Lentil Artichoke Stew

As a Food for Life instructor, I get to teach people how to make a lot of delicious recipes, including this Lentil Artichoke Stew from the Cancer Project. This recipe is hearty and perfect for the cold winter ahead of us! If you want to learn how to make this stew in class, please sign up online for one of my classes.

This recipe is also found in The Cancer Survivor's Guide by Dr. Barnard and Jennifer Reilly, RD.

Lentil Artichoke Stew

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable broth

1 onion, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 cup dry (uncooked) red lentils (3 cups cooked)

1 bay leaf

2 cups water

Juice of 1 lemon

2 24-oz can chopped tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), undrained, or 6 cups freshly chopped tomatoes plus 1 cup tomato juice

1 1/2 cups quartered artichoke hearts (1 9-oz frozen package or 1 15-oz can, packed in water)

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the broth in a large soup pot. Add the onion. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until translucent. 
2. Add the garlic, cumin, and coriander. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add the water, lentils, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil.
4. Lower the heat and add the tomatoes and their liquid, artichoke hearts, lemon juice, and optional red pepper flakes. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Stored in a covered container in the refrigerator, leftovers will keep for up to 3 days.

Note: If red lentils are unavailable, green lentils can be substituted. However, because green lentils will not cook properly in acidic foods, such as tomatoes and lemon juice, you will need to cook them in water or vegetable broth until tender prior to adding them to the stew.

Nutritional Info (per serving):

176 calories

1 g fat

0.1 g saturated fat

4.9% calories from fat

0 mg cholesterol

11.7 g protein

34.3 g carbohydrate

7.5 g sugar

10 g fiber

560 mg sodium

123 mg calcium

6.3 mg iron

28.6 mg vitamin C

238 mcg beta-carotene

1.8 mg vitamin E

What's hiding in your spices?

Last night I was making dinner when I had one of the most disturbing experiences I've ever had in the kitchen. I pulled out my Hungarian Sweet Paprika, poured it into a teaspoon and almost had a heart attack when I saw the spices crawling around on the spoon. YUCK!

Upon further inspection and some research, I found that grain beetles are quite common in not only grains, but also in dried spices. It turns out that they are a good indicator that your spice could be moldy and old and needs to be thrown out anyway. I methodically went through each of my spices to make sure I didn't have any others and found them in my chipotle chili pepper, which I recently purchased and was almost gone, so that too instantly went into the trash. I even went as far as dumping out entire containers of Old Bay to make sure they are completely clear of anything gross and was happy that I had no additional issues.

How can you prevent these gross little bugs? It turns out that some people recommend keeping red spices in the fridge/freezer, just like your grains. I already keep most of my grains and various flours in the freezer, but I had never heard of keeping red spices there too. From now on, if you are at my house and looking for a red spice, you can bet it will be in the fridge! I also learned that you can avoid the beetles with air tight containers and making sure the area is kept clean. There is still a chance that you can bring an infested product into your house, so make sure to check all your grains, flours, and spices before you use them!

Farmers Market Find - Concord Grapes

At the farmers market last week, I found big juicy concord grapes. I have never tried them before but was drawn to them because they looked so big and picture perfect. The farmer allowed me to try a grape and I couldn't believe how much it tasted like grape juice! So, that makes at least two things I learned this summer at the farmers market…

1. Raspberry candies taste like black raspberries - I didn't know there was a raspberry out there that actually tastes like a candy, but I found them at the market this summer
2. Grape juice and jelly tastes just like concord grapes - I didn't know there were grapes out there that taste as sweet as the juice!

Anyway, I had to buy the grapes after my discovery! Even though they are extremely delicious, the skin is tough and chewy and they have a lot of seeds, so cooking them seemed like the natural thing to do.

I found a recipe online for grape jam that only requires grapes and sugar and thought that is the perfect recipe for me! I followed her directions exactly, except for the amount of grapes and sugar. I only had 1 lb of grapes and used about ¾ cup of sugar total. The jam came out amazing! Here is the fantastic step-by-step guide that I followed: http://chefinyou.com/2011/10/concord-grapes-jam/

Here is a pic of me squeezing the grapes. It is amazing how the insides are all white… and how they came right out of the skins. I think it is because the skins are so thick.

I put the skins aside, as directed, so that I could put them back into the jelly when cooking. I was nervous when I put the skins back into the pot that they would be too thick, but they weren't at all. In fact, they cooked down quite nicely.

Once it was all done, I poured it into a glass jar and put it in the fridge. Well… after I ate some straight off the spoon! :)

Look at the amazing purple color of the jam. If concord grapes are still in season this week, I know what I'll be buying at the farmers market!