SmarterFitter Daily

I am feeling poorly today. I blame it on food poisoning. Regardless, I spent all of last night in the bathroom. I will not say any more than that.

So today I am left feeling absolute rubbish. Lethargic, tired, nausious, achy, with no desire to eat anything but vegetable broth and buttered toast. Having neither in the house, I set off to make my own - somehow, even in my sickest state, I can still manage to muster up the energy to cook.

The soup started with a batch of vegetable stock, adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which basically entailed boiling the following for 30 minutes before straining: 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, a couple dried porchini mushrooms, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 6 cups water.

To make the soup, I looked at a few recipes for chicken noodle soup and then basically made that, but with veg stock and no chicken. So, not chicken noodle soup at all, but something simple and non-offensive to my iffy tummy.

Simple Noodle Soup

• Olive oil
• 2 sliced carrots
• 1 diced onion
• 2 sliced celery stalks
• 1 bay leaf
• 50 grams pasta
• A handful of chopped curly kale
• Enough vegetable stock to cover and then some

Method

1. Cook the pasta so that it's slightly undercooked
2. Saute the carrots, onions and celery in a bit of olive oil until soft
3. Add the vegetable stock, bay leaf and simmer for about ten minutes
4. Add the kale and pasta and boil a few more minutes
5. Serve!

Recipe courtesy of mom. The only change I made was to add a bit of finely chopped curly kale.

SIMPLE, FLAVORFUL LENTIL SOUP

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• organic vegetable broth and water to cover ingredients at least 2"
• 1 lg can organic diced tomatoes
• 1 large bay leaf (I use the Indian variety)
• 1 bag green lentils
• 2 Tbsp (or to taste) cider vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• chopped parsley (optional)

Put everything into a large pot, except for vinegar.  Bring to boil and cook an hour or so covered.

When lentils are tender, add vinegar to taste.

You can also use balsamic vinegar or lemon juice to adjust the flavor slightly.

A good dinner, but not a great one. Everything seemed to be lacking in salt somehow, and my veggies weren't quite as "charred" as I like. I think I should have used more oil (sigh).

The frijoles refritos (refried pinto beans) were the star, inspired by this recipe for refried black beans from Rachel Demuth's Mexican Supperclub at the Vegetarian Cookery School (I just subbed pinto beans for black beans, and skipped the epazote as I live in the UK - Mexican ingredient wasteland):

Frijoles Refritos

Re-fried Black Beans

Dietary: Vegan

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 200g dried black beans
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried epazote (optional) 
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 onion-halved
• A sprinkle of fresh thyme
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 tbsp epazote (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 orange, juice of
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• lots of chopped coriander
• brown sugar
• salt and pepper

Method:

Soak the beans in lots of water overnight.

Next day drain the beans and rinse them, checking for any stray stones.

Boil in plenty of water with the bay, half onion, garlic and epazote until tender, which takes 1-2 hours-keep checking the level of the water and top up a little if the beans are drying out. When the beans are soft remove the onion and bay, drain and set aside.

In a large saucepan, fry the onion in the olive oil until soft.

Add the garlic and chilli to the onion and fry until fragrant. Then add the paprika, epazote, coriander & cumin and quickly stir-fry.

Add the cooked beans, orange & lime juice and cook gently until the beans begin to break down and the fruit juice has been absorbed. Add a little water if the mix gets too thick and then taste-add sugar, salt and pepper to your taste.

Serve garnished with chopped coriander with corn tortillas and bowls of extra sliced jalapenos, spring onion. chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce and cheese.

This recipe was given to me by a friend of a friend last year and somehow I stumbled upon it while cleaning out my hard drive and I decided to give it a try. It's a very easy dal and just the kind of thing I was in the mood for. The only thing I'd do differently next time is decrease (or omit) the tomatoes, which made it all a bit too much like a tomato-and-lentil soup rather than a nice lentil-filled dal. This may have been improved had I added the coconut milk, but I didn't have any and wasn't in the mood for something too rich.  All the same, this dal was very good and delicious with cucumber and yogurt raita. 

Here is the original recipe:

Dal

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup dry red lentils
• 3 cups water
• bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp medium curry powder (or to taste - I make my own using Mark Bittman's curry powder recipe)
• 1 14-oz can of chopped tomatoes (would skip next time)
• or equivalent chopped fresh
• tomatoes
• 2 oz creamed coconut of half cup
• coconut milk (optional - I didn't use it, though the raita kind of made up for that)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a deep frying pan, heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the lentils and fry them for a minute or two, then add the water, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and curry powder. Stir.
2. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for twenty minutes, adding a little more water from time to time if it gets dry. Add the tomatoes and simmer another ten minutes. By now the lentils should be very soft. Add the creamed coconut or coconut milk and lemon juice, if using, and salt to taste. Remove cinnamon stick and bay leaf before serving.
3. The final product should flow freely—add more water if it is too thick. If is usually served over rice, with some lime pickle and mango chutney. Sliced banana is another good accompaniment, and so too are pappadams.