Lentil and Rice with Garlicky Kale

We are trying to add more vegetarian dishes to our weekly dinner menu. I'm finding a lot of rice and lentil dishes are a great way to do something other than the typical vegetarian pasta dish for a reluctant vegetarian.

Here is a recipe I modified quite a bit from an article in Men's Journal magazine. I go pretty light on salt and pepper while cooking. If you like a more robust flavor, add salt and pepper at the dinner table. This dish isn't particularly flavorful but it does have a good mix of flavors for a rice and lentil dish.

Lentil and Rice with Garlicky Kale
Serves 6

2 cups dried lentil
2 cups of cooked rice
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white and light-green parts only,
split lengthwise and cleaned
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 large bunch kale, stems removed, chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp red-wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

In a large pot place lentils, carrot, onion, leak, bay leaf and dried thyme then cover with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Drain water.

While the lentil mixture is cooking, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a nonstick fry pan and add garlic heating at medium temperature and let the garlic cook for about 2 minutes, do not burn. Add kale and salt and pepper cooking it for about 5 minutes until slightly wilted.

Add kale to drained lentil mixture. Add cooked rice, red pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, red-wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Heat mixture at medium low heat for about 3-5 minutes for flavors to gel.

Remove from heat and serve as a vegetarian main dish or as a side dish.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Rice

This is not a chicken lemon rice soup like one orders at a Middle-Eastern restaurant. There is no cream in this recipe and hence lacks the thick, rich, creaminess of that style of chicken lemon rice soup; although, this version is much lighter and healthier. It has a nice flavor with the bay leaves, allspice and lemon juice. Add this with some sourdough bread and you'll have an excellent Spring meal.

Lemon Chicken Soup with Rice
Serves 6

1 cup chopped chicken
6 cups low-salt chicken broth
2 bay leaves
4 tsp onion, very finally minced
1 carrot, peeled, halved, and chopped into small pieces
1 stalk celery, halved and chopped into small pieces
1/4 tsp ground allspice
Couple grinds of crushed pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cooked rice (brown basmati, texamati, etc)
2 tsp olive oil
juice of 1-2 lemons

Combine chicken, broth, bay leaves, onion, carrots, celery, allspice, pepper, and salt. Cook 10 minutes at a slow simmer. Add rice and simmer another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in olive oil and lemon juice. Just start with juice from 1 lemon and taste. Add more as desired.

Falafel with Lemon Tahini Dressing

I'm not much of a fan of Falafel so I wasn't too excited about making this when my wife Stephanie asked if I could try it. Most Falafel I've had is really dry and not very flavorful, even the one's at good Middle-Eastern restaurants. This recipe did have a different approach since the Falafel is baked, not fried, and I added a bit of curry instead of Tumeric (if you want more authentic substitute the curry I have with 1 tsp of Tumeric.)

To make it more of a meal, we used add some pita bread, humus, and tabbouleh. The flafels will crumble a bit because they are baked and I may have had my mix a bit too wet, so be careful with the water (I reduced it from the recipe I used so the reduction is accounted for in the recipe listed here. Hopefully that helps.) Stuffing the Falafels in the pita with some lemon tahini and tabbouleh really made this meal excellent and one you'll want to add to your list, especially if you are vegetarian or want to reduce meat intake.

Falafel
Serves 6

3 Tbsp olive oil for baking
3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
1/4 cup tightly packed parsley
2 15-oz cans chick peas, drained
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry
1/8 tsp cayenne
black pepper to taste
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup oat flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread olive oil on it. Mince garlic in food processor. Add onion to food processor. Chop. Add parsley and chop too. Add remaining ingredients except oat flour in processor and combine. Get the batter where it is wet but will hold together. You should be able to form balls. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour to make it easier to roll balls. Recipe makes 16 2-inch falafel balls. Place on oiled, foil cookie sheet and gently press down slightly. Cook for 15 minutes, turn and cook about another 20-25 minutes. Serve with Lemon Tahini dressing.

Lemon Tahini Dressing
Makes 1 cup

1 garlic clove
1/2 cup sesame tahini
3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 cayenne

Puree garlic in food processor. Add lemon juice and tahnini to blend, pour in water a little at a time to get consistency desired. Add salt, cayenne and cumin. Store in refrigerator in airtight container. Will keep for a couple weeks.

Collard Greens

This is an excellent, simple recipe for Southern style collard greens. I doubled this recipe and brought it to a potluck and it was very well received.


Collard Greens
Serves 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 slices bacon
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 lb fresh collard greens, cut into 2-inch pieces

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Chop bacon into small chunks or small strips and cook until crisp. Add onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just fragrant about 2 minutes. Add collard greens, and cook until they start to wilt.

Pour in chicken broth, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until greens are tender.

Chicken in a Basil Cream Sauce

This is a rather simple and quick dinner that people will think took a long time to make. The total preparation and cooking time is about 30-40 minutes. What is nice about the dish is the blend of the Parmesan Cheese and chopped Basil. Fresh basil is definitely required for this dish as it is a key ingredient and probably wouldn't work very will with a dried herb substitute.

Chicken in a Basil Cream Sauce
Serves 4

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 (4 ounce) jar sliced pimento peppers, drained
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper


DIRECTIONS:
1. Place milk and bread crumbs in separate, shallow bowls. In skillet, heat butter or margarine to medium heat. Dip chicken in milk, then coat with crumbs. Cook in butter or margarine, on both sides, until juices run clear (about 10 minutes). Remove and keep warm.

2. Add broth to skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stir to loosen browned bits from pan. Stir in cream and pimentos; boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat.

3. Add Parmesan cheese, basil and pepper. Stir sauce and cook until heated through. Pour mixture over chicken and serve.

Food Inc.'s Impact on Our Food Buying Decisions

My wife and I watched a very interesting and, by seeing how my Sunday went, potentially life-changing film called “Food, Inc.” It’s basically a documentary that tries to cover the steps of where our food comes from. It’s not as graphic or gory as some documentaries I have watched on the subject of animal cruelty and factory farming. Sure it has a little of that and there are some tear-filled moments, but this film is less sensational and more informational.

After a long discussion with Stephanie about what changes we could make in our family’s diet we decided to do a bit of research. Fortunately, our diet is filled with a lot of home cooking with fresh meats, fruits and vegetables. Plus we buy a lot of organic products. Very little of our consumption is processed foods and we had already eliminated high-fructose corn syrup from our diets a few years ago after Stephanie watched an episode of Oprah featuring Doctor Oz.

What you learn in Food, Inc. is that “organic”, “natural”, “anti-biotic free” are labels that while good are simply scratching the surface and factory farming has bastardized many of the terms. So what do you look for?

Here is an article I highly recommend everyone to read: Avoiding Factory Farm Foods.

Read it and then come back to this article if you care to see what changes we did.

A few easy decisions involved changing our diary choices. We bought a lot of Organic but only milk from the Organic Valley brand. They are very well respected and a very easy decision when buying diary products so we are now exclusively using their products. Sure there are some other labels out there that are just as good, but Organic Valley is pretty much everywhere we shop.

We eat a lot of meat, mainly boneless, skinless chicken which is probably 70-80% of our meat choice. Stephanie doesn’t eat seafood and I eat very little of it. The other 20-30% is mainly beef and a little pork.

Our beef and pork are all bought from Costco. Well, I should say WERE bought from Costco. We’ve decided to go exclusively with a farm that we bought some meat from at last summer’s Birmingham Farmer’s Market – John Henry’s. It’s a local farm that raises pasture beef and pork. They do home delivery in our area. I used to bulk buy from Costco and individually freeze the meat with our Food Saver. Now I’ll just buy bulk from John Henry’s Farm and freeze.

Chicken can also be purchased from John Henry’s but I wanted to see if we could find it more easily since it’s a larger, more frequent part of our diet.

Organic Valley's meat brand is Organic Prairie that sells prairie raised animals. Problem is it’s very hard to find (Whole Foods Rochester Hills and a Co-op in Ann Arbor) and the cost is exorbitant. For example, frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts run about $5 per chicken breast. Trader Joe's frozen all-natural boneless, skinless chicken breasts I used to buy are about $2.75 per chicken breast. Of course the Trader Joe's chicken is not free-range raised. The best route to buy free-range chicken is to buy from a local farm like my local farmer's market meat seller, John Henry's, which charges only $5.29 a pound (or about $3.50 per chicken breast.)

Fortunately, I went back to Trader Joe’s this evening and bought some of their individually wrapped packaged Organic Chicken. It’s about $4 per chicken breast ($7.49/lb.) The difference between the All-Natural I used to buy and the Organic is tremendous. Here is how the label reads on the Organic package:

“These certified organic birds eat organic feed their entire lives – their corn and soy based diet is free of antibiotics and animal by-products. They’re free range, raised in spacious, naturally lit houses and large, fenced outdoor pens, where they are free to roam.”

If you read the article I mentioned above, you’ll know the last sentence is very important and major difference from other suppliers. For instance, I went to Whole Foods’ website and it says nothing of the sort, only the following is mentioned:

Poultry

* No antibiotics — ever
* No animal byproducts in feed
* No beak trimming for broiler chickens and game hens
* Appropriate beak trimming for turkeys allowed when necessary*
* Appropriate litter provided for comfort and to satisfy natural foraging instincts

So there you have it, our changes after a day of research. I’m sure we’ll do some more looking into things with other products, but this at least gives us some good information to ‘vote with our dollars.’

Please share any brands, products, farms, etc. that you do to improve how and what you eat.

Deb's Chicken Pot Pie

Facebook is a great resource for talking food with friends and family. Fortunately, I have a good network of fellow home cooks. One such friend is Deb Tighe who kept talking about a chicken pot pie she was making over and over again. She was in a bit of a food rut, but thank god because if it wasn't for her rut and Facebook status posts about it I would've never made this delicious pot pie.

Most pot pies I have had are a bit over done in the ingredients department, they are often over flavored. Other recipes are a bit too simple and well bland. This recipe has a very nice balance of flavor letting you enjoy every ingredient.

I did make a few minor tweaks to Deb's original recipe (my changes are in the recipe here.) I added a small amount of Thyme and Oregano and also pre-boiled the potatoes so they would be fully cooked.

Enjoy and thanks again to Deb for an excellent recipe!

Deb’s Chicken Pot Pie

Serves 8 (2 pies)

1 10 oz. package frozen mixed vegetables
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. chopped onions
1 potato, peeled and diced into small cubes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp dried Thyme
1/4 tsp dried Oregano
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
2/3 c. milk
3 c. chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 pie crusts (9 in.)

Boil potatoes in hot water for about 8 minutes to soften. In a large skillet, melt butter and add onions, potato, flour, salt, thyme, oregano and pepper. Stir and cook until bubbly, remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Stir constantly and heat to boiling. Boil one minute while stirring. Stir in veggies and shredded chicken.

Prepare bottom pie crust and pour chicken mixture into crust. Add top crust and crimp edges or pie. Prick top of crust. Bake at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Chicken pot pies can also be frozen before baking for use later. When ready to use, thaw in refrigerator and bake as directed above.