This was perfect for a dark rainy night...approaching the darkest of the year, in fact. I made chipotle parsnips using the recipe for carrot oven fries from Tofu for Two, doubling the chipotle and adding a squeeze of lime at the end. I topped that with blended firm silken tofu with lemon, salt, a bit of agave, espazote, nutritional yeast. The rice is brown basmati rice cooked with puy lentils and dark tvp (about 1.5 c rice, 1/2 c lentils and 1/2 c tvp...just throw it all in the pot together with some water) and then 2 chopped caramelized onions + toasted cumin seeds + salt mixed in at the end. The salad is mixed bitter greens + pears + a dressing of miso mustard, maple syrup, vinegar, salt and pepper. I love this salad dressing. I make it all the time. It takes about ten seconds, and tastes like heaven. Before I discovered miso mustard, I just used whatever mustard I had around, usually just plain non-dijon (because the greens are bitter enough without the added heat of the dijon, though go for it on a milder salad). The dinner was a wonderful blend of spicy, sweet, salty, vinagery and starchy. There are lots and lots of leftovers, which is good, because we need lunches for work, and lentil rice is wonderful cold. Just add some chopped raw bell peppers or carrots or whatever other veg you have lying around, and a squeeze of lemon (maybe some chopped cilantro or parsely if you have it on hand...I don't, and I'm not going out in the rain to get it) and it's magically lentil salad.
I filed this under quickie even though it takes a while to cook, because really, you don't actually have to do anything while the parsnips bake and the rice cooks. Read a book. Have a wee dram of whiskey. Listen to music.
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2 comments:
In a word, yum. And warm. A lentil fan could never resist this kind of meal. I couldn't! And thanks for posting the ingredients in the salad dressing, which is so simple and spectacular. I've kinda wondered about it for a while and I never remember to ask.
I just don't understand why people buy those weird cheap oil/vinegar/dried green thing emulsions in those bottles at grocery stores. This dressing took 10 seconds - I watched - and a dressing that I make takes less than 1 minute (longer because of the garlic clove pounded into a paste with salt). I wonder if those store-bought dressings damage the reputations of salads in general. I crave green salad so often - the taste and the prettiness - but they are diminished by cheap oily dressings. OK, moving on now ...
I think it's a conspiracy to make people think salads are yucky. I mean, limp lettuce leaves swimming in pools of oil is gross, and often gets called "salad". Salad with a reasonable amount of very good dressing, on the other hand, is wonderful and crunchy and exciting.
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