Curried Lentil Soup

Curry was never a staple in our home when I was growing up. I don't think I even had my first bite of curry or eastern European food food until my late high school or early collage years. But once I did, it became a favorite when dining out. Such an array of different spices I'd never tasted before, it was like a whole new food group opened up to me.

I say when dining out because early in my cooking days when I'd come to a recipe that had a very long list of ingredients it would usually get passed up for something simpler. It never occurred to me that that long list of ingredients was mostly made up of spices and for the most part was probably something relatively easy to make.

This is where making your own homemade curry powder or spice mix comes into great use. You can save a great deal of time mixing all those spices together in one go, rather than for just one meal. You also have a greater advantage over flavor preference. The curry recipe I've provided below is a pretty simple one using many of the spices I already have on hand most of the time. You can change it to be more spicy or add in cinnamon or fennel for another version. It's really all up to you, which is what I love.

Using whole spices and grinding them in a spice mill ensures the freshness of your spices. I used mostly pre-ground below, make adjustments as needed if you use them in their whole form. The most interesting part of this soup was the addition of pureed chickpeas, almost like a very basic hummus. It made the soup feel heartier and fuller, without the addition of cream. I gave each bowl an extra good squeeze of lemon before serving, I love the way lemons add that perfect twist to lentils and spices.

Curried Lentil Soup

adapted from Bon Appétit

serves 4

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

2 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided

2 tablespoons curry powder (recipe below)

1 cup French green lentils

4 1/4 cups water, divided

2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 15oz. can drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

4 green onions, thinly sliced

additional lemon for serving, optional

Homemade Curry Powder

makes about 1/4 cup

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

In a spice mill or food processor, combine all the spices. Process until everything becomes a fine powder. Store in a tightly covered container.

for the soup

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and carrot and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add half the chopped garlic and cook until the carrots have softened, about 4 minutes longer.

Add 2 tablespoons of the curry powder, stirring until everything is coated and becomes fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the lentils and 4 cups water. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, puree the chickpeas, lemon, 1/4 cup water, remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and remaining garlic in a food processor.

When the lentils are tender, stir in the chickpea puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste, adding additional curry powder if desired.

Serve soup warm, garnished with chopped green onions and extra lemon wedges. Store any left over soup covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Reheat before serving.

Socca

You know those times when you read, hear, or see something that intrigues you enough to have it on your mind constantly. You start seeing what ever that thing is everywhere, like its been right in front of you this whole time and you wonder why you never noticed it before. This happens to me all the time. Most recently it happened in the form of socca.

Socca, if you are unfamiliar, is a sort of flat bread made from chickpea flour that comes from France, more specifically Nice, where it's served as street food. Traditionally it's cooked in a large cast iron skillet over a super hot wood-fire to achieve a crispy, blistered crust. Although you can make it in your home oven at a very high heat, it will be hard to get the same effect, but that might also be one of the effects traveling has on you. If I ever find myself in Nice this will be one of the first foods on my list to try.

It's important to let the chickpea flour and water mixture soak for at least 2 hours, preferably more. A couple glugs of olive oil, some salt, and a big pinch of cumin and you have socca in it's most basic form. You can get fancy with extras like herbs and onions, either way it's not hard to make and will ultimately give back more then the effort it took to make.

I've made this several times and have a few of my own tips. The first time I set my oven at 450˚F, but made only two pancakes and each was a bit thicker. If you want to serve these with heavier toppings, more like a pizza, I would suggest doing it this way. The second time, I heated my broiler. I'm not sure if my cast iron skillet was to hot or what because the socca stuck to it like mad. Still tasted great, but was a bit of a visual mess. Now when I make it, I keep the oven set to 475˚F, make sure my cast iron gets heated up inside the preheating oven and depending on if I want thinner or thicker socca I divide the batter accordingly.

Another trick for those of you who are hesitant to buy a bag of chickpea flour that you may only use once or if it's not available in your area, you can buy 2 cups of dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and blend them in a high speed blender. The chickpeas will start breaking up and become flour-like. Once it's blended down quite a bit, sift it through a fine or medium-fine sieve to remove any large bits. You can either re-blend what's sifted out or discard. Now you have a fresh batch of chickpea flour costing you only pennies.

I also wanted to say how much I loved reading everyone's sunshine memories. I'm thinking that its what helped to keep the sun out around here this whole week! And a big congrats to Rachel of Taming the Heart who is the winner of our Sunshine poster! Thank you everyone and have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Socca

adapted from David Lebovitz via The Sweet Life In Paris

makes 3 9-inch pancakes

1 cup chickpea flour

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

In a medium bowl mix together the chickpea flour, water, salt, cumin and 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil. I used a 4 cup liquid measuring bowl for easy pouring. Let this mixture sit, covered at room temperature, for at least 2 hours, but preferably 4 or more.

When you're ready to cook, place a well seasoned cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 475˚F.

When the oven is ready and your pan is super hot, drizzle a bit of olive oil if needed then pour a 1/3 of the batter into the pan, starting from the center. Swirl it around quickly to cover the bottom and put it back in the oven.

Bake until the socca is firm and just beginning to burn around the edges. Mine took about 12-14 minutes, but it could vary depending on your oven, so I recommend watching it closer after the 10 minute mark.

Slide the socca out of the pan, onto a cutting board. You can either slice into pieces or serve whole with your choice of toppings, pizza style.

Repeat with the remaining batter, adding additional oil to the pan if needed.

Banana Bread with Chocolate & Walnuts + A Giveaway!

I realized the other day that the end of this month marks exactly three years since my husband and I have been working solely for ourselves. It makes me think back to the day we left our comfortable paychecks and looked to our future with open hearts and minds. Although we had lots of support, I can't say for sure how comfortable our family and friends felt with our decision, but it was one we knew to be right for ourselves and one that we knew could be accomplished if we put our everything into it.

Early on there were definitely days we wanted to end our business venture, but luckily we had each other and those feelings we both had never crossed paths. If it was me who was worrying, Scott would reassure me that everything would be fine and to wait and see what the end of the week or month would bring. If it were him, I did the same. I can't believe its been three years already, it really only feels like yesterday. We have worked our butts off, spending most, if not all our time on our business and we look forward to its future.

Along this journey, we've had to sacrifice many things, mostly material, but our lives are by far simpler and richer then they've ever been. We've made incredible friendships I know would not have happened had we been inside a cubicle everyday. 

We've learned many things about running a business, but time management always seemed the most difficult. Working for yourself means you don't have to get up at a certain time to be somewhere on time. You can work in your pajamas if you want and you can head out to meet whomever, whenever. But you can also end up working too much, not giving yourself a break because if you do guilt sets in because you are not working. We have both been more of the latter. 

I'm finally letting in the fact that there has to be balance. I can and should have moments of free time that do not include thinking about our business. I've learned to keep a pretty steady work flow through the week and reserve weekends for a little time off. Truthfully, I do still work on weekends, but its more laid back and includes other activities. This weekend I actually worked a lot, catching up on things for the craft show season, but because we actually had really nice sunny days I spent some time getting things planted in my garden, going to a local print show and baking banana bread just for you.

This banana bread has a delicate light crumb texture. It's studded with the perfect amount of chocolate and toasted walnuts, to be sure there's a bit in every bit. It has the signature deep cracks along the top and a golden brown crust that gives into a moist interior. The ripeness of your bananas can dramatically change the taste of your bread. Most use heavily spotted to black bananas but that always yields an entirely too banana flavor for my liking. I like my to be yellow, but covered with little brown spots. Just enough banana flavor to know it's banana bread, but not overwhelmingly overpowered. This recipe will work however you like your bananas.

Now for the giveaway! We're so excited about our three years in business we wanted to share some of our excitement with all of you and offer one reader one a chance to receive one 8"x 10" Let The Sun Shine In poster! This has been our most popular poster and mentioned on many design blogs, you can also purchase one right here. To enter, leave a comment below telling me your favorite memory in the sunshine. You can enter a second time if you twitter @slidesideways and come back here letting me know. And because I hate leaving people out, this one's up for anyone inside or outside of the US. Please leave an email so I can reach you if you've won. Contest ends this Friday at noon, PST. One winner will be chosen at random.

Banana Bread with Chocolate & Walnuts

1 loaf

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup cane sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups mashed ripe banana

3/4 cup almond milk

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Oil or line with baking parchment a 9"x 5" loaf pan.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

In a medium bowl combine the mashed bananas, almond milk, olive oil and vanilla. You want to make sure this mixture is very smooth, if you need to run it through a blender that would work as well.

Pour the wet mixture over the dry and combine just until everything is wet. You don't want to over mix. Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate and walnuts.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared loaf pan and give it a couple drops on the counter top to even everything out. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting and serving.

Chocolate Coconut Milk Tart with Hazelnut Crust

We celebrated my moms birthday at the end of last week and I made this chocolate tart in her honor. Hands down, I owe all my interest in cooking to my mom. She was the one I watched every night after school, cooking dinner for my dad, sister and I, all after a long day of work and shuttling us around to music lessons or sports practice. She let me help out in the kitchen early on and I was baking cookies by myself in no time. She still collects little snippets here and there for ideas of what to make and I find myself doing the same, only now we share our ideas together. So making her dinner and dessert was the least I could do.

My mom is also one of those people that can't help but give and make people feel welcome. Constantly seeing if everyone has enough to eat or an extra blanket if it's cold out. Besides the love and knowledge of cooking I gained from her, I hope these are also traits I've inherited.  

I was all over the place when I was thinking about what dessert to make for this special occasion. There are certain things I know my mom dislikes, so it was easy to rule those out. I went back and forth between doing something with chocolate or something with cinnamon, like this cinnamon cake. Chocolate ended up winning that competition when I spotted a bag of hazelnuts. Can you tell I really like this combination? I've posted about chocolate and hazelnut here,  here, and here already, so yeah, I like them together.

If you have an aversion to the taste of coconut, don't worry about tasting it in this recipe, you hardly notice it with all the chocolate and distinct flavor from the hazelnuts coming through. I like using coconut milk in place of heavy cream because I digest it better and end up feeling better the next day. It could just be me, but it also doesn't seem to weigh you down as dairy products sometimes can.

Don't be intimidated by the long winded recipe instructions. I swear it's not as complicated as all that, I just wanted to make sure each step was explained fully. I used full fat coconut milk, you could probably use lite and get similar results. When it comes to the quality of chocolate though, get the best you can afford, it will make a difference. We were lucky enough to have a couple slices left to enjoy for two more days, so if you'd like to make this dessert ahead of time it will be fine, although I would recommend only a day ahead.

Chocolate Coconut Milk Tart with Hazelnut Crust

serves 10-12

for the crust

1 1/4 cup hazelnuts

1/4 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup coconut oil

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

for the filling

1 1/4 cup coconut milk

9 ounces (about 1 3/4 cup) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

for the chocolate glaze

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons coconut milk

For the crust
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Place the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 10-15 minutes, or until fragrant and lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and allow to cool wrapped up in a clean towel for about five minutes. Shake the towel to help remove the hazelnut skins, don't worry about some of the skin staying on.

Place the hazelnuts, spelt flour, coconut oil, salt and vanilla in a food processor or high speed blender. Pulse until the hazelnuts become finely ground and everything is combined. Be cafefull not to mix until smooth or you will end up with nut butter, slightly coarse is better.

Place the hazelnut mixture in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Place in the oven and bake until firm, about 10 minutes. It might puff up a little but don't worry. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

For the filling
Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside. Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan over low to medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for about 5 minutes until the chocolate has melted, then stir until smooth.

Meanwhile whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly pour, while whisking, into the chocolate mixture.

Pour the chocolate mixture into prepared crust. Bake until the filling is set 3 inches in from the edge and the center is still wobbly, about 20-25 minutes. It will puff up slightly, but once cool it will recede. Allow to cool completely before adding the glaze to the top.

For the chocolate glaze
Place the chocolate and coconut milk over a double broiler and heat until melted. Pour the glaze over the cooled tart and garnish with extra chopped hazelnuts or chocolate curls. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Meatless Monday with Martha Stewart: Lemony Leek and Mushroom Pasta

This weeks Meatless Monday post for Martha Stewart is a big ol' plate of pasta. Pasta and I go way back. Like back to when I would only eat it smothered with butter and Parmesan cheese. My taste buds have grown up a lot since then and this take on pasta was created based off a risotto dish I made last year. 

Leeks and mushrooms seem to mingle together like old friends, while a squeeze of lemon adds just the right amount of zing. There are lots of reasons I could tell you how delicious this pasta is, but you should really just give it a try for yourself. See the full recipe here on Whole Living.

Broccoli Salad with Creamy Sunflower Seed Herb Dressing

February through April is such a transitional time of the year. Spring produce is almost within our reach, as the days get warmer and longer, but I always feel like it's also the hardest part of the year to eat locally and seasonally. Fall is the other major transitional period, but it's made easy when you have the last of Summers bounty canned or frozen and apples, pears and winter squash to look forward to. By now, I've used up my stock of frozen berries and long to bite into a bright red tomato.

During this time I find myself craving salads and raw foods alongside my heartier cooked meals. In the last month or so I've eaten the above salad at least three times. It's my new favorite salad and although  I didn't think I was a huge fan of raw broccoli before, now I can't seem to get enough of it. Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with the raw broccoli I always see mingling with carrots and celery on one of those veggie trays with the unappealing ranch dip in the center. For some reason biting into one of those large pieces of broccoli always seemed like the last thing I wanted to do at a party because we all know how those little green pieces get stuck in ones teeth so easily. But cut up into small bites and mixed with the most creamy and delicious sunflower seed dressing and I find myself going back for seconds.

The purple cabbage and cranberries add such great visual appeal against all that green, but also another layer of crunch and a sweet, tart contrast to broccoli's distinctive raw nature. Shredded carrots would be another great raw option to add in a splash of orange. If you'd rather use this dressing as a dip, use less water and it will still be nice and creamy.

This salad really doesn't take much time to put together, but it does involve quite a bit of chopping. You can do all the chopping the day before and assemble everything later or make the whole salad a day ahead and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Broccoli Salad

serves 4-6

1 medium to large head broccoli, coarsely chopped

1 cup roughly chopped red cabbage

2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

1/4 cup dried cranberries

chopped almonds for serving, optional

Creamy Sunflower Seed Herb Dressing, recipe below

Place the broccoli, cabbage, red onion and dried cranberries in a large bowl and give a good toss. Pour about half the dressing over the salad and toss well to coat everything. Add more as needed. Serve with chopped almonds sprinkled on top.

Creamy Sunflower Seed Herb Dressing

adapted from Choosing Raw

makes about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

3/4 - 1 cup water

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoons white miso

1 teaspoon tamari

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried dill

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until creamy. I like to start with 3/4 cup water and add more if I need it or want a thinner dressing. If you don't have miso, you can add more of the tamari. This makes mote than you will need for the  broccoli salad, but it goes great over salad or as a dip with veggies. Keeps stored in the refrigerator tightly sealed for a few days.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes

I am so ready for Spring and Summer to be here. I can hardly wait for my local farmers market to open so I can roam between each stand picking out the freshest asparagus and the most mouth watering strawberries I've ever seen. So much of my cooking inspiration comes from the farmers market, so after going five months without it, I start to get antsy waiting.

I've been trying to make the best of it by getting excited about my own garden this year. Beside growing some greens, squash, carrots and herbs in my own back yard, I've joined forces with a few friends to build our own little urban garden. Well I shouldn't say little. It's actually going to be quite large and hopefully produce enough vegetables for the six of us well through most of the summer. Overly ambitious? Maybe, but I haven't even told you about the plans for chickens yet. So even though April is here and I still have a kitchen full of root vegetables and hearty greens that make it into every meal at least I have something to look forward to.

Last week I decided to break up all the veggies for a little lemony treat. Something bright in flavor and studded with poppy seeds seemed to sound just right. Zesting a lemon alone is enough to brighten any old rainy Spring day. I contemplated making a quick bread, but then decided little cakes would be much cuter and easier to grab and snack on when the moment called.

I like my cakes studded with lots of poppy seeds, if you prefer less you can stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons instead of the full 14 cup. It's important to have your ingredients at room temperature for this recipe because the melted coconut oil will begin to solidify as your stirring if they are much colder. The spelt flour can be replaced by all-purpose if you'd like as well.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Cakes

makes 20 little cakes

2 cups spelt flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons almond milk

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup cane sugar

6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1 tablespoon packed grated lemon zest

2 eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Preheat the oven to 350˚F and position the rack in the middle. Lightly grease muffin tin.

In a small bowl stir the lemon juice into the almond milk and let sit for about 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside. In a large bowl combine the sugar, coconut oil, and lemon zest. Add each egg one at a time, whisking well after each addition.

Stir in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk mixture in 2 additions. Mix until everything is just blended. Stir in the poppy seeds. Spoon the batter in heaping tablespoons full into the prepared muffin tins.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

*If you want to make larger cakes, just fill the tin to about 3/4 full and cook for a longer time, I'm guessing about 20 minutes should be close, but you may want to watch them.