Garden Lentil Burgers
- Gnowfglins, Recipes
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09 Apr 2010
Who needs meat when the lentil burgers taste this good?!
I’m sitting out of the GNOWFGLINS e-course this week, as they’re covering chicken and I’m now 3 weeks into eating vegetarian, but I still did some cooking in the traditional vein. I made a recipe from the GNOWFGLINS web site – garden lentil patties – which I made into garden lentil burgers! They turned out incredibly flavorful and filling. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
First, I soaked dried lentils overnight with some raw apple cider vinegar. (This helps to neutralize the phytic acid in them and improves the absorption of the lentils’ nutrients). I’m new to lentils – to my knowledge, I’ve never had them before, so I had no idea what to expect.
Then I drained and rinsed the lentils and put them on the stove with some fresh water to simmer. While they simmered, I prepped the veggies: carrots, celery, red pepper, and… dang it, I forgot the onion. Oh well. It made for a very colorful bowl of yum, though!
Once the lentils were done, I added the rest of the ingredients – some oats, some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, tomato paste, extra virgin olive oil – and mixed it all up. My hands were way too messy to get any pictures!I tried my best to mash the mix into patties, but I wasn’t having very good luck. Most of my patties fell apart on the baking sheet. I guess I’m not a very strong patty-maker. Maybe a little more oats would have helped hold them together? I’m not sure. Here’s what they looked like after their first half of time in the oven:
I then flipped them over, and only a few survived the flip. I had mostly lentil crumbles instead of lentil patties! A couple did stick together pretty well. Not sure what my magic trick was on those ones!The recipe made 13 patties – I probably should have cut it in half, since I’m only feeding moi. I put one of the better-looking patties on an organic whole wheat bun (Rudi’s ftw!) and added a little veganaise and onion seasoning on top (since I forgot the onions). Served it with some organic spring greens with a little organic caesar dressing, and voila: dinner!
They may not look pretty, but this burger was delicious! It will definitely make it into regular rotation in my kitchen.Each patty has about 200 calories (assuming you get 13 out of your recipe, like I did), 6g fat, 29g carbs (8g fiber), 9g protein, and a boatload of vitamins – 45% of your daily Vitamin A, 32% Vitamin C, and 15% of your Iron, amongst others. Yum!
Posted: April 9, 2010 at 8:58 pm
{Tags: carrot, celery, Gnowfglins, lentils, oats, onion, red pepper, soaking}
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Kale and Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
- Gnowfglins, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
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24 Mar 2010
If you would have asked me to eat a “root vegetable” last year, I’d have gagged and said no way, even though I had no idea what root vegetables were. Roots? Just sounds bad. It turns out, though, that I really like the root veggies that I’ve tried since going organic! (For the record, the root veggies in question for this recipe are onions, carrots, garlic, and sweet potatoes). Yum!
The “firsts” for me in this vegan-friendly recipe include:
- First time I’ve cooked with or eaten kale
- First time I’ve made beans from dried and not from a can
- First time I’ve made soup from scratch
- First time I’ve worn my new Asics GT 2150 running shoes
OK, so the shoes are probably irrelevant to the recipe, but they sure are comfy! And hopefully, they’ll not cause blisters the way my old gym shoes did.
The recipe below comes from Emily’s blog – The Front Burner. Check out her recap – she takes much better food photos than I do, and explains every step in detail. This soup covers a slew of nutritional bases – it’s a good source of Vitamin B6, Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Manganese. It’s low fat, with no saturated fat and no cholesterol.
On with the cooking!
First, I should explain that I did not use canned beans for this recipe. As part of this week’s homework in the GNOWFGLINS e-course on traditional food preparation, we were to make beans from scratch. I bought some dried navy beans at Whole Foods yesterday, so to prepare for this recipe, I soaked 2/3 cup of dry beans in water with a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar. I soaked the beans overnight, then this morning, rinsed them and put them in the crock pot to cook on high for an hour then on low for 6 more hours. I added a thumb-sized chunk of kombu (a sea vegetable) to the crock pot during cooking to tenderize the beans and break down some of the sugars in them that tend to make them… gassy. Kombu also imparts some mineral goodness. By the time I was ready to cook dinner, the beans were ready to go.
The next step was to chop up carrots and a sweet potato and stick ‘em in the oven to roast. They didn’t look very exciting so I didn’t take a picture.
Up next: the stranger in my fridge, Kale. (No, not Kato). Here’s what it looked like, fresh from the bunch:
The recipe instructed me to pull the leaves from the stems. I wondered all the while if I was doing it right….
I sure had a lot of kale…. the leaves reminded me of a cross between broccoli and seaweed. (Maybe I just had seaweed on the brain from my recent trip to Whole Foods).Next I chopped up an onion and minced some garlic and sauteed them for a few minutes before throwing in the roasted carrots and sweet potato.
Then, in went the vegetable broth, and then the kale. The kale was huge and fluffy in the pot! I feared I was messing the whole thing up, but I took Emily’s word for it that the kale would wilt. I covered the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, I was still pretty nervous – the kale was huge! I think I might have had a little too much kale to begin with, so I added 1 cup of water. That helped, because by the end of 10 minutes, I could stir the kale into the mix and it was starting to look like soup.I added the seasonings and simmered for 5 more minutes (ready to jump out of my new shoes because it smelled SO GOOD!)
When the soup was done, I ladled it into a bowl and topped it with a dollop of homemade guacamole that I had in the fridge. (Emily recommends topping with chunks of avocado). I slathered some Earth Balance spread onto a slice of my homemade sourdough bread, and…
Dinner!
All I can say is… this soup was AWESOME!! So tasty! My first impression of kale: thumbs up! Kale is a form of cabbage, a relative of cauliflower and broccoli. It’s a highly nutritious, dark leafy green, and has good anti-inflammatory properties and is believed to have potent anti-cancer properties as well. In this soup, it tasted mild – almost sweet. It’s a hearty green – good for chewing!For all of its nutrition, a big ol’ bowl of this soup clocks in around 235 calories. I can’t wait for the leftovers! 100% delish.
[recipe-show recipe=kale-soup]
Posted: March 24, 2010 at 8:59 pm
{Tags: avocado, beans, carrot, kale, onion, roasting, soup, sweet potato}
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Sugar & Spice Muffins
- Gnowfglins, Recipes
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12 Mar 2010
I’ve discovered the most perfect muffins ever, thanks to GNOWFGLINS! I mentioned last night that I was soaking some whole wheat flour in preparation of baking these bad boys. This morning, while munching on the first half of breakfast (a bowl of Ezekiel raisin cereal), I baked up these muffins. I could not wait until they cooled – they smelled so good!
They tasted as good as they smelled! (You can see one muffin missing in the photo above…. it’s in my tummy!) The perfect muffin. Whole wheat goodness, soaked for optimal mineral and nutrient absorption, and ridiculously tasty – the perfect combination of sugar and spice (and everything nice).You can find the recipe here: GNOWFGLINS Basic Soaked Muffins
I used the spices suggested by Wardeh in the recipe (cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg) and added raisins. I soaked whole wheat flour with organic raw apple cider vinegar overnight (about 12 hours). The only modification I made to the recipe was to use half of the recommended amount of coconut oil (as I’m watching my calories!). I think next time I will cut back a little on the sugar – these muffins are definitely sweet! Still, I’m going to call these the perfect muffins, because my goodness, they’re good!
I’ll be freezing half of the batch in ziplock bags, as it’ll take me a while to get through 12 muffins.
With the oil reduced to half, here’s the approximate nutrition info (per muffin):
182 calories, 6g fat (1g saturated), 26g carbs (3g fiber, 10g sugars), 5g protein, 3% Vitamin A, 9% Calcium, 6% Iron.
Posted: March 12, 2010 at 12:18 pm
{Tags: baked goods, Gnowfglins, Recipes, soaking}
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Getting Ready for Muffin Goodness
- Gnowfglins
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11 Mar 2010
We’re in Lesson 3 of the GNOWFGLINS e-course on preparing healthy, traditional foods. I got home from class a little early tonight, and decided to soak some whole wheat flour in preparation of making muffins tomorrow. w00t!
The recipe in Lesson 3 makes a dozen basic muffins, to which I plan to add raisins. I haven’t had muffins in quite a while. It’ll be nice to have a healthy option (though a dozen will last me an eternity! I’ll have to freeze some). I’m also a fan of meals I can eat on the road.
Can’t wait!!
Posted: March 11, 2010 at 10:14 pm
{Tags: Gnowfglins, soaking}
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Gnowfglins: Soaking Grains
- Gnowfglins, Recipes
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06 Mar 2010
I’m wrapping up Lesson 2 in the GNOWFGLINS e-course on healthy and traditional cooking, and tonight’s dinner featured a technique I learned this week: soaking grains. Well, I actually learned this last month in the Nourished Kitchen Real Food Challenge, but for that challenge, I soaked flour for baking. Today, I soaked rice and made it from scratch.
I’ve never made “real” rice before; all of my rice experience is of the boil-in-bag, instant variety. This was the other extreme!
It’s important to soak grains to prepare their nutrition to be fully utilized by the body. Whole grains contain enzyme inhibitors and other natural substances that can actually interfere with digestion and block absorption of minerals and vitamins. Soaking the grains in an acidic solution neutralizes these substances to make the grains’ nutrients more available in digestion.
I started with a cup of dry brown basmati rice. I soaked the rice in 2 cups of filtered water with 2 tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar. (Lemon juice or other acidic liquids could also be used). I let my rice soak for 9 hours, though overnight is even better. One benefit (besides the nutritional benefits) – this process cuts down the actual cooking time of the rice.
When my rice was ready to go, I drained the soaking liquid and replaced it with filtered water (though you could cook the rice in the soaking liquid – I wasn’t sure if I’d like the tang of the vinegar in my rice, so I played it safe).
Then, I cooked the rice and turned it into Nutty Carrot Rice!
To go with my rice, I made an Italian breaded chicken breast. I actually get 2 meals out of 1 chicken breast, so I made 2, which should feed me well next week.
Add some baby spinach with vinaigrette on the side, and you’ve got… dinner!
The rice was very good – a nice departure from plain ol’ boring rice. It had a bit of a kick to it – I guessed at the cayenne pepper and used 1/4 teaspoon, and I think I probably should have cut back to 1/8th. (I like spicy food, but “spicy” to me is “mild” to the rest of the world). It complemented the chicken very well, and had a nice, nutty flavor. Nutty rice with a kick! Mozzarella cheese would have been good on the chicken, too. I didn’t have any!The rice recipe makes 6-8 servings (I ended up with 7), so I’ll be eating rice for a while….
Try it out! This was an easy combo, and the whole meal clocked in around a half hour prep, a half hour cook time, and around 375 calories (assuming you eat the entire chicken breast). Lots of vitamin A, too.
[recipe-show recipe=nutty-carrot-rice]
[recipe-show recipe=italian-breaded-chicken]
Posted: March 6, 2010 at 9:43 pm
{Tags: carrot, chicken, Gnowfglins, peanut, rice}
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