#edison grainery

Organic Red Lentil & Vegetable Soup 

I love this soup, it’s hearty, savory, sweet and delicious. It’s seasoned with tangy, lemony sumac, one of my favorite spices. This is vegan, gluten free, and non GMO, if you use organic ingredients to make it. I bought the organic carrots, sweet onions, and celery at our farmer’s market. The split red lentils are from my favorite company, Edison Grainery. They have a delicious taste and a wonderful texture

This is easy to make and only takes about 45 minutes of chopping and simmering until all the flavors come together. 

Chop 1 large sweet onion, 1 large organic carrot, 2 stalks organic celery, saute in 2 tbsp organic olive oil or your favorite cooking oil. Add 2 big garlic cloves, crushed, a pinch of kosher salt, a grind of fresh black pepper, and 2 tbsp tomato paste. Continue to simmer until the garlic and tomato paste become fragrant. Add 1 bay leaf, 2 cups water, ½ to 1 whole tsp soup base depending on how salty you like it, 1 small can diced tomatoes, 1 tablespoon dried parsley, 1 to 3 teaspoons sumac depending on how tangy you like your soup, and ½ tsp coriander powder. 

Simmer and stir on low until all the ingredients tenderize and become sweeter. For more sweetness, you could add a drizzle of honey, about ½ tsp. For more brightness, add a squeeze of fresh lemon.

I love to garnish this with lots of sumac, so that it’s nice and tangy. My husband doesn’t love sour flavors as much as I do, so I add the extra sumac just in my own bowl and leave his more savory / sweet. Serve with toasted croutons and a big salad. Yum!

Toasted Quinoa Honey Crunch Bars

This is an amazingly crispy, delectable, healthy treat and successful cooking experiment. This is as easy as making rice crispy treats, but it’s made with ingredients that are more textured, nutrition packed and good for you. Even the sweet gooey part that brings it all together is made from organic, non gmo ingredients and no white sugar. This is also gluten free and vegan, but I’m not always. I can’t wait to try a similar one with dark chocolate chips. 

So, as far as the experiment part goes, this recipe is based on a recipe from another blogger, Erin at Well Plated. I didn’t have all the ingredients she used. She said you can use quinoa instead of millet, so I thought I could use Canahua too, since they’re similar. I happened to have both, thanks to my friend Lyndsy Kail who gives me ingredients from her organic import co., Edison Grainery to cook with. Lyndsy is the first person to mention this type of healthy, rice crispy treat to me. I’m glad I finally tried it. I’m going to make it all the time now, my husband loves it. 

 I think the most important experimental addition to this, as far as flavor and texture, was the coconut oil. It’s a good for you fat, helps all of your cells in some way or another, supposedly, especially your brains. Brains! We all need more brains. Please look it up. My Sister, Kris Cahill told me about it, and she’s very smart and all about health, so it’s true. When you whip the coconut oil, honey, peanut butter, cinnamon, & vanilla, it becomes this fluffy, delicious, best frosting you’ve ever had in your life. Oy my gosh, it’s so good. There are fat and calories involved, so maybe don’t eat a whole bowl in one sitting. The original recipe says to melt everything in a saucepan, but I just whipped it up. When the nuts and grains come out of the oven, they’re still hot, so the coconut oil / honey mixture melts into it easily. It was a warm day when I made this, and the coconut oil was soft, it solidifies at cooler temps. So if it’s cold where you live, you might need to put the jar of coconut oil near the back of the stove while the grains toast. By adding another fat, along with the peanut butter, it gives it a delectable taste. As for the grains and crunch, there’s definitely room for experimentation here. You can use any kind of oatmeal, grains, nuts & dried fruit you have. I used black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and almonds because thats what I had. I was a bit skeptical toasting the dry quinoa and canahua. I’ve only ever cooked quinoa in broth or water. I thought toasting would make it rock hard, like teeny pebbles, but it gives it a crispy texture and roasty flavor. 

Here’s how to make these;

Toasted Quinoa Honey Crunch Bars

Heat oven to 350. On a dry cookie sheet, toast 1 cup old fashioned oatmeal, ½ cup uncooked canahua, ¼ cup uncooked quinoa, ½ to ¾ cup nuts, I used ½ cup almonds, a tablespoon of organic black sesame seeds, and ½ cup sunflower seeds. Toast until golden and fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile mix ½ to ¾ cup honey, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, ½ cup peanut butter, 1 tsp organic vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt, or any salt. (A little salt brings up the sweetness and flavor of all the ingredients.) Whisk until creamy. Add 3 tbsp dried cranberries, 5 or 6 chopped dried apricots. Once the grains and oatmeal come out of the oven, add to a bowl, and use a spatula to get the creamy peanut butter mixture in and combine everything. Press into a baking dish, lightly coated with coconut oil. Cover with parchment paper and press the bars down until they’re firm. Cover and refrigerate until it sets up, about 20 minutes to an hour. Yum!

Crispy Garlic Tofu Butter Lettuce Wraps

This was my lunch today. I shot this in the front window of our living room. I like the way the light works in this spot of our house. I’m definitely going to use this spot for more of my food photography portfolio, which I’m trying to build. I’m also trying to build my cooking skills. This was soo Yummy. This is a variation on my lunch yesterday, partly because yesterday’s crispy garlic tofu dish was so dang good that I wanted it again. But also party because I still had a bunch of the same ingredients leftover. And I needed to break into the hoisin sauce I didn’t use yesterday, to see what that would bring to the dish. It brought a lot of deliciousness, but hoisin is so salty. I’m glad I had the dipping sauce and fresh lime juice to cut through all that hoisiny saltiness. The addition of peanuts added a whole other level of flavor and crunch as well. The was quick to make, about ½ hour for everything.

For the garnishes: Wash and spin butter lettuce leaves, slice sugar snap peas, slice green scallions, peel, seed and slice cucumber, crush peanuts, slice limes. 

Cook the crispy garlic tofu the same way I describe in the previous recipe. 

Assemble the lettuce cups on the plate, add a tiny bit of hoisin to the bottom of each cup, (optional) fill with the crispy garlic tofu, garnish with all the veggies, peanuts, organic black sesame seeds, and fresh mint. Now you just fold them up and dip in the spicy dipping sauce. Yum!

For dipping sauce, combine 2 tbsp lemon or lime juice with 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1 fresh chopped chilies ( used a seeded jalapeño), add 1 tbsp fish sauce. Adjust for your own salt / sweet preference. I can’t wait to make this again. 

Crispy Garlic Ginger Tofu Bun Bowl with Black Rice and Mint

This was a delicious experiment. I posted this pic on Instagram and one of my friends asked for the recipe right away. It was the first time I’ve ever made this, so I quickly wrote it out the way I did it. Sometimes when I do experimental cooking, I taste as I go along, and I might forget a step. Hopefully I remembered everything. This recipe was inspired from a picture I saw on Yelp. 

When I was looking for the rice noodles in my pantry, I found a package of black rice, and decided to add some to the dish for color, texture, flavor, and nutrition. I love black rice. It’s nutty, delicious and good for you. Cook black rice according to package directions, this takes about ½ hour of simmering. I cook it in a lot of water in a saucepan, drain and cover it at the end. 

Boil water for noodles. Pour hot water over dry rice noodles in a heat proof bowl, and let steep for 10 minutes or more until they’re cooked, but not mushy. Taste them a few times. Once you like the texture, drain, cover and set aside. They should be somewhat soft for a cold noodle salad.

For the crispy garlic tofu: Using paper towels or a kitchen towel, gently press as much water as you can out of a block of organic tofu. Cut into cubes. Heat a cast iron skillet to med, add 1 tablespoon organic canola oil. Season the tofu with salt & pepper, dust with 2 tbsp corn starch. Add tofu cubes to the hot skillet and cook on all sides until it starts to get crispy. Mince 5 large, or 10 small garlic cloves, the more garlic the better. Grate or mince ½ inch of ginger. Add the minced garlic and ginger, 1 tablespoon organic soy sauce, and a drizzle of sesame oil to the sizzling tofu. At this point I also added about 3 tablespoons of the simmering black rice water to loosen up all the garlic, and give more flavor. Stir and cook everything together to crisp up. Season with a sprinkle of Korean chili powder or any chili powder you have, add a teaspoon of organic ponzu for citrusy brightness. Continue to cook on med low, until it becomes caramelized and the garlic crisps. 

Serve with noodles, add a sprinkle of sesame oil, Korean chili powder, black rice, sliced scallions, fresh mint leaves and enjoy. You could also add fresh basil, Thai basil, or cilantro, peanuts, or any nuts, or a sprinkle of organic sesame seeds to garnish. I like the ones from Edison Grainery. Great quality, great price. I made a side salad to go with this using slivered snap peas, sliced carrots, curly kale, garlic, with lemon, & olive oil dressing. Yum!

All Star Fruit Pancakes

Happy Saturday Tumblrs. It’s chilly here in California, and it’s finally raining! I love the rain. It makes everything so beautiful, the plants are green and happy and everything isn’t so parched anymore. With this cold ass cold weather, I wake up starving nearly every single day. I made these banana, blueberry, pomegranate, mandarin, golden raisin, blue cornmeal and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, and they were so good. These are pretty healthy too, I used mostly organic ingredients, organic blue corn flour and organic AP flour. These can easily be made gluten free as well, by swapping in garbanzo flour for the AP.  The batter has one mashed banana and is full of blueberries. I topped them with sliced bananas, pomegranate seeds, mandarin oranges, golden raisins, chopped pecans, real maple syrup and a little bit of butter. Buttermilk acts as a leavening agent and makes these extra fluffy. Yogurt works the same way, but if you don’t have either one use whatever you have.

Here’s how to make this easy and delicious breakfast:

Mash 1 banana in a mixing bowl, add 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 cup buttermilk (swap for any regular milk or almond milk if you don’t have buttermilk), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp melted butter or oil, (I used olive oil to add a little savory in all of the sweet). Mix well with a fork.

Sift in ½ cup blue cornmeal, ½ cup all purpose flour, (Or for a Gluten Free option, swap with ½ cup Garbanzo Bean flour), 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt. Mix with a fork until just combined, do not over mix. Add ½ cup or more organic frozen blueberries. 

Heat the griddle to high, add a little butter, pour ½ to ¾ cup sized pancake batter using a measuring cup. Cook pancakes on first side until bubbles form, flip and continue cooking another few minutes. Top with all sorts of fruit and syrup. Strawberries would be great on this, Yum!