Lentil-Squash Soup With Almond Butter
On Wednesday mornings, I take a Mishna class at Congregation Olam Tikvah. Each week, I look forward to (and highly recommend) this class, led by Rabbi Kalender. Currently, we are studying Tractate Peah, which discusses agricultural laws. It would stand to reason that inspiration could easily spring when talking about onions, grapes, pomegranates, and dates. But that's not the root of today's dish. Today's recipe began with a conversation before class even began.
Like many Jewish study classes, the first 10 minutes often consists of kibbitzing and shmoozing. During this week's kibbitz and shmooze session, Rabbi Paskind – a regular class participant — mentioned a soup she had at The Soupergirl, a kosher soup restaurant in DC.  While I have not had the fortune to dine at The Soupergirl, it certainly is on my short list of places to visit. As soon as the words, peanut butter, lentil, and squash, came out of Rabbi Paskind's mouth, I began to salivate. I had to create my own spin on that amazing flavor combination.
While I have no idea if this recipe is even remotely similar to what The Soupergirl served, it certainly is a delicious, healthy, and comforting treat that I am sure to make again and again — especially because my daughter's quote of the evening was, "It's crazy how good this soup is!" B'tayavon!
Ingredients:
1-2 tsp grapeseed oil
1 onion, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 orange
1 butternut squash, cut into 1" cubes
3 cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup smooth, raw almond butter
2 cups orange lentils
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp grapeseed oil
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp ground cumin
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked according to package directions (I cooked mine in vegetable stock with 2 tsp coconut oil)
Directions:
Saute the onion, carrot, and zucchini — seasoned with 1 tsp of salt — in the grapeseed oil until the veggies are soft and the pan is almost dry. Add the juice from the orange and cook on medium until the pan is dry again. Add the squash and the stock. Cover and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, saute the garlic in the grapeseed oil for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the ginger and cumin and mix to combine. Add the lentils and stock and bring to a slow boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the lentils are soft, about 20 minutes.
Once the squash mixture is soft, puree until smooth with an immersion blender or in a high-power blender and return to the pot. Mix in the almond butter and stir until it has completely melted into the soup. Add in the lentils and cooked rice and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Rainbow Turkey Meatloaf
Are you looking for a main dish to compliment that rainbow quinoa or a great recipe that uses those healthy carrot tops?
Check out this healthy, all-white meat turkey meatloaf!
B'tayavon!
Rainbow Quinoa: Perfect Pareve Shabbat side dish
Are you looking for a pareve side dish for tonight's Shabbat meal? Check out this quick, easy, healthy, and beautiful quinoa dish that boasts a powerful nutritional punch!
Have a healthy and peaceful Shabbat!
Don't Throw Away the Best Parts!
Most of us know that carrots are rich in Vitamin A and that beta-carotene gives carrots their rich orange color.  But did you know that most of the carrots' goodness lies in the skin? Yes, the part you usually peel away and throw in the trash contains life-saving compounds. The skin of carrots — and many other fruits and vegetables — are rich with phenolic compounds, which are powerful, disease-fighting antioxidants.
And, don't forget about the other part of the carrot you usually toss in the trash: the leafy greens. The greens are high in Vitamin K, a valuable nutirient that can help your blood clot better and strengthen your bones. Toss those greans in soups, salads, or any other way you'd usually use parsley.
So, buy organic. Scrub well. And enjoy every bit of goodness this wonder food has to offer!
Welcoming Shabbat
I'm thrilled to participate in Shalom Nova's blogging community! As you can read in my bio, I love food. But not just any food: whole, healthy, organic, and — of course — delicious food. Adding to that mix, in 2010, much of my family needed to adopt a gluten-free lifestyle.
While most things on this blog will be naturally gluten-free, it will not be about that. Instead, I will focus on helping you chart a path to natural, whole living. Every few days, I will provide you with a recipe and/or tip to guide you on this path. If you are searching for gluten-free tips and suggestions, feel free to visit my personal blog at www.thenuttygarbanzo.com.
That said, I'm going to dedicate my first post to welcoming Shabbat, the healthy way. When thinking about welcoming Shabbat, the image of warm steaming challot fills my mind. Nothing is more comforting and satisfying than a tender loaf of braided goodness. Well… it's comforting until you think about the processed, refined flours and sugars bursting out of those braids. This can't be how our ancestors began Shabbat. Indeed, it wasn't. I spent years honing a whole-grain, refined sugar-free recipe that tasted as delicious as any overly processed variety — if not better. I will share that recipe some day soon, but now I wanted to share something a little different — and in my mind — even better.
When I was handed my gluten-free summons, my challah journey began all over again. I found success with this recipe. But it had two main flaws:
- It did not contain any of the five grains required to break bread (wheat, spelt, oats, barley, or rye) and say hamotzi (the blessing over bread). So, I found myself making both my original challah and this gluten-free recipe each week so we could say the blessing. Quite exhausting, to say the least. (FYI: of those five grains, only one could potentially be gluten free: oats. Even then, the oats must be grown completely separate from wheat — which most oat fields aren't — in order to avoid cross contamination).
- It could not be braided. While the braided loaf pan delivered a beautiful look and feel, there is something special about the tradition of braiding the challot. I learned to braid from my father who taught me on his challot and I wanted nothing more than to continue that tradition with my own children.
So after nearly a year of experimenting, I am ready to share this gluten-free, whole-grain, delicious, braided challah — with oats! A word of warning: many of these ingredients may be new to you. Most of them can be found at a natural food store like Whole Foods and/or online. If you would like specific sources for any of these ingredients or more information on them, please don't hesitate to contact me. B'tayavon and Shabbat Shalom!
Ingredients:
1/3 cup ground chia seeds (about 3 tbsp of seeds ground in a coffee grinder)
1/3 cup hot water
1 tbsp active, dry yeast
1 tsp coconut crystals (this is a sweetener from a coconut tree. It has a much lower glycemic number than processed sugar)
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup gluten-free oat flour
1 scant cup blanched almond flour
3/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 1/3 cups arrowroot starch
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp salt
2 large, free-range organic eggs
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
20-30 drops of vanilla stevia
egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water)
raw, organic honey (processed honey can wreak just as much havoc on the body as processed sugar!)
Directions:
Mix the chia seed meal and the hot water together in a small bowl and put aside. This will become a thick paste, which is what helps bind the bread together in the absence of gluten.
Mix the yeast, coconut sugar, and hot water together in a separate bowl and put aside. This will become foamy and almost double in volume.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flours, starch, and salt. Mix to combine. Whisk in the eggs, apple cider vinegar, and stevia. Then, add in the chia mixture and yeast mixture. Depending on the humidity in your house, you may need up to 1/4 cup of more hot water. You want the dough to be wet and tacky.
Right about now, you'll be thinking that there is no way this gloppy mess can be braided. Trust me on this one.
Scrape the dough into a large oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a moist towel and place in a warm dry place for 2 hours. It will rise a little — though it certainly will not double in size like a gluten dough. More importantly, it will become a little drier and more workable.
At this point, preheat your oven to 450-degrees F, with a stone in the oven.
Divede the dough in half and divide each half into three. Braid the dough so you have two loaves and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Let the loaves proof while your oven is preheating.
Just before placing the loaves in the oven, brush with the egg wash and drizzle with a little bit of raw, organic honey.
Bake on the stone (if you don't have one, don't worry — it'll work, you just won't get as thick of a crust on your bread) for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. Best served warm.
