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Big Little Bites > healthy recipe

Perfect Red Lentil Soup

Posted on August 22, 2017October 2, 2019 by biglittlebites

I grew up eating this perfect, delicious and healthy red lentil soup, and it’s now a staple in my home with my family. Lentils are rich in protein (equivalant to a steak!), folate, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. They’re such a great, nutritious substitute for meat, whether you’re doing a meatless Monday, or cooking vegan or vegetarian meals. This warm, cozy red lentil soup is perfect for lunch or dinner and especially easy to throw together when you’re short on time to get food on the table, because it takes minimal effort!

As with all of my recipes, I recommend aiming to choose organic ingredients whenever possible. I look for vegetable stock or broth made from real foods and free of flavoring, to get the cleanest ingredients into our bodies. When time allows, consider sprouting the lentils prior to using them, as this will ease digestion and enhance the nutrient profile of the soup.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, born from my Armenian heritage, as much as my family does!

How I Make it

What I love about this Perfect Red Lentil Soup, is that it’s flavorful yet super easy. On a busy school night, this takes 15 minutes to prep, 30 minutes to cook and maybe another 15 minutes to cool and puree! I will note, pureeing is not totally necessary, and more of a preference. The photo below, of the finished soup, is how it looks without pureeing. The texture is soft and airy, making the soup almost fluffy!

I begin by sautéing the minced onion in a little olive oil, until the onion begins to turn clear about five minutes later. Next, I add in the cumin, salt and pepper and give it all a good stir before mixing in the tomato paste. At this point, the soup won’t be soup at all -it will just be a clumpy mix of onions and seasoning! Toss in the quinoa and lentils and pour in the broth to make a more soupy mixture (below). Now you bring it to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and cover, letting it cook undisturbed for 30 minutes. That’s basically it!

When you remove the lid… voila! You are left with this perfect lentil soup, which you can then puree if desired!

Perfect Meatless Meal

red lentil soup in a bowl with cilantro leaves on top

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Perfect Red Lentil Soup

This red lentil soup is excellent for a plant-based, meatless meal, if you use vegetable stock. It's hearty, filling and full of flavor!

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keyword: lentil soup, red lentils, vegan, vegetarian, soup recipe, meatless, nondairy

Servings:

Equipment

Dutch oven pot
Immersion blender

Ingredients

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, minced
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cracked pepper
1 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 c red lentils
3/4 c quinoa
7 c vegetable or chicken stock
Optional: fresh cilantro, chopped
Optional: sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Instructions

Preheat a dutch oven over medium-low heat for 5 minutes.
Add olive oil and minced onion. Cook the onion, stirring every now and then, until they turn transparent.
Add salt, pepper, cumin and tomato paste to onions and stir to combine.
Add lentils, quinoa and stock to dutch oven with onion and spice mixture. Stir and raise temperature to high.
Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth and creamy.
Add another 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, to enhance flavor.

Stuffed Grapeleaves

Posted on July 21, 2017May 19, 2019 by biglittlebites

When I was a little kid, we would pick up my great-grandmother once a week to take her grocery shopping. I have vivid memories of her ordering my mom to pull over randomly on the side of the road at least once every trip, because she spotted roadside grape leaves she just needed to pick ? My little Armenian great-grandmother, kept plastic grocery bags bunched up inside of her little purse, just for these happenstance sightings!

Now, here I am today, a mom of three, picking grape leaves in my neighborhood as Liz and I take the kids on a walk! Hey, they are organic, and they are local! Wild food! ? So… when nature gives you grape leaves, you make dolma, right? I didn’t invent this recipe, it’s centuries old! But try it, love it, and please never order that restaurant dolma again – it just doesn’t compare!

Ingredients:

About 35 grape leaves (maybe one jar)

1 lb of grass-fed ground lamb, beef or mixture of the two

1 large onion, minced

1/4 -1/2 c uncooked brown rice

Handful of parsley, chopped

1/4 c tomato sauce

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

If you picked your leaves fresh, you’ll need to first blanch them – plunge them into boiling water and then rinse under cold water. If you’re using grape leaves from a jar, they are in brine, so you’ll want to give them a good rinse. I usually just dump out the liquid while leaving the leaves in the jar, and then repeatedly refill the jar with water and strain it out about 3x.

Set up a rolling station with a colander/plate to hold your wet grape leaves flat, a small knife for trimming stems, a medium bowl for the meat mixture, a soup/stock pot to cook them in, and a clean plate or cutting board for rolling and a platter of some sort to put your rolls onto.

Make the meat mixture by combining all the ingredients (except for the leaves) in the medium bowl – mix well but don’t get too crazy kneading, or you’ll end up with tough meat.

Once you start rolling, as you go through your stack of leaves, whenever you find one with holes in it, or too small to roll with, use it to line the bottom of your pot (this prevents your dolmas from burning as they cook). Roll your dolmas as the photos above indicate, by folding over certain parts of the leaf at a time. Once you’re finished rolling them all up, line them side by side on top of the layer of castaway grape leaves on the bottom of your pot. Make sure they are all nice and snug against each other! Find a plate just big enough to fit inside your pot, and place it on top of your grape leaves. Now pour in water or broth, some tomato sauce and half a lemon juiced, just to the rim of the plate. Cover your pot, bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, and reduce to a simmer for one hour.

Serve with yogurt! Yum! By the way, these are just as delicious served cold the next day, right out of the fridge!

Vegan Banh Mi Pockets

Posted on July 12, 2017May 2, 2020 by biglittlebites

I had a Banh Mi sandwich once at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Seriously – that’s it! That’s all it took ?? The flavor is indescribable, tangy and fresh, I was in love at first bite! Now I’ve created my own plant-based banh mi, that is SUPER delish and hits the spot on any warm day!! This sweet and spicy vegan banh mi sandwich hits all the right notes and can be thrown together in a pinch, or prepped the day before. Feel free to substitute lettuce wraps for the pita pockets – you could serve these taco-style or wrap-style!

We always make sure to use organic ingredients when possible (to avoid toxins), and especially pay close attention to looking for non-GMO soy products like tamari and tempeh. Why? Soy is one of the top genetically modified foods in the USA and a 2 year study of lab rats fed genetically modified corn, developed aggressive tumors and died early. These reactions were observed in rats exposed to Monsantos herbicide at “safe levels” per regulators standards. One of the active ingredients in the herbicide was also deemed to be possibly carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. That’s reason enough for us to avoid GMO’s!

Tempeh Time

When I open a package of a tempeh, I cut the whole loaf in half and put it in a small pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, to remove any bitter taste. Afterwards, I transfer it to a cutting board to cool, and then thinly slice it. Similar to tofu, tempeh absorbs flavor from marinade well, so I try to marinate at least 20 minutes to a day before I’m using it. I combine the tamari, rice vinegar, ginger and garlic in a flat, glass, rectangle shaped tupperware and let rest while I’m working on the vegetables in this recipe.Tempeh is a less processed form of tofu – it’s fermented soy, and is really more nutritious than it’s sister tofu. I stopped using tofu years ago, since I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible and I like the higher nutritional value found in tempeh.

Veggie Prep

I wash all of my veggies first, and then thinly slice them, skin on, with a mandolin. I toss them into a medium sized mixing bowl, as I’m going, because that’s a great place to marinate them too. Simply pour the marinade on top and give a quick stir every few minutes while you start the rest of the meal.

When you’re ready to cook the tempeh, make sure to baste it in a little bit of the spicy sauce prior to adding it to the heat – it adds so much more flavor. When you’re ready to serve these babies, go ahead and coat the inside of your pita with this spicy sauce also – your vegan banh mi will have some kick! To make the spicy sauce, you combine veganaise and sriracha. Follow your Heart grapeseed oil veganaise is my favorite because it’s made with grapeseed oil, which has some health benefits and has cleaner ingredients than other veganaise varieties I’ve seen out there. Now you could use standard sriracha, but if you compare the ingredients to Wildbrine smokey jalapeño sriracha, you will see why I always choose the latter! Plus, the tangy, spicy, smokey flavor is just second to none, AND it has probiotics in it!!

Vegan Banh Mi Pockets

Ingredients:

Tempeh:

Tempeh, boiled for 10 minutes and sliced thin

1/4 c tamari

1/4 c rice vinegar

1/2 tsp minced ginger

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Quick-Pickled Vegetables

3 radishes (I like using 2 red, and 1 black, for contrasting color), 1 carrot, 1/2 English cucumber and 1 shallot all thinly sliced with a mandolin

1/4 c rice vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Spicy Sauce

1/4 c veganaise, 3 tbsp sriracha, mixed together

Extras

Pita pockets, small

Lime wedges

Cilantro

Black sesame seeds

Directions:

Marinate sliced tempeh in soy, rice vinegar, ginger and garlic while prepping the vegetables for pickling.

Marinate vegetables in a bowl with rice vinegar, salt and sugar for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix your veganaise and Sriracha.

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat. Remove tempeh from its marinade and brush on a thin layer of spicy sauce. Place tempeh slices side by side into a hot skillet and let sit for 3 minutes, then turn off heat.

Toss pickled vegetables with black sesame seeds.

Brush spicy sauce along inside of pita pocket, then stuff with pickled vegetables, and a few slices of tempeh. Garnish with a drizzle of spicy sauce, a squeeze of fresh lime and cilantro. Enjoy!

Cozy Green Beans + Beef Stew

Posted on April 6, 2017May 8, 2019 by biglittlebites

Growing up in an Armenian home, this ground beef and green bean stew was a staple, and always hit the spot on chilly nights! The best part is – it’s so easy AND so delicious! Just a handful of main ingredients, a few spices – and dinner is ready. Hope you enjoy this little slice of Armenian home-cooking!

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh organic green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 lbs organic and/or grass-fed ground beef or lamb

1 large red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 c water

15 ounces tomato sauce

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

Optional: serve over cooked brown rice (you can see brown rice bits in my photo!)

Directions:

Place chopped onion in a skillet (I love using cast iron) with the olive oil, and sauté on low-medium heat until turning clear and slightly browning (do not burn). Add garlic and sauté one minute until fragrant. Remove from heat. In a dutch oven, brown ground beef and drain fat with a suction tool. Mix tomato paste with the 1 c of water, until dissolved and then add it to the ground beef, with the tomato sauce and spices. Add the green beans and the onion/garlic mixture. Bring everything to a boil in the dutch oven, and then cover and reduce to a simmer for one hour.