Red Lentil Warm-the-Soul Soup

December: short days and long cold nights…. If you can’t take off for a tropical island, then how cooking up a steamy, thick pot of red lentil soup? From a frugal standpoint, a batch of soup is not that much work and so much cheaper and resource efficient than buying canned or frozen single portion soups. A hearty vegetarian soup is also easier on the planet, especially since it utilizes lowly beans, lentils, and local root vegetables, creating a satisfying, nutritious meatless meal.

Here is my family’s favorite. The recipe is originally Gloria Kaufer Greene’s wonderful cookbook, The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook. I took her recipe and added veggie hot dogs and brown sugar. It is nearly a stew in consistency, though if you want it thinner, just add more water or stock. The tomato and red lentils combine to make this soup a rich rusty-orange, very welcome on a gray day. Another virtue of red lentils is that they cook in just 40 minutes or so, making the recipe energy and time efficient. Garnish with a little green, and it’s photo worthy. It freezes well. A clever approach it to freeze the soup in small portions and take them out for a lunch or grab ‘em to go if you have a microwave at work or school.

Red Lentil Soup – serves 6-8, plus plenty of leftovers

1 to 2 T olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2-3 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 carrots, peeled and diced (I microwave carrots first, so they are softer and easier

to chop)

5 to 6 cups stock (for vegetarian soups, Israeli powdered broth works well*)

2 cups red lentils

1 large (14-16 oz) can chopped tomatoes, including juice (run through the food processor

for 30 seconds or so, to puree)

½ t ground cumin

¼ t ground coriander

1 T lemon juice

1 T brown sugar

4 veggie hot dogs, diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Parsley, minced, for garnish

In 6 or 8 quart soup pot, sauté the onions, celery and garlic until soft. Add the carrots, and stir a minute longer. Add the broth, lentils, tomatoes, cumin, coriander, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer the soup, covered, about 40 minutes. Add the brown sugar and diced veggie hotdogs, season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook a few more minutes. Garnish with minced parsley.

*Powdered bouillon is very high in sodium so go lightly on the salt.

Guaranteed to lift your winter mood, along with leafing through gardening catalogues….

Photo from Cooking the Hard Way

Gratitude is Free... and Good for You...

Here's a great post from Rabbi Brant Rosen's blog, Shalom Rav:

In honor of Thanksgiving, here’s a rundown on the latest findings in the science of gratitude:

Several years ago, Dr. Michael McCollough of the University of Miami and Dr. Robert Emmons of the University of California at Davis conducted a scientific study that charted the benefits of regular, mindful thankfulness. Their findings:

- Those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.

- Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in other experimental conditions.

- A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy.

- Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another.

- In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, those who kept gratitude journals resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality.

- Children who practice grateful thinking have more positive attitudes toward school and their families.

Interestingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), the study also concluded that gratitude is not religiously dependent:

McCullough says these results also seem to show that gratitude works independently of faith. Though gratitude is a substantial part of most religions, he says the benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or lack thereof. In light of his research, McCullough suggests that anyone can increase their sense of well-being and create positive social effects just from counting their blessings. (The Osgood File).

So put that spiral notebook on your nightstand and give thanks.

A Thank You Note to Warm the Socially Responsible Heart.

Gift-giving, especially to teenagers, is a subject of debate in our house. I like interesting socially responsible donations which somehow make a splash; my husband thinks that's like coal in a Christmas stocking. Though mostly the occasions are Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Having seen how a good deal of my kids' bar and bat mitzvah haul is now being freecycled, as we downsize and they're out of the house - I feel even greater resolve not to send material gifts.

My latest favorite is a Kiva "gift" certificate. The recipient chooses whom to lend the microcredit to, and receives the payments. Eventually when the loan is repaid it becomes cash in the recipient's Kiva account. Then it can be relent (that would make me happy indeed), cashed out (well, at least the third world micro-entrepreneurs got to use it for one loan cycle) or regiven to someone else as a gift.

We recently gave a lovely young lady, Miranda, a Kiva certificate. It took awhile for her to figure out what on earth it was, but when she did, we received a lovely affirmation. And long after the other gifts are shelved, she'll still be getting repayments and an opportunity to reloan the capital. Go, Miranda! You can click on the image to enlarge it.

If you're having trouble reading it - "I'd also like to thank you for the Kiva gift certificate. It is so cool! I just spent it, so a taxi driver, a Fashion Designer, a farmer and a Fruit Seller also say Thank You!"

Equicafe: At Last, FairTrade Organic INSTANT

OK, I drink instant coffee. In this world of jazzed coffee junkies, I am very down market. Strong coffee has no appeal to me, but I do like a cup of Maxwell House in the mornings.

Enter FairTraded coffee, where the farmers earn living wages. That presumably means (as my son Zach astutely pointed out) that most coffee must be UnFair Trade. Organic is much better for the farmers, too - eliminating their exposure to pesticides and enhancing their land's productivity.

Alas, there's never been any instant FairTrade, organic coffee available. Therefore I was excited to find a new product at Fairway, the New York area's Temple of Cool Food Shopping. Equicafe is not as strong as Maxwell House so you need a bit more for your cup, but hey. You can wake up, drink your coffee & read the newspaper, and feel better about your role in the coffee chain, from field to mug:

"You made a unique choice. This coffee has been grown by indigenous communities in Colombia.

Biodiversity and environmental protection is a legacy of their traditions and way of life.

This coffee is the best example of how organic and FAIR TRADE products can offer a unique choice in quality and taste."

It's not available online yet, but they carry it at Fairway (NYC, NJ, Brooklyn) and at OrganicDirect, which looks like it will ship in the NY area.