Smoky Braised Lentils with (or without) turkey sausages

Do you have a son younger than college age?  Did you ever have one?  Do you know that he probably doesn’t eat lunch at school?  I know you pack him something wonderful and maybe he even helped pick it all out.  But here’s the reality:  if your school is like mine and permits recess as soon as the kids are “finished” with lunch, most boys are only focused on one thing.  Playing ball.  I have figured out that my son only eats what he can on the way to the field and leaves everything else in the lunchbox.  He eats it all when he comes home, but he does NOT want to miss being picked for the better team or waste time sitting around eating when he can be doing his favorite thing in the world.  Playing ball.

Mr. Picky is in second grade and this has been going on since he started elementary school and from what other moms tell me, it doesn’t end.  So it was a big day in the Salzman household when Mr. Picky announced that he would like to take a thermos to school.  Why?  Did the state cut the budget for soccer balls?  Not yet.  Mr. Picky wanted a thermos so that he could take these lentils to school.  For lunch.  This is big, people.  And the thermos came back empty.

It is not at all important to me why he likes lentils, only that they are an amazing source of low-fat protein and super high in fiber, so they keep him full for a long time and help stabilize his blood sugar.  So I thought I would share this recipe with you just before Halloween since it is keeping in line with my strategy for the big night o’candy.  I can’t/won’t forbid my kids from eating candy on Halloween.  How unrealistic is that?  (Rhetorical question.  Very.)  My strategy is to get them really full with a good dinner before they go out so that they have no room in their bellies for too much candy.

My mom used to make braised lentils which is kind of like making lentil soup, but with less liquid.  Only she used to put a piece of pork or a smoked ham hock in the pot and it gave the lentils great flavor.  I don’t eat pork, but I started adding smoked paprika to my lentils to give a similar smokiness and it’s delicious.  Mr. Picky says it tastes like there’s a hot dog in there.  In fact, that wouldn’t be a bad idea to put a (nitrate-free) hot dog in the pot to persuade your kids to try lentils.  Just a thought.  I very often make them as a vegetarian dish since they have so much protein, but here I served them with my answer to fast food — Applegate Farms (Precooked) Organic Chicken and Turkey Sausages.  No matter how busy you are, I am sure you aren’t too busy to warm up these sausages.  I bake them, which is so much easier than cooking them in a skillet and having to clean up any splattering on the stovetop.  But the best part is that there are no spooky ingredients to worry about!

Smoky Braised Lentils with (or without) Turkey Sausages

Pamela
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Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined olive oil
  • 1 large onion diced
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 clove garlic finely chopped
  • 2-3 teaspoons smoked paprika Spice Hunter is a good, easy-to-find brand. Spicely Organic has no flavor.
  • 1 cup organic black or French lentils* sorted and rinsed
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme optional
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt + ½ teaspoon if you don’t cook sausages with lentils
  • 2 ½ cups water
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-2 packages precooked Applegate Farms Sweet Italian or Chicken Apple sausages 4/package

Instructions
 

  • In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until tender and translucent, about 8 minutes.
  • Add the carrots, garlic and paprika. Cook for 2 more minutes.
  • Add the lentils, thyme, salt and water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes** or until lentils are tender. Halfway during the cooking process, preheat the oven to 350.
  • Bake sausages on a baking sheet until heated through, about 15-20 minutes. Slice into thirds and serve with the lentils. Or alternatively, cut the sausages in half or thirds and add to lentils halfway through cooking lentils and heat sausages through.
  • If lentils seem too liquidy, simmer a little longer uncovered. Taste lentils and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Notes

*There seems to be a wide variety of lentil cooking times. 365 Brand takes about 30 minutes, but I have used some imported varieties that take up to 50 minutes.
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Late summer minestrone

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

Oh, I am not very good at goodbyes.  And saying farewell to summer is just inevitable now, isn’t it?  My minestrone soup is one of those recipes that bridges summer and fall.  Zucchini and tomatoes are still plentiful in the farmer’s markets, but the weather is showing signs of cooling down.  We’ve had a few chilly and foggy beach days in the last week and that was my signal to make this favorite soup of ours.  The word minestrone means “big soup” in Italian.  To me it means, “use what you’ve got, ” especially lots of veggies.  No matter what, it’s always hearty enough to be called a meal, but light enough for the season.  My mom used to make it with elbow macaroni or the smallest of pastas, but I adore farro and find that it adds a heartiness that the pasta doesn’t.  Plus, it has more to offer in the way of fiber and protein.  Combined with white beans, this is a well-balanced meal that almost always makes its way into thermoses in tomorrow’s lunch box.  Have I mentioned lately that making school lunches is not my favorite morning pastime?  I know, I’m such a whiiiiiner.  But Daughter #1 is trying to be an overachiever this year and start school at 7:00 am.  Do you know what this means?  I need to be making lunch around 6:00 am OR I could just reheat minestrone five minutes before we need to leave the house.  Sounds like a plan!

As the seasons change, so does this soup.  I have used jarred tomatoes instead of fresh, and frozen shelled peas and cabbage for the zucchini.  Don’t be put off by the piece of rind from a wedge of Parmesan cheese.  It’s a little secret ingredient found in so many Italian kitchens.  One you see how delicious it makes this soup, you’ll never throw it out again!   My mom would make this soup or pasta e fagioli whenever we would come to the end of a piece of Parmesan.  In my house, my kids and husband love this soup so much that we buy buy the cheese just for the rind!  Mr. Picky even likes this soup.   His favorite thing to do is add a leftover meatball, chopped up into his bowl and he’ll have seconds, thank you very much.

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

This week I will be harvesting almost all the basil and parsley in the garden and making a mountain of pesto to freeze in small quantities for the upcoming months.  At least I can make summer last a little longer in my own way.

late summer minestrone|pamela salzman

 

 
 
 

 
 
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Late Summer Minestrone

Pamela
5 from 4 votes
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Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil + more for drizzling
  • 1 onion coarsely chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery coarsely chopped
  • 1 carrot coarsely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
  • 1 pound of fresh tomatoes peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped or 1 14.5 ounce can, diced with juice
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock preferably homemade
  • ¾ cup farro
  • Piece of rind from a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese if you have it
  • 4 small zucchini medium dice, about 4 cups
  • 1 ½ cups cooked white beans e.g. cannellini, Great Northern, rinsed if canned
  • Handful of greens coarsely chopped
  • Chopped basil leaves or pesto for garnish optional
  • Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano cheese

Instructions
 

  • Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, and add the onions, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Do not allow the vegetables to brown.
  • Add the tomatoes with the juice, parsley and ½ teaspoon sea salt. Cook for 5 minutes more, until the tomatoes are fragrant.
  • Add the stock and 2 teaspoons of sea salt and bring to a boil. Add the farro and the parmesan rind and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat so that the soup simmers. Cook about 15 minutes.
  • Add the zucchini and cook another 10 to 15 minutes, until the farro is tender but still has a little “toothiness.”
  • Add the cooked beans and heat through. Add more stock, if desired.
  • Add the chopped greens and stir until wilted. Adjust seasonings and serve with chopped basil leaves and freshly grated parmesan cheese and/or drizzled olive oil on top or a spoonful of pesto.
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Vegetable fried rice recipe

When parents struggle with “what to make for dinner,” one tip I like to offer is to find a dish that everyone likes to eat when you go out, and try to make it at home.  Fried rice, however, is a food that I thought I could never make at home.  I don’t know why it seemed to be out of my cooking league and only something the family could enjoy on the three annual birthday trips to Benihana.  But the last time we were there for Mr. Picky’s birthday, I watched in amazement at what it took for our chef to make fried rice — not a lot!  I could make this at home!  I took mental notes of what was used on the griddle — cold rice, beaten eggs, a few vegetables, soy sauce and a curious creamy spread our chef told me was “garlic butter.”  Hmmm…..

Before I gave this a go at home, I needed to check around a bit to see if there was anything else I needed to know.  It seems that fried rice is actually pretty straightforward provided you do one very important thing — use cold, cooked rice.  Warnings abounded wherever I turned — one can never, ever, possibly even consider making fried rice with fresh rice otherwise you will have a mushy, disastrous mess.  One thing you need to know about me is that I am a naysayer.  Oh, really?  Well I need to see it to believe it.  And I that’s how I learned….never to use fresh rice when making fried rice because I’m here to tell you that you will indeed have a mushy, disastrous mess.

Fried rice is something that was invented in order to use up leftover rice and whatever bits of vegetables and meat you have from the night before.  It is eaten as a snack in China, never as a meal.  Don’t tell my kids, because they’re getting it as an entree.  When you add scrambled eggs, peas, shiitake mushrooms and broccoli to long-grain brown rice, you have yourself plenty of protein.  I often pack this the next day in a stainless thermos for the kids’ lunch and I have enjoyed it for breakfast as well.  It is actually the perfect little meal with protein, good carbs, and some fat for stable blood sugar and long-lasting energy.

Stir-frying anything requires all your chopping to be done in advance since things move so quickly.  You can get this out of the way as early as the night before, if you want.  If you have leftover rice and all your vegetables are prepped ahead, fried rice can be cooked in minutes.  Traditionally in China, the eggs are added with the rice so that the egg coats each grain of rice.  I do it a little differently since Mr. Picky doesn’t enjoy eggs yet.  I cook the beaten eggs in ghee (a clarified butter great for higher heat cooking) first and then remove them, chop them up and add them in at the end.  That way Mr. Picky can pick out all the egg easily.

You can really add whatever vegetables you have on hand and you certainly don’t need to use as many as I do. (The vegetables above were used in fried rice I made for a class where the recipe was doubled.)  The key is to dice everything pretty small, about the size of peas, although the broccoli can be slightly larger.  That way you can stir-fry them in the wok or pan and you don’t need to blanche them in a separate saucepan.  I like washing dishes as much as Mr. Picky likes eggs.  If your picky eater won’t go for brown rice, he’ll never know it here.  The shoyu is going to change the color of the rice to brown anyway.  To make this gluten-free, substitute wheat-free tamari and you’re all set.  Vegans can drop the egg, use all sesame oil and still enjoy a high-protein dish.  Don’t forget — Chinese New Year begins on February 3rd!

Vegetable Fried Rice

Pamela
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 6 as a side dish, 4 as a main

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tablespoons ghee divided
  • 2 large eggs beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil plus more for drizzling if desired
  • 1 teaspoon grated or minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 4 scallions sliced thinly on the diagonal
  • Vegetables:
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • ½ cup frozen peas defrosted
  • Handful of shiitake mushrooms stems removed; caps wiped clean and diced
  • 1 head broccoli cut into very small florets and stems diced, about 2 cups
  • 4 cups COLD COOKED brown rice, preferably long-grain
  • 2 Tablespoons shoyu or more to taste I tend to go more
  • Toasted sesame seeds for garnish optional

Instructions
 

  • Heat a wok or large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tablespoon ghee. Scramble the eggs in the pan until cooked through. Transfer the eggs to a cutting board and set aside.
  • Add 1 Tablespoon sesame oil and 1 Tablespoon ghee to the wok. Saute the ginger, garlic and scallions until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  • Add the vegetables and sauté until softened. Add the rice and shoyu and toss everything around in the wok until heated through. Chop up the cooked eggs and stir into the rice. Taste for seasoning and add additional shoyu or sesame oil, if desired. Sprinkle with sesame seeds for fun!

Notes

If you are using leftover cooked vegetables or meat, dice them up and add with the rice.
I shared this recipe with Healthy Child, Healthy World!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Asian noodle salad recipe

Asian Noodle Salad | Pamela Salzman

Asian Noodle Salad | Pamela Salzman

I really don’t think anyone needs another way to get pasta into his or her diet, or peanut butter for that matter, but I can’t help myself here.  I taught this Asian noodle salad in a class last year and I still haven’t tired of it.  However, the pasta in this dish isn’t just your run-of-the-mill white flour spaghetti, which you certainly don’t need to eat any more of than you already do, but soba.  Soba noodles are a Japanese pasta made with buckwheat.  Most of the soba noodles I see in the markets are a wheat and buckwheat blend.  But you can find ones made with 100% buckwheat, which is not a wheat at all, but a seed related to the rhubarb plant.  Buckwheat also happens to be gluten-free, full of fiber and protein and contains a very cool compound called rutin which is helpful in lowering blood pressure.

Asian Noodle Salad | Pamela Salzman

If you are trying to limit your gluten, I would not only give you a pat on the back, but I would like to encourage you to try the all-buckwheat noodles.   Let me just forewarn you of a few things.  Be prepared for a much nuttier, more assertive flavor than a traditional noodle, almost earthy.  I will say, it works perfectly with a peanut sauce.  It is quite a bit more expensive, too, almost $8.00 for 8 ounces.  But more importantly, it demands a bit of babysitting when you’re cooking it.  There’s a gumminess that leaches into the cooking water that can foam up and overflow all over your stovetop in an instant.  One minute you’re stirring your pot diligently but you turn to your daughter to say, “how was your test today?” and the next minute you have a volcanic eruption that puts out the gas flame on your stove.  Not to discourage you or anything, I’m just saying this could happen to you if you’re not paying attention.

Asian Noodle Salad | Pamela Salzman

I love any recipe where I can work in a few more vegetables.  Here I went the basic route with some Napa cabbage, a few shreds of purple cabbage and carrots because not much else is in season right now.  But I have been know to add in raw red bell pepper strips and cucumber in the Summer and blanched asparagus and sliced raw sugar snap peas in the Spring (Mr. Picky’s favorite).  If you’re like me and you don’t think cilantro tastes like soap, you can chop a few sprigs and add that, too.  This makes a perfect dish to bring to a potluck since it can be made ahead of time and stays well at room temperature.  Your lunchbox radar should be going off right now — perfect for school lunches provided your school allows peanut products.  If you can’t eat peanuts, try this with sesame tahini or cashew butter instead.  For a gluten-free version, again, look for 100% buckwheat noodles and wheat-free tamari instead of the shoyu.

Asian Noodle Salad | Pamela Salzman

Chinese New Year is coming up on February 3rd, so look out for a few more posts before then to get you in the spirit!

asian noodle salad with chopsticks in a white bowl

Asian Noodle Salad

Pamela
The perfect salad - noodles, peanut butter, and even some hidden vegetables!
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course, Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine Asian
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup unrefined cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2-3 Tablespoons creamy natural peanut butter, preferably organic
  • 1/4 cup shoyu or wheat-free tamari
  • 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 2 Tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup or raw honey
  • 2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes optional
  • 8-10 ounce package soba noodles or noodle of your choice
  • 5 cups shredded Napa cabbage
  • 1 large carrot julienned
  • Other add-ins according to the season: thinly sliced scallions, sweet bell pepper, julienned cucumber, sugar snap or snow peas, rehydrated arame (sea vegetable)

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, peanut butter, shoyu, sesame oil, rice vinegar, maple syrup, fresh ginger and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
  • Place the shredded cabbage in a colander in the sink.
  • Cook the soba noodles according to the package instructions. Do not go check your email.
  • Drain the noodles into the colander with the cabbage, which will just wilt the cabbage so you don't have to blanch it in another pot and have an extra thing to wash. Rinse the noodles and cabbage with cold water and shake the colander to drain everything really well. This is important so the dressing adheres to the noodles.
  • Transfer the noodles and cabbage to a serving bowl. Add the carrots, dressing and any additional vegetables you like and toss well.
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