Black Bean Couscous

This is SO easy and so delicious. Plus I made it up myself. I like to eat this cold, but it would be good warm too -- especially with some cilantro-lime fish or shrimp.

Black Bean Couscous
2/3 cup whole wheat instant couscous
1 cup veggie stock
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 tsp. cumin
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

Bring the veggie stock to a boil. Add couscous and garlic, remove from heat, cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop onion. Then whisk together oil, cumin, and vinegar. Toss onion, black beans, and corn in oil mixture.

When couscous is cooked, stir in veggies. Add salt to taste! If you add the corn while frozen, it cools the whole thing off very quickly.

Simple Salsa

The Gourmet Cookbook has a recipe for fresh salsa using Serrano peppers. I bought some cilantro last week to make this salsa, but I couldn't find the peppers in the store. I found them this week, so I just got finished making the salsa. It is delicious - aromatic, fresh, crisp. Quite spicy. Like hit-you-in-the-back-of-the-throat spicy. So if you're sensitive to heat cut it back to one pepper instead of the two I used. I'm letting the flavors come together in the fridge, and then I'm going to have a mushroom omelette topped with fresh salsa for breakfast. Yum!

Fresh Salsa
1/2 pound plum tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped white onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 minced serrano peppers with seeds
1/2 clove minced garlic (optional)
Kosher salt to taste
3 tbsp. water

Finely chop the tomatoes, and stir in the other ingredients. Enjoy!

Sunday Double Feature

This Sunday was a busy cooking day for me -- I made a lentil stew and stuffed manicotti.

This morning I made lentil and brown rice stew - a recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook. It was kind of an afterthought -- I planned it at the last minute before making my grocery store trip. I had extra celery in my fridge and some lentils and brown rice lying around, so I thought the stew would be a good clean-out-the-fridge dish. It was very easy to make. At the same time, you throw in celery, brown rice, lentils, carrot, onion, some spices, and a can of whole tomatoes into a pot. You simmer it for 45 minutes, finish it with some cider vinegar and chopped cilantro, and you're good to go. The stew is a little bland, but it's very hearty and warming. All of my soup seems to look the same on camera. :-)

Lentil and Brown Rice Stew
1 can whole tomatoes in juice
5 cups veggie stock
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 cup brown rice
3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
1/3 - 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley or cilantro
2 tablespoons cider vinegar, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Combine tomatoes, with their juice, stock, water, lentils, rice, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf in a 6-quart pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils and rice are tender, 45 to 55 minutes. Stir in cilantro (or parsley), vinegar, salt, and pepper and discard bay leaf.

The big endeavor of the day was Manicotti Verde with a Tomato Wine Sauce from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites. I made the sauce this morning. It was easy -- onion, red wine, fennel, oregano, basil, tomato puree. The manicotti was quite labor intensive -- mostly because I don't have enough counter space or large pots to make several big things at once. The filling consists of leeks, spinach, garlic, and a blend of cheeses. It was my first experience cooking with leeks, so I was a little slow chopping them. The most annoying part by far was the spinach. The recipe called for 20 ounces of spinach. This is A LOT of spinach. Rinsing and coarsely chopping this much spinach was interesting. The end product was quite good, though. I think when I make this recipe again, I will use more cheese and perhaps a saltier, more flavorful cheese. The dish needed salt, but just adding lots of salt results in a fairly flat flavor.

Stuffed Manicotti Verde
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 1/2 cups chopped leeks
3 tbsp. water
20 oz. fresh spinach, rinsed and coarsely chopped
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 cup grated reduced-fat mozzarella
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/2 cups nonfat ricotta
salt and black pepper to taste
14 manicotti
3 1/2 cups Tomato Wine Sauce

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Stir in the garlic, leeks, and water. Cover and gently saute, stirring occasionally until the leeks soften, about 10 minutes. Add the spinach and basil. Cook, covered, for about 5 minutes, until the spinach wilts, stirring once or twice. Uncover and cook a few minutes longer on medium-high heat to evaporate as much excess moisture as possible. Drain, if necessary. Combine mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta with the vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta shells until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well. Fill each manicotti and place in a lightly oiled 9x12 baking dish. Pour half the tomato sauce evenly over the manicotti and over tightly with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve hot and pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Tomato Wine Sauce
2 tsp. olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground fennel
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/3 cup red wine
3 cups undrained canned tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, warm the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic, sprinkle with the salt, cover, and saute on very low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the onions are beginning to soften. Add the fennel, oregano, and basil and cook for another minute. Pour in the wine and bring to a boil. Whirl the tomatoes in a blender until just pureed and add to the pan. Cover the sauce and simmer gently for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

It's 9:30pm. The kitchen is finally clean. There are enough leftovers to last me the whole week. I'm too tired to type the recipes now, but I'll add them soon.