Weekend Cooking Notes

A relatively quiet weekend but no complaints here. Still watching the leaves fall.

We’ve been trying to eat less meat. One thing that complicates that is that I can’t eat much in the way of beans (which I love) because of the low fodmap diet, which is why I fall into eating too much gluten free pasta. I’ve been digging deeper into the Monash food guide, which is the gold standard for low fodmap, and looking at different beans and serving amounts. So, red lentil are pretty much ok and I do love them. I poked around for recipes and came across this one which matched my list of available ingredients pretty closely. We were blown away by the simplicity and the flavors (Penzy’s for the win, but I’m sure it’s great with others as well). It needed a bit of tang so we used a bit of fake Greek yogurt (sour cream leftover from our nacho adventure) and it was a perfect warming meal. We served it on a bed of spinach for some green.

Red Lentil Rice Pilaf
^{adapted from Cozy Peach}
1 cup long grain rice
1 cup red lentils
1 and ½ tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 and ½ cups water
13.5 ounce can of coconut milk
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
1 sweet (red, yellow or orange) bell pepper diced

Put a dash of oil in a pan over low/medium heat and add the spices, stirring until fragrant, then add coconut milk and water and heat to a simmer. Then add the rice, lentils and vegetables to a 9 x 13 pan. Pour in the liquids and over pan with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. Uncover and cook until done, about 10-15 minute until extra liquid is gone.

Notes: probably better with basmati rice but I didn’t have any. You could use chicken broth or vegetable broth instead of water but sometimes I like using water and letting the other ingredients shine. Oh, and ginger and garlic would be good here too, as well as fresh herbs.

We also did another try of a gluten free dessert. Still so-so. I might just try a new recipe for Thanksgiving, a habit I’m TRYING to move away from, but gluten free flour is too expensive to keep experimenting!

Ernie made a farmer’s market run on Saturday for turkey backs (for stock) from Triple S and carrots from Blue Moon (via our beloved Sola Gratia).

I thought he looked so cute when he got home from the market.

As you know, Sunday is biscuit day.

We’ve been using Bob’s Red Mill gluten free free flour recently but he got the King Arthur flour this time as it was on sale. I know we’ve used it in the past but man, there was a huge difference in the biscuits…fluffier texture, better taste, all of it. Ok, notes. King Arthur from now on.