YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Lentil Soup with a Splash

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I’ve come across a really good and relatively simple recipe for lentil soup, and thought I’d share it right away before I misplace it! I wish I knew where I got it from, but that information will sadly have to wait until I figure it out and can add it to this post.

I made this recipe for the first time on a rainy day in early spring a few weeks back, and was so pleased with the results that I decided to write a post about it. Lentils are a special food, a special type of legume, with all kinds of important benefits for your health. And they taste good.

The lentils I chose for this recipe are called “lentils du puy.” These green lentils are on the small side, with green and black speckles. The speckles disappear once they are cooked, but they are adorable when you spy them in the cabinet. The original recipe actually called for red lentils, which I also love, in part for the fact that they cook so quickly, but I did not have any of those on hand. So I chose the lentils du puy. These lentils stay somewhat firm, and definitely don’t become a mushy mess. Plus, it’s nice to have a couple different types of lentils in your cabinet at any given time. You just never know.

Speaking about different kinds, the red wine vinegar I used for this recipe comes with a story. At any given moment, my cabinet generally has two or three kinds of vinegar, but I’m never sure what’s been used up and what needs replacing. On the particular day I made this soup, I discovered bottles of white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and rice vinegar. But no red wine vinegar. Luckily, though, I remembered that I had left an open half-bottle of red wine on my pantry shelf last summer. I was encouraged to start this project by my friend Connie, who has a collection of magically delicious home-brewed vinegars fermenting away in lovely wine bottles on her kitchen counter. I had happened to speak with her the day before, which is how I remembered the bottle of wine on the shelf. I poured a little of my experimental vinegar into a measuring cup and took a taste with the tip of my pinky. Delicious, and I mean it. It provided the perfect bright, flavorful note to this delicious soup. Unless you’re feeling extremely industrious and adventuresome (and patient), feel free to just pick up a bottle of red wine vinegar at the grocery store.

Ingredients
1 large onion, peeled and diced
2-3 medium-large carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
3 Tbsp. olive oil
15-oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 cup green lentils (du puy)
4 cups water
1 tsp. cumin
1/2-1 tsp. Sriracha
1 tsp. salt, more to taste
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Sauté the onion and carrots in a generous amount of olive oil for 5 minutes, add garlic, and continue to sauté until the ingredients are softened.

Add lentils, tomatoes, water, Sriracha, and cumin. Simmer 1 hour until thick, and stir in the red wine vinegar. Serve right away, or reheat for dinner. Serves 4-6.

The Trouble With Angel Food Cake

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Have you ever worked with someone whose actions made you hear your mom’s voice inside your head saying things like “Everyone gets a turn,” or even “Let’s be nice”? When my friend Dee’s kids complained about the seemingly unjust behavior of certain teachers or neighbors, she would suggest they consider them “negative role models.” Just as it’s important to have good examples in your life, it’s also valuable to have examples of behaviors you would rather avoid.

Year in and year out, I post recipes that have a lot going for them. I am always on the lookout for good examples of nourishing recipes made from whole foodstuffs, with plenty of produce, legumes, nourishing fats, and high-quality protein. Today I am trying a different approach: I am dissecting a recipe that has nothing going for it. This angel food cake mix is a negative role model. Its best use is as an example of what not to eat. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Grains and Greens

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This is a recipe that features the grain you feel like eating today*, the greens that are in season, and whatever vegetables you are in the mood to sautè. For this particular version, I chose quinoa, red peppers, and spinach, but you can saunter through your kitchen, gather up your choices, and start chopping. If you get your veggies organized, and do your chopping early in the day, you’ll be able to throw this meal together quickly. And if you make the grains the evening or weekend before, you’ll feel like a pro when everything comes together in just a few minutes. Continue reading →

Stripped Carbs and White Powder

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Have you ever thought about the fact that white flour, potato starch, confectioner’s sugar, and corn starch look remarkably similar, essentially identical? They have all been converted to a pile of white powder. What these examples have in common is that they have been ultraprocessed in such a way as to change their unique individual identities until all that remains, in each case, is a pile of stripped carbohydrate.  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

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This recipe made its way into my house in a booklet provided by Vitamix with the purchase of our high-speed blender many years ago. It is really delicious whether all by itself, sprinkled over a circle of warm brie, or tossed onto a tomato salad. Pumpkin seeds are a great substitute for nuts when you are feeding people with nut allergies, but they are also extremely nourishing in and of themselves, and worth the time you spend making them. 

Over the years I have collected plenty of recipes for sweet spiced nuts and seeds, but this is the only recipe I have for a savory version.  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Grain Bowls, Your Way

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I figured I would share some strategies for grain bowls.

Start by choosing a grain. It could be something as simple as rolled oats, but it might also be something slightly more adventurous—like steel-cut oats or millet or even the brown rice left over from last night’s dinner. I happen to be a fan of kasha, a nutty tasting grain also known as buckwheat groats, and which my family ate often when I was growing up.  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Marinated Eggs

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This recipe is in honor of our seven lovely hens, who are now 1 1/2 years old and laying on the order of 3-5 beautiful eggs every day. Yesterday afternoon my 3-year-old grandson and I stopped at the coop to collect the day’s gifts, but two of the girls were in the middle of laying and so we left them to their business and turned around to instead go climbing on a big pile of logs. This morning my husband needed some eggs to bake oatmeal cookies, so he ran out to the coop and discovered 7 eggs!  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Tsimmes

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Preparing for the holidays with my mom was a major highlight of my childhood. Although my father was the main cook in our family, my mother took over the kitchen on the holidays, and dad’s primary responsibility was to make the brisket.

Like many other special dishes that we ate on dedicated holidays throughout the calendar, my mother made tsimmes twice a year, in the fall for Rosh Hashanah (it is traditional to eat sweet foods on Rosh Hashanah), and in the spring, for Passover. She never used recipes, preferring instead to combine ingredients as her grandmother and mother-in-law did. Truthfully, though, tsimmes is one of those dishes that probably doesn’t really need much of a recipe anyway. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Huevos Haminados (Slow-cooked eggs)

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Haminados are one of my all-time favorite Passover recipes! Simple, sublime and delicious, they have been a staple at the Passover tables of Mediterranean Jewish communities for millennia! I’ll be making two big batches in the coming days . Check out this recipe and you’ll see why. Whether you make this dish in your crockpot or oven, it takes just a few minutes to toss together and get cooking. Continue reading →

A Simple Salad

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I’ve been eating this salad for breakfast, yes breakfast, for many years. I know Americans consider it somewhat unconventional to eat salad for breakfast (though not Europeans and in the Middle East), but I believe it is such a great way to start the day. The success of this salad is built on simplicity. My strategy remains similar, week in and week out. It is never quite the same, but it is always delicious. On occasion, I make it with a sweet potato instead of a white potato. Thank you to Alice Waters for teaching me to eat simply. This salad makes one single serving, but is infinitely flexible if a friend or an army is coming to share a meal. Continue reading →