Leeks Sambar

Blogging Marathon#64: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Mega BM Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Leeks Sambar from Vidhya

For the final day of this month's marathon, I have an interesting sambar made with Leeks from Vidhya's blog. I bookmarked it the minute I saw it on her blog and made it once I got my hands on some leeks.

Leeks belong to the 'Allium' family along with onions and garlic. They have a mild onion-like taste and are crunchy when eaten raw. But they get soft and mild when cooked. I buy leeks quite often and make pasta sauces or dry sautes with them. Vidhya's leek sambar sounded very interesting and delicious.

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Caramelized Onion & Leek Pasta Sauce

Onions are delicious, but they taste divine once caramelized. The pungent and almost spicy taste of raw onions transforms into silky sweetness once onions are slowly cooked until golden and caramelized. Slow cooking is the key to get the right taste and not end up with burnt onions. 

Caramelized onions are great as topping on pizzas, tarts or even on crackers. Stir some softened cream cheese and sour cream into caramelized onions for an instant dip for chips. 

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Warm Lentil Salad with Grapes

It's been snowing cats and dogs for us this winter. I've had enough of this lousy weather already and we are only 1 month into official winter (official winter in Northern hemisphere started on Dec 21st, 2010), so this is going to be one loooooooong winter. To top that of, this is our first snow season in our new home and the shoveling all that snow seemed to be fun the first couple of times, but now I've thoughts of moving back to our old apartment complex where the management took care of cleaning up everything. Well, since that's not going to happen, I'm thinking of starting to exercise a little, so I'm physically fit to do it myself and not start hyperventilating after 5 minutes of pushing snow. My 3 year old says, "this is hard work Amma", after messing with the snow for few minutes. I'm not looking forward to anymore blizzards and winter storm advisories.

Coming to the Lentil Salad: Salads are not something that I make that often. I like to eat salads from a bag for lunch or dinner, but I rarely ‘make’ salads at home. Being a typical south Indian, I think all the dishes have to be eaten with rice, which explains why I don’t make ‘salads’.

But when I saw the recipe for this Lentil salad in Vegetarian Times magazine, I know it was going to taste great and was waiting for the occasion to make it. I made this for Sunday Lunch for a few friends and I really enjoyed it (even for lunch the next day).

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine:

Ingredients:

French/ Puy Lentils – 2 cups, sorted, rinsed and drained

Leeks – 2 medium, thinly sliced

Fresh Mint – 3tbsp, finely chopped

Parsley – 3tbsp, finely chopped

Pistachios – ¼ cup, roasted and coarsely chopped

Red Grapes – 1½ cups, cut in half

Feta cheese – ¼ cup, crumbled (optional)

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Soak the lentils for 8 hours. Add 4-5 cups of water to lentils and bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Keep aside.
• Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan, add the chopped leeks and cook on medium flame until the leeks are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
• Add the leeks to cooked lentils along with pistachios, chopped herbs and grapes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Serve warm or at room temperature. Tastes great cold too.

To save time, you can cook the lentils the night before you want to make the salad and mix in the warm leeks and other ingredients just before serving.

Sending this Yummy Lentil salad over to Simona @ Briciole, who is this month's host for My Legume Love Affair (MLLA) event started by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.

Also Sending this Salad over to Prathibha @ Chef & her Kitchen's "Only Salads" blog event which was started by talented Pari @ Foodelicious. Thanks Prathibha for telling me about the event.

Veganmofo III: Day 4 - Cabbage Leek Curry

Weekends are extremely lazy in our household. I cook more during the week than on the weekends. I just want to take it easy and not bother with cooking, but that doesn't mean we go out to eat. We eat all the left overs from the weekdays (I know that sounds kind of weird, but that's what we do). Today I made a small change and cooked for lunch. I made this simple cabbage curry and tomato-spinach dal and served them with steamed white rice.

I planned on making a soup and bought some leeks last week, but never got around to make the soup. So I used leeks instead of onions in this dish and it turned out delicious.

Ingredients:
Cabbage - 4 cups, finely chopped (about 3/4th of a medium head)
Leeks - 4 medium, chopped and rinsed properly to remove any grit and dirt
Carrots - 2 medium, chopped in small half moons
Curry Powder - homemade or store bought
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - t0 taste
Mustard & Cumin seeds - 1tsp each
Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a large skillet; add the seeds and once they start spluttering, add leeks and cook on medium flame until they turn light and limp, about 5 minutes.
• Next add chopped cabbage & carrots along with turmeric; cover and cook till the veggies are tender.
• Increase the flame to medium-high and let the veggies lightly brown along the edges, about 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring otherwise the veggies will burn and that is not what you want.
• Add the curry powder and salt; mix well and cook on medium-high for another minute. Serve with rice or rotis.

Sweet Potato Soup

My 16 month toddler has just started to get used to real food (not that bland baby food anymore.. yay), he keeps me thinking of what new to make for him. Wholesome baby food website has been very helpful for me with lot of recipes and nutritional information.

I try to feed him the same food that we eat except when I think it is too spicy for him to handle. For cases like that I make a little extra of some of the dishes and freeze for later use. This is one of those recipes that freezes extremely well and comes in handy when needed. This soup is full of yummy veggies-sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and leeks.

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes – 2 medium, peeled and chopped
Carrots – 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Leek – 1 medium, chopped and cleaned (see how to here)
Parsnip – 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Bay leaf – 2
Chili powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Brown sugar – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Vegetable Broth (preferably low-sodium)/ Water – 3 cups
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a medium sauce pan; add all the veggies and bay leaf with a pinch of salt. Let the veggies sweat for 10-12 minutes on medium flame.
• Add water/ broth, cumin powder, chili powder & brown sugar; bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
• Puree into smooth consistency either in a blender or immersion blender. Pour back into the pan, add half & half, season with salt and pepper; simmer for 3 more minutes. Serve warm.
• To freeze: After the soup is completely cool, pour into ice cube trays; cover with plastic wrap and freeze until set. Once frozen, transfer them into freezer safe plastic bags and use within 3 months.

This is my very Orange entry to Aparna’s @ My Diverse Kitchen “Food in Colors-Orange”, an event started by Sunshinemom @ Tongue Ticklers.