Good Food!

This is a super low calorie dessert – and while it might not be Tiramisu – it is a lovely sweet treat you can eat while remaining faithfully on your diet!

Summary: Low Calorie but delicious dessert

I recently had Dal Tarka for the first time at my favorite restaurant and I was blown away by how delicious and satisfying this simple dish can be. I came home determined to make my own.

Dal, made from any of a variety of pulses (dried beans or lentils), is a mainstay in South Asian vegetarian cooking. Dal Tarka is made by pouring Tarka over the Dal after it’s been cooked. I made my Dal from yellow split peas.

Tarka is more a method than a list of ingredients. Also called chaunk, bagar, popu and a several other names – Tarka is essentially whole spices fried briefly in oil or ghee to release the essential oils from the spices. The Tarka is then poured into the dal and voila! – Dal Tarka!

I used the Tarka spices from a recipe in my “Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking” by Adiraja dasa. I also used unprocessed, organic peanut oil instead of ghee – so that the end result would be vegan. The peanut oil worked perfectly as a replacement providing the rich flavor that ghee gives – without the butter. The whole spices included:

• a couple of bay leaves
• a cinnamon stick broken in 1/2
• 1 1/2 t. turmeric
• 1 1/2 t. cumin seed
• 1 dried chile, crushed
• 1/4 t. asafetidda
• 2 t. crushed ginger

I squeezed half a lemon into the Tarka before pouring on the dal. Served with Basmati rice, coconut yogurt, cilantro and chutney, it was a meal in itself.

Trader Joe’s Pancake and Waffle mix is wheat, peanuts, nut, milk and diary, soy and corn free! Since this list contains many of the allergy culprits this mix bodes well for any person avoiding these foods or allergic to them.  Also sugar free!

Most importantly the waffles are delicious and lose nothing from the lack of wheat.  The main flour is rice flour with some tapioca and arrowroot flour as well.

Light with a spongy textures inside, crisp, crunchy outside. We made ours with dairy free Sweet Cream and warmed up dark Morello Cherries – also from TJoe’s for a satisfying and delicous Sunday brunch.

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 From The Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook by Roz Denny with some modifications. Use the butterless and milkless options for Vegan Corn Chowder. This is one of my all time favorite soups.  I must have made it over a hundred times.  It tastes even better the next day reheated but is good from the get go.

INGREDIENTS:

1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
1 medium size potato, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced (optional)
1 small green or anaheim pepper, seeded and sliced
2 T. olive or sunflower oil
2 T. butter or more oil
4 c. stock or water (use part milk if you want)
salt and ground black pepper
1 – 7oz. can lima beans or 1 c. dried (cooked)
1 1/4 c. corn, fresh, frozen or canned
pinch dried sage (optional)

Optional:  If using dried lima beans, cook.  I use a pressure cooker with 1c. dried beans, 2. c. water for 4 minutes with a ten minute break before releasing pressure.

1. Put the oinion, (garlic), potato, (celery) and pepper into a large saucepan with the oil and butter.
2. Heat the ingredients until sizzling, then turn the hear down to low.  Cover and sweat the vegetables gently for 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
3. Pour in the stock or water, season to taste, and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
4. Add (milk), beans and corn – and the sage.  If your using canned corn and the broth tastes good, you can add that too.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Check for seasoning and serve hot.

It is significantly cheaper to grind your own specialty flours but you need a grain mill to do it.  A bag of organic quinoa flour from Bob’s Red Mill is $6.19.  You can buy a pound of organic quinoa at Trader Joe’s or even Whole Foods for $1.00.  So at 25% of the cost of buying the flour you can grind your own – with the added bonus that the flour is completely and absolutely fresh.  Just about any specialty flour: amaranth, coconut, almond, barley, brown rice, black bean, corn, spelt, millet, oat,  and rye to name some can be quickly and cheaply made yourself.

A good grain mill isn’t cheap though so a purchase of this type probably makes more sense for someone who plans to use non-wheat specialty flours on an ongoing basis.

The grain mill can also be used for other things including, of course, grinding your own wheat.

Back when I ate soy – I ground up soy beans and made my own homemade tofu using the recipe from The Farm cookbook.  The mill easily handled the soy and worked perfectly for tofu making.

We bought the Jupiter Family Grain Mill 8 years ago and are very happy with it.  You get quite a bit of control over the coarseness / fineness of the flour grains and the machine is sturdy, simple to put together and take apart, and clean.  I see that some website are selling it for around $200 and that sounds about right given inflation and what we paid for ours.

This recipe is from The Greek Vegetarian by Diane Kochilas

1 cup wild rice, rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes
1 cup baby lentils, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium-sized carrots, washed, peeled, and diced (or grated)
2 celery ribs, washed, trimmed, and minced (optional)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced (or pressed)
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 to 6 servings
1. Drain the rice and place in a medium-sized pot with 4 cups of salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Remove and drain.

2. While rice is cooking, place the lentils in a medium-sized pot and cover them with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, until tender but al dente, about 20 minutes. As the lentils simmer, skim the foam from the surface. Remove, drain in a colander, and rinse under cold water.

3. While the lentils and rice are simmering, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the carrots (if diced) and the celery (if using) for 6 to 7 minutes, until tender but al dente. Add the garlic and cumin seeds and stir for another minute. Remove from heat.

4. Place the wild rice, lentils, and vegetables in a medium-sized serving bowl, and toss to combine. Season with remaining olive oil, salt, pepper and rice vinegar. Let stand for 1 hour before serving.

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