Cooking

Canal House Lentils

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Yep, been on a cooking roll lately.  Three good recipes in one week!

This is actually a kind of breakfast lentil, originally a Japanese one. It’s pretty satisfying while being light. You can use it for more than breakfast – I had it for dinner with some polenta and cowpeas.

The 3 servings proposed are hearty servings more akin to a dinner. For a light breakfast break it into 4-6 servings.

Makes 3 servings.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium leek, white and light green parts, chopped.
  • 3 cloves garlic (1 tbsp) crushed.
  • 1 medium tomato, seeded, finely chopped.
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup green or brown lentils.
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • black pepper
  • scallions
  1. Place leek, garlic, and tomato in pot and dry sauté, mashing the tomato as you stir. Add water as needed to keep ingredients from sticking.
  2. Continue sauté and mashing until the leeks are soft and the tomato is well mashed.
  3. Add water and lentils. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.
  4. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally until lentils soften (depending on the kind you use it can be 25-40 minutes), but are still al dente.
  5. Remove from heat. Stir in soy sauce.
  6. Serve. Sprinkle with scallions and black pepper to taste.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Cocoa Peanuts

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(Yeah been on a roll lately)

This is a simple recipe – and you can substitute any kind of nuts or seeds in for the peanuts. I like it as a healthy snack – the maple syrup doesn’t add many calories unless you’re really slamming it (keep it to about ¼ a cup or so).

You can scale this one up easily – just multiply the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup peanuts, unroasted, unsalted
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Mix peanuts and maple syrup in a bowl until peanuts are coated.
  3. Sprinkle cocoa powder into syrup/nut mixture gradually, stirring until it is mixed in with the syrup, and the peanuts are coated thoroughly. It will form a thick brown liquid that covers the peanuts.
  4. Pour mixture onto a cookie sheet and spread out.
  5. Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until the nuts are dry – the pan may be a bit sticky still, but the nuts will be dry.
  6. Remove sheet, stir one more time to unstick. Allow to cool, then store in an airtight container.

Notes:

• Make sure you use a good non-stick pan – the mixture bakes on, but it comes off with a bit of soap and scrubbing.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Not-So-Depression Cake

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This is a variant on Depression Cakes – cakes made without eggs or milk. They also have a parallel in cakes made during wartime, which used a variety of smart substitutions or interesting innovations. Frankly I consider it proof you can makes cake without milk or eggs – and applaud the innovators.

This one is made with chickpea flour for more protein and maple syrup for sweetness – not exactly things available in the times mentioned. The major challenge is stirring the flour to make sure it doesn’t lump up – try sifting it first.

Taste-wise it’s decent. Essentially think “scratch-made homemade cake” and you’re there. Nothing to write home about, until you realize you’re eating a gluten-free, vegan, chocolate cake made from bean powder.  Then it’s pretty awesome.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cup chickpea flour (you can use regular flour too)
  • 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup maple syrup (you can use 1 cup sugar, but then mix it in with the dry ingredients and use 1 cup water below)
  • 1 tsp white vinegar
  • 4 tbsp oil
  • ¾ cup water

 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. The cocoa powder helps determine if you blended it well – if the color is uniform, you’re good.
  3. Hollow out the center and 3 corners. In the center put the maple syrup, in one corner the vanilla, one the vinegar, and one the oil.
  4. Stir the ingredients together, blending the maple syrup and other “ends” together – saving the vinegar for last.
  5. Place in oven. Cook for 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.