Tag: one pot meals

One-Pot Lentil, Onion & Baby Bella Saute {Vegan}

On August 10, 2015

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, GBOMBS, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

I’m back from vacation and excited to be in my kitchen again making new recipes to share with you!

I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I had half the day on Saturday to experiment 🙂

Today’s dish came about as I was planning the menu for a cooking class I’m teaching about GBOMBS foods (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Seeds/Nuts) for a client in DC. If you missed the GBOMBS post, check it out to learn which foods are the best disease-fighting, nutrient-dense foods we can eat.

Aside from being packed with nutrient-rich foods, the other motivation behind this recipe was to make a quick and easy dinner option (on the table in under 30 minutes).

Two of the GBOMBS foods in this meal are onions and mushrooms, two of the most underappreciated plants we eat.

mush

For most of my life, I had no idea just how good these foods were for my body, but I’ve learned a lot about just how amazing they are!

They both contain powerful compounds called angiogenesis inhibitors, compounds designed to prevent the formation of new blood vessels, thereby stopping or slowing the growth or spread of abnormal cells and protecting the body against fat storage.

Certain cancer drugs contain angiogenesis inhibitors, but these compounds also occur naturally in dozens of plants, including onions and mushrooms!

shrooms and onions

I didn’t eat onions or mushrooms until a few years ago (I’d deemed them both “gross”), and neither did my husband, Bill. Now, we love them and put onions in just about every savory dish we make.

What I like about this dish is that it’s “semi-homemade,” meaning one of the ingredients is from a can.

BUT, just because it comes from a can doesn’t mean we have to lower our standards when it comes to quality and nutrition! We still make sure we can recognize and pronounce all of the ingredients and that they are real, whole foods.

The star of this dish, a can of lentils from Eden Organic, passes the real food test 🙂

eden beans

We’ve been using Eden Organic beans for years because they taste great, don’t get mushy at the bottom of the can like other bean brands, and they have no added sodium.

Lentils are packed with fill-you-up fiber and protein, and they keep me feeling full for hours.

Because the lentils are already cooked, this dish can be prepared in about 20 minutes and requires only one pan 🙂 Yay for recipes with minimal clean-up (not my strong suit).

I had leftovers for lunch today in my thermos, and they were delicious! The onions melt in your mouth.

lentil saute

Ingredients

2 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil (or other high heat cooking oil)
1 large yellow onion, cut into half moons
1/2 pound cremini (AKA baby bella) mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (+more, to taste)
Black pepper, to taste
1 can Eden Organics Lentils with Onion & Bay Leaf* (below for 100% GF option)
1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced

**100% GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: Although all of the other recipes on my site are gluten-free, this can of lentils does contain a small amount of shoyu, which is made with organic wheat. I’ve contacted the company to see if they have plans for a wheat-free option in the future. In the meantime, if you are completely avoiding gluten, follow the box directions for cooking one cup of green lentils and add some basil, garlic and tamari to the dish at step #3 below.**

Directions

Melt 1 tablespoon ghee or oil in a large saute pan set to medium heat. Add onions and saute for 6-8 minutes or until soft.
Add 1 tablespoon ghee or oil, salt and mushrooms. Saute with onions for about 6-8 minutes or until they’ve shrunk in size and softened.
Add can of lentils, including juices, and stir to combine. Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and sprinkle in scallions, tossing to combine. Serve hot.

Hearty Black Bean & Rice Stew {Gluten-Free, Vegan}

By Rachel Druckenmiller

On February 15, 2015

In Clean Eating, Dairy-Free, GBOMBS, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

We’ve been using our vegetable scraps to make homemade vegetable broth and at one point had nearly a dozen mason jars full of broth, sooo we had to find a way to use it!

That’s why we’ve been making LOTS of soups and stews.

This one-pot recipe makes a lot of food and doesn’t require much effort. Once you saute the base vegetables, you just toss in the rest of the ingredients and less than an hour later, you have a big pot of warm, cozy, and hearty stew.

You could really use whatever vegetables you have on hand for this – sub out spinach or Swiss chard for kale or use different herbs, if you prefer.

We had mushrooms to use up, so we chopped them up and put them in to add a bit of a “meaty” texture but without the meat. Plus, mushrooms are one of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s GBOMBS foods – some of the healthiest foods on the planet!

Yield: ~10 cups

Ingredients

1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1/2 pound cremini (AKA baby Portobello) mushrooms, diced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cans diced tomatoes, no salt added (don’t drain off the juices)
1 15-ounce BPA-free can black beans (we like Eden brand)
2 bay leaves
1 cup long grain brown rice (Trader Joe’s sells 15-minute brown rice!)
6 cups vegetable broth (Click here to see how cheap and EASY it is to make your own)
4 cups dark greens, chopped (we used red curly kale)
black pepper to taste

Directions

In a colander/fine mesh strainer, rinse rice under cold water. Set aside.
In a large stock/soup pot over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add chopped onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms to pot. Mix well. Cook until veggies are soft, about 5-7 minutes.
Add cayenne pepper, oregano and sea salt to vegetables and saute 1-2 minutes more.
Add tomatoes and their juices, beans, bay leaves, brown rice, and broth. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer.
Once simmering, cover and reduce heat. Cook at a low simmer for 40-50 minutes or until rice is fully cooked. We used 15-minute quick cooking brown rice from Trader Joe’s, so we had a much shorter cooking time.
Once rice is cooked, add dark greens and stir to combine. Add water if needed (we added about 1 cup of water). Cover and let cook about 5 minutes or until greens are wilted.
Remove bay leaves and serve.

Since this made such a large batch, we froze some of the soup in mason jars, so we will have it in the future when we don’t feel like cooking but want a home cooked meal 🙂 If you freeze it, make sure to leave 2 inches of room between the top of the stew and the lid, so it has room to expand!