Portobello Cannellini Boats

Planning to be out in the early evening, I knew I needed a plan that could be ready beforehand. There was a jar of leftover cannellini beans in the fridge, and I had recently bought two Portobello mushrooms. Thinking I might have a guest for dinner, I thought better of cooking the mushrooms as 2 mushrooms... This would make my guest feel they were intruding on our dinner-for-two. So here's what happened. I got to thinking about ports, and canals and Italian painters and well...  These turn out to be an amazingly good source of fiber and protein for just a wee bit of calories if that matters to you!

Portobello Cannellini Boats

233 g Cannellini beans (about a cup)
33 g fresh parsley (1.5 c chopped)
5 cloves garlic
14 grape tomates (more if you want)
35 g sweet red pepper (one lobe)
2 good sized Portobello mushroom caps
4 teaspoons Miso (I love the adzuki bean miso for this)
2 crushed rye-sesame crackers

1. Mash beans in a good sized bowl. Cut Portobello caps in half. Chop parsley finely, along with garlic, and red pepper. Cut grape tomatoes in half through their diameters. Crush the 2 rye crackers.
2. Peel off 4 leaves of savoy cabbage and place in oven pan with tin foil, putting the mushroom halves inside the curl. Mix together all the other ingredients with the miso - I used a teaspoon for each serving, so 4 teaspoons. Use a spoon and take care not to crush the tomatoes.

3. Plop the ingredients in a large cohesive blob onto the mushroom. This can sit, covered and wait until you are ready to bake it at 375F, covered for 10 minutes and uncovered for 30-35 minutes. Construction takes less than half an hour.

Portobello Cannellini Boats Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Boat (714g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 248 12% Total Fat 1g 2% Saturated Fat 0g 1% Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 0% Sodium 384mg 16% Total Carbohydrate 52g 17% Dietary Fiber 22g 87% Sugars 15g 0% Protein 16g 32% Vitamin A 24% • Vitamin C 338% Calcium 24% • Iron 22% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronomieter.com using my data.

The whole dinner was a lovely combination with Brussels sprouts served in a blood orange and onion sauce made with tahini, agave and a drop of ume plum vinegar, and a side salad of sliced beets, watermelon radish, chopped enoki mushrooms, cucumber, almonds and nicoise olives with a light dressing of tarragon balsamic vinegar with water and a drop of tamari.

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew

After working all day, I was really hungry and wanted something substantial, but hadn't prepped anything for a fast finish.  There was a photocopy of a recipe a friend had sent to me for a lentil stew with cumin seeds. Well, I didn't have any cumin seeds, and in fact only half the recipe seemed to be in the photocopy! So I felt completely free to invent the following. I started a small pot of short grain brown rice. It took about 40 minutes to make the stew by which time the rice was ready, and I had a chance to throw together a delicious salad. Lucky for us, there's a quart of leftovers to get us through another late night this week. You can definitely add more heat and spice with more red pepper flakes and cumin. If you do happen to have cumin seeds, roast 'em up and toss them on the top!

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew

3/4 cup green lentils
1 sweet potato
1 yukon gold (or other) potato
3 medium carrots
1 medium-large onion (2 cups chopped)
1 (or more) tomatillo
3 cloves garlic
8-15 stems cilantro - 3/4 cup chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin (ground)
1/2 tsp more or less red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups or more water

1. Chop onion, garlic, tomatillo and water saute about 10 minutes in about 1 cup water in a medium saucepan, with cumin, red pepper flakes, mustard seed (whole), and salt.  Stir occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, chop both potatoes, the carrots and cilantro, and add to pan with lentils and water. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. You can half cover this to speed the cooking but do not fully cover the pan. This will need about 30 minutes.
3. Stir occasionally, add more water if needed. Test the lentils for doneness. Salt to taste.

Orange, Gold & Green Lentil Stew Nutrition Facts for One Quart 2 Servings  (900g) (makes 2 quarts) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 500 25% Total Fat 2g 3% Saturated Fat 0g 2% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 292mg 12% Total Carbohydrate 98g 33% Dietary Fiber 32g 127% Sugars 15g 0% Protein 25g 50% Vitamin A 84% • Vitamin C 77% Calcium 17% • Iron 46% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Red, White, Green & Black  Salad
The salad was so beautiful and fun to eat that I couldn't resist putting an image here. What's in it?
enoki mushrooms cut into 3 segments; fresh pea shoots also cut into thirds, baby arugula, scallions chopped into small bits, big black organic grapes de-seeded and halved, and about 5 slices of "watermelon radish" cut into slivers. A light dressing of tarragon vinegar with garlic and salt was the perfect foil for the stew with rice.