A clean and healthy meal to end the week…which I have to say has been kind and sweet. I am planning my trip to France with a few healthy recipes to bring along for my parents, and especially my mom who has diabetes. My parents who have been carnivorous all their life, have started to enjoy more of a vegetarian diet in their old days, so who’s to say people’s tastes don’t change.

I like to combine lentils with some vegetables and make it a balanced dish. The lentils and carrots are not really pureed, but have some texture, which is quite pleasant. This dish is fairly simple, with a few ingredients and spices. The tahini sauce enhances the whole dish and you need to use a lot of it.

For a vegan version, don’t use yogurt, and use more water in the tahini, it tends to thicken fast.

Ingredients for 2-3

For the lentil-carrot mash

• 60 g uncooked lentils
• 1 bay leave
• 2 cloves
• 1/4 onion
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 handful kale, chopped (optional)
• salt and pepper

For the tahni sauce

• 2 tbs tahini
• 1 tbs water
• 3 tbs plain yogurt
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• zest of 1/2 Meyer lemon
• 2 tbs Meyer lemon juice
• salt and pepper

For the roasted squash

• 2 cups butternut squash, cubed (1 inch)
• olive oil
• soy sauce

Preparation

For the lentil-carrot mash

Cook lentils in water with bay leaf, cloves, onion until tender but not mushy. Cook carrots separately. Heat olive oil in a pan, add carrots, 2 tbs broth and simmer until cooked. Adjust with salt and pepper. When carrots and lentils are cooked, mix them together and mash with a potato masher. In a pan, heat olive oil, toast cumin seeds until fragrant. Add garlic and stir for a few min, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add lentil-carrot mixture, stir well, then add kale and cilantro. Mix well to combine all ingredients and until kale is wilted. Keep warm.

For the tahini sauce

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. If too thick add some water.

For the roasted squash

Heat oven at 400F. Place squash in a baking dish and sprinkle with olive oil, soy sauce, adjust with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until all sides are golden brown but still firm.

Serve with lentil-carrot mash, squash and lots of tahini sauce, at least five times more of what you see on the picture!

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2015/10/lentils-and-carrot-mash-with-roasted-butternut-squash-and-tahini-sauce/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2014/12/deliciously-vegan-grilled-king-oyster-mushrooms-lentils-quinoa-and-miso-sauce/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deliciously-vegan-grilled-king-oyster-mushrooms-lentils-quinoa-and-miso-sauce http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2014/12/deliciously-vegan-grilled-king-oyster-mushrooms-lentils-quinoa-and-miso-sauce/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2014 23:17:46 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=16702 Délicieusement vegan – Pleurottes géantes grillées, lentilles-quinoa et sauce miso épicée

This will be my favorite dish for some time. The inspiration came from a dish I ate in a restaurant in Healdsburg where grilled mushrooms were served with fried quinoa, poached egg and miso sauce. I changed things around a bit and added lentils instead of egg to make it vegan. Since I had eggs yesterday, I wanted to skip them today and it came out quite delicious this way.

Of course, you can skip the lentils, or the quinoa, add a poached, egg, etc… you can play around with it, the only thing you cannot skip is the miso sauce.

I love giant mushrooms because you can slice them and use them as meat. These ones have a lovely texture and are quite filling.

I am not a big user of miso. In my mind, it’s a Japanese ingredient that should not be mixed with French or Italian flavors. In this particular dish, its delicate flavor brings harmony and character to the different items combined in this dish. I will play with miso more often from now on.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 5 large king oyster mushrooms, sliced 1 cm thick
• 1/2 cup green lentils
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• vegetable broth
• 2 scallions, chopped

For the miso sauce

• 1 tbs miso
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp rice vinegar

 Preparation

Steam quinoa in a rice cooker with vegetable broth (it takes about 10 min to cook) and lentils in vegetable broth as well until cooked. Mix them, sprinkle with olive oil and keep warm.

For the miso sauce, mix ingredients together and cook for a few minutes at low temperature until it boil.

Grill mushrooms until both sides are golden.

Dress in a plate. Place lentil-quinoa mixture in the center of the plate, arrange mushroom slices around and pour 4-5 tbs miso sauce per plate. Sprinkle with scallions.

 Anytime I eat a poached egg, it reminds me of this teenager sitting next to our table, at Gary Danko, a well known San Francisco restaurant, who was astonished to see a yolk running while he poked a poached egg on top of his salad. He could not believe his eyes. He shout out loud, Oh it’s fascinating!!!

Fascinating might not be the word, but poached eggs are certainly delicious. Lentils and eggs are a quite a good match.

I used lentilles du Puy, which is a French green lentil and the best of all green lentils. Lentilles du Puy only comes from a little town called Puy-en-Velay in France, in a region of Haute-Loire where you can find a micro climat perfect for growing lentils (what you can find in the US under the name French lentils, are not necessary French). They still use traditional methods to grow them, with no fertilizer and natural irrigation, the crops are harvested the first two weeks of September.

Lentils from Puy-en-Velay are traced back to 1600 so it’s nothing new. They call lentils in France, “caviar des pauvres“, “caviar of the poor”, which was long considered a poor people’s meal. The difference between green lentils and brown lentils (lentilles blondes) is that they are less starchy, don’t loose their shape, and more flavorful.

Of course, you could use brown lentils if you don’t have the other kind, but don’t overcook them, or they’ll turn into a purée. I call this a stew because it’s thicker than a soup, but you can make it thinner and make into a soup, you can also, blend the lentils and make it into a cream…it’s all about the way you like it.

Ingredients or 4

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 celery stalk diced
• 1/2 leek, diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 300 g lentils
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cloves
• 5 tbs crushed tomatoes
• vegetable bouillon or water
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 4 eggs
• truffle oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onions and brown them. Add garlic, stir for a few minutes, add all the other vegetables. Add bayleaf and cloves and mix well. Add broth and cover until lentils are cooked but a bit firm. Add salt and pepper.

Poach eggs in water (see for technique).

Divide lentils among four plates, place one egg in each plate, drizzle with truffle oil, pepper and parsley and serve hot.

My friend Laurent is French but he grew up in Tunis ( we keep each other company on the treadmill in the mornings), always shares with me his childhood memories about Tunisian cuisine and his culinary experiments (he is a fabulous cook and strangely enough we have the same culinary tastes). Yesterday morning he brought me some delicious molokhia he prepared (which is a typical Middle Eastern dish whose recipe varies from one country to another), and while eating it, It reminded me about my trip to Egypt and cruise on the Nile (the first Middle Eastern country I visited). When you start using some spices, you keep craving for more, and here I am, completely hooked on those exotic ingredients.

Thanks to Laurent, I discovered a wonderful Middle Eastern store Samirami in San Francisco, selling so many spices and Oriental products that became my supplier anytime I am in the mood for Middle Eastern flavors.

These days I have been hooked on Labne, which is a Kefir Cheese, similar to Greek yogurt but thicker, creamier and with a little salty flavor. It’s usually eaten with grilled pita, sprinkled with olive oil and za’atar (mixture of oregano, thyme, savory, sumac, sesame seeds and other middle eastern spices). Labne is delicious, and has little calories. I used toasted baguette, it might not be the most authentic bread to use, but it worked fine since I had no pita. The eggplant purée adds a smooth and velvety touch to this combination of textures. I added some green leafs to the lentils and roasted peppers for a little more robust flavor to the naturally nutty lentils and it was a very nice balance.

Labne, How did I manage to live all these years without you???? I have no idea…My life must have been so incomplete and I didn’t even know…

Ingredients for 2

For the lentils

• 150 g green lentils
• 1 carrot
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves
• 1 celery stick
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 bunch green cabbage, chards or any greens
• 3 tbs olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp pomegranate molasses
• 2 scallion, chopped
• 2 tbs cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper

For the eggplant purée

• 1 large eggplant
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• thyme
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tsp olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper

For the labne tartine

• 2 slices toasted country bread
• 4 tbs labne
• za’atar to taste
• olive oil

Preparation

For the lentil salad

Cook lentils in water with carrot, onion, celery and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and let cook until the lentils are soft but not mushy. Drain and remove all the vegetables from the lentils and set aside

Cook cabbage in salted water. Drain and squeeze excess water. Chop in small pieces and set aside.

Roast red bell pepper under broiler on all sides, until the skin darkens. Remove from oven, let it cool in a plastic bag, peel and remove seeds. Dice in small pieces.

Mix greens, and red pepper with lentils.

Prepare dressing with mixing olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, salt and pepper. Pour on lentils and add cilantro and scallions. Toss well.

For the eggplant purée

Cut eggplants in two lengthwise. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add onions on top, sprinkle with thyme and cook in a pre-heated oven at 400F. When soft, remove from the oven, let it cool and scoop out the pulp of the eggplant.

In a mixer mix pulp, add lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and adjust with salt and pepper.

For the labne tartine

Grill each slices of country bread. Spread Labne, add za’atar and sprinkle with olive oil.

It’s quite a fun way to eat lentils…lentils are very versatile and I think not popular enough especially since they’re highly nutritious. I have rarely seen them in restaurants other than in soups. In France they’re considered rustic, something you would eat during winter and with smoked sausage or meat. I like them with smoked fish like salmon or trout, it tones down the smokiness of the fish (if the fish is too smokey like my salmon, actually this salmon was too smokey and salty). Here I like the combination of a hearty rustic ingredient with a more elegant and refined one. I have always loved contrasts. They’re unexpected, interesting and always leave you a feeling of wanting more.

Lentils and spinach are among the ingredients French kids have a hard time eating, if you ask any kid in France what they don’t like to eat, they’ll probably say, j’aime pas les lentiles et j’aime pas les épinards! but obviously I don’t want to make this a generality.

You can also combine fresh salmon with smoked salmon, then you would need to cut both salmon in cubes. Here I striped the salmon since I only used the smoked kind.

Ingredients for 4

For the lentils

• 200 g lentils du Puy
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 1 celery stick
• 1 clove
• salt
  

For the lentil vinaigrette

• 1 tbs hazelnut or walnut oil
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper

For the salmon marinade

• 4 large slices of good quality smoked salmon, cut in strips
• 1 orange
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dill, chopped
• 1/4 tsp fennel pollen
• 1 tsp capers, chopped
• Piment d’Espelette
• Pepper

Preparation

In a pot of water cook lentils with clove, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and salt and cook until lentil are tender but not mushy. Drain and remove the cooked vegetables from the lentils and set aside. In a mixing bowl, prepare vinaigrette mixing all ingredients together.

Cut salmon in stripes, mix all ingredients of the marinade and pour over the salmon. Mix well to coat the salmon. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about one to two hours.

Place a small amount of lentil salad in the middle of a plate (you can use a rind to mount the salad) and top with some salmon stripes. Drizzle some extra marinade on top.

On my stay in Tel Aviv, I walked almost all over the city for five days…the weather was beautiful, it felt so much like summer to me so while France was snowed in, I enjoyed my five days as if it was the last time I would be in short sleeves and eat croissants on a terrace.

As much as Jerusalem had a magic light, Tel Aviv had amazing restaurants, I loved all of them, everything was fresh and exquisite and I got to explore the city and its great neighborhoods and specialties with my map (and my high heels, shameless to say). As bad as I get in orienting myself, sometimes I think I have a disease. I can drive or walk every day by the same place, without ever remembering it. Maybe the “tête en l’air” virus.

I did remember Ben Yehuda street and the green restaurant that had been intriguing me for days with its flashy green color. It was a colorful looking place that seemed to serve organic food and decided to give it a try. It was a mixture of a traditional Californian vegetarian cafe type of decor combined with a Mediterranean menu which intrigued me. Every item on the menu had a calorie count and was under 300 calories per dish. I was not aware that Israelis were that health conscious. I finally ordered the lentil salad not knowing what to expect and thinking how exciting a bowl of lentils could be? Well, it could certainly be very exciting! that was seriously the most, delicious, flavorful, healthy lentil dish salad I had in quite a long time.

I loved it so much, that I wanted to try to reproduce it from what I remembered and it turned out quite well. Who can say no to a one meal bowl full of nutrients with so little calories? Certainly not me.

Ingredients for 2

• about 5.30 oz  (or 150 g) green lentils
• 3 medium size beets (golden or red), cooked and diced
• 1 cup arugula
• 2 tbs feta, crumbled
• 2 tbs mint, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/3 tsp cumin powder
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cook lentils in salted water until cooked but not mushy. Drain and set aside.

Cook beets in water until tender, about 45 min. Let cool, then peel them. Cut in about 1 inches pieces and add to the lentils, then add arugula. Add mint and scallion and mix well.

In a bowl, mix cumin, olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Pour dressing on top of the salad and toss. Add feta and mix carefully.

Another version of stuffed zucchini, those are the round kind and this recipe has a little exotic twist with the curry and other spices in it.  I think this kind of zucchini is really made to be stuffed, they have a very inviting belly.  I don’t think I have ever prepared them in any other different way.

I had some clients who did not like any stuffed vegetable, so I ended up not cooking those anymore, and not even for myself. The thing is when you have some clients who eat in a particular way, and for whom you cook on regular basis, you end up eating like them. One sure thing is that I cannot eat the same dish and food over and over again, and I know many people who are just happy eating the same thing for weeks. I would go insane, my food is like my life it needs to be colorful, and needs to be changing, have different flavors, smells, feelings.

You can use the green lentils as well for this dish. I had French lentils, so I used those. I didn’t like lentils when I was young, I think for kids they fell in the same category than spinach, unappealing food. Eventually, you come out of it, I can say I am glad my parents exposed me to different ingredients and somehow pushed me to try new things. My family was not very wealthy, they moved from Italy to France and financially they were struggling when I was a child but we always had fresh and healthy food from the garden that my grandpa used to grow.

Ingredients for 4 zucchini

• 4 zucchini
• 11 oz cooked green lentils (1/3 less when uncooked)
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 inch ginger, grated
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/3 tsp turmeric
• chili powder
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 3 tsp plain yogurt
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Wash the zucchini, cut the top part and remove the pulp with a teaspoon, leave about less than 0.20 inches or 1/2 cm on the outside. Add salt and pepper in the center, sprinkle with olive oil and place in a tray in a 375F preheated oven and covered with aluminum foil. Cook for about 15-20 minutes but do not overcook, the zucchini still needs to remain firm. Chop the pulp of the zucchini in small pieces. Set aside.

Cook lentils in three time their quantity of water for about 20 minutes or until they’re cooked. Drain. Set aside

In a pan, heat olive oil, add shallot, brown them, then add ginger and garlic. Stir for a few minutes, then add zucchini pulp and cook until the pulp softens. Add curry powder, and all other spices. Stir well and cook for another 5 minutes at low heat. Remove from heat and add lentils, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add cilantro and scallion, then add yogurt. Mix well.

Stuff zucchini with lentil mixture and place in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve hot with a salad or as a side dish.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/08/round-and-spicy-stuffed-round-zucchini-with-curried-lentils/feed/ 3 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/06/lentil-and-shrimp-simple-story-split-pea-soup-lentils-with-shrimps-and-pistachio-cilantro-pesto/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lentil-and-shrimp-simple-story-split-pea-soup-lentils-with-shrimps-and-pistachio-cilantro-pesto http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/06/lentil-and-shrimp-simple-story-split-pea-soup-lentils-with-shrimps-and-pistachio-cilantro-pesto/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:32:14 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=2365 Une histoire toute simple de lentilles et de crevettes – Soupe de lentilles et pois cassés au crevettes et pesto de pistaches, coriandre et persil

It’s a nice and cute story of lentils and shrimps, but then many other ingredients got involved…and we have a nice and complex soup filled with vitamins and flavors. Not that it is necessarily soup season but I think that you have to eat whatever you feel like despite the season, ice cream in winter and soup in summer is perfectly fine.

It’s a light soup, brothy enhanced with pistachio pesto. I did not add parmesan to the pesto, I think its strong flavor can alter the shrimp flavor, most of the time I don’t really like to mix cheese and fish.

You don’t have to soak the lentils, they cook relatively quickly comparing to the other dry beans. Lentils are filled with iron, protein and fibers so don’t hesitate add them into your diet. I like to use French green lentils (lentilles du Puy), they tend to keep their shape and don’t get as mushy as the brown ones, besides they tend to have more flavor. In France, lentilles du Puy is the first vegetable that has AOC (appellation d’origine controllée) thanks to its specific nutritious values. You can check out the national site for Lentilles du Puy.

Ingredients for 4

For the soup

• 24 medium size uncooked shrimps, deveined
• 3/4 cups French green lentils (duPuy)
• 3/4 cups split peas
• 1 leek, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 celeri sticks, chopped
• 1/2 head of radicchio, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cloves
• olive oil
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

For the pistachio pesto

• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 2 tbs unsalted pistachios
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large pot, add onions and brown them. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables. Stir all vegetables, and let cook for about 10 minutes to blend all flavors. Add split peas and lentils, cloves and bay leaf, mix well and cover with broth. Add salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat for about 30 minutes or until the lentils and peas are cooked.

For the pesto, mix all ingredients in a blender, and blend to a medium consistency.

Saute shrimps in 1 tsp olive oil, add salt and pepper.

Serve soup with shrimps in the middle and a tbs of pesto on top of the shrimps.