Berbere Soup

I'm busy hanging out with Michel today and then going to visit Vincent and Isa and their friend Maggie (where I'm making them Fondue Savoyarde and Chocolate Fondue). Luckily for you I have a nifty option on this blog that lets me make my posts ahead of time and set them to publish while I'm away from the computer.

Anyway, let's talk about Berbere soup. I recently made and froze a bunch of food for my parents because my mom is sick and my dad is about to be swamped with work since he works as a tax professional. This soup was one of the soups I froze for them and it was a huge hit. I got the recipe from the Fat Free Vegan blog. Here's the original post. I'm posting the recipe here as well, but I strongly encourage you to check out her blog as it's quite good. Another note: her soup recipe calls for green beans but I always omit them because I hate green beans. Her berbere spice mixture calls for 1 tbsp of fenugreek, which I've never used because I never have it on hand, and 1 tbsp salt which I never use because I'm not a huge fan of salt (weird, I know).



Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound of potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 1/4 cup red lentils
3 cups water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2-3 tablespoons berberé spice mixture (see below)
28 ounces of crushed tomatoes
1-2 cups water
salt to taste
4 cups fresh spinach

Berberé Spice Mixture
1 tbsp cardamom
1 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp allspice
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ground black pepper

Directions
1. Chop the onion and cook it in your soup pot until it caramelizes.
2. Chop the potatoes and add them to the onions, along with the lentils, garlic, and spice mixture. Stir this around for a minute or so.
3. Add the water and simmer the soup over low heat with the cover on until the lentils are tender. This should take about 20 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and as much extra water as you need to create a thick soup.
5. Check the seasoning, adding salt and more of the spice mixture if needed, and cook for about 15 more minutes.
6. Just before serving, stir in the spinach.

Tour of My Kitchen

I'm feeling tired so today is a boring day in terms of eating. Instead of posting about what I ate, I figured I'd give you a tour of my kitchen so you can see where I store all of the food.

When you first walk into the kitchen, on your left is a skinny broom closet that we've decided to use as a pantry. Here it is:


Next to the broom closet pantry is the fridge/freezer. The fridge is on the bottom and the freezer is on the top. Here is the fridge. The main part is contains mostly dairy and produce. The door contains condiments, yeast, and butter.



And here is the freezer. You'll notice that there are lots of containers of soup in the main compartment, as well as some frozen produce. The door has homemade applesauce, breaded and frozen eggplant, and berries.



On top of the fridge are various liquids and some vegetable shortening:


Next to the fridge is the oven, and on top of the oven is the spice cabinet. Canning stuff on the top left. Baking equipment and lots of chocolate on the top right. The bottom shelf is all the spices. We tried to group the spices used mainly in baking towards the left and the spices used mainly in savory dishes on the right. You can also see the ziplock bags of dried chiles and basil that my aunt Franny gave me from her garden:


Ok. Let's stop looking to the left. If you look to the right instead, you'll see a bookshelf. Flours and black beans are in the jars on the top, with some apples and bananas on top of them. You're not supposed to store apples and bananas together because the apples will cause the bananas to ripen, but we eat them quickly enough that it doesn't really matter. Looking down a bit, the highest shelf is cookbooks and garlic, ginger, and onions (note: onions can't be kept with most other produce but they're fine with garlic and ginger). The middle shelf is food-related literature and all of our teas. The lower shelf is phone books and a basket of root vegetables (mostly potatoes). You can also see Esh's food bowl and her new drinkwell fountain on the floor in front of the bookshelf.


If you look to the right of the bookshelf there is a wall. That wall has a cut-out that looks into the dining room and on the shelf formed from that cut-out, we keep containers of dried goods, plus some tissues, vitamins, my homemade cookbook, and our ipod speakers.


And last but not least, on the dining room table is this random pile of squash which we're slowly eating through:

Leftover Day

Today I ate leftovers all day. Saag Panir for brunch (since I didn't have to start work until 11:00) and Stuffed Squash and Roasted Vegetables for dinner. And now Ren and I are going to watch a movie.

First Day of New Job and Split Pea Soup

Today was the first day of my new job as a nanny. I'll be nannying every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. However, I'm still keeping my dog walking job on Thursdays and Fridays. Today was also the day that Sruli returned to England. Hopefully it's not such a long time until our next visit.

Anyway, to start the day off right, I decided I needed some French Toast. Fortunately, we had some in the fridge. Gotta love easy breakfasts. For lunch I brought split pea soup to work with me - because I had already packed it in containers and frozen it:



For dinner Ren and I made Saag Panir, but instead of goat cheese and muenster cheese we used some mozzarella that we had on hand. I had mine with some of the leftover quinoa and Ren had his with rice spiced with turmeric.



This split pea soup recipe comes from Student's Vegetarian Cookbook by Carole Raymond. I like it because it's simple and the chipotle adds an unexpected smoky flavor to the soup.

Ingredients
oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
4 cups water
1 cup dried green split peas
2 chipotle chiles
1 potato
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Chop the onion, carrots, chiles, and potato and mince the garlic.
2. Put the oil in a pot, turn the heat to medium, and saute the onion in the oil until it's tender.
3. Add in the carrots and garlic and keep cooking until the carrots are tender and the garlic is fragrant.
4. Add in the water, split peas, and chiles.
5. Cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and then turn down the heat and simmer it until the split peas are tender. This takes about half an hour.
6. Once the peas are tender, add the potato and continue to simmer the soup until the potato pieces are also tender.
7. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

I Like Tea

I started today off with a smoothie consisting of one banana, some peanut butter, and some yogurt. It was freezing cold outside and I had to work so I layered up like crazy for my day of dog walking. Two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, a t-shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, a coat, a hat, a scarf, two pairs of gloves... I was still cold by the end of the day. I was also incredibly thankful for all that tea we had just bought since it meant I could drink some to warm up. To go with my tea I had a bit of leftover vegetables from last night.

Then at about 6:00, Sruli made an amazing pasta dinner featuring a delicious homemade tomato sauce plus mushrooms, kale, garlic, and caramelized onions. I don't have photographs, but trust me - it was good.

And now Ren is home from work so we're all going to play a board game and drink more tea. I think the theme of today is "I like tea."

Stuffed Squash and Roasted Vegetables

Today Ren and I had the day off to hang out with Sruli. We ate a breakfast of omelets with onions and mushrooms. Then we had North African Chickpea and Kale Soup for lunch. Midday we decided to try out Esh's Christmas/Chanukah present - a cat harness and leash:



For dinner, Vincent and Isa came over and Sruli helped us make this wonderful dinner for everybody:



For the roasted vegetables, I just chopped up a bunch of vegetables we had lying around and put them in a casserole dish. Then I added a bit of red wine, a couple of bay leaves, some chopped garlic, and some marjoram, rosemary, and thyme. I set the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and roasted the vegetables until they were tender. The stuffed squash was a bit more complicated. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
5 acorn squashes
quinoa
lentils
kale
mushrooms
onions
garlic
ginger
marjoram
cardamom
brie

Directions
1. Cut the acorn squashes in half and roast them (I'll explain how to do this in a later post).
2. We used leftover quinoa and lentils, but if you don't have quinoa and lentils sitting around you can cook some while the squashes are roasting.
3. Chop and caramelize some onions.
4. Add in some chopped mushrooms and minced garlic and saute, stirring, until the mushrooms are cooked.
5. Grate in some ginger and add in a bit of cardamom and marjoram to taste.
6. Add the kale and saute keep cooking, stirring, until the kale turns bright green.
7. By now your quinoa and lentils should be done. Turn off the heat on your vegetables and stir in the quinoa and lentils. This is your filling.
8. The acorn squash should be done by now. Place each acorn squash on a baking sheet, cut side up, and spoon the filling into the hollows of the squashes. Place slices of brie on top of the filling. Return the squashes to the oven for a few minutes to melt the brie.

New Years

Today I made a whole wheat challah braid, some whole wheat challah veggie burger buns, and some whole wheat challah cinnamon swirl bread. I'll post recipes for all of the breads when I have more time. Then Ren and I used some of the challah braid to make a delicious brunch of French Toast. We had a snack of apples and peanut butter later in the afternoon, and in the evening, our friend/houseguest Sruli arrived and the three of us ate Butternut Squash Stew with Quinoa for dinner.

A very good start to the New Year if I do say so myself.