On Top of Spaghetti, All Covered with...Nutritional Yeast

As much as I'd like to think my recipes are perfect, there is always room for improvement. My first batch of lentil balls were so wonderful that I craved them again tonight, but I wanted to post something new for you guys, so I decided to improve the recipe. The result is a firmer, fresher, more authentic tasting "meat" ball which I'm quite proud of; I definitely recommend this recipe over the first!

Lentil balls, redux:
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cooked cups green lentils
- 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax, 3 tbsp water)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- Pinch o' red pepper flake
- S&P, to taste

Makes 10 balls

Here's a how-to:


Pour yourself a beer. In this case, I chose the Saison du Buff (which is amazing by the way).


Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.


Get your hands in it! You need to mash the lentils and spread some love to your balls, so be hands on. Who doesn't like to play with their balls food? (I'm 12 years old).


Note: This is what happens if you cook and take pictures of food in front of your friends.


Roll into cute golf ball sized balls and lay on a greased baking sheet. I love the flecks of parsley.


Bake in a 375 oven for 25 minutes, flipping halfway through, until golden brown and firm.


Have a self-indulgent photo-op.


Delicately place in your perfect marinara sauce and pour sauce over them to coat.


FEAST.

Happy weekend. :)

Vegging Up American Classics

This is one of those basic vegan dishes that I have yet to make...until yesterday. For some reason, I really wanted typical American comfort food. The funny thing is that I never liked meatloaf. When my mom would make it I would always groan and request something else because the idea of a loaf entirely made of beef just disgusted me. Moreover, once (when I hated ketchup), she served meatloaf telling me it was topped with tomato sauce when it was actually covered in ketchup. I can count on one hand how many times I ate meatloaf after that. Luckily I like ketchup now, and I like this loaf better than its meaty relatives.


Red lentil loaf
Ingredients
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups water or vegetable stock
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 celery rib, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax + 6 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp each oregano and thyme
- 1/2 tsp rosemary
- S&P, to taste

- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/8 cup balsamic
- 1 tsp agave

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Bring lentils and water or stock to boil and simmer for 25 minutes, or until water is absorbed.
- While the lentils cook, saute the vegetables in a large pan or skillet until soft.
- Add vegetables to the lentils along with remaining ingredients. Stir to combine, mashing the lentils slightly.
- Press mixture into a greased loaf pan. Combine glaze ingredients and spread a layer over top of the loaf. After 30 minutes, spread another layer of glaze. Glaze one final time when the loaf comes out of the oven. Bake for a total of 50 minutes.
- Turn loaf pan onto a plate, spread another layer of glaze on the bottom and serve.

Serves 8-10


The texture of this loaf is quite soft and moist but in a nice way. It isn't mushy and it held together wonderfully without being dry. The vegetables were cut large enough so it had some chew, which added to the overall texture. The glaze was delicious and formed a crust due to the multiple glazing. Overall, it was a very successful first attempt.


Love that crust!

Passport to Paris

No, not the awesome Olsen Twin movie. I wanted to keep things simple tonight. Simple flavors with simple, inexpensive ingredients. Due to my recent food kick, all I had on my mind was yet another type of salad.


Warm lentil salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup lentils
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 whole garlic clove + 1 clove, minced
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery hearts, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tarragon
- 1/2 tbsp chives
- S&P
Vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp dijon
- S&P

Instructions
- Combine dressing ingredients and shake or whisk to emulsify. Set aside.
- Bring lentils, water and whole garlic clove to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender and most of the water has absorbed. Set aside.
- Saute aromatics in 1 tbsp olive oil. Once they begin to soften, add lentils and combine to heat through. Place lentil mixture in a large bowl, add herbs and seasoning as necessary and toss with vinaigrette. Serve warm or at room temperature. Garnish with green onions if desired and enjoy!


This was lovely. Full of protein and nutrients, lightly seasoned and simply dressed. While I was eating it I almost felt like I was sitting in a French bistro. While I've never been to France and I know that French cuisine isn't exactly vegan friendly, I like that food can almost take me there.

After last night's whole roasted garlic, I wanted to roast something whole. Unfortunately I didn't have a complete head of garlic, but I did have a bunch of yellow onions in need of some roastin'.



This is so easy. Just preheat your oven to 400, cut off the root of the onions and poke a hole in the side of each and place them in a foil covered baking dish, then bake for an hour. Take off the foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Allow to cool for a few minutes then slit them open and pour your desired sauce in the center.


I filled mine with a quick balsamic reduction. I would have preferred the reduction to be more...reduced...but my onions were ready to go and my stomach was growling before the sauce had a chance to fully thicken. Thankfully it still tasted out of this world good. I implore you to whole roast onions.

I'm off to do some yoga and watch Lucy Desi Comedy Hour until I drop. Au revoir!

Cheap Never Tasted So Good

A friend of mine recently told me about Mujaddara - a Levantine lentil, rice, and slowly caramelized onion pilaf that is simply seasoned so as not to interfere with the intense flavor of the onions. I was immediately drawn to it because not only do I love all the ingredients involved, but it's also incredibly cheap to make. So I put it on my "to make" list and then forgot about it for a few weeks. Until today. On this day I went into my fridge and noticed the pathetic produce assortment I had left, but then eyed a huge onion tucked away on the side shelf. I knew I had to finally make Mujaddara.


And I'm glad I did.

Mujadarra
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup green lentils, uncooked
- 1/4 cup brown rice, dry
- 1 huge white or yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Chop onion and add to a large pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. It's important to keep it on medium-low heat, stirring every 30 seconds or so, so that the onions don't burn and all of them are thoroughly caramelized. Continue cooking for 30 minutes.
- While the onions cook, add rice to a small pot with 1/2 cup water, bring to boil and simmer for 35-40 minutes.
- Add lentils and 1 cup water to another pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
- A few minutes before the onions are done, add the cumin and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
- In a large bowl, add cooked rice, lentils and 3/4 onions. Stir and season with S&P as needed. Top with remaining onions. Enjoy!

If you make this properly, everything will be done at roughly the same time so you can just toss everything into a bowl and eat.


You guys, this was another full-mouthed "Oh my God" inducing dish. I just...I don't even know if I have the words. The pictures speak for themselves.

The flavors of the dish are meant to be simple because the star of the show are the sweet, rich, caramelized onions. Some recipes actually only use S&P, but I like to go a little above and beyond. The cinnamon and cumin weren't prevalent much at all, they just added a little hint of spice which complemented the onions quite well. Lovely, lovely dish; I have a feeling almost anyone would enjoy it. Good thing I have leftovers!


Would you look at those caramelized onions? Be still, my heart.

Reinventing Old Favorites

Sometimes it's hard to make pasta interesting. As a vegan, pasta options are shoved down my throat in restaurants, formal events, etc so pasta has become something I have often deemed uncreative. There are so many other kinds of grains that are arguably more nutritious, so why cook pasta? Well, sometimes there's no replacement for a heaping bowl of it, that's why. This just looks like your standard pasta with tomato based sauce, right? Wrong! What's that hiding under the mound of spinach and spaghetti?


Lentil balls!

Y'all, when I was an omnivore, I loved me some meatballs. I would look forward to them every time my mom made them, sampling while she cooked and eating 3+ with dinner. On holidays, my mouth salivated for my grandmother's meatballs. In short, I was a meatball enthusiast. Since being vegan, I've tried a pre-packaged soy based meatball and was disgusted. Since that day, I swore off of finding a good vegan alternative. I assumed I would never eat them again because the packaged stuff was gross and I figured most homemade alternatives wouldn't be nearly as good. I was wrong.

Lentil balls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup green lentils, rinsed and picked through
- 3/4 cup water or vegetable stock
- 1/8 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax, 2 tbsp water)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1/2 tsp each oregano, rosemary and parsley
- S&P, to taste

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- In a medium sized pot, bring water and lentils to a boil. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Drain.
- In one bowl, combine flour, nutritional yeast, herbs and seasoning.
- Once lentils are done, add to a separate bowl with oil, garlic and shallot. Mash with a fork. Add flax egg.
- Add flour mixture to mashed lentils 1 tbsp at a time. Combine after each tbsp until the mixture is firm but not too dry.
- Measure out each ball using a tablespoon. Form into balls using your hands and place on a greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping halfway, until balls are golden brown and crisp.


They should look like this!

The best part about these is that they don't fall apart. I could fork cut them into small pieces and scoop them up with sauce and pasta and they held up perfectly. I think the key is the flax egg. Regardless, these had awesome flavor and were better than most actual meatballs I've had (sorry, mom). They weren't overly greasy and the lentils gave them a nice meaty flavor/texture. I think anyone can enjoy these, vegan or not.

The sauce was super simple and tasty. I just combined a can of Glen Muir fire roasted crushed tomatoes with 1/2 can water, 1 garlic clove, 1 shallot, 1 small yellow squash, 1/2 red pepper and added basil, oregano, crushed red peppa and S&P to taste. I brought it to a low boil then simmered until I was ready to serve. I was going to add the spinach to the sauce, but then I decided I would rather have the spinach more on the raw side; it added a nice texture and temperature contrast.


Mmm. When all is said and done, Italian is still my ultimate comfort cuisine.

No Vegetables

I had every intention of adding some spinach somewhere in this dish so that I could include vegetables, but I forgot. I figure the health benefits from the lentils more than makes up for the lack of produce. Well hey, garlic and onions sort of count as vegetables, and that's good enough for me.


Indian spiced lentils
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup green lentils
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
- S&P
- Squirt of lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp cilantro, for garnish

Instructions
- Bring lentil and water to a boil and simmer for ~40 minutes.
- After about 30 minutes, begin preparing the spices and aromatics: Add half the olive oil to a large pan on medium heat. Add spices and stir continuously for about 2 minutes. Toasting will enhance the flavor and depth of the spices.
- After the spices are done, add the remaining olive oil and cook onion and garlic until translucent.
- Around this time the lentils should be about ready. Drain (reserve a bit of liquid) and add to the pan, stirring to coat the lentils evenly with the spices. If the mixture looks a little dry, add reserved lentil liquid. Squirt with lemon juice before serving. I served over short grain brown rice that I FINALLY cooked perfectly.



This dish came about because I got the wrong type of lentils from the bulk bin. I wanted to make dal, but instead of red or yellow lentils I grabbed green. I know that all lentils are good lentils, so I had to make these work with my craving for Indian flavors somehow. I think I did a good job. As with most of my dishes, this could easily feed two people, but I cannot refuse a mound of aromatic lentils.


I also had a glass of wine that I bought at this great wine bar called The Wine Room in Winter Park, FL. I tried a bunch of different wines (one called Graham Crackers which I tried because I thought it would taste like s'mores - it did not) and fell in love with this kind. I splurged and bought a bottle for myself despite my lack of money because I liked it so much. Unfortunately it wasn't the dumbest purchase of the evening, but more on that later.


Bellissima.