Vegan Mofo #10- Ultimate comfort - Pumpkin-lentil Soup and La Dolce Vegan.

**I just got La Dolce Vegan from the library (I am now in the habit of borrowing cookbooks before I buy them so I can see if it is my sort of cookbook). If you have some favourites from there I would love to hear them as there are just SO many recipes. I am rather excited about trying as many as possible. Your suggestions would be appreciated. **

Thick and spicy soup on a windy night... could it get any better?? I don't think so. I discovered this soup in winter this year and Nat and I make it at least once every couple of weeks. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe I found on recipezaar. It is thick, it is spicy, it has protein because of the lentils - and it is easy to make a large batch so that we are guaranteed leftovers. I make this differently every time and every time it just turns out yummy. For instance, tonight I used 2 turnips and 2 potatoes (usually I just use potatoes) as the turnips needed to be used up.

Indian style pumpkin soup

1 onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic - minced
1 - 2 red chillies- chopped (or 1-2 tsp chilli paste)
2 tsp curry powder
2 cups pumpkin - chopped
2 stalks celery - (I omitted this tonight as I didn't have any)
1 sweet potato - chopped
4 potatoes (I used 2 turnips and 2 potatoes and it turned out just fine)
1 cup red lentils
1 1/2 litres vegetable stock (I used stock powder and water)

1. Saute onion, garlic and chilli in water
2. Add vegetables, stock and lentils and bring to the boil
3. Lower heat and simmer soup until vegetables are tender (about 20mins)
4. Blend the soup and serve. If its too thin, simmer until it is reduced. If it is too thick add extra stock or water.

My husbands favourite meal

Nat and my dad have an "in joke" surrounding dinner and Baked Beans. They believe that all their Christmas's have come at once when they get Baked Beans for dinner. I can proudly say that the only time nat had baked beans for dinner what after driving home from a week with our parents up the north of the state and we arrived home at 6pm with nothing fresh in the fridge.

Anyway - I am not going to spend too much time posting about baked beans - I am not the most fond of them - so, aside from baked beans - I think that variations of the dish tha tI cooked tonight are Nat's favourite meal. I came up with the savoury lentil dish when I had a lot of root vegetables from the garden that dad and I planted at their house. Now I cook this dish in the pressure cooker - I just put it all in and let it work its magic. It is also easy to cook it without a pressure cooker - it would just take a bit longer though. These lentils make the perfect base for a vegan shepherds pie - although I was being lazy tonight so I just whipped up some mashed potato/sweet potato as a side dish.

The dish is so versatile - you can put any veggies you want in with the lentils (capsicum, mushrooms, silverbeet, spinach, parsnip, potato, pumpkin - anything goes really - what I put in tonight was just a result of what I had in my fridge).

Savoury Lentils - serves 4-6
2 carrots, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 medium turnip, diced
1 medium Swede, diced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 broccoli stem, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4cup cabbage, shredded finely
1 1/2 - 2 cups brown lentils, soaked
1 vegetable stock cube
enough water or stock to cover

3tbsp tomato paste
1tsp dried basil
1tsp dried oregano
3tbsp gravox powder (I use the mushroom flavour)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In the pressure cooker, saute onion and garlic until soft, add all the vegetables and lentils and just cover with water or stock. (if not using a pressure cooker add the lentils and the firmer vegetables then continue to add the quicker cooking vegetables. Simmer until lentils and vegetables are tender. Cook for about 30+mins)
   
2. Bring to pressure and cook 10-15 mins. Turn off the stove and let the pressure come down naturally (this can take about 10+ mins).
   
3. Open the lid and add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook for a further 5 mins until peas are cooked through (but still a nice colour green).
4. Serve with rice, pasta, mashed potato or toast. This dish can be used as the base for a shepherd's pie.

Fat Free creamy mashed potato
To make creamy mashed potatos I usually use a mixture of potato and sweet potato (ratio of 2:1) and steam them until they are soft. Then I mix in some fatfree soy milk, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper and mash until soft and creamy.

Turnips and spices

One of my favourite blogs is Susan Voisin's Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I remember Susan talking about Berbere spice mix and by chance I found a little premixed pack in my local spice shop. This was about 3 months ago and until tonight it had remained in my spice cupboard.
At the local market on Saturday I found some cheap turnips and as I was looking for turnip recipies online I came across Chickpea and Turnip Stew with Ethiopian Spices that used both turnips AND berbere. I followed Susan's recipe almost exactly, however I cooked my own chickpeas this afternoon and used the chickpea "stock" instead of the vegetable stock. I also used only two leeks and I used the green parts as well. The result was totally different to anything that I had tasted before. I love the spice combination and the dish was tasty. I served it with some toast. There is enough left over for our lunches tomorrow. YAY!!