Oven-baked Split Pea and Lentil Soup

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Like a lot of people, I'm a compulsive recipe collector. For a long time, I would cut the recipes out of newspapers and magazines, stick them in the back of my Joy of Cooking or Fannie Farmer cookbook, and then never make them, mostly because I could never find them again in the jumble. When I finally decided to get organized, I found not one, but three lentil soup recipes. This one, adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, has been my favorite.

This tastes a lot like the classic split pea soup recipe most of us grew up with in the U.S., but it’s brighter and fresher tasting from all the vegetables. I’ll often throw this together while I’m cooking something else on the weekend, and set it aside in the refrigerator for the next night. If you don’t want to bake it for 2 hours, you can simmer it on the stovetop; it will take about 45 minutes.

Oven-baked Split Pea and Lentil Soup

1/2 cup dried split peas
1/2 cup dried lentils
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and shopped
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 quart vegetable broth

Combine all ingredients in an ovenproof Dutch oven. Bake, covered, at 350F (no need to preheat oven) for 2 hours or until peas and lentils are tender. Check soup at an hour and a half – don’t overcook! Discard bay leaf and serve.

Serves 4

Lucky with eggplants

Have you ever had a bitter eggplant? I never have. I wonder if I just can’t taste it? I’ve most definitely tasted bitter greens, bitter broccoli rabe, artichokes and turnips. I can taste bitterness in whole wheat flour even. I can also taste the soapiness in cilantro (which I love) and the dirt in beets (which I don’t love.) So maybe I’ve just been lucky with eggplants.

I didn’t eat the meetballs I made the other night. Instead I threw them in the freezer and made burritos. Last night I thawed some of the meetballs out and served them with a couple of new recipes, including one with eggplant. First, I made Fatfreevegan’s Tunisian Ragout with Quinoa, but I made a bunch of changes. I wanted to put the meetballs, the eggplant ragout and some rice on a plate, so first I made the recipe drier, by omitting the vegetable broth and partially draining the diced tomatoes. Then I left out the onion, raisins, chickpeas and cherry tomatoes. Also, I didn’t make the quinoa. I used all of the spices, though, and even increased the harissa to 3 teaspoons. We like it hot. It was hot. And very good.

I also made Veggiebelly’s Walnut Raisin Rice. I made it as written, except that I didn’t measure anything – just estimated quantities in my hand. This was outstanding.

I had a great breakfast this morning, too – leftovers from last night.

Meetballs

I experiment in the kitchen a lot, and I tend to cut new recipes in half so that if it’s not a triumph, I don’t inflict too much of it on my small family. Also, when I cook with meat substitutes, I just use small amounts, with lots of vegetables. This means I end up with lots of little bits of things in the freezer that need to be used up, in particular, half-blocks of tofu and half-cans of beans. One solution is to make meetballs.

This recipe is inspired by my favorite black-bean burger recipe, which was in turn inspired by the Chickpea Cutlet recipe in Veganomicon. I also borrowed liberally from a TVP meatball recipe by Bryanna Clark Grogan (I don't think it's on the web, but lots of her other recipes are.)

Meetballs

I used mushroom soy sauce for its delicious, dark color, but regular will taste fine. These will fall apart if you heat them in a sauce, so add them to any sauce immediately before serving.

2 1/2 cups veggie protein (see below)
1 cup soft breadcrumbs
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons double-concentrated tomato sauce
1 tablespoon mushroom or regular soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon vegetarian beef or chicken broth powder or 1 teaspoon crushed bullion cube
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup water, plus more as needed
salt to taste

Prepare protein ingredients (mash beans, crumble tofu, etc.). In a medium bowl combine with remaining ingredients, except salt. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture will hold together. It will probably need 1 or 2 tablespoons.

This gets saltier as it is cooked, so fry a small portion and taste for salt. I used 1/4 teaspoon, but would have needed more without the commercial burger crumbles and sausage in the mix.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Measure rounded tablespoons and shape with your hands. Place on an oiled baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, turning over once or twice. (If you have a convection oven, the convection setting works great for this, with the temperature reduced to 365 F and the time reduced to 20 minutes.)

Makes about 24 meetballs, 6 servings

Veggie protein can consist of:

• tofu that has been frozen, thawed, squeezed dry and crumbled
• mashed drained beans
• commercial burger crumbles
• commercial or homemade veggie sausage
• crumbled tempeh
• reconstituted tvp
  

I’ve made this twice. The first time, I used 7 ounces tofu (weighed before freezing and squeezing), 7 ounces black beans (weighed after draining) and 4.5 ounces of Gimme Lean sausage flavor. The second time, I used 7 ounces tofu, 7 ounces cannellini beans, 2 ounces Gimme Lean and 4 ounces burger crumbles.

Vegan Cornbread from a Mix

I’m not vegan, but I quit baking with eggs a few years ago. One of the last holdouts was cornbread and corn muffins. They just didn't seem to work without the eggs. Finally I found a recipe for vegan cornbread that I liked, using chickpea flour in addition to the cornmeal and wheat flour. I would make a big batch of the dry ingredients to keep in my pantry and then just whip up enough for 6 corn muffins or so on a weeknight.

One night, I opened the container of mix to find WEEVILS. Evil weevils. I ran to the store for some packaged mix, added some chickpea flour and soy milk to it, and made muffins. It was good, but not great, so I cleaned up the pantry and made some more homemade cornbread mix.

A couple of months later, I had evil weevils again, and again, no time to waste. This time I tweaked packaged mix with a couple of additional ingredients and it was delicious – a little crumblier than if made with eggs, but with a great texture and flavor. I’m back to making my own mix usually, but if I don’t have time, I know I can always grab a package from the grocery store. Read the label – quite a few are vegan.

Homemade Cornbread Mix

2 cups cornmeal
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups chickpea flour
½ cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt

Blend all ingredients together. 

Makes 4 cups.

Cornbread from Homemade Mix

2 cups mix
1-1/2 cups soy milk
¼ cup oil (avocado oil is especially good)

Preheat oven to 375. Blend all ingredients together. Spray an 8 x 8-inch pan with cooking oil spray and add batter. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serves 6

Corn Muffins from Homemade Mix

1 cup mix
¾ cup soy milk
2 tablespoons oil (avocado, canola, olive)

Preheat oven to 425. Blend all ingredients together. Spray 6 muffin cups with cooking oil spray and add batter. Bake for about 11 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
 

Serves 3

Making Vegan Corn Muffins from a Package

1 7 ounce package corn bread mix
2 1/2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon oil
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
non-dairy milk

Begin by blending all ingredients, using the amount of milk called for on the package. Add additional milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until batter is pourable, but still thick. (One brand I use doesn’t need any additional liquid, while another needs 3 tablespoons.) Follow directions on package for baking.

Gumbo

do as I say
not as I do
watch the pot
and don't burn the roux

I just got my kitchen back from being remodeled. It's been functional, although still floorless, for almost a week, but I still have a few boxes to unpack, making it hard to experiment with anything new. Thus, I've been turning to my old favorites for the last few days. This one evolved from a seafood gumbo recipe that I first made over twenty years ago.

If you don't have Pickapeppa sauce, use 2 tablespoons vegetarian Worchestershire and reduce the soy sauce to 1 tablespoon. The amount of salt you'll need depends on the saltiness of your vegetable broth. The classic way to serve this over is rice with corn muffins on the side. Put Tabasco sauce on the table for those who like it hot.

The roux:
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup flour

The gumbo:
4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 14.5 ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 quart vegetable broth
1 tablespoon Pickapeppa sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon liquid smoke
¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce or to taste
1 bay leaf
3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon thyme
8 ounces okra, sliced
2 small red or yellow potatoes, about 8 ounces, diced small
1 cup corn
3 to 4 ounces vegetarian sausage, such as Gimme Lean (optional)

To make the roux, heat oils in a heavy pot. Stir in flour and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until mixture resembles melted chocolate. This usually takes me about 45 minutes.

Stir in garlic, onion and celery. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 40 minutes or more. Serve over rice.

Makes 5 servings. Freezes well without the rice.