Lentil Shepherd's pie

Dr. Fuhrman emailed out this recipe in his newsletter and I was really excited to try it!  When the weather gets cold, I really enjoy really hot, comfort food and I think this recipe satisfies both while being totally plant based.  His recipe can be found here.

Serves: 6
Prep Time: 30 - 45 min (this took me a while the first time, but will be faster as I make it more often)
Cook Time: about 60 min (including time to cook lentils)

Ingredients:

1 bulb garlic
1 medium head cauliflower, cut into chunks
1/2 cup raw cashew butter
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1/4 cup soy, hemp or almond milk, if needed to adjust consistency
1 1/2 cups dry lentils
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
10 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup low sodium or no-salt-added vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring lentils and 3 cups water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until lentils have absorbed all liquid and are soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside.  If you are trying to speed up this recipe, canned lentils can also be used, but try to get unsalted lentils.

While lentils are cooking, roast unpeeled garlic for about 25 minutes or until soft.  I like to chop off a small portion of the non-stemmed side of the garlic, wrap it in foil, and place the garlic right on the rack in the oven.  I absolutely love roasted garlic and I think it adds lots of flavor, but if you are trying to speed up the recipe, maybe for a weeknight meal, I think this step could be skipped.  If you do choose to roast the garlic, when it's cool enough to handle, squeeze out the soft cooked garlic, removing and discarding the skins and set aside.

Steam chopped cauliflower for about 8 to 10 minutes or until tender. Place in a high-powered blender along with roasted garlic, cashew butter, nutritional yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of the black pepper and blend until smooth, adding a splash of non-dairy milk if needed to adjust consistency.  I did end up adding some non-dairy milk, but afterwards I think I would have like have the cauliflower mash more chunky and would probably add less next time around.  I wouldn't blend as much as I did either too keep it more chunky, but this you can adjust based on your preference.  I also didn't have cashew butter, so I blended some raw cashews ahead of time to make my own cashew butter.  Once the mash is blended, set aside.

Heat 2-3 tablespoons water in a large saute pan, add carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes, then add onions and garlic and cook until vegetables are tender. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste. Add the lentils, rosemary, thyme, remaining black pepper and 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining vegetable broth as needed; mixture should be moist but not runny.  Everything is starting to smell delicious at this point!

Place the lentil mixture in a large casserole dish and spread mashed cauliflower evenly over the top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to brown.

Enjoy!  We loved this recipe and all four of us almost ate the entire thing for dinner one night!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This recipe is slightly modified from a recipe I found from Vegan Lunchbox blogger Jennifer Schmoo (recipe here).  It's a great recipe for around the holidays and a real crowd pleaser!  It is fairly easy too, the only time consuming part is separating the leaves of cabbage.

Makes: 10 cabbage rolls
Prep Time: 45 min (not including cooking the rice)
Cook Time: 50 min

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup canned or cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup oat bran
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp Braggs liquid aminos or low sodium soy sauce 
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
10 cabbage leaves for stuffing and extra leaves for chopping
1 jar tomato sauce (I like Muir Glen Roasted Garlic)
pepper to taste


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and bring a large pot of water to a boil.

While the water is boiling, separate the cabbage leaves.  To make this easier, try to buy a cabbage that has very green outside leaves.  This means the cabbage is fresh and it will be much easier to peel back the leaves.  If the leaves rip while while peeling off the cabbage, don't worry, you can still use them and just patch it up with an extra leaf.

Next, make the cabbage stuffing.  Use a food processor with the metal blade to chop the walnuts into tiny pieces.  Pour the the walnuts into a large bowl and set aside for later.

Then, process the garbanzo beans and brown rice with the food processor until a course mash forms as shown below.  

Add the mash to the walnuts and then add the oat bran, marjoram, thyme, onion powder, liquid aminos and mustard.  This is the fun part!  Mash the mixture together with your hands until it is all mixed together and will stick together.  Divide the filling mixture into ten equal pieces and make a tiny loaf out of each.  Set aside until we are ready to stuff the cabbage. 

Add the cabbage leaves to the boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.  They shouldn't be cooked all the way through, but should be soft enough to roll them.  Drain the leaves thoroughly.
 
Next, get your pan ready for the cabbage by adding enough tomato sauce to just cover the bottom of the pan.

Place a cabbage leaf on a cutting board and add a loaf to one edge of the leaf and roll it up.  Fold in the edges as you go like you would a burrito.  If the cabbage leaf has a tough stem, you can cut it out before rolling and just overlap the remaining leaf.  Also, if there is a rip, just add another smaller leaf to patch it.  Add the cabbage roll to the pan seam side down.  Repeat the process with the rest of the loafs and leaves.

Chop up the remaining cabbage leaves and pieces you have left over and sprinkle over and around the cabbage rolls in your pan.  Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls.  Season with pepper to taste.

Bake the rolls for 45 to 50 minutes, until slightly brown on top and enjoy!

These went over really well this holiday with my kids.  They also taste better if they are reheated for the second time, so I tend to make a double batch so we have leftovers.  If you are reheating them in the pan, it works well to add some water to the pan so the cabbage rolls stay moist.  We have eaten them all up this week, but I am now wishing that we had more!!