Weekend Cooking: Greek Lentil Salad

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone with a food-related post to share: Book reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button, head over to Beth Fish Reads, and link up anytime over the weekend.

Before heading to the grocery store checkout, I like to make a quick pass through Wegmans book and magazine aisle. Their selection is second only to Barnes & Noble and I have been known to make an occasional impulse purchase - usually a cooking magazine.

It was Vegetarian Times that caught my eye last week. Since Margaret has become a vegetarian, I've been on a quest to expand my meatless recipe repertoire. The June 2011 issue has several interesting ideas, but with summer salad season just around the corner, I decided to try the Greek Lentil Salad first.

GREEK LENTIL SALAD

Ingredients:

1 cup French green lentils, rinsed and drained
1/4 small onion
2 bay leaves
1 large shallot, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 small cucumber, diced (1 cup)
2 medium tomatoes, diced (1 cup)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Place lentils, onion, bay leaves, and 6 cups water in large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 25 to 30 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Drain, remove onion and bay leaves, and cool.

2. Stir together shallot and lemon juice in large bowl. Add lentils, cucumber, tomatoes, mint, and oil; stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Chill 1 hour, or overnight. Serve topped with feta.

Serves 4

My Notes:

• The organic green lentils (from Wegmans) cooked in just 20 minutes.
• I skipped the shallot.
• When served with lettuce and a tomato, this was perfect for lunch. 
• I'm sure it would also be a welcome addition to the potato or macaroni salads usually served at summer barbecues.

This is my May submission for the The Foodie Challenge.

Weekend Cooking: Lentil Seitan Sloppy Joes

Although we're trying, weekly Vegetarian Night (should I call it Meatless Monday?) has not become a tradition. I've experimented with several tofu, bean, and pasta recipes, but my husband prefers a more traditional dinner. This week, we finally hit on a winner.

Margaret got Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook for Christmas and immediately requested the Lentil Seitan Sloppy Joes. Huh, seitan? What is it and how do you pronounce it? After learning seitan is actually wheat gluten, I dragged my feet another month before discovering it readily available at the local Wegmans. The real surprise came when my husband declared them better than "regular" sloppy joes.

LENTIL SEITAN SLOPPY JOES
(from Skinny Bitch)

1 1/2 cups (360ml) water
1/2 cup (170g) dried lentils, rinsed
1 Tablespoon safflower oil
1/3 cup (55g) minced onion
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup (85g) seitan, finely chopped
1 (6 ounce/170g) can tomato paste
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons tamari
1/4 cup (60ml) ketchup
6 whole wheat burger buns
1 avocado, sliced
pickles, sliced for garnish

In a medium saucepan, heat the water over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add the lentils. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.  In a separate saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and saute the onion, bell pepper, and carrot until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add in the seitan.  Add the tomato paste to a blender or the work bowl of a food processor and puree.

In a medium bowl, mix together the tomato puree, mustard, vinegar, tamari, and ketchup. Then add the tomato mixture to the pan of vegetables. Combine thoroughly. Drain the lentils, but save the cooking liquid in case it's needed. Add the lentils to the pan of vegetables and simmer 5 minutes. If the mixture seems dry, add some of the cooking liquid.

Toast the burger buns. Serve the mixture on the toasted buns with  avocado slices and sliced pickles.

This is my March submission for The Foodie Challenge: Whip Up Something New.  Elise is collecting links for this month's recipes.

Weekend Cooking, hosted at Beth Fish Reads, is open to anyone with a food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button, head over to Beth Fish Reads, and link up anytime over the weekend.

The Foodie Challenge: Stuffed Flank Steak

February is winding down, and it's time to submit my recipe for The Foodie Challenge. This project, the brain child of Joanna and Trish, asks participants to try at least one new recipe per month and blog about it.  February links are being collected on Trish's blog.

My crock-pot has been getting quite a workout this winter, especially since purchasing Stephanie O'Dea's Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook. This was one of the first cookbooks I borrowed from the library for a test run. After the maximum two renewals, it clearly deserved a spot in my permanent collection.

FLANK STEAK STUFFED WITH APPLE, FETA, AND ALMONDS

The Ingredients:
3 pounds flank steak
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green apple, diced (no need to peel)
1/3 cup raw almonds, chopped

The Directions:
Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the flank steak in a plastic ziplock bag with honey and soy sauce and marinate overnight.

In the morning, combine the feta cheese, garlic, green apple, and chopped almonds in a mixing bowl.

Pour the flank steak and marinade into the stonewear. Remove the meat from the marinade and put it on a cutting board. Put a handful or two of of the cheese filling in the middle of the flank, and roll it up.

Return the meat to the crock, seam-side down. If you'd like to secure the meat with twine or skewers, go for it.

Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. Slice carefully, and serve. If the meat unrolls a bit, you can stick it back together with toothpicks to present nicely. Or don't worry about it - it's just going to get eaten anyway. If you are left with extra garlic, feta, apple, and almond mixture, it makes a great salad topping.

My notes:
This needs to marinate OVERNIGHT, so be sure to start the evening before. I somehow missed that fact the morning I was planning to serve it - we had it the following night instead.

There was way too much stuffing for my 2 pound flank steak, but the author was right. The leftovers were outstanding on a salad!

We had no flank steak leftovers. I can't tell you the last time this much meat was consumed in one meal.

Food photography is hard... this actually looked much better than the photo suggests.

Did you try a new recipe this month? Stop by Trish's blog and link up.

Butternut Squash Soup

There is nothing like homemade soup on a cold winter day. At this time of year, I always have soup on hand that's ready to be warmed on a moment's notice. Thanks to my new favorite cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, most of the recipes I've tried lately are simple to prepare in a slow cooker.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
from Make It Fast, Cook It Slow
by Stephanie O'Dea

The Ingredients:

1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 small onions, diced
2 small apples, peeled and cubed
1  1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The Directions:
Use a 6-quart slow cooker.  Cut the squash in half lengthwise.  This is terribly hard to do, but if you microwave the entire squash for 2 to 5 minutes on high, the skin will soften a bit.  Scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp.  Brush the olive oil on the inside of the squash and roast in the oven cut side up at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the skin peels away from the flesh.

Plug in the slow cooker and turn to high.  Add the broth, onions, and apples. Stir in the salt, pepper, and spices.  Cover to let heat.

When the squash is finished roasting, add it to the pot.  Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours.  Mash slightly, then carefully blend with handheld immersion blender.

Our Verdict:
This soup is deliciously creamy... it's hard to believe there is no butter or milk in the recipe!  My husband and daughters thought it was perfect, but the spices seemed a little overwhelming to me. I would cut back slightly next time.

Cooking notes:
I followed the recipe exactly, but thought the microwaving and roasting of the squash made it more difficult to handle. Another time I would peel, seed, and cut up the raw squash, then add it to the slow cooker in the beginning with the apples and onions.

The Foodie Challenge: Whip Up Something New!

Do you love to try new dishes? Are you constantly collecting recipes from magazines, newspapers, and the internet that get stuffed into some already overflowing folder or box in your kitchen? Then have I got a challenge for you.

Trish and Joanna have combined forces to come up with The Foodie Challenge: Whip Up Something New!  The idea is to try at least one new recipe per month and then, whether it's a hit or a miss, blog about it.  Monthly hosting duties will rotate.

All the details may be found here.

January posts are being collected by Joanna here.

Will you join us?