Porridge Leftovers

Yesterday we made a big batch of Inkoo Porridge. Leftovers were spread to a lightly greased dish and refrigerated over night. The porridge gets firm when it cools down, just like polenta. Today I cut the porridge in squares and fried in oil. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and I think they were better than the actual porridge.

The Inkoo Porridge squares were served with a tomato based lentil sauce. Not so Finnish, but vegan and it was great with the porridge squares. First I sautéd chopped onion, garlic, caraway seeds, paprika and minced mild chili in oil. Then I added a can of crushed tomatoes, water, some cabbage and a grated carrot. When it started to boil I added red lentils, basil, marjoram and thyme and simmered until lentils and vegetables were done. Last I seasoned it with salt and freshly ground black pepper and then we ate it with the fried Inkoo Porridge squares.

Yugoslavian Movie Night

We watch quite a lot of movies. Especially non-Hollywood and non-English movies. Pretentious art-hipsterism or not, it’s a wonderful excuse for combining food culture and media culture.

Our movie of choice this time was Srđan Dragojević’s excellent and controversial “Lepa sela lepo gore” (“Pretty village, pretty flame”) which was accompanied by some Yugoslavian (Slovenian) delicacies. Hold your horses! We’re very aware the movie is essentially Serbian and the food cultures do vary in the melting-pot of former Yugoslavia, but we found Slovenian vegetarian recipes and decided that it’s close enough.

We had two kinds of salads, mini quiches, beer and Blair’s habanero chips.

Slovenian Cucumber Salad

5 medium/large potatoes + water for boiling
1 kg cucumbers (3 long)
3,5 dl soy yogurt
3-4 big garlic cloves
salt
pepper

Peel the potatoes, cut them half and slice. Boil them, drain and allow to cool. Coarsely grate the cucumbers, mix with salt and drain in a colander for a while. Mince the garlic and mix everything in a bowl. Let sit in the fridge for couple of hours before serving.

The original recipe didn’t say how much garlic would be good. I used 2 big cloves, but I think the salad could have been more garlicy, so I wrote 3-4 cloves.

Lentil Salad

1,5 dl green lentils + water for boiling
1 small red bell pepper
1 shallot
3 tbsp red vine vinegar
3 tbsp oil
salt
pepper

Boil the lentils about 30 minutes or until soft but not mushy. Chop the shallot and dice the bell pepper. Mix together and season with vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Let sit in the fridge couple of hours before serving.

Muffin Failure and Lentil Soup

Finland’s national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg was born on 5.2. and that day has been named Runeberg’s day. All Finns eat Runeberg’s tortes that are muffins with ground almonds and raspberry jam. I had a plan to make them and post the recipe here, but something went wrong. Runeberg’s torte should look like this, but mine looked like this

I don’t think anyone would be interested in recipe, so I won’t post it here. Maybe I’ll have better luck next year. I also made lentil soup, with much better success. You can add couple of garlic cloves if you feel like.

Lentil Soup

1 onion
2 tbsp oil
500 g crushed tomatoes
1 l water
2 dl red lentils
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
0,5-1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
0,5 tsp lovage

Peel and chop the onion. Heat the oil in a soup pot and sauté the onion until its soft and translucent. Add tomatoes and water and bring to boil. Add rest of the ingredients and slowly boil 15-20 minutes. Enjoy with fresh bread.

Casseroles Are Autumn Food

I have noticed, that when the weather turns colder and days get darker I want to eat casseroles and soups. Today we made a casserole using things we had at home. It was quite nice, especially with hot sauce. But I think diced bell pepper, garlic and maybe olives could have made it better.

Edit: We had a lot of leftovers, and I added bell pepper and pickled cucumber before reheating. They made the casserole better, and I’ve added them to the recipe too.

Barley and Lentil Casserole

1,5 l water + 1 tsp salt
2,5 dl broken barley
2,5 dl green lentils
1 parsnip (150-200g)
1 onion
1 small bell pepper
1 pickled cucumber (2 small)
100g chopped nettle or frozen spinach
3 dl oat or soy milk
salt an pepper
1 tsp marjoram
0,5 tsp thyme
0,5 tsp lovage
1 tsp paprika

Bring the water to boil, add salt, barley and lentils, simmer covered on low heat for 20-25 minutes and drain. Peel and grate the parsnip, chop the onion, dice the bell pepper and pickled cucumber. Mix barley, lentils, parsnip, onion, bell pepper, pickle and nettle/spinach in a oven proof dish. Mix oat milk and spices in a bowl and pour on other ingredients. Stir, cover with lid or aluminium foil and bake 30-40 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

Filled Crepes

Yesterday’s leftover nettle crepes turned into lentil filled rolls today. They were good, but they could have been better. The taste of celery was a bit overwhelming, I think I’ll substitute it something else, like broccoli or zucchini, next time. Also less lentils and more vegetables could be a good idea.

Crepes With Lentil Filling

6 nettle crepes
1,5 dl green lentils + water for boiling
stalks of 3 onions
2-3 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
1 tbsp oil
0,5 tsp each: marjoram, thyme and basil
1 tsp parsley
1 dl oat cream
0,5 dl nutritional yeast
salt and pepper (I used mixture of black, green and rose pepper)

Cook the lentils in boiling water 15-20 minutes or until they are soft. Chop the onion stalks and garlic, slice the celery. Heat the oil in a pan or small pot. Sauté onions, garlic and celery until celery starts to get soft, but is still crunchy. Add herbs, oat cream, cooked lentils and nutritional yeast. Season with salt and pepper. Put some filling on each crepe and roll them. Put the rolled crepes in a (greased) dish and bake 20-30 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees. Serve with salad.

Improvised Curry

I usually make the dinner when I go visit my mother. She asked beforehand what ingredients she should buy, but I didn’t have any idea of what I’d make, so she just bought something she thought I could use. She had lentils and rice in her pantry and eggplant in her fridge and I made this curry. I mixed toasted peanuts with the rice, but plain rice would be good too.

Eggplant and Lentil Curry

3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 (or 3) tbsp mild curry paste
1 small onion
5-10 cm piece of leek
1 big carrot
1 eggplant
4 dl cooked lentils
1-2 dl water

Cut the leek half lengthwise and rinse well, slice. Chop the onion coarsely, dice the carrot and cut the eggplant in bite size chunks. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry cumin and mustard seeds about 30 seconds. Add curry paste, onion and leek and fry a minute or two. Add carrot, turn the heat on medium and simmer about 5 minutes. Add the eggplant, cover the pan with lid and simmer until eggplant is soft. Stir occasionally. Finally add the lentils and enough water to make the curry little more sauce like. Heat thoroughly and serve over rice.

Simple and Good

We still have quite a lot of preserved vegetables from last autumn. There’s no need to hurry with the dried goods, but the frozen and pickled stuff should be eaten before next autumn. We needed to make an easy meal from the things we had in our pantry and ended up with this stew. You could use fresh chard and kohlrabi instead of dried and frozen, but then you may need to add them few minutes before adding the beans. In the picture the stew is served with Sriracha, garden cress, black currant jam and sauerkraut.

Barley, Lentil and Bean Stew

2,5 dl barley
vegetable broth or salted water for boiling

2-3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
0,5 tsp caraway seeds
0,5 tsp ground coriander
0,5 tsp brown mustard seeds
3 onions
3 garlic cloves
1 heaping tsp grated ginger
7 dl water
1 dl dried chard, thin and about 3 cm long pieces
2 dl green lentils
4 dl cooked (or canned) white beans
1 dl corn kernels
1,5 dl kohlrabi cubes or strips

Optional: Sriracha or other hot sauce for serving

Cook the barley according to the instructions on the package.

Meanwhile prepare the other ingredients. Chop the onions coarsely and slice or mince the garlic. Heat the oil in a pot and fry cumin, caraway seeds, coriander and mustard seeds 30 seconds. Add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until onions are soft and translucent. Add the water, lentils and dried chard. Bring to boil and simmer 15 minutes. Add more water if needed. Add beans, corn and kohlrabi and simmer about 5 minutes. When the lentils are soft but not mushy, add cooked barley. Let sit couple of minutes and serve with or without hot sauce.

Somewhere Deep in The Caribbean…

No rats in the vichyssoise, but a warm and sunny bowl of soup. Pineapplejuice, ginger and chili give this soup warmness, which makes it perfect winter food. The recipe isn’t ours, someone gave it to me couple of years ago, but I have no idea where it has been published originally.

Caribbean Lentil Soup

1 onion
piece of red bell pepper
piece of parsnip
2 carrots
3 medium potatoes
2 dl red lentils
2-3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp grated ginger
pinch of chili powder or some fresh chili
2 tbsp minced garlic
2-3 tbsp tomato purée
0,5 tsp ground allspice
1,5 l water
4 dl pineapple juice
1 tsp salt
0,5 dl lemon juice
cilantro (optional)

Chop the onion and cube the vegetables. Rinse the lentils. Heat the oil in a big pot and sauté the oinon, bell pepper, ginger, chili and garlic couple of minutes. Add tomato purée, allspice and cubed vegetables, sauté couple more minutes and add water and lentils. Bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes. Add pineapple juice and simmer a little longer. Season with lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle fresh cilantro on top and serve.

Lentil Cannelloni

When I saw Kurpitsamoska’s lentil cannelloni recipe several months ago I wanted to try it. Soon my sister came to visit and asked if we could make mushroom and eggplant cannelloni, which we made and enjoyed and I forgot the lentil cannelloni recipe. Until a friend of ours told that she had made awesome vegetarian lasagne and the next day Nomad suggested that we’d have lasagne or cannelloni in the near future. On Valentine’s day I veganized Kurpitsamoska’s cannelloni and they were great.

Lentil Cannelloni

cannelloni tubes

Lentil Filling:
2 dl red lentils
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp sugar
salt
0,5 dl nutritional yeast
0,5 dl oat cream

Tomato Sauce:
2 cans crushed tomato
1 big onion
5 garlic cloves (or more)
oil
1 glass red wine
pinch of sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
2 tsp dried basil

Boil the lentils 10-15 minutes. Drain and stir in other ingredients. Let sit a little while.

Chop the onion and mince garlic. Sauté in oil until soft. Add rest of the ingredients and simmer as long as you have patience.

Fill the cannelloni tubes with lentil filling and put them on one layer to a oven proof dish. Pour the tomato sauce over them and bake 25-30 minutes in 225 celsius degrees.

A Simple Stew

I wanted to eat tofu and noodles today and went to buy tofu after school, but the lady in the shop told me they were out of tofu and they’ll get more on Friday. So instead of tofu and noodles I made bean and lentil stew and ate it with couscous (and learnt that white plate isn’t the best for taking picture of couscous). You can use kidney beans, brown beans, navy beans or whatever beans you like to make this stew. We buy dried beans and cook them, but canned beans can be used too.

Bean and Lentil Stew

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
0,5 tsp ground coriander
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
some chili (optional)
1 big carrot
0,5-1 red bell pepper
1 can crushed tomatoes (garlic flavoured is good)
4 dl water
2 dl red lentils
4 dl beans
salt, pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil
1 tsp brown sugar, honey or other sweetener

Chop the onion coarsely and mince the garlic. Cut the carrot and bell pepper to small cubes. Heat the oil in a pot and fry cumin and coriander for half a minute. Add onions, garlic and chili (if you use it) and sauté few minutes. Add carrot and bell pepper, sauté couple of minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and water and bring to boil. Put the lentils to the boiling liquid and simmer 5 minutes. Add the beans and herbs and simmer 15 more minutes. Season with salt (I use herb salt), freshly ground black pepper and sweetener.