SereneCooking

I was gonna just boil some frozen pierogies for dinner, but I saw that I
had two eggplants in the fridge, so I decided to make Indian food.
Here's what we had:

1) The eggplant: I salted the eggplants (two large Italian ones, cut
into large chunks), then rinsed and drained them and tossed them with
about a tablespoon each of ground coriander and turmeric, a sliced
onion, and a bit of salt. Then I roasted them at 400F for about half an
hour

2) Chana dal with berbere spice: 1 cup chana dal, 3 cups water, about a
tablespoon of berbere spice, 1/2 tsp salt. Boil, then turn down and simmer
for at least an hour. Add the juice of a lemon at the last minute.

3) Fresh mango chutney from the fat-free Indian cookbook I checked out
of the library

4) Jarred curried-vegetable chutney

5) A couple of non-vegan things: raita, and a chicken dish that would be
great with seitan -- toss the "chicken" with onions and chili powder and
paprika and mustard seed in a hot pan until the spices are toasted a
bit. Add half a cup of water and some chopped summer squash and fresh
peas. Simmer covered for 10 minutes or so.

6) A simple salad of romaine and vinaigrette with a little cilantro
tossed in.

It was quite a feast, and everything was really yummy.

I really loved our lunch today. I cooked up a big batch of garbanzos and made two dips: hummus, and what I think of as "not-hummus", a garbanzo spread I learned to make way back in my commune days. The original recipe has oil and cumin in it, I think, but I've always made it this way (recipe behind the cut, along with a pic of the whole plate, but I liked this photo best).



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