Recipe of the Week: Moosewood's Gentle Lentil Soup

Sorry for the break!  I was in Chicago for a week.  I'll be back soon with some highlights from the trip and ideas for visiting Chicago yourself.  In the meantime, food.

One of the best treasures I found in Chicago was a Moosewood Cookbook published in 1977.  On the inside it has an inscription dated 1986 (a Christmas present).  The book is hand lettered by the woman who put the whole thing together, Mollie Katzen, and it is gorgeous.  I'm in love with it.

"All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap." - William Blake

A little background info on Moosewood (if you're not interested, skip to the recipe below):  I first heard of Moosewood from my aunt who is not necessarily a vegetarian but cooks a lot of delicious vegetarian food.  She shared a Moosewood black bean soup recipe with me that I've made several times because it's so yummy.  The following is from the Moosewood Cooks website:

Moosewood, Inc. is a collectively owned business with nineteen members who share responsibilities and participate in the various jobs necessary to run what has grown from a very small natural foods restaurant to become a larger and more diversified company. Most members of the Collective have worked together for at least 15 years, and some since the restaurant’s inception in 1973. The restaurant is further staffed by a talented and dedicated group of employees whom we truly appreciate and without whom we could not operate.

With our emphasis on healthful natural foods cuisine, Moosewood Restaurant has operated successfully for thirty-eight years and has been acclaimed as a driving force in the world of creative vegetarian cooking. Moosewood was named one of the “thirteen most influential restaurants of the 20th Century” by Bon Appétìt magazine. We started in an era when many alternative businesses began, and we feel incredibly grateful to have endured, thrived and had a positive impact.

It's really hot in Texas right now, so not your normal soup weather, but the fiance (that's right, fiance) had dental work done and requested something easy to eat and I was dying to try something from the Moosewood book.  Below is a photo of the actual page, and the recipe is typed after.

Lentil Soup

Begin this soup in the morning - it should simmer all day.  Makes 4-6 servings.

Simmer, covered, 3-4 hours.
3 cups raw lentils (rinsed)
7 cups water or stock
2 tsp salt

Steam or saute in butter.  Add to the lentils after they've simmered for 3-4 hours. Continue to simmer on low heat.
2 tsp minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup minced celery
1 cup chopped carrots

Add to soup about 30 minutes before serving.
lots of black pepper
2 tbs dry red wine
2 tbs lemon juice
1 1/2 tbs molasses or brown sugar
1 tbs wine vinegar

Sprinkle extra vinegar and freshly-chopped scallions onto every serving.

How it worked for me: I used water not stock.  I used brown sugar not molasses.  I think I had the heat too high in the beginning because my lentils were starting to cake up on the bottom and there wasn't any more water to simmer with only two hours gone by.  I was afraid the lentils would burn, so I turned the heat off and then added the simmered carrots, etc.

Verdict: The end product was delicious.  I definitely want to try it again with the full 3-4 hours simmering to see if it's even better.  The extra vinegar added on top of each serving might be my favorite part.

Check out the Moosewood blog for more vegetarian recipes!

Recipe of the Week: One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf

One of my goals this summer is to try as many new recipes as possible.  When the school year hits I want to have an arsenal of easy, healthy, delicious meals I can rely on to get me through each week with minimal microwaved dinners and restaurant outings.

This week, I made One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf from the always helpful and amazing Food 52.  Food 52 is a great source for recipes because of all the helpful features like step-by-step photos and extra tips.

This recipe mixes super yummy ingredients: lemon, goat cheese, and pine nuts.  The kale and quinoa make it healthy and filling.  The one pot makes it pretty darn easy.

I used olive oil instead of walnut oil because that's what I had already.  I also added a bit extra goat cheese.  Then, when I ate the leftovers the next day, I added even more goat cheese to make it a bit more filling (and who doesn't love extra goat cheese?).  If you don't like the chewiness of the kale stems, cut them off.  They don't bother me, but I had my dad over to eat and he thought the dish would be better without.

Verdict: I will definitely make this again!

The Minimalist Transition

I am very much in the process of transitioning to minimalist running shoes.  I did too much too soon and got myself a super minor injury.  I'm actually glad I got my baby injury because it has pushed me to learn much more about running than Born to Run has to offer.  Born to Run is not about the technicalities of being a runner, but more about the spirit of being a runner and the biological history of human beings runners.

If you're making a similar transition, here are a few things I wish someone had told me at the outset.

Take One Day Off:  If you are like me, you might go out and try running on your forefoot and you might land a little too much on your forefoot instead of your midfoot and you might tear your calves up in the process and you might not be able to walk quite right for a couple days.  You might gimp around feeling antsy taking a day off because all you want to do is go back out and run for miles.  You might enjoy this new running form and philosophy so much that you start running every evening, even heading out at 6 pm when it's still 95 degrees outside.  Then, two weeks later, you might pull your ankle and be done for a couple weeks.  Then, you might be incredibly frustrated for doing too much too soon!

After a lot of reading, I recommend taking one day off in between runs, even if they're small runs.  The Wharton's Stretch Book explains that each time you work out, you tear up your muscles, and then they rebuild a little stronger.  If you work out every single day, your muscles don't have time to recover and get stronger, and you may injure yourself (like me).

Do Good Stretches:  Scott Jurek recommended the Wharton's Stretch Book in Eat and Run.  I went to the Wharton's website to check it out and found this great video about stretches for minimalist running.  This video explains the Wharton's Active Isolated Flexibility method.  I found the videos so useful that I went ahead and bought the book and I've definitely enjoyed it.  My ankle has felt great recently (I'm doing 1/2 mile runs every other day, but no further yet) and I'm not sure if it's due to purposeful stretching, but it might be!

Above is a photo of my home stretching tools: yoga mat, mens sock with a bag of brown sugar in it (stolen from boyfriend... had to buy boyfriend some replacement black socks), double loop around belt for a stretch rope (have since bought this one), dish towel, and small jar of coins to pull on dish towel.  This will all make sense if you watch the minimalist stretching video.

Run Barefoot:  So, I had written off the whole running barefoot thing.  It just seemed a bit too much, and terribly impractical for Dallas.  However, as I read about how to recover from an injury, I kept coming across people who said that barefoot running can do wonders for preventing and recovering from injuries!  A lot of people also support developing good form barefoot before running in minimalist shoes.

I decided to give it a try just to see what the hype is about and, I'm serious, it was loads of fun.  I only ran for 5 minutes.  I went to the Verandah where I'm a gym member because they have ridiculously nice grass that surrounds a 1/4 mile track (I considered using the lawn in front of Dallas Hall at SMU or one of the many parks in the Park Cities... all have really nice poke-free grass).  It really did feel fun and childlike, and there were muscles sore in my feet that I had never felt before.  Also, my ankle still feels great!  So I'm going to try it out once a week sticking with just 5 minutes for now.

For some more thorough and great advice on barefoot or minimalist running, check out this post at Barefoot Monologues!

Running for Pure Love

A few weeks ago, I read Born to Run by Chris McDougall and started running again, but running in a totally new way.  Practically speaking, I ditched my traditional sneakers and changed my form, but I changed something deeply mental and emotional about my running, too.

McDougall argued that too many people run to get something (usually a smaller waist) instead of running for pure pleasure and peace of mind.

To paraphrase Scott Jurek, whose book Eat and Run I'm reading now, it's better to run one mile in peace than ten terrible miles fighting with yourself to move forward.  That's how I used to run (except not the ten miles part).  After about a mile I was miserable and had to try force myself to keep going, which usually failed.  I ran with a heavy heel strike stride.  When I changed to a midfoot/forefoot strike, shortened my stride significantly, slowed down, and relaxed, something felt totally different.  I was smiling and running at the same time.

A lot of people think they are just not runners, but if you run this way, I promise you that you can be a runner.

Bummer is that I did what the minimalist/barefoot running community calls TMTS - too much too soon.  I ran about five miles total the first week I changed shoes and form.  Then, I ran about ten miles total the next week.  Then, I felt an uncomfortable pull in my left inner ankle.  I've spent the past couple weeks taking time off, easing back in, and then going a little too far, so now I'm taking time off again until it heals up completely.  Frustrating but necessary, I think.

I was lucky to have a pair of Merrell Barefoot sneakers given to me right before I was seized with the desire to head out and run like a child.  I have loved running in them.  They're not the cutest by standards, but terribly comfortable.  I just ordered some Merrell Barefoot Run Dash Gloves that I am stoked to try out.