Dahl and Macaroni Salad

Last week's vegetarian dish was a dahl. I got the main recipe from Thimble's Blog but because we don't eat onions or garlic nor did I have the spices, I changed it.

Coconut Dahl

2.5 dl orange lentils

5 dl water

½ curry

dash pepper

½ tsp ginger powder

1.25 dl coconut

2.5 tbsp yogurt

Cook lentils according to package instructions. Add curry, pepper, ginger, coconut and yogurt and heat through. Serve over rice.

I bought something today that I've never bought before. Fresh ginger. I wasn't even sure how it tasted so I was a bit weary about using much of it. I googled fresh ginger and found out it can be frozen, so I cut it up into pieces and froze the rest. I also read that it is possible to put it through a garlic press which sort of worked.

Today's vegetarian meal was what we call a macaroni salad. I use either a tin of kidney beans or chickpeas. I tried a new dressing on top. I usually just mix some oil, honey, orange juice, dried dill, paprika and curry together.

Apple Salad Dressing

1 apple, cored, seeded and chopped small

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

¼ tsp dried dill

dash chili powder

½ tsp curry powder

small piece of fresh ginger, grated

¾ dl olive oil

Puree until smooth

Macaroni Salad

1 tin of kidney beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1-2 carrots, diced small

cucumber, diced

red pepper, chopped

(celery, chopped)

1-2 tomatoes, chopped

Mix well with dressing.

Chipless: 1 year 9 days

Candyless days: 9

Chocolatefree Mondays: 17

Chocolatefree Fridays: 8

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

Well I had my first all vegetarian day. For breakfast I had oatmeal porridge and fatfree milk. Lunch was peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam on bread. I had heard about Chef Marc Meyer's Lemony Broccoli and Chickpea Rigatoni recipe on some body's blog and looked it up. I adapted it and my version is below. Oops, I can't remember what we had for our evening snack.

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

265 g cooked chickpeas (I used tinned, drained and rinsed them.)

1½ tbsp lemon concentrate (Use more lemon next time – 2 tbsp?)

1 tbsp olive oil

10 rose peppers, crushed

head of broccoli, cut into pieces (I use the whole thing, not just the florets.)

200 g pasta

1½ tbsp olive oil

1 dl cooking water

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Mix chickpeas, lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil and crushed rose peppers together and set aside.

Cook broccoli for 4 minutes. You need to keep the water, so remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon. I steamed the broccoli because I don't have a slotted spoon and it was easy to lift it out but I had to add more water before adding the pasta.

Add pasta and cook according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat 1½ tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet and add the broccoli and chickpea mixture and heat through. When pasta is done remove 1 dl of cooking water before draining pasta and add it to the skillet. Add 2 tbsp of Parmesan cheese to skillet and stir well. Mix in pasta and stir until coated with liquid. Garnish with rest of Parmesan cheese.

Chipless Days: 259
Chocolatefree Mondays: 15
Chocolatefree Fridays: 6