Curried Lentil Soup (vegan, gluten free)

Curried Lentil Soup (Spicy!)

This is a spicy soup that will awaken your senses. The pot brewing on the stove will fill the kitchen with the aroma of cumin, with notes of oregano and garlic. Tumeric adds a cheery colour while the lentils, and vegetables mingle in a rich broth. Winter? What winter?

[How hot do you like it? Follow the lowered amounts of the seasoning for a "medium" heat. If you find it too spicy, adding a couple of chopped potatoes to the pot can take the heat down.]

1/2 pound carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks celery
handful of mushrooms

1-2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp- 1/4 cup cumin
2 tbsp tumeric
1-2 tbsp dry oregano leaf. If powder is what you have on hand, use half that.
1 tbsp crushed red pepper (Optional. This is where much of the heat comes from.)
1 tbsp salt or lite salt
1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups red or brown lentils

Finely chop the carrots, celery, onion, and mushrooms. Add these to a soup pot with the seasonings and oil. Cook the mixture on medium heat, stirring regularly, for about ten minutes, until the carrots are softened. This is your soup base. Add about four cups water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the lentils and another four cups of water. Simmer for at least two hours.

[Crock Pot Directions: Cook the chopped veggies, seasonings and oil together in a sautee pan for ten minutes, then pour it into your crock pot. Add the lentils and eight cups of water. Cook on "medium" for 8-12 hours, and come home to a wonderful supper.]

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Beef Teriyaki in Fifteen Minutes without Soy Sauce! (gluten free, low sodium)

Beef Teriyaki without Soy Sauce (gluten free)

Have you ever heard of a low-sodium Teriyaki sauce? Me neither.* A quick check of the jar labels in the store can be hair raising. When I went cruising for recipes I kept finding soy sauce, and lots of it. Hmmm.... what does soy sauce taste like, besides salty? Rich, earthy (from fermentation), and a bit tangy. I played around for a while with some things we had in the cupboard, and came up with a really good impostor!

The trick here is to have everything chopped and prepped to you do not overcook anything. Your steak will be tender, your veggies will have a bit of crunch, and the sauce will marry the tastes and textures together.

1 lb grassfed beef steak, thinly sliced

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt or lite salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup diced onion

1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 large mushrooms
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 cup chopped cabbage

In a stainless or glass bowl, mix the balsamic vinegar, molasses, garlic, salt, sesame oil, and diced onion. Add the sliced steak and let it marinate for a few minutes while you chop your vegetables.

Heat up a wok or sauté pan. (I like an Ultimate Pan, which is sort of a halfway between.) Add the meat and sauce mixture to the hot pan and cook, stirring, just long enough to heat up the sauce. Add the vegetables and sesame seeds, and continue to stir until the meat is cooked through. Serve over cooked quinoa or rice.


*Kikkomen's "low sodium" teriyaki sauce still contains 320mg sodium per tablespoon, and LaChoy's version contains 284mg sodium per tablespoon.  You'd need at least a couple tablespoons of sauce per serving.


I shared this post with Swap-n-Share Sunday.


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Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce (vegan, gluten free)

Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce (vegan, gluten free)

We've been eating lentils quite a bit lately. While they have been a staple for some families for generations, I admit I did not know what to do with them aside from adding a handful into soup or tossing them into a stir fry. Lentils are quite versatile and have a meatiness to them. Full of protein and fiber, high in iron and folate, lentils are really cheap, too. Cooking dry lentils with a sauce gives them a rich flavour.

Lentils with Chunky Marinara Sauce brings lentils to one of the kids' favourite pasta dishes. Tangy tomato sauce, chunky vegetables, garlic, basil and oregano.... We served ours over homemade whole wheat fettuccine but rice or gluten free pasta would have been great, too.

For eight servings:

1 1/2 cups dry lentils
4 cups water
16 oz unsalted tomato sauce, either canned or homemade
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt or lite salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 red onion, chopped (or a whole one if your kids like onions)
3 stalks celery
4 small carrots, chopped

Put the lentils, water, tomato sauce, olive oil and seasonings into the pan to simmer and added the other vegetables as you chop them. As for cooking time, it could take between half an hour to forty-five minutes, depending on the lentils. (The brown ones seem to take longer than the red ones.)

Enjoy!






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G-BOMBS Stew (gluten free, vegan)

G-BOMBS Stew

Ever hear of the G-BOMBS diet? Dr Joel Fuhrman recommends eating certain micronutrient-rich "superfoods" every day. Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries and Seeds. For the last couple of weeks, ever since seeing his show during a public television fundraiser, we have been trying to include these foods in our usual "Five a Day" fruits and vegetable goals. How could it hurt?

For fun, I put them all together. This stew could be called "G-BOMBS Plus" because it includes servings of carrots, celery, and cabbage, too, all enveloped in a rich sweet and sour broth. Garbanzos and a sprinkle of raw kale just before serving give it a bit of crunch.

For four generous servings or eight appetizers:

2 cups carrots, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup cabbage, chopped
1 cup kale, stem removed, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups cooked chickpeas, frozen or canned and rinsed
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp coriander
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sesame seeds
salt (1 tsp, adjust to taste just before serving
6 cups water

1/2 cup kale, stem removed, chopped

Stir the carrots, celery, onions, and olive oil together in a soup pot. Gently sauté until the carrots are softened, about ten minutes. Layer the cabbage, kale, and mushrooms on top. If the garbanzos are frozen, just dump them out of their container and let them thaw as the other ingredients cook. If you use canned, rinse them well and place them on top. Put the lid on the pot and allow all of the ingredients to cook for another ten minutes. Stir in the parsley, coriander, raspberries, lemon juice, sesame seeds and six cups of water. Stir in half of the salt. Place the lid back on the pot and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Add the other half-teaspoon of salt to taste.

Prior to serving, garnish each bowl with a small handful of the chopped, raw kale and a couple of raw berries.

For more natural recipes visit the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop,  Fat Tuesday,  Healthy 2Day Wednesdays,  Real Food Wednesday,  HomeAcre Hop,  Simple Lives Thursday and Empty Your Archives.

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Meatball Soup (gluten free)

Meatball Soup

Inspired by a traditional Italian soup, a bowl of Meatball Soup can be a meal in itself. Big bites of vegetables and beans and tiny little meatballs in a rich vegetable broth are simple yet satisfying, warming you up on a chilly day.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped green onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
1 cup chopped yellow carrots
8 cups water
1 tbsp parsley
1 cup cooked pinto beans

1 pound local ground pork or turkey*
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

Veggie "Runza"/Bierock (vegan)

Veggie "Runza"

A Runza, trademarked by the Runza fast food chain, is also known as bierock or a pirozhki. To make a long description short, it is a bun with a filling baked right in. My mom's pirozhki were smaller and filled with potatoes and cheese; the fast food chain's version are sandwich-sized and stuffed with beef and cabbage. This one's stuffed with seasoned black beans, purple and green cabbage and shredded carrots. The boys loved them, and any trick to get them to eat more veggies and legumes is a good one, right?

I'll start this recipe filling-first to be truthful. You see, I was baking bread anyway and simply took a portion of dough out to make our Runzas. Any bread dough will do.

For eight generous sandwich pockets:


Black Bean and Cabbage Filling

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups black beans, pre-cooked or canned and well rinsed.
(If the beans are unsalted, add 1/2 tsp salt.)
1/4 cup chopped green onions1/2-1 tsp coriander, to taste
1-2 tsp chili powder, to taste ,
4 cups diced cabbage, purple, green, or a combination
1 cup grated carrots
1/4 tsp salt

In a lidded saucepan, gently warm the olive oil and onions. Add the beans and seasonings then stir until hot. Stir in the cabbage and carrots and the quarter teaspoon of salt. Put the lid on the pan and turn the heat off. The cabbage will soften as the mixture cools down enough to work with.

Take enough bread dough to make about a dozen rolls and divide it into eight portions. (If you don't have bread on the go, a recipe follows.) Roll the dough into balls and allow to rest for ten minutes.

Flour your board or counter top. Roll each ball into a round about ten inches in diameter. Flip each dough circle over so it does not stick to the board when you fill it.

Place an equal portion of filling onto each dough circle, keeping it on one half. At this point, you can either fold the circle over to make a moon-shaped pocket, or roll it up like a tootsie roll and tuck in the ends. Either way will work as long as you pinch all edges together well to make a seal.

Spray a little olive oil onto a cookie sheet. Place the Runzas/bierocks onto the sheet and make small steam vents on the top of each with a knife.

Allow the dough to rest for half an hour, then bake for about 18 minutes @365F.

Serve hot!

Quinoa with Veggies (vegan, gluten free)

Quinoa with Veggies (vegan, gluten free)

Quinoa and cabbage are great together. Add carrots for colour, celery for crunch, lightly sauté it all with sesame oil and aminos, and you have a hearty and delicious veggie meal. The Cadet tore into his bowl, bits aflyin', and G-man needed each bite to be assembled with at least one piece of celery. Quinoa and preschoolers can be a pretty messy combination but well worth the clean-up to have them eat lots of vegetables.

For four servings,

1 cup quinoa
2 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
1/4 head cabbage, chopped
1 cup grated carrots
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 tsp salt

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a lidded sauce pan. (I use an "Ultimate" pan for just about everything.) Keep boiling for about five minutes, then put the cover on the pan and turn off the heat. Allow it to sit for fifteen minutes while you chop your vegetables.

In a sauté pan (or the same "Ultimate"pan,) pour the sesame oil and aminos. Stir in the quinoa until it is coated. Add the cabbage and cook for about five minutes. Turn off the heat and add the carrots, celery, and salt. Give everything a toss and serve it up.


I shared this recipe with  Monday Mania,  Meatless Mondays and Fat Tuesday.


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Fast and Cheesy Veggies (in ten minutes)

Fast and Cheesy Veggies

Broccoli and cheese. When you are short on time, that is when the cheese sauce comes out of the jar in the fridge and gets popped into the microwave... Don't do it!  Don't "Whiz" on perfectly good vegetables! You know what's in that stuff? (Me, neither. I have heard rumours, and have attempted to read the tiny print of the ingredient list many-a-time.) 

You can make a cheese sauce from scratch, using real cheese and real milk, in a few short minutes. As an entree or as a side, vegetables in this cheese sauce are a win at our house.