Bacon Lentil Soup
I know soup is not something you usually think of as a summer time food, especially in Texas, but I didn’t want to make a mountain of dirty dishes, and a casserole would heat up the kitchen even worse, so soup it was. I accidentally made what appeared to be an enormous amount of soup last night, but once it got into bowls it vanished quickly. I had a little bit of bacon lying around that I wanted to finish off, so I conceived of this recipe. (Vegan alteration below) You will need:
1 16 oz. package of lentils
1/2 onion, diced
3 strips of bacon (more if you want)
5 cups kale, chopped roughly (remember, kale is bulky, so with other greens you won’t need nearly this much. If you’re using finely chopped or frozen greens about 2 cups should be plenty)
1 tsp liquid smoke
6 cups chicken or veggie broth
Seasoning salt or garlic salt to taste
Cut the bacon into small pieces and throw it in the pot. Get it started on low to medium heat while you dice the onions. Once there’s a little fat in the pan, add the onions. If you want to make this recipe vegan, leave out the bacon (shocker! I know!), and use a little olive oil to saute your veggies instead, and obviously use veggie broth later on.
Chop up and throw in your greens and let them wilt a bit. I only used 4 leaves of kale, but they were GINORMOUS MUTANT LEAVES, so I can’t really judge how much you should use. I also love greens, and they’re so healthy, I just toss in as much as will fit in the pan most of the time. Once the greens are a little wilted and easier to stir, add the broth and dried lentils. If you are using already cooked lentils, add your broth 1 or 2 cups at a time and judge how brothy you want it to be. Hubby likes thicker, more stew-like soups, so that’s what I tend to make.
Bring the pot to a mild boil (not like a vigorous, knocking-the-lid-off boil) and let it cook until the lentils are done, probably about 45 minutes. Stir it periodically. Once it gets close to done, I always eat some of the lentils to make sure they’re actually done, and not faking it. Then add the liquid smoke, and other seasonings. I also threw in a bunch of dried parsley, both to make it look pretty, and because herbs have lots of nutrients, but this is optional.
Hubby and I both enjoyed the finished product, and I’m glad there are leftovers. This recipe probably makes 8-10 normal people servings, but about 6 for me (eating for two, remember!) and Hubby. There was really minimal veggie chopping and clean up, and it was easy, even though it has a medium-long cooking time. The ingredients were also super cheap! I probably spent no more than $3 for the whole pot! Can’t beat cheap eats!
Egg Salad
I have an odd fascination with egg salad. It seems like it should be good – I mean, I like deviled eggs, and it’s essentially the same – but it’s always so bland. I decided I would learn how to make it, and make it tasty. The recipe calls for: 8 eggs, 1/2 cup mayo (I used less than that), 1 tsp mustard, 1/4 cup green onions, 1/2 tsp paprika (I used more than that), salt and pepper to taste.
First things first: boil those eggs. I think I cooked mine 15 minutes, but I googled it so I don’t remember. When they were done, I drained the hot water and rinsed them in cold.
Oh yeah, while they were boiling I chopped my onions.
Here’s a picture of ingredients!
I read online that an easy way to peel hard boiled eggs is to put the lid on the pan, and shake it around a bunch, and you have magically peeled eggs. Too good to be true? Judge for yourself:
I still managed to peel the eggs, rinse off the extra shell bits, and make eggs salad. I found it was a lot easier to peel them once that had completely cooled, as opposed to once they were cool enough to handle, which was my impatient method. Once they’re actually cool, you can get the membrane under the shell to peel off, which takes a whole bunch of shell with it. I did this yesterday while watching TV, which is my favorite way to be productive.
After the egg-peeling debacle, I rinsed and chopped up the eggs. I recommend rinsing even for people who aren’t as peel-challenged as I am. Nothing kills my appetite faster than rogue bits of egg shell in my mouth. I can never seem to get them out of my teeth once they’re in there. Even talking about it is grossing me out!!
So chop eggs, mix ingredients, tada, food. BUT STILL BLAND. So I took it upon myself to get creative. I tried 2 variations, both of which are good. Not amazing, but good.
I divided the batch in half and added about 1 tablespoon of blue cheese crumbles to one half. The blue cheese blended in well, and the flavor was really good without being over-powering, unless you don’t like blue cheese. In that case, you’re nuts, and probably shouldn’t be allowed near knives or boiling water anyway.
If you are nuts but still determined to make flavorful egg salad, you can try the second variation: Sriracha. What can that beautiful chili sauce not do? It is spicy, so you should probably taste your egg salad frequently to make sure you don’t make it too strong. I also added a big spoonful of chopped garlic, and a bit more salt. Both of these options are much better than traditional egg salad, and I will continue my quest for mix-ins. I want egg salad so good I can eat it with a fork or just rolled up in lettuce, so I can avoid the carbs from bread. I wonder if green olives would be good?
Spicy Baked Lentils
You may have noticed that I like to cook a whole bunch of food at once to I don’t have to do it every night. The other day I washed and cut up 2 heads of cauliflower, and threw them in a baking dish with olive oil and garlic salt. Since the oven was already on and the cutting board was already dirty, I decided to bake some lentils, too. They were already cooked (the night before I made pasta, and since the pot was already dirty I threw a whole bag of lentils in to boil while we were eating dinner. Noticing a pattern?).
I chopped up the remains of a white onion, 2 raw jalapenos, and some red onion, for a total of 1/2 cup of large chunks of onion.
The laready cooked, refridgerated lentils, fresh out of their tupperware:
Yes, that’s a Star Wars cup in the background. I mixed the ingredients in the pan to avoid dirtying extra dishes.
I added 3 tablespoons or so of olive oil to moisten it up, 1/4 cup good parmesan cheese, and probably 2 teaspoons or less of garlic salt. You can make it spicier by adding chili powder, or Sriracha. Once it was done cooking, we each added Sriracha to our own portions to control the level of spiciness. Hubby like things way spicier than I do. You can make it vegan by leaving out the cheese or using a vegan cheese substitute. I haven’t tried those, so I’m not sure how it would work. You can also add some cumin for additional flavor.
I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes or so, until it was bubbling and a little crispy around the edges. The veggies had cooked a little bit, but they were still fairly crunchy, which I liked. You could always saute them before mixing them into the lentils if you want them more done, but I liked the variety of textures.
My Attempts at Cleverness 