Persian Lentil and Tomato Soup

Most Chicagoans know of this wonderful Persian restaurant called "Reza's". Russians looove this Middle-Eastern cuisine. Partially because of the influence of the Georgians and the Armenians. Besides, what can be bad about char grilled meat and fragrant basmati rice?

For as long as I can remember my family went to Reza's. I always had this gitty feeling when I knew we were going to there. I would day dream about it in school and look forward to it all day. The food was always great, inexpensive and filling. They have HUGE portions...HUGE! Mostly everyone at our table always left most of the meal on their plates...except my dad, my uncle and myself, we put away the entire meal! My mom warned me each time to stop, that I will feel sick ...but I never listened and every time I would slouch on the chair, slowly making my way under the table to take a much-needed nap, growning from my full tummy. My mom would say, "Why would you do that? Look at your stomach, look!! This is more food than you have eaten all month! You cannot do this to yourself." I would look up at her, with a miserable smile and say, "But once I start, I cannot stop. I have to eat it all. How would dad and my uncle look at me if I didn't eat it all?" My mom would throw her hands in the air and say that one day I would learn. I can still put away an entire plate of food today but I choose not to and instead take it home. To this day I still crave to go there and get excited about eating their food.

I have duplicated almost every recipe they have at the restaurant, except one. Their soup. It's this delicious lentil and tomato soup that I absolutely love. It's totally vegetarian and has a ton of flavor in it. It has that unique combination of eccentric spices known to the middle eastern world.

I made it yesterday in an attempt to continue my vegetarian style diet. (I say style, because I am eating meat, just not every day.) It was almost identical to the one in Reza's. My fiance' was very against tasting it because I told him that it was vegetarian. I put it out for him when I went upstairs to blog last night. I came down...the bowl was licked clean!
"I liked, even better than Reza's!" He said.
Ahhh music to my ears, my recipe is better than Reza's brilliant!

I based it off of a recipe I found on recipezaar.com, funny enough a woman was looking for the same soup recipe. The recipe definitely needed a bit of tweaking. I added a lot of my own spices that I know are traditionally used in Persian and middle eastern cuisine in general. It was filling and absolutely delicious!
I placed a dollop of middle eastern yogurt on top and it finished it of nicely.

*You can find the original recipe here *


Persian Lentil and Tomato Soup


1 cup lentils, rinsed
7 cups vegetable stock (I used Trader Joes, which was very flavorful)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups stewed tomatoes, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 tsp sumac
3 tsp 7-spice
1/4 cup brown basmati rice, uncooked
juice of 1 lemon

*If you have never seen sumac, I recommend that you try using it in all your middle eastern recipes. It is regularly used in that region of the world. It has a tart flavor to it and was originally used in food before the Romans introduced lemons. It goes well with chicken, beef, hummus almost anything. In fact, you will usually see it sitting on tables next to the salt in pepper in most good middle eastern restaurants. 7-Spice is also very popular and frequently used. It's a spice blend with cumin, ground coriander, paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamon. It really gives that middle eastern flare to the dish.*


1. Add lentils to stock and bring up to a boil. Cover and continue cooking on medium low for 25 minutes.
2. Sautee onions and garlic together and let them sweat. You do not want any color.
3. Add tomatoes, parsley and all seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add onion mixture and rice to the lentils and stock. Turn down the heat and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes on medium heat, until the lentils and rice are tender. At this point, add lemon juice.
5. Pour into a bowl and add a dollop of middle eastern yogurt called "Labne".


*I think next time I do this dish I may do it a bit differently. It came out a bit chunky which is OK, but I am going to puree the tomatoes and onions next time and then add it to the soup. The color actually looks nicer that way and you get a more homogeneous consistency.*

Roasted Eggplant Spread/Salad Russian Style

It is not secret that I did not eat much as a child. If I did eat, then it was usually only my mother's food. I never ate at any one's house or restaurant. Being the picky eater that I was (and am) I was always afraid that other people would try and slip something in my food that I didn't like...and then I would start gagging at the table...and make a scene...etc etc etc. So my mother quickly learned that I was best fed with food from her kitchen and her hands.
I didn't like a lot of veggies as a kid especially things like eggplant and zucchini. However, this dish...oooh it makes me feel all good and warm inside. I don't know what it is? My mother made it for me when I was a bit older. It has lots of juicy tomatoes in it and nice fresh olive oil. *In Russia, my mother used to make it with sunflower oil which gave it a very authentic flavor.*

For the past few nights, this has been my dinner. I spread this salad/spread on a few pieces of toasted whole grain bread. Sometimes when I am being really bad, I will do it on good Russian "grey bread" or the American equivalent, sourdough bread.
Those simple flavors are sometimes all that I need...


Roasted Eggplant Spread

3 large eggplants
1 tomato
1/2 an onion
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Wash and dry your eggplants well. Place them on a baking sheet or roasting pan.
3. Poke some holes in the eggplants with a fork to give the steam somewhere to go.
4. Pour some oil on top of the eggplants so that they don't dry up in the oven.
5. Place in the oven and roast for about 45 minutes. Or until they look deflated, like the above picture.
6. Place them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that they can "steam". This process will make the removal of the skin much easier.
7. If you have time, let the eggplants cool, it will be easier to handle them while removing the skin. If you are like me and you don't have time, then just put on some rubber gloves and work fast!
8. Remove the skin and cut of the top stem. Drop the cleaned eggplants into a colander and leave to drain for about 10 minutes. Usually, if I haven't had time to cool them, I place a bowl underneath the colander and stick it in the freezer. That way it drains and cools at the same time!
9. Place the eggplants on a large cutting board and run your chefs knife through it a couple times. Just rock your knife back and forth to create a paste. Place in a bowl and smash up a bit more with a spoon, just so that it's one "paste".
10. Chop up your tomato and onion finely. Add to the eggplant mixture along with salt, pepper and good extra virgin olive oil.
11. Spread on some good bread or even crackers and enjoy!

Clean Out the Fridge Frittata

My fiance loves his breakfasts on Sunday. I was going to wake up early and make the pancakes that the Barefoot Bloggers group is making this week, but I couldn't get my butt out of bed. So as usual I was scrambling in the afternoon, TRYING to put together a nice omelette. Unfortunately, since I did not wake up early, I did not go grocery shopping, so I had very basic veggies to work with. Plus my fiance is very picky about his veggies in eggs: no tomatoes, no green or red peppers, blah blah balh. I figured a frittata was perfect for this! For my frittatas I always blend them with some cream cheese or sour cream in my Magic Bullet , it makes the eggs fluffier and it raises in the pan when you broil it, almost like a souffle. I figured I would whip up so much air into those eggs that he wouldn't even know what was in it. And that's exactly what happened. He loved it!

I love broiling the fritatta because it gets perfectly cooked on top and the cheese gets all melty and gooey.


Clean Out the Fridge Frittata

2 eggs
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 onion, chopped
2 large pieces grilled eggplant (or any other leftover veggies)
2 scallions, sliced
4 pieces of turkey bacon, rouchly diced
2 slices of Swiss Cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


1. In a non-stick pan pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom.
2. Add in all your vegetables and turkey bacon and saute on medium to high heat, until slight color develops, about 10 minutes.
3. While veggies are cooking, whip together eggs, sour cream and salt and pepper in a blender or mixer; blend for about 45 seconds or until frothy.
4. Add in eggs to the vegetable mix and turn off heat. Top with cheese.
5. Place under broiler until top has melted and all of the eggs are cooked.
Enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Between last week and this week I have been all screwed up with my meals! Because of the short weeks, it's tough to figure out what I should make for the week to eat. I was craving pasta like crazy, but wanted to keep it healthy. So I decided to go for lots of veggies and less pasta. I took the help where I could get it and used canned marinara sauce from Trader Joes, it tastes really great and has no additives in it. I had some frozen spinach and some of Trader Joes roasted eggplant and zucchini left over in the freezer. I cleared out some veggies I had in the fridge and roasted them up in the oven. I used Sargento 6 Cheese Blend with Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Fontina, Romano and Asiago. I did not have to use much and because of the Asiago and Parmesan it formed a beautiful crust on top.

It was actually very easy to eat this without feeling guilty! Typically I won't eat lasagna because it is loaded with fat and calories. But with this one, I did not put a thick coat of cheese on top and there was more veggies than pasta. I did use a lot of ricotta but that's a whey protein which is actually very good for you! It's also a really great way to get picky kids or a picky fiance', who doesn't like veggies, to eat plenty of vegetables, without them knowing it!
I gave it to him for lunch the next day and he called me up and said,
"Look babe, I expect a lot out of you with your cooking, but this was top notch! Restaurant quality! I don't even like lasagna! But this yum!"

To that I replied, "Well good, I'm glad that my $50,000 education didn't go to waste and I could still make restaurant quality lasagna!"

Roasted Veggie Lasagna

1 red onion, cut into large wedges
1 yellow pepper, cut into large chunks
1 red pepper, cut into large chunks
1/2 a package of Trader Joe's Grigliato Misto, or roast your own eggplant and zucchini
10 oz package of frozen spinach, defrosted
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chiffonade
lasagna noodles
1 jar of marinara, store bought or homemade
12 oz ricotta cheese
1 bag of shredded cheese, about 2 cups
1 table spoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place cut up onion and peppers onto a sheet pan coated with olive oil and seasoning. Roast at 450 degrees until lightly brown in color, about 20-25 minutes.

2. Take vegetables out of oven and place in the freezer to cool them quickly. You don't need them cold, just cool enough to handle with your hands.
3. Cut up the roasted veggies into small pieces, including zucchini and eggplant. This is no place to get exact with your knife skills, just run your knife quickly through all the veggies.
4. Toss all roasted veggies with garlic and basil and preheat your oven to 350-degrees.
5. Take a 9X9 pan and coat it with pan spray.
6. Coat the bottom with a layer of marinara sauce.
7. Put a layer of lasagna noodles on the bottom. *A lot of stores now carry the lasagna noodles that don't need to be precooked in water. They are much easier to handle when they are not cooked and make it a much faster process.*
8. Place a layer of ricotta on top of the noodles. It does not need to be perfect, just use your hands to crumble it up, it will melt in the oven anyhow.
9. Place a nice layer of roasted veggies and spinach on top of ricotta. Don't be shy with the veggies.
10. Sprinkle an even layer of shredded cheese on top.
11. Repeat this until you get to the top.
12. Place in the oven, until the top gets brown in color, about 45 minutes.
*This lasagna is unique because of the crust formed on top from the cheese combination. Most other lasagnas tend to be gooey on top. This one has a really great combination of both gooey in the middle and crispy on top*