Vegan Day 1: Pumpkin Curry Soup

Day 1 of this vegan week! Woohoo! I started the week off with a bowl of banana, walnut, brown sugar and almond milk oatmeal. Yum. :-)

This evening, I experimented by roasting a pumpkin to use for soup rather than going with canned. It was quite a bit of work! That pumpkin was a bit tough to cut up. I tried to roast it like The Pioneer Woman did in her blog, but it took much longer in my oven and didn't soften as much as I'd hoped. So, the dish ended up being a much thicker stew-like dish rather than a creamy soup - but it wasn't bad! I think I'll need to do a little more tweaking with this one so I won't include a recipe this time around.

Mmm... pumpkin stew!

However, speaking of good vegan recipes, I made this lentil and polenta dish last week that was awesome! I found it in the local Memphis Health + Fitness magazine complements of Whole Foods Market. When I went to make this after picking up the ingredients at the store, I didn't realize that it was a slow-cooker meal! Instead, I just prepped it on the stove-top and it worked out just fine. :-) I had to cut the recipe in half... and I still had leftovers!

Slow Cooker Lentil Stew with Polenta

(By Whole Foods Market in Health + Fitness - directions edited to cook on the stove-top.)

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cup brown lentils

- 2 onions, sliced

- 1 large green bell pepper, diced

- 4 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 can plum tomatoes with juice

- 1 teaspoon dried oregano

- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

- 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth

- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

- 1 cup quick-cooking polenta

Directions:

Cook lentils according to package directions using vegetable broth as the liquid. Saute onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a separate pan in a bit of olive oil until softened. Add tomatoes to the other vegetables and cook until it starts to simmer. Add cooked lentils, salt, vinegar, oregano, and red pepper to the tomato mixture. Simmer for 7-10 minutes. Serve on polenta! Yum!!

Love Me Some Lentils!

To kick off fall, I was inspired to finally cook up some of the green lentils I bought ages ago living in one of my kitchen cabinets. I also had picked up a big butternut squash at Whole Foods last week, so I thought I might try to combine the two! It turned out really well - I packed it in my lunch for the rest of the week. You can serve this both warmed or cold! YUM.

 Curried Butternut Squash Lentils
Ingredients:
- 1 cup lentils
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 tbsp curry powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 large butternut squash
- Olive oil
Directions;
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Skin and chop butternut squash into uniform 1/2 inch pieces. Lay out cubed squash on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes or until soft with browned edges.
3. In the meantime, to cook lentils... Heat up water and stock in a saucepan on the stove. Add lentils and bring to a simmer. Sprinkle with curry and S+P. Cover and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.
4. Combine squash and lentils. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!