Meatless Monday: Monastery Lentils

This was one crazy, mixed up holiday season. With an out-of-town family wedding just one week before Christmas, things got a little out of control, and the usual ways of celebrating were lost for the year, or at least delayed.

I finally got around to preparing a lentil dish to greet the new year. But I was about a week late. For a history of this custom and for past lentil dishes, check out these posts from 2011 and 2014. 

This time I turned to a dog-eared recipe from one of the first cookbooks I acquired — Lentils, Monastery Style from Francis Morre Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet, published in 1971. Perhaps “Monastery Style” alludes to the sherry, but, whatever the reference, this recipe is one of the best in the volume.

Here’s the original recipe verbatim.

Lentils, Monastery Style 

Serves 4-6

In a large pot sauté 3- 5 minutes:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped

Add and sauté 1 minute more:

• 1/2 tsp each dried thyme and marjoram leaves

Add:

• 3 cups stock or seasoned water
• 1 cup dry lentils, washed
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 lb canned tomatoes

Cook in covered pot until lentils are tender (about 45 minutes) and add:

• 1/4 cup sherry

Have ready:

• 2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese

To serve, place 2 tbsp of grated cheese in each serving bowl and top with soup. This soup is especially delicious served with corn muffins. 

I followed the 1971 version pretty closely, but I did tweak the recipe just a bit. 

• I recalled that the lentils were a little crunchy following these directions, so I soaked them for several hours, and then drained and rinsed them before using.
• For the stock I used 3 cups of water and 2 cubes of Rapunzel Vegan Vegetable Bouillon, the no salt variety. [The tomatoes + the cheese should supply all the salt you need.]
• I used a 28 oz can of Muir Glen fire roasted, crushed organic tomatoes. 
• Because I used extra tomatoes, I also added a teaspoon of Penzey’s Bouquet Garni, a blend of savory, rosemary, thyme, Turkish oregano, basil, dill weed, marjoram, sage and tarragon. 
• Finally, in lieu of sherry, I added 1/2 cup of Marsala.

This dish made enough for two generous meals for the two of us when served with corn bread and salad, and it was delicious!

Notes on Francis Moore Lappé

Decades before the Meatless Monday movement began, Francis Moore Lappé wrote Diet for a Small Planet in response to the growing need for protein by the world’s rapidly increasing population. In the book’s introduction Lappé states: “For the first time it is possible to implement an end to the gross waste of literally millions of tons of high-grade protein, to release men from the confines of a largely meat diet, and to enjoy nutritionally sound protein from the richer and far more abundant sources that the earth provides. Here, step by step, is how you, the individual, can improve your own style-of-life— and at the same time help your very small planet.” Lappé is the author or co-author of 18 books and continues to work in the food movement. She is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland based think tank Food First and the Small Planet Institute which she leads with her daughter, Anna Lappé. See more here.

Happy Meatless Monday. 

And health and prosperity to you and yours in the year ahead.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Counting Down to Pi Day

Yes! Friday, March 14 (3.14) is Pi Day, the day on which we honor the irrational number pi (π), the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi rounds to 3.14 but goes on forever. It has been calculated to one trillion digits; you can view one million of them here. 

To celebrate mathematics and to honor π, Pi Day is celebrated on 3.14 all over the world, with pi songs, pi jokes, contests to see who can memorize the most digits of pi, and, best of all, by eating that universally popular circular food — PIE!

Who doesn’t love pie? Pie comes in so many varieties — sweet and savory, fruity and custardy, dense and light. Pie can be a dessert or the main event. And, of course, there is also pizza pie.

I plan to celebrate with a throwback to the past — Garden Vegetable Pie from one of the first cookbooks I ever acquired — Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé. One of the great things about this recipe is that you get to choose the vegetables you wish to use as the main component of your pie. Whatever you have on hand is fine as long as you have four cups of them.

Frances Moore Lappe’s Garden Vegetable Pie

Ingredients

• One whole wheat pie crust 
• Four cups of cooked vegetables of your choice (such as carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, peas). Don’t let them get mushy!
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/4 lb mushrooms
• 3 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1 cup milk
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parsley
• Your choice of herbs (rosemary, tarragon, thyme, etc.)
• 1/4 lb sliced cheese
• 2 tbsp toasted ground sesame seeds

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°.
• Sauté the mushrooms in the butter and oil until tender.
• Add and brown the whole wheat flour.
• Gradually add the milk and stir until thickened.
• Add herbs and salt and pepper to taste.
• Put the cooked vegetables in the pie crust. 
• Pour the sauce over the vegetables. 
• Put the sliced cheese on top.
• Bake until the sauce bubbles.
• Sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

As Frances Moore Lappé says, “A beautiful dish that can be different each time.”

Happy Monday! Happy Pi Day!

Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”