Instant Asian-Style Lunch

Take a packet of Indomie or another brand of ramen noodles in a flavor you like.
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the seasonings, noodles, and up to 1/4 cup frozen chopped spinach. Boil for 1 minute. Use a utensil to loosen the noodles. Then, crack an egg on top of them, cover and boil for 2 minutes more. Transfer it all to a serving bowl. Garnish with lemon.

The Best Lunch

This is tastiest, most filling, quickest-to-prepare, vegetarian lunch you will ever eat. Make a big batch of the lentil soup. Keep it on hand in the fridge, along with your leftover naan bread (recipe to follow) in the freezer. At lunchtime, heat up the lentil soup and naan in the micro, butter the naan, and enjoy them both with a big glass of milk. The combo will keep you full for hours.

Indian-Style Lentils (Daal Bukhara, heavily adapted)
This recipe can be done on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.

Ingredients
1 cup lentils
4 tsp garlic puree*
4 tsp ginger puree or finely grated ginger root
1 tsp chile powder
¼ tsp salt
1 can tomato sauce or ½ can tomato paste
½ cup butter
2/3 cup cream, half and half, or milk

Method
Boil the lentils in 6 cups of water until tender, about 1 hour. Or, if using the slow cooker, cook on high heat for an hour and then low heat for about five more hours.
Skim off some of the extra liquid, if necessary. Add the garlic paste, ginger paste, chili powder, salt, and tomato sauce or tomato paste. Stir well to make sure these ingredients dissolve. Simmer for another hour till the mixture is thick. This can be done on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.
Chop the butter and stir it into the lentils, allowing it to melt. You can reduce the butter to ¼ cup, but do not go below that or you will lose the richness of the soup. Add the cream or milk. Stir for about 15 minutes or until the fat is incorporated into the lentil mixture.

Serve with Naan bread and fresh veggies on the side. This soup can be garnished with additional butter.
This recipe is adapted from The Indian Menu Planner, Lustre Press/Roli Books. The original recipe is called “Daal Bukhara.” I cannot call my recipe that, because D.B. calls for black lentils. I have been unable to find black lentils, so I use brown lentils and they seem to work just fine. I like lentils because they cook so quickly.

*In the major city where I live, my local Kroger’s carries garlic and ginger purees, made by Gourmet Garden, in their salad section.

Just A Picture

Red Lentil Soup with plain yoghurt and a lemon wedge for garnish

Mulligatawny Soup

I can’t believe I’ve never tried to make this before. It would have been perfect for our lifestyle in Indonesia, because all the ingredients are easy to find in our town there. It remains a quick, healthy, tasty soup for anyone. I got this recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, where it is called Easy Mulligatawny Soup. I substituted sausage for their 1 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey. I also changed the amounts of various vegetables slightly to make them easier to remember. (I also left out the rice when I made it, because I didn’t know how long the soup would need to simmer before serving, and was planning to serve corn bread on the side.)

Ingredients
2 ½ cups chicken broth (or 2 ½ cups water plus two bouillon cubes)
1 chopped apple
2 chopped carrots
1 7 ½ -ounce can tomatoes, cut up, or three Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/3 cup rice
½ onion, chopped
¼ cup raisins
1 T (tablespoon) snipped fresh parsley
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder
1 t lemon or lime juice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 t ground mace or nutmeg
1 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey,
OR a Polish sausage or four hot-dog style sausages

Method
In a large saucepan combine chicken broth, apple, carrots, undrained tomatoes, celery, uncooked rice, onion, raisins, parsley, curry powder, lemon juice, pepper, mace or nutmeg, and 1 cup additional cup water. Bring to the boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until the rice is tender.
Meanwhile, if using sausage, bias-cut the sausage into pieces about ¼ inch thick, place in a frying pan, and brown on all sides.
If using cooked chicken or turkey, add the meat when the rice is done, heat through, and serve.
If using sausage, reheat the sausage in the pan, add to the soup and serve immediately. Remember not to add the sausage until the last minute or it will become less appetizing. Also, if using rice, do not let the rice sit in the soup a long time after it is done, as it will continue to absorb the broth.

Serves 4.

Hooray for Frozen Spinach!

It costs about 75 cents for a box the size of two decks of cards. I thaw it by running it under hot water, break it into chunks about the size of two tablespoons, and freeze each chunk in a 6x3-inch plastic bag.
Then I can pull out a bag, thaw it, and put the spinach in scrambled eggs while they are cooking ... making a fritatta! By the time I add a ton of cheese, you can't taste the spinach anyway.
I have also added spinach, plus the juice of half a lemon, to Cambell's chicken soup for an instant Greek chicken soup.
You can also put it on pizza (I haven't done that yet) and sneak it into spaghetti sauce (guilty).

Red Lentil Soup

This is a wonderful soup. It cooks quickly, tastes good, and gives you a big serving of your veggies for the day. We have it frequently, usually with biscuits. I adapted it from Extending the Table, the successor to the popular More With Less Cookbook. In ET it is called "Spicy Lentil Pot." My changes: less lentils and water to suit our family's size, 2 boullion cubes instead of one for better flavor. Leave them out if you're allergic to MSG.
Ingredients
2 carrots
1 green bell pepper (using a red one gives the soup an even more beautiful red color)
1 onion
2 tomatos or 1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
5 – 8 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 cup orange lentils
4 cups water
2 chicken boullion cubes (optional)
2 t. ground cumin
1 ½ t. salt
¼ - 1 ½ t. ground red pepper or Tabasco or other hot sauce

Method
1. Coarsely chop carrots, onion, and tomatos. Place in a large soup pot. (If substituting tomato sauce, do not add it until after the lentils are cooked.) Add garlic, lentils, and boullion cubes (see picture above). Add water.
2. Cover and boil 20 – 30 minutes without stirring.
3. Cool slightly and strain or puree. The puree step is not absolutely necessary, but I’ve tried it both ways and I think the pureeing is important to that extra-good taste that makes you want to make this soup again and again.
4. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add cumin, salt, and pepper or hot sauce. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors.
Serve with bread or rice. Yoghurt and/or lime juice make good toppings.