Max Klinger's Lebanese Love Stew

First, a few words about the name of this soup... The "Lebanese" part is because the soup this was originally supposed to be is a traditional Lebanese recipe. The "Max Klinger" part is because this soup is a complete screw-up. (If you don't know who Max Klinger is, shame on you.) I started cooking before I checked the cabinets for the recipe ingredients, and almost immediately I had to punt. I won't bore you with the numerous substitutions I made, or the things I added simply on a whim, but the end result is a soup so far removed from the recipe it was supposed to be that it's something entirely new. I have no idea if anything about this soup is still Lebanese, but it turned out pretty darn good!

Yield: 6-8 servings
Start to finish: 30 minutes

Max Klinger's Lebanese Love Stew
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, halved and thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
1 T salt
1 C lentils (dry)
8 C water or vegetable broth (important: if you use broth, make sure it's low sodium or reduce/eliminate the salt above)
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 Yukon gold potatoes, diced
4 C baby spinach
1 T coriander
1 t cinnamon
salt to taste (be sure to taste!)
1/4 C lemon juice, or 1 lemon, sliced

1. In a stock pot, saute the leeks and garlic in the olive oil until the leeks are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the salt and stir well.
2. Add the lentils and saute for 1 minute.
3. Add water/broth, carrots, and potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 15 minutes until lentils are softened.
4. Stir in spinach, coriander, and cinnamon, and simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Add a splash of lemon juice to each bowl before serving (squeeze 1 slice of lemon into each bowl, or stir in about 1/2 t bottled juice).

Resolution Soup

Okay, we've had our fun over the holidays. We've played with all our new toys, behaved mildly inappropriately at some public gathering, and we've realized that our jeans are a little more snug than they were before Thanksgiving. Now it's time to stow the Christmas decorations in the garage and get back to real life. To that end, I give you tonight's invention: Resolution Soup. It's a variation on one of my favorite quick soups, based on a combination of what was in the fridge and what would be super healthy. Kale's a nutritional powerhouse, broccoli fights cancer, beans are full of fiber, garlic lowers your cholesterol, and Tofurkey... Well, Tofurkey is a little sketchy, but I wanted something to take the place of the turkey kielbasa I usually use. I didn't measure as I cooked, so I'm guesstimating at these amounts, but my result was so yummy I don't think you could go far wrong.

Note: This soup is vegan, but you can easily carnivorize it without adversely affecting the healthiness. Just use chicken broth and turkey sausage in place of my veg ingredients.

Servings: 6-8
Start to finish: 30 minutes

Resolution Soup
1/2 large onion (or 1 smallish onion), diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1 package Tofurkey Italian-style sausage, sliced
4 C vegetable broth
1 can cannelini beans, with liquid
4 C kale, chopped roughly (I used about 6 handsful - roughly half a bunch of kale)
2 C broccoli (again, a gross approximation of what I had left over)
2 t Italian seasoning
dash red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste (but I doubt you'll need either)

1. In a stock pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is slightly softened.
2. Add sausage and saute for about 3 minutes or until sausage is slightly browned if using meat sausage, stirring frequently.
3. Add all the other ingredients to the pot. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until broccoli and kale are softened but not mushy.
4. Serve with good crusty bread or on its own.

Coconut Rice Pudding

Today's anecdotal recipe is for coconut rice pudding - I think I'm on something of a tropical kick lately. Last night we had macadamia crusted mahi-mahi with tropical fruit salsa, accompanied by jasmine rice and steamed broccoli. So good. I made extra jasmine rice because I think you can never have too much of it, and I held back some macadamia nuts because I figured inspiration might strike, and who wants to be nutless when it does? Today I wanted a quick dinner (maybe more of a snack/dessert), so I stirred together the leftover jasmine rice, about half a can of lite coconut milk, a little water, some raisins, some chopped macadamia nuts, and flaked coconut. I put the whole thing over medium-low heat, stirred it for a few minutes, and wound up with a rich, creamy, delicious rice pudding/porridge. It was nicely filling, light on the tastebuds, and there's enough left for breakfast tomorrow morning!

P.S. The picture is not of my coconut rice pudding, because I didn't think to take a picture. It looks just like mine, though. The image is by Randy Mayor and Jan Gautro and is borrowed affectionately but without permission from the Cooking Light website.

Havanuther Cookies

I firmly believe that the world needs cookies. In fact, I think there's a good chance that if the Israelis and Palestinians would just sit down together over a warm plate of Tollhouse's best, they could work out all their problems. These bite-sized beauties are my homage to the Schoolyard Oatmeal Cookies found in Table for Two. They're just sweet enough, just chewy enough, just spicy enough, and more or less guilt-free.

Start to finish: 45 minutes

Yield: 16-24 cookies

Havanuther Cookies
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup millet
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
4 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3-1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cookie sheet with cooking spray, or line with parchment.
   
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. In a small bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together, and then stir into the dry ingredients. The dough will be quite thick and stiff.
4. Stir in the dried cranberries.
5. Drop by rounded teaspoons or tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheet. (Teaspoons will give you roughly 2 dozen bite-sized cookies; tablespoons will give you about 16 two-bite cookies.)
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are golden.

Note: You can add walnuts, almonds, etc., if you like. Just cut back on the amount of dried cranberries.

Eggplant Cannelloni

I spent years avoiding eggplant as a mushy, tasteless waste of my culinary time. It turns out I had simply never had it done well. Eggplant is incredibly versatile, and it soaks up flavors beautifully. This dish does take some prep time (so it might be better for a weekend, which is when I typically make it), but it's well worth the effort. Serve it with a tossed green salad for a satisfying, low-cal meal.

*This version is vegan, but you could easily throw in some ground beef or sausage for a nonvegan version.

Start to finish: About an hour and a half
Yield: 4 servings

Eggplant Cannelloni
1 medium-large eggplant
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups spinach, chopped
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 jar pasta sauce (about 2 cups - I like to use roasted garlic, but any flavor will work)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Trim the ends off the eggplant. Peel it and slice it lengthwise into roughly 1/4 inch slices.
3. Lay the sliced eggplant on plates, a baking dish, or in a colander and sprinkle generously with salt. Let sit for 20-30 minutes. (This will draw some of the extra moisture out of the eggplant. You could skip this step, but I like the texture better this way.) Rinse the salt off, and then squeeze the eggplant slices to release even more moisture. Don't worry about smashing them -- they're resilient.
4. Spray a baking dish or sheet with cooking spray. Place the eggplant slices in a single layer on the sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until the slices are flexible.
5. While the eggplant is cooking, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil or cooking spray, until the onion is soft. Add the broth and spinach and cook uncovered until the spinach has wilted and the broth has cooked away.
6. Remove the eggplant from the oven. Spoon a little of the filling mixture onto each slice, and then roll up slices.
7. Put enough tomato sauce in a baking dish to cover the bottom. Place rolled eggplant cannelloni, seam-side down, in the dish. Cover the cannelloni with additional sauce. (Feel free to sprinkle with cheese or bread crumbs at this point.)
8. Bake the cannelloni for another 30 minutes. Serve with a green salad, crusty bread, and a nice red wine.
   

Field Stuff Soup

This is my new favorite soup of the moment, adapted from a recipe at the fantastic Fatfree Vegan Kitchen blog. The things I changed from the original were based mostly on what was in my kitchen and not on any serious culinary aesthetic, but I really like the way it turned out. It takes about an hour to make, but you can be somewhere else for all but about 5 minutes of that. As an added bonus, it's incredibly good for you!

Start to finish: 60 minutes
Yield: 6 servings

Field Stuff Soup
1 medium onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 package frozen baby lima beans
1/2 bunch kale, stems removed and torn into bite-sized pieces
1 package sliced baby portabella mushrooms (about 6 oz)
1/4 cup wild rice
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed (or 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
salt to taste

1. Heat a large soup pot. Spray with cooking spray, and saute onions until they begin to brown (about 6 minutes). Add the celery and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, until the garlic is fragrant.
2. Add the broth, water, and lima beans to the pot and bring to a boil.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients, bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans and wild rice are done, 45-55 minutes.
   

Chana Masala (Curried Chickpeas and Spinach)

It's still freezing. We're trapped beneath a winter inversion that keeps our valley skies gray and damp, and I can't seem to find socks thick enough to keep my feet warm. Definitely time to spice things up with a little Indian food. I had some garbanzo beans and spinach that I needed to use up, and this savory Punjabi dish was just the ticket. I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it's awesome. Serve it over rice, or be really authentic and scoop it up with chapatis.

*Note: This is a nonfat, medium-spice version. For richer and spicier options, see notes at the end.

Start to finish: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 servings (doubles, triples, etc., easily)

Chana Masala
Cooking spray
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 can garbanzo beans, with liquid
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder**
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala***
1 large bunch spinach (about 2 cups)
Salt to taste

1. In a medium saucepan or skillet, saute the onion and garlic in cooking spray until the onion is soft and beginning to brown.
2. Add the beans in their liquid, lemon juice, and spices. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the beans are soft. (The sauce will cook down and thicken up.)
3. Turn off the heat, add the spinach to the pan, and cover again. Let the spinach wilt (about 3 minutes).
4. Add salt to taste. Be sure to taste it first, though -- the bean liquid makes it plenty salty enough for me.
5. Serve over rice, on its own, with Indian bread, as a side dish... It's terrific no matter how you eat it!

*Variations: For a richer dish, use 3 tablespoons of olive oil instead of cooking spray. For a spicier dish, add cayenne pepper to taste.

**Curry powder is available in the spice section at pretty much every store, but the quality and flavor varies tremendously. I made my own by mixing 2 tablespoons of cumin, 2 tablespoons of coriander, 2 teaspoons of turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.

***Garam masala is a North Indian spice mixture and should be available in the spice section of most grocery stores. Like most ground spices, it loses some of its flavor and aroma within a few months, so buy it in the smallest quantities possible unless you cook a lot of Indian food.

Veganazi Soup

It's cold and clammy and cloudy here today -- perfect soup weather. I dug into my refrigerator and pantry to see what I had, and this is what I came up with. Although there was very little plan involved, and I was basically just using things up, it turned out really well. Fair warning: The measurements are gross approximations, because I just tossed things into the pot. This would probably go really well with Treehugger Bread. For a non-vegan version, throw in some sliced sausage.

Start to finish: 30 minutes
Servings: 6-8

Veganazi Soup
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
8 cups water
1 can tomato paste with basil, oregano, and garlic
1 can tomato sauce (no salt added)
2 bay leaves
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 bunch kale, leaves removed from ribs and torn into bite-sized pieces
1 can Great Northern, navy, or cannellini beans, with liquid
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a stock pot, saute the onion and garlic in cooking spray until softened.
2. Add water, tomato paste, and tomato sauce.
3. Add everything else.
4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the kale has softened. (It's a tough green and takes longer than most.)
5. Remove the bay leaves, ladle up, and enjoy.

*Note: I also added about half a can of garbanzo beans and some meatless meatballs that I had on hand, just because I needed to use them. The beans were fine, but the "meatballs" didn't add much. This would be tasty with sliced sausage (pork, chicken, turkey, whatever).