than my palm.

When I first noticed it on the menu, I had decided to order it simply because it was inexpensive and had avocado. It was deceptive in how it arived on the plate, just a sliver off of a baguette a slice of toasted bread otherwise known as crostini. Then there was the pesto but not so much pesto that it was falling off the sides, over the ends of the bread. It was your garden-variety basil pesto, made from pine nuts, olive oil and large, fresh, just-out-of-the-ground leaves of basil.

So it wasn’t because of the pesto. What really made this dish was the large amount of avocado as it was served with one half, yes one full half right a top the crostini, of that a ripened dome of sweet creaminess with a greenish-yellowish mellow hue that is the Hass avocado. Though it was a small bite, a crostini will never taste so pleasing, that is until I have my next dish with avocado.

A meal filled in by monounsaturated fats of grassy green olive oil, avocado, and polyunsaturated fat of pine nuts. Have you ever heard any wrong telling of the unhealthy avocado? Well I haven’t and if it may exist on this account it will always be, and no, not to my knowledge.

I went home to replicate this dish. I added tomato and on occasion fresh lime juice, home chef advantage. All what I, non scientist, can and do assume are healthy fats, and on their own, each delightful, together the best combination of raw form foods.

Avocado and Pesto Crostini

The restaurant where I had this dish used french bread. I’ve found that ciabatta also works very well. When deciding what type of bread to use make sure that it has a crisp, light texture, then you can be sure it will offset the soft creaminess of the avocado.

Layout a nice slice of whatever you’re using. Slather on the pesto and then add a large, full half of the avocado. Either by slicing it by half as in the photo or by using a rounder, fuller oval slice of bread and laying it right on top after you’ve peeled back the skin.

The use of fresh herbs with a quality olive oil insures intense flavor!

Basil Pesto

• 2cups fresh basil, packed tightly
• 1cup pine nuts
• 1/4cup parmesan cheese (optional)
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• sea salt and pepper to taste

To make the pesto, in a food processor or blender, first add pine nuts, pulse a few times to break large pieces, add basil and cheese if using, pulse a few more times unitl nuts and basil of are equal size. Then, while the food procesor is on, in a steady stream add the olive oil. Add the sea salt and pepper to taste. Makes 1 3/4 cup pesto.

Homemade Soda: Ginger Ale

A reformed soda addict makes naturally carbonated seltzer water as fanciful as it can be healthy.

In making your own soda you enable yourself to control both the type or sugar and quality of ingredients. All the sugar laden, high fructose, corn syrup beverages found in our grocery stores, truth here, I love them, the way I love things that are bad for me. The excess sugar and synthetic flavoring found in most of today’s soda’s could make you feel that your drinking a pixie stick and if I had wanted to drink a pixie stick I would have combined it on my own, similarly, as I’m doing below. I wanted a real ginger ale.

I grew up nursing a coke bottle, my rewards coming in the form of a malt beverage. Rewards found in family celebrations, birthday parties, lunch time in the school cafeteria, after school snacks- basically as often as I could. You know this, you were there. This love, like many relationships gone wrong, has run its course.

So now, mineral water, seltzer water, bubbly water; Water that brims to the surface; Water that hydrates and has the pleasant sound of air as it breaks the seal; Water that makes me feel that I don’t have to give up everything I love because we learn to know the difference.

Ginger ale made with sharp earthy ginger root. The same medicinal ingredient that calms our stomachs helps with digestion, cramps and other hopeful, healthful properties, a medicinal ingredient in the form of a flowing soda.

Ginger Ale with a Lemon twist

First you will start by making a simple syrup from the recipe below, combine this with sparkling mineral water or seltzer.

• 1Cup peeled ginger root
• 1Cup water
• 2tablespoons lemon juice
• 2tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar ( more or less to your taste) or preferred sugar
• zest from one lemon (a potato peeler works very well)
• seltzer or sparkling mineral water

This recipe uses agave nectar as the preferred sugar however use what you have and your best choice. I’ve used maple syrup had it turned out very well. Some may find that they don’t want or need a sweetener. Either way the agave is a nice alternative to white processed sugar.

In medium sauce pan combine 1/4 inch slices of ginger root, 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon agave nectar (more or to your taste). Set over medium high heat, stir until the agave nectar (or type of sugar you’re using) has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to steep for at least twenty minutes to an hour.

With a fine mesh sieve into clean container. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Once ready to use combine 1/4 cup ginger juice to 1 cup seltzer or mineral water then add a strip of lemon zest, twist and enjoy.

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