My One-Pot Meal: Tamale Pie

I'm participating in the "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten-Free" Blogging Event for the first time! The theme is "One-Pot Meals." Maybe soon I'll actually get around to hosting an event...

In any case, tamale pie is my one-pot entry. It's a natural one-pot meal. You get your veggies, protein, and grain all in one whack. It's also versatile: I've made this recipe with meat, without meat, and vegan.

If you've never encountered a tamale pie, which I hadn't until I married the Science Teacher, it's not a "pie" in the crimped pan of flaky dough sense. There's a layer of chili on the bottom and a layer of cornbread on top. Of course, this is where your preferences come in--how do you like your chili? Beany? Meaty? Vegetarian? Lots of veggies? Just tomatoes and onions? So hot you may as well have rubbed a habenero all over your tongue?

The cornbread part is a whole other debate. Our tamale pies tend to have thicker cornbread crusts, but the Science Teacher's mom's version is of a thin-crust variety. And then the question of what kind of cornbread to make arises. Cornbread is a funny creature. Whenever I mention to anyone around here that I've made cornbread, I tend to end up in conversations like this:

Me: "I made cornbread last night--it was totally rainy-day comfort food!"

Other Person (surprised): "Cornbread? Really? How do you make it gluten-free?"

Me (somewhat bemused): "The same way you make watermelon gluten-free--it just is."

OP (persistently): "But how do you make it without flour....."

Sigh. I'm considering getting tee-shirts printed with the recipe. This is what I get for moving north to Vermont, the place where no one says "y'all" (except, of course, the Science Teacher, and he attempts to use it in the singular, as in when he addresses me with "Whatta y'all want for breakfast"--I don't even dignify such grammatical frippery with an answer) and all cornbread contains flour.

You see, I grew up with all-cornmeal cornbread. I have since discovered that there exists "Northern" cornbread, which is usually at least half flour and contains more sugar than its southern cousin, and "Southern" cornbread of the type I ate growing up (case in point, even the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special refers to their cornbread recipe as "Southern Wheat-Free Cornbread"). Check out the wikipedia entry on the regional differences in cornbread recipes.

Before I give you the recipe I use--which does change every time I make it--let me give some tips for tamale pie customization.

The Crust:
For the crust, you can basically use your favorite cornbread recipe. One cup of cornmeal/flour (not including the other ingredients) will yield a fairly thin crust; two cups a nice thick crust. You can simply adjust your favorite recipe for the amount of cornmeal/flour you need. The batter must be thin in order to cover the entire pie so you might need to add a little liquid to achieve the right consistency. Don't worry too much about it--cornbread is forgiving.

If you prefer lighter, cakier cornbread, use half cornmeal half gluten-free flour (brown rice, sorghum, or whatever you have on hand) plus a 1/2 tsp. of xanthum gum. Use 3-4 tbsp. of sugar, honey, or maple syrup per two cups of cornmeal/flour for a sweeter cornbread, or 1 tbsp. (or none) for a more savory cornbread.

You can also add shredded cheddar and chopped jalapenos, if you like.

The Chili:
Since you probably have your own favorite chili recipe (at least, I hope you do!), I won't make suggestions here. Just make sure that you have enough filling to balance out the crust you've chosen. Three cups of beans or a pound of meat plus veggies is probably enough for a 1-cup-of-cornmeal crust but not enough for the thicker crust.

Tamale Pie
As you can probably tell, tamale pie can be highly improvisational. Here's a starting place for your experiments! These recipes are inspired by those in Jane Brody's fabulous Good Food Book and Good Food Gourmet.

Crust:
2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. boiling water
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. honey
1 egg
2 tbsp. oil
1 1/4-1 1/2 c. buttermilk or yogurt

Chili Filling:
1 lb. ground buffalo
1 tbsp. oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 c. green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 c. kidney beans
1/2 c. black or green pitted olives
1 can of diced tomatoes
2-3 tbsp. tomato paste
1 bottle gluten-free beer or 12 oz. water
1 tbsp. gluten-free worchestershire sauce
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 heaping tbsp. chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
generous pinch of cinnamon or allspice

Mix 1/2 c. of the cornmeal with the boiling water. Stir until combined. Mix with the other liquid ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl. Set aside until you're ready to pop the pie in the oven.

Brown the meat--if you're using it--rinse it in cold water (this gets rid of any grease), and set it aside. Heat the oil and saute the onion, green pepper, and garlic until soft. Add the cumin, chili powder, and cinnamon or allspice, and cook for about a minute. Add the rest of the ingredients, and cook for 20-30 min.

Transfer the chili mixture to a greased 2-3 qt. casserole dish (deeper is better as the cornbread will rise). Stir the wet crust ingredients into the dry ingredients, and pour over the chili filling. Bake at 350 for 30 min.

Asian-Style Tofu Loaf

I grew up pretty much unaware of tofu as food that I might actually want to eat. Most of the meals I remember centered around meat: chicken casserole, hamburger goulash, baked flounder, etc. Not terribly unusual for someone whose grandparents grew up on farms.

I first encountered tofu on a regular basis in college, where firm tofu was ubiquitous on the salad bar and, for the first time, I had friends who were vegetarian. I ate it then, but I can't say I loved it. Even when I experimented with my food identity, first becoming vegetarian and later going through a vegan phase for 8 months, I never really got the hang of tofu.

In the past few years I've found new techniques for cooking tofu though. I have a killer baked soy-sesame tofu recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. I learned about stir-frying tofu from a mini-tutorial in EatingWell. In general, I feel more confident in my abilities with tofu now. So last Friday, when I needed to either invent dinner from our larder or go shopping, I opted to stay home and do a little experimental tofu cookery. Enter Project Tofu Loaf.

I've never made a loaf out of anything but flour, turkey, or ground beef. So I did what most internet-addicts do--I googled it. A Google search for tofu loaf turns up a bunch of results for a recipe called Tip Top Tofu Loaf. At first, I thought someone had just discovered the nirvana of tofu loaves. After reading a few negative recipe reviews, however, I realized that they were all test-driving a particular recipe from La Dolce Vegan. The message I got was: whatever you do, don't make it bland.

Most tofu loaves call for tofu, some bread crumbs or oatmeal, spices, ketchup, and maybe some tahini. I couldn't find any "this was fabulous!" reviews for this breed of loaf so I decided to base my flavor principle on one of my favorite condiments: spicy peanut sauce.

When the Science Teacher came home, the loaf was already baking and I was upstairs playing with the Little Pottamus. He walked into the room, and we started talking. Casually, I said, "Guess what's for dinner, honey?"

"Soup from the soup restaurant?" he answered, half hopefully. "No," I said, "even better." He gave me the dubious look he reserves for my announcement that I've snuck vegetables into the dessert again and asked, "Okay, what then?"

"Tofu loaf!" I said brightly. Then a forlorn expression of horror and disbelief crossed his face. I laughed so hard I fell over on the floor and cried. "Is it shaped like a turkey?" he asked as I continued to cry.

When dinner time arrive, he poked skeptically at the loaf and said, "You should have called it tofu bake. 'Bake' doesn't conjure images of lentil pate and other hippie delicacies." Then he took a bite. And another. And another. After consuming the bigger part of a large hunk of tofu loaf, he asked, "Next time will you put some chopped up peanuts in it, too?"

Asian-Style Tofu Loaf

1 14-oz container firm tofu
1/2 c. TVP
1 c. GF bread crumbs
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1-2 tsp. chili-garlic paste (sriracha)
2-3 tbsp. peanut butter
2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. tumeric
1 tbsp. lime juice

Place the TVP in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over the TVP until it's covered. Put a lid or plate over the bowl, and allow to sit.

Saute the onion and carrots in the olive oil until the carrots are tender (maybe 10 min.). Add the chili-garlic paste in the last few minutes of cooking.

Crumble the tofu in a large bowl. Add the TVP. Add the sauted veggies. Add the peanut butter and stir well to distribute. Add the soy sauce, tumeric, and lime juice, and stir well. Press the mixture into a greased 8x8 dish, and bake for 50 min. at 350 in a preheated oven. Allow to cool before cutting.

Quinoa Pizza Crust

I've always loved pizza. Pizza for sleepovers. Pizza for end-of-season elementary school basketball team parties. Pizza nearly every night in college (remember someone knocking on doors around 11 or 12 trying to get together enough people to buy pizza at $1/slice?).

I grew up on Pizza Hut and Little Caesar's, usually on Friday nights. Those days, after my ballet lessons, we'd pick up a pizza and eat the breadsticks on the car ride home. That pizza was always much more edible hot than the day after. I remember discovering "gourmet" wood oven pizzas in high school with "exotic" toppings, like BBQ chicken, and the idea that everyone could order their own.

When I moved to Vermont, I discovered American Flatbread. My favorite was the Punctuated Equilibrium, a combo of red sauce, mozzarella, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, and local goat cheese. When I was in graduate school, the Science Teacher and I had weekly date nights at Flatbread after my late seminar. We'd order pizza--half with sausage half without--split a salad of local greens and talk about Slavoj Zizek. Then came my diagnosis...

The first gluten-free bread I made post-diagnosis was a pizza crust. As bummed as I was never to eat another Moonshadow (red sauce, mozzarella, feta, artichoke hearts, spinach, roasted red peppers, and walnuts) at Positive Pie, I was comforted to know I didn't have to give up pizza altogether. I've tweaked the first recipe I ever tried here and there, subbing quinoa flour for some of the brown rice flour and starch, but having found a recipe that worked, I didn't really experiment with other recipes.

Until this week. We had plans for dinner and Euchre with friends on Friday. Our friend asked the Science Teacher whether we could order pizza. "Great," the Science Teacher said, "except Kara won't be able to eat it. How about we'll bring the crust and you supply the toppings?" I was feeling a little experimental so I looked through some cookbooks for inspiration. I ended up perusing Jane Brody's Good Food Book. She's a science writer for The New York Times, and her cookbooks all revolve around the premise that whole grains are good for you and sugar/refined grains aren't. She's also the anti-Atkins--you should read her praising the nutritional qualities of the potato. The Good Food Book also is half nutritional information, making it a great cookbook for people who love to read about the food you're eating. I've been cooking and eating from her cookbooks since I was a kid.

She gives a recipe for a brown rice pizza crust. Not brown rice flour, the whole grain, mixed with mozzarella. I thought it sounded somewhat strange, but I'm used to weird ingredients turning into phenomenally tasty food (my chickpea brownies come to mind) by now. I googled the recipe to see whether others had tried it and came up with a few hits describing a similar-sounding crust in Veganomicon. In fact, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen just used a brown-rice crust in a quiche. Sounded promising.

Here's the two mini-pizzas from brown rice I made for lunch to try out the recipe. I mixed shredded mozzarella into one crust and a parmesan/nutritional yeast combo into the other. I liked the parm/nutritional yeast crust though the Science Teacher thought the mozzarella crust had a better texture. Neither particularly tasted ricey, which I found surprising. The crust was also solid with a nice crunch--you could pick it up without fear of disintegration. I made a rice crust and a "regular" crust for our Euchre night--both were a hit (well, at least they were all eaten)!

Last night, when we were having a take-out food night (a very rare occasion in our house) with friends, I decided to make myself a quinoa crust using the same technique instead of ordering out. If you're new to quinoa, definitely give it a try. It has a ton of protein, a nutty flavor, and a consistency similar to that of couscous--and it cooks up in about 15 min.

I liked the quinoa crust as much as the rice version though it took a bit more egg to make the grains stick together. The crust was crunchy with no detectable sogginess and substantial--I could pick it up and eat it. I topped my pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, feta, walnuts, chicken sausage, caramelized onions, and sauerkraut. Yum!

Quinoa Pizza Crust
This recipe could easily work with any whole grain. If the grain is sufficiently glutinous (i.e. a sticker rice), I think you could omit the eggs (and cheese) for a vegan crust.

2 1/2-3 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup raw quinoa--I like to toast my quinoa before adding water)
1 whole egg plus 1 white
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/4 cup parmasan
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast.
(or try a 1 cup of shredded mozzarella instead of the parm/nutritional yeast combo)

Preheat the oven to 450. Mix all of the ingredients into the quinoa thoroughly. Oil a baking sheet and sprinkle liberally with cornmeal. Press the quinoa into a pizza-like shape on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 min. Create your dream pizza--don't forget the walnuts--and bake for about more 10 min.

Gluten-Free Menus: February 18

Gosh, I haven't posted since last week. But my lack of posts doesn't mean I haven't been cooking--I've been tweaking a gluten-free graham cracker recipe that I hope to post about this week. Also, stay tuned: I'm going to make yogurt and labneh (a yogurt cheese) for the first time ever! Why, you might ask, am I making my own yogurt? Well, it has to do with my reading...

Last week, I discovered that other foodie bloggers are reading what I'm reading. I just finished a fiction jag (during which I read Pevear and Volohkonsky's new and fabulous translation of War and Peace--I highly recommend this version, which is far superior to any previous translations) a few weeks ago and picked up Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food.
Sally over at Aprovechar mentioned that she's reading it, too, and that she was somewhat disappointed with the book (its scope is much less than that of his previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I also hardily recommend). I wasn't exactly disappointed, but the book seemed less full of new ideas and more full of somewhat extended ideas from OD. The book can be summed up by his mantra: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

In any case, it's very well researched and documented, and I found myself at our local library on Friday checking out some of the books he cites, notably Marian Nestle's What to Eat and Food Politics. What to Eat is a look at our supermarkets and the politics that goes into what is available for us to buy and how it's labeled. I'm both horrified and fascinated by the statistics and anecdotes she recounted: almost 70% of Danimals yogurt is sugar; the USDA routinely tries to weaken rules governing organics and is only stopped (some of the time) by hundreds of thousands of letters from consumers; farmed salmon can have double the fat and saturated fat as wild salmon (not to mention all of those artificial dyes--how many times must I have exclaimed over food coloring on a platter?).

So, while we have very high quality yogurt produced locally, I was interested to find out exactly how difficult making my own would be. Hence my forays into yogurt-making. I'll keep you posted.

Here's our menus for this week:

Sunday: Indian-style savory mashed sweet potatoes (from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites), curried lentil-carrot salad, pineapple-apple chutney
Monday: Pumpkin-Chicken Enchiladas, sauteed kale
Tuesday: Enchiladas, Take Two!
Wednesday: Mezza with olives, hummus, labneh, pita, and roasted squash
Thursday: We're out of the house...
Friday: Red Lentil-Apricot Soup, kale, challah
Saturday: Friday leftovers

Need healthy snacks or desserts? Try these gluten-free chickpea crackers--I've made them several times and am never disappointed. They're also a great use of Bob's Red Mill All-Purp GF flour, if, like me, you can't stand the beany taste it imparts to everything. Also, try Karina's Mint Chocolate Cookies. I adapted them to be lower in fat and to be completely whole grain very easily: use equal parts brown rice, teff, corn, and sorghum flours in place of her flours, and replace half of the oil with applesauce. Instead of mixing the chocolate chips into the cookies, I melted them, added a little mint extract, and dipped the cookies. Almost like Thin Mints!

Gluten-Free Menus: February 11

I just bought a new cookbook at our fabulous new-used bookstore in town--I took in a few old books and turned them into Mark Bittman's (aka The Minimalist's) new cookbook, How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. This comprehensive vegetarian roadmap is quickly becoming the go-to cookbook in our house. All of the recipes this week are found in or were inspired by this 4000-recipe tome. The strength of this cookbook lies not in any individual recipe, though everything I've cooked from it has been tasty, but in its underlying principle. Bittman doesn't say, "Hey, this is what quinoa is and here's a quinoa recipe." Instead, his book is packed with charts called "Improvising Asian-Style Noodle Bowls," lists like "13 Other Fillings for Rolled Kale or Stuffed Grape Leaves," and variations on stock recipes like classic guacamole. I'm sure there will be more great recipes to come, and I'll keep posting my new finds.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Breakfast Bonus! Please check out my recent post on gluten-free breakfasts to see what fiber-and-protein-filled goodness I eat in the mornings.

Sunday: Paella with turkey and shrimp, carrot sticks
Monday: Thai Corn Cakes, Vietnamese spring rolls with a spicy peanut dipping sauce
Tuesday: Monday redux
Wednesday: Coconut Lemongrass Soup with crunchy tempeh
Thursday: We're out of the house
Friday: sushi bowls (brown rice, avocado, scallions, daikon, radishes, smoked salmon with nori to scoop it all up)
Saturday: sushi bowls strike again!

Bonus Dessert: In honor of this week's theme, I'll share this recipe for Dark Chocolate Meringues, which satisfied and continues to satisfy my recent chocolate cravings. These cookies are different than other chocolate meringues I've made in the past, containing both cocoa powder and melted chocolate, which impart a richness and chewiness unusual in meringues. Who cares about gluten with chocolate such as this?

A Healthier Gratin

When I was in college and some friends and I used to do The New York Times crossword every day, I used to say that I'd only marry someone who would do the Sunday puzzle in pen. As NYT crossword aficionados know, the Sunday puzzle isn't terribly difficult--it's about a Wednesday on a difficulty scale that stretches from Monday to Saturday--it's just bigger. The part about having to use a pen is more about attitude than actual smarts (or, rather, esoteric crossword knowledge), the willingness to commit to a guess even if you have to scratch it out later. When the Science Teacher and I started dating, one of the first regular activities we did together was the Sunday puzzle. And, yes, he does it in pen. That, along with a few other characteristics, pretty much sealed the deal for me.

While we don't buy the newspaper any other day of the week, we always buy the Sunday Times. We're horribly stereotypical in our reading: he grabs the Sports; I go for Sunday Styles. But we often read the Magazine together. Sunday supper always starts with a discussion of "The Ethicist", where people write in with their ethical dilemmas for Randy Cohen's snarky, though apt answers, and ends with the Sunday crossword.

Somewhere in between we'll read "The Way We Eat," which the Science Teacher especially loves. You see, he's a meat chef; he excels at the empty-out-the-frig dinners and is always my go-to person when I can't figure out whether I should be adding cumin or thyme. "The Way We Eat" is a column for meat chefs, all about dreaming up dishes, most of which most people who value their hearts wouldn't actually make, like caramelized bacon (ingredients: 1 lb bacon, 1 lb brown sugar). I'm always a little scared that he's actually going to want to make one of those recipes involving two cups of cream and a stick of butter.

I'm a control freak when it comes to food. Sure, you might say, but you're gluten intolerant, it comes with the territory. I can't blame it on the gluten. I'm a butter-cream-and-oil control freak. I've always been this way; food is where I hold my tension. I am getting better though. When the Science Teacher made millet instead of quinoa the other night (they do look alike dry) and added some olive oil and cheese--because, let's face it, dry millet isn't terribly tasty--I almost had to make some quinoa right then without any extras. But at the last moment I took a big breath; said to myself, this is not about quinoa or millet, this is about control; and let it go. The Science Teacher almost fell out of his chair.

In any case, when "The Way We Eat" had a column recently on gratins and the Science Teacher looked at it hopefully, I was a little scared. One recipe called for a cup of cream and a 1/2 lb of brie; the other called for 6 eggs and 2 cups of cream. He assured me that we could make it more healthily with cottage cheese and fewer eggs. I reluctantly agreed.

Looking at the recipes, I realized that a gratin wasn't a last-minute meal. It was going to take over an hour to cook plus the prep time. Even though I knew the Science Teacher wanted to experiment himself, I decided to give it a whirl earlier in the day. I combined both recipes from the column, using potatoes and chard and made a low-fat cheesy bechamel to pour over top of the vegetables. When I picked the Science Teacher up at the gym later in the day, I apologized for poaching his meal with a guilty grin, saying how long it took to cook. He looked at me, smiled wryly, and said, "Is this about time or control?" It's nice that your partner knows you well, I suppose. "Both," I said. He sighed. "That's ok. I'll try it myself some other time. It's probably good that you attempted it first yourself." Home we went to eat. He loved it (and so did I)!

A Healthier Potato-Chard Gratin
This recipe might be nice if half of the potatoes were replaced with another veggie, such as zucchini.

2 large potatoes
1 bunch swiss chard
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
12 oz can fat free evaporated milk
12 oz low-fat milk
3 oz reduced-fat cheddar, grated
3 oz good quality cheddar or smoked cheddar, grated
1 tsp rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp cornmeal or breadcrumbs
3 tbsp parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.

Slice the potatoes 1/8 in. thick. Grease a 7 x 12 casserole dish, and layer half of the potatoes in the bottom of the dish. Remove the stems from the swiss chard and chop the stems and leaves. Saute the stems in a little bit of olive oil for about 2 min. Add the leaves and wilt slightly. Remove from the heat. Spread chard on top of the potatoes.

Saute the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft. Spread on top of the chard. Layer the rest of the potatoes on top of the onions.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in the sauce pan. Add the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly. Add the evaporated milk and regular milk. Cook until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Stir until melted. Add the salt, pepper, and rosemary.

Pour over the potatoes. Sprinkle the cornmeal and parmesan over everything. Pop it all in the oven and bake, covered in foil and bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake for another 30-45 min, until the potatoes are tender and the top has a lovely golden crust.

Gluten-Free Menus: January 28

After spending three weeks with Vegan Planet, which I checked out of our local library, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to reduce their meat consumption. We tried five recipes from it--a stew, a stir-fry, a sauce, veggie burgers, and croquettes--and all were tasty and easy to prepare. Most of the recipes are either gluten-free or easily converted to gluten-free (i.e. by using GF breadcrumbs). Only a few recipes rely on wheat gluten or use seitan or a grain that not easy to substitute for.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: turkey cutlets with paprika, walnut-millet-celeriac croquettes (courtesy of Vegan Planet), salad
Monday: Chinese Velvet Corn Soup (from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special) and a yet-to-be determined asian-inspired salad
Tuesday: broiled salmon, brown rice, miso soup
Wednesday: potato-chard gratin (it will be a combo of the recipes in this article replacing the cream, brie, and tons of eggs with cottage cheese, lower fat cheeses, and fewer eggs)
Thursday: we're out of the house!
Friday:Cranberry and Herb Turkey Burgers (I use quinoa instead of couscous), baked sweet potato fries, challah
Saturday: Turkey Burger redux

Red Lentil-Apricot Soup

One of our favorite restaurants is That's Life Soup. The owner has a simple and seemingly successful business model: make four or five large pots of soup each weekday morning; sell soup, sandwiches, and salad all day; focus on lunch; sell whatever's left over for dinner. I was lucky enough to go to this restaurant once or twice before giving up gluten--I got to try some of her lovely, grilled sandwiches (think: manchego and mushrooms). And when I was noticeably pregnant this past summer, I got free soup. What a great sale: free soup for mamas-to-be!

After being diagnosed with DH, I ran into the owner on the street one day and asked if many of the soups she cooked were gluten-free. She looked at me in a somewhat annoyed way and said, "there are really too many dietary restrictions for me to take them all into account when I'm planning my menus." Fine, I thought, I didn't want to eat at your stupid restaurant anymore anyway. Which, of course, was a complete lie.

A few months later the Science Teacher and I went back to the restaurant and, lo and behold, all of the soups were marked if they were gluten-free, lactose-free, vegetarian, and vegan. And every time I've been there since, there has always been a gluten-free option. Hmm. Seems like quite a few customers had been asking about their dietary restrictions. The lesson I take from this? Always ask about gluten-free food, because when enough customers ask, owners listen.

During two recent trips, I found a red lentil soup with apricots on the menu. The first time it was so delicious that I went out and bought red lentils with the intention of immediately recreating the soup at home. One of the great qualities of the chef is that she keeps her cookbooks on a shelf in the small dining room. Anyone can walk right up and check out what's in the soups she makes. This recipe is adapted from the Armenian-Apricot Soup in The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups. Note: The second time I ordered this soup, it was too sweet--if you're tempted to play, remember, a few apricots go a long way.

Red-Lentil Apricot Soup
serves 4

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3 c dried apricots
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1.5 c red lentils
5 c chicken stock
1 c diced tomatoes
2 tbsp lemon juice

Saute the onion, garlic, and dried apricots in the olive oil until the onions are soft. Add the spices and saute for 30-60 sec.

Add the red lentils and stock. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat. Simmer for about 30 min. Add the tomatoes. Cook for 10 min. Puree. Add lemon juice and serve.

Gluten-Free Menus: January 14

This week I'm participating in the the Gluten-Free Menu Swap hosted by Natalie at Gluten-Free Mommy. The Science Teacher and I have decided to aim for 3-4 vegetarian meals each week in the new year. We eat pretty healthily normally, but, after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, we both want to try to eat more responsibly as well. For us, this means buying more locally-produced meat and veggies. Finding the ingredients for our meals isn't terribly difficult; we're lucky enough in Vermont to live a near great co-op and farms that produce eggs, all varieties of meat, dairy products, and even some vegetables through the winter. Finding the cash to finance our localvore idyll is something else--good food is a luxury. In this month's Wired, the "Infoporn" section contains a graph that shows where the calories, sugar, cost are in your grocery store. Unsurprisingly, veggies are high in one of those categories and pretty low in the others. I'm sure organic meat would show a similar result if they included such a section. That's where eating less of higher quality meat comes in. For our adventures in vegetarianism, I checked out Vegan Planet from our local library for some inspiration that doesn't involve plain ol' beans and rice.

Sunday: Salmon Cakes (I use canned salmon) and salad
Monday: Three-Way Sesame Coated Tofu (that would be sesame seeds, tahini, and sesame oil), stir-fried broccoli, brown rice (courtesy of Vegan Planet)
Tuesday: Cottage Pie
Wednesday: Artichoke and Chickpea Stew (courtesy of Vegan Planet)
Thursday: Cottage Pie leftovers
Friday: Artichoke and Chickpea Stew leftovers