Three-Bean Lentil Soup for the Slow Cooker

Three-Bean Lentil Soup

There's not much of this soup left in our fridge, so I figured I'd better snap a picture of it before it's long gone.  Not that I won't be making it again soon. It was delicious! And easy!

Canadian Living Magazine's recipes have consistently been winners in my kitchen, and this soup is no different.  The original link to the recipe can be found here: Three-Bean Lentil Soup. I'm posting the slow cooker version here for your enjoyment. My version includes celery and baby carrots, and substitutes curry powder for curry paste. You can have fun adding your own favourite veggies.  Next time I'll be adding a generous amount of brown mushrooms.

Three-Bean Lentil Soup [Adapted]

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced gingerroot
4 tsp curry paste (I used 2 tsp curry powder, next time 3 tsp!)
1 28oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 cup red lentils
1 tsp ground coriander (next time double!)
1/4 tsp pepper
1 19oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 19oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 19oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

Place everything BUT the chickpeas and beans into the crock pot and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Add chickpeas, kidney beans and black beans and cook for 30 minutes until heated through.  Enjoy!

My Beloved Hummus Recipe

My mom introduced me to hummus years ago and I've been making her recipe ever since. We love it! I've only just discovered that most hummus recipes call for oil, but this one does not. Mine also has fresh parsley pureed into it. Want the recipe?

Hummus

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 Tbsp tahini paste
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
4-5 oz. water
fresh parsley

Place chickpeas, tahini paste, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor and puree for a few seconds. Add about 4oz. of water and continue to puree until smooth. Add more water if necessary to get a nice consistency (not too thick, not too liquidy). Finally, add some fresh parsley, maybe about 3 sprigs worth. Pulse just until the parsley is chopped small and blended in.

Store in a glass jar (healthier and stays fresh!).

Festive Chickpea Tart

right before going into the oven
Chickpea pie. Doesn't conjure up imaginations of delightful indulgence does it? Surprisingly enough, this unnatural combination of words didn't stop me from trying out Dreena Burton's (a fellow Canadian I'll have you know!) very recently posted recipe for Festive Chickpea Tart. Boy Canada sure has it's fair share of fabulous cooks and cookbook authors! Her book, Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, is on my wish list, the short one.

it's impressive enough in it's uncooked state!
Back to the pie slash tart. I made it on Saturday night for supper, and served it with a salad. I'll admit that I spent the first few moments of the meal focusing on my salad. I was stalling. Believe me, the pie looked gorgeous. I had high hopes and was afraid to find out the truth. Curiosity eventually got the best of me. With fork held in guarded trepidation, and a muttering of "well, here we go", I moved to serve up my first morsel.

My salad soon became a wisp of a memory.

Each bite tasted better than the last, and in the end I knew I was hook-line-and-sinker in love. Why? It's the epitome of comfort food without the fuzzy bunny slippers. It says gourmet and good old fashioned home cooking all at the same time.

Here is the official description of the Festive Chickpea Tart:

Move over faux turkeys! This savory tart takes center plate with its combination of chickpeas, crunchy walnuts, spinach, and seasonings nestled together. This dish is elegant enough to serve for holiday gatherings, but also easy enough to make for a family dinner any time of the year.

On Dreena's Vegan Recipes blog, she suggests serving it with cranberry sauce. Oh how I wish we had had some, it would have made it even more scrumptious. Or gravy. Mmmmm.

click on the photo, you must get a closer look! yum!
(yes I have old blue kitchen counters. weep for me.)
This is most definitely going to make an appearance on our dinner table come Christmas Day!!

I was trying to photograph the pie when Jon
decided to contribute his opinion to this blog. Cute.
In the next few days I will blog about the vegan pie crust recipe I used. It's the best one I've used by far, though for any nutritarians visiting, it's not Eat to Live compliant. It would fall into the "eat rarely" section of the nutritarian pyramid!