The week is almost over.  This weekend has to be Get The House Ready For Christmas as we have not done anything at this point.  We also have to commence with the shopping and try and get organized.  Normally I like to leave everything to the last minute but that kinda bugs Mrs. Zesty – so I am willing to get things wrapped up so we can relax in the evenings.

Did I just say relax?  I wish…. oh well I love the way things are going in zesty land so I cannot complain.

On to the Food

There is something about soup this time of year that really makes you feel good, warms you up and makes you happy!  Today’s soup is something you can do on a weeknight and still be eating before your stomach starts to growl.  The downside to most soups for me is that I am so hungry I could eat a horse and chase the rider when I get home from work that I do not want to wait for the soup to cook and I end of eating something else.

This soup however is pretty straight forward and serves up pretty quickly.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1/2 Cup onion (chopped)
• 1/2 Cup carrot (chopped)
• 1/2 Cup celery (chopped)
• 1 Tbsp.garlic (chopped)
• 1 Cup lentils
• 3 Cups chicken stock (or vegetable broth)
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp.chili sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cilantro (chopped)
• Sour cream

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
4. Add the lentils, stock, tomatoes and chili sauce.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a garnish of cilantro and a dollop of sour cream.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Use this as the basis to add or sneak in other vegetables if you so desire.  Frozen peas would be a nice addition or one of my favorites would be to add a huge handful of spinach at the end of the cooking process for a nice pop of color and texture.

New Kitchen Addition

We ordered stools for the kitchen!!  Finally!  Here is a snapshot of the stool.  We went with the white choice for color – but if we happened to know there was orange we may have changed our mind.

Have a super Friday and an even better weekend.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Friday! When this recipe started out – I was planning on preparing roasted turkey with a cranberry glaze as a tester recipe for Thanksgiving. About mid way through after I had started roasting the turkey legs, I switched gears as I roamed through the pantry. I noticed a bag of lentils calling my name and decided to go for the soup.

Well, let’s just say that I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Served over raw spinach allowing it to wilt is a great way to get some greens without really knowing. This recipe was pretty slick and easy and the addition of the roasted turkey was a definite texture and flavor booster for my taste buds.

Give this a try and let me know.

Ingredients

• 2 Tsp. canola oil
• 2 Turkey Legs
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Tsp. Dried rosemary
• 1 1/2 Cups finely chopped onion
• 1 large celery stalk, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 1 Tbsp. chili powder
• 1 cup green lentils, rinsed and picked through
• 1 15-ounce can reduced-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 Can low-sodium Tomato Juice
• 3 Cups water
• 2 Cups Spinach

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
2. Add turkey legs, salt, pepper and rosemary to a roasting pan and cook turkey legs for about 45 minutes.
3. Remove from oven and let rest.
4. In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat. Sauté onions, celery, and garlic until softened, about 4-5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle cumin and chili powder, cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add lentils, black beans, tomatoes, juice and water.
6. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, or until lentils are tender.
7. Pull turkey meat off the legs and toss in the soup and stir.
8. Place handful of spinach in a bowl and top with soup.
9. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: If you had homemade vegetable stock or even canned stock you could use that in replace of the water but I didn’t so I chose to go with water and it worked out fine.  Always before serving soup, especially homemade, double check the seasoning so you are not disappointed with the flavor.

OK, so here is the scoop for the weekend.  This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada which as you can well imagine I am excited for but with that comes some downfall.  I have to travel on Monday due to ticket limitations.  So I am off to Virginia on Monday and I will miss one turkey day.  I guess I will have to make Sunday a double turkey day ( lunch and supper ).  I have done that many years so I am hoping that is the plan for this year.  I will keep you posted. 

Have a great weekend and I will talk to you next week from VA.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Wednesday!  Let me first off say thank you for all the comments on my latest BLOG Makeover Giveaway.  It really is fun to give back to the blogging community and help friendly people out.  I am really impressed with the excitement level and I cannot wait to announce the winner next week.  So many people have tweeted about it and mentioned it on their blogs… so great.

On to the Food

Who loves vegetables?  Who loves simple, easy to make stews that require no really thought and monitoring at the stove?  Who like to eat?  I am hopeful you answered yes to at least two of those questions.  Neither here nor there – I have come up with a recipe that even kind of impressed Mrs. Zesty ( who is not a huge vegetable lover ) which to me means WHOOO HOOOO.

I have been really into lentils as of late and I wanted to come up with an easy way to put these babies to good use.  I had also found a couple of cans of tomatoes on sale.  Loving the sales and I will even use a coupon every now and again if I have them.  Want to see a cool site about cost saving ideas, coupons galore and wicked recipes?  If so check out 5 Dollar Dinners – Erin’s site is jam packed with cool information.

So with the tomatoes and the lentils I had built up an urge for a nice warming stew packed with flavor.  How do you pack it with flavor?  Low and slow and a few key spices.

Ingredients

• 2 15 Oz Cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1 Clove garlic
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 6 Cups water
• 1 Cup pearl barley
• 2 Cups lentils
• 2 Large carrots ( cubed)
• 8 baby Potatoes ( quartered )
• 1 Turnip ( cubed)
• 1 Cup frozen peas
• 1 Cup frozen corn
• 1 Tsp. Celery salt
• 2 Tsp. Chili powder
• 1/2 Tsp. Red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat large sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Add olive oil, turnip and carrots and begin to brown for about 5-7 minutes



3. Toss in garlic, tomatoes, celery salt, chili powder and red pepper flakes;  let simmer for 5 minutes



4. Add lentils and water; let cook on low for 15 minutes
5. Add barley and cook for 10 more minutes; then toss in potatoes and let simmer for another 20 minutes
6. Remove the lid and check for consistency.  If you think it needs more water – feel free to add some.  if you find it is too runny keep simmering with the lid off for 15 minutes.



7. Once the consistency is right, add peas and corn and stri through for 3 minutes.
8. Serve it up with a nice piece of beer bread if you have an.
9. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: By sauteing the root vegetables before simmering the stew you are packing the base of the stew with flavor right out of the gate.  For a more traditional base you may use carrots, celery and onion but I didn’t have any celery and Mrs. Zesty is not a fan of onions at all.

This was a really fun post to write and an even funner stew to make.  I would love to hear your favorite stew ideas if you have any.  Feel free to post your all time fav stew ingredients in the comment section.

Around the Blogsphere

• I guess we better keep voting for me at Goodbite.com and my Campbell’s debut.  I can only assume I am not winning the contest so VOTE now!
• An unbelievable pancake over at Healthy Tipping Point.
• Like Omelets?  try this one from Jaden

I hope you have a great Wednesday and don’t forget to enter the makeover giveaway if you have not done so already.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

I am excited to present you a new blogger to Zestycook.   Kevin from Closetcooking was very accepting when I asked him to do a guest post on zesty.  I have been reading Kevin’s blog for a while now and mostly drooling over stunning photography and loving his recipes.  I gave Kevin full reign over what to post and as you can see below – it looks like he came up with another winner.

Recently I have been enjoying exploring lentils though up until now I have only been using the green du puy lentils.  There are many different types of lentils and I wanted to branch out and try a new one.  When I was out shopping the bright red lentils caught my attention and I picked some of them up.

Despite the fact that we have had a few warm days the weather has gotten cooler again and I was in the mood for a soup. While searching for recipes I came across a few for curried red lentil and chickpea soups that sounded good. Using those two main ingredients as the base for my soup I proceeded to add my favorite soup vegetables; onions, carrots and celery.  Next I added some diced tomatoes to add more body and red to the soup.  I thought that I was pretty much done but then as I was pulling out the lentils I noticed the quinoa in my cupboard and I recalled that it had worked well in several soups that I had made before and I decided to throw some in as well.  I had ended up with a recipe for a nice and healthy sounding soup that also promised to taste great.

Red lentils cook pretty quickly and I only needed to simmer them in the soup for as long as I would have simmered the soup to allow for enough time for the flavours to mingle anyways.  The curried red lentil soup with chickpeas and quinoa was nice and easy to make and it did not take long.  This soup could easily be made on a week night.  I really enjoyed the combination of the red lentils, chickpeas and quinoa and the textures that they added to the soup.  The soup was nice and thick and hearty and yet somehow light at the same time.  With the curry powder in it the soup was nice and aromatic and it tasted great.  I wanted a bit more heat in the soup so I added some chili sauce though you could easily omit it or reduce it or even increase it depending on your tastes.  I garnish the soup with some fresh chopped cilantro and a dollop of thick and creamy strained (or Greek style) yogurt.

Curried Red Lentil Soup with Chickpeas and Quinoa

(makes 4-6 servings)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 cup onion (chopped)
• 1/2 cup carrot (chopped)
• 1/2 cup celery (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon ginger (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon curry powder (or 1 tablespoon garam masala + 1 teaspoon turmeric)
• 1 cup red lentils
• 3 cups chicken stock (or vegetable broth)
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon chili sauce (such as sambal oelek, or to taste)
• 1 (19 ounce) can chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
• 1 cup quinoa (cooked)
• salt and pepper to taste
• * cilantro (chopped)
• * Greek style yogurt (or strained yogurt or sour cream)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add the garlic, ginger and curry powder and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
4. Add the lentils, stock, tomatoes and chili sauce.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
6. Add the chickpeas and quinoa and warm them up.
7. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a garnish of cilantro and a dollop of Greek style yogurt.
8. ENJOY!

Editors Note:

I hope you enjoyed this post!  The soup looks excellent and I am very thankful that Closetcooking took the time to guest post on zesty.  If you are one of Kevin’s regular readers drop a comment below and let him know what you think of the recipe.  If you are a regular zesty reader, I definitely appreciate your support and love reading your comments.  As you read this, I wonder if I am on the beach in Jamaica? I hope you have a great Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty