Two weeks until Easter. We're back from our week off from Lent, and of course we had lentil soup for lunch. Last Wednesday our daughter Heidi rolled her eyes when her sister, Molly, announced that dinner would be lentil soup. "All your posts recently have been about lentil soup," she said to me, exaggerating only slightly. The lentil does not fall far from the pod.Dinner tonight, however, featured no lentils. At the top of the plate: tomato and fresh mozzarella from Trader Joe's. In the middle: half a container of gnocchi from Caputo's Cheese Market mixed with homemade pesto (basil, olive oil, parmesan, sliced almonds from TJ). At the bottom: spinach from TJ cooked quickly in olive oil and seasoned with salt and fresh lemon juice. Wine: chianti classico from Caputo's. Lovely meal, inexpensive, nutritionally balanced, no red meat. Life is good, even in deepest Lent.
Have you tried a vegetarian chili for a change of pace?
ReplyDeleteI learned the recipe as the chef at a health food store when I was barely out of my teens.
Saute onions, peppers and garlic with the traditional spices, add canned tomatoes, beans and reconstituted Texturized Vegetable Protein instead of flesh. Doctor to preference. (I like a little brown sugar and/or beer in it.)
Die-hard carnivores are regularly surprised at how good it is.