How to cook chana dal

General directions for cooking chana dal
- just plain chana dal to use in recipes that call for cooked chana dal

This recipe is for 3 cups of uncooked (about 8 cups of cooked) chana dal. I like to make a lot of chana dal at one time and freeze what I don’t use right away.

Ingredients
3 cups uncooked chana dal
cold tap water (for rinsing)
6 cups cold tap water (for cooking)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bircarbonate)

Step I: Inspect and pick over chana dal
Inspect the chana dal for foreign matter. Discard foreign matter and grey shriveled-looking chana dal, if any.

Step II: Rinse chana dal
Place the chana dal into a strainer (or small collander) and place the strainer into a large bowl. Fill the bowl with cold tap water and, using your hands, mix the dal around; discard the rinse water. Repeat this rinsing process 3 or 4 times until the water runs almost clear. Discard the final rinse water out of the bowl.

Rinsed and drained chana dal – ready for cooking

Step III: Soak chana dal
Place the strainer with the rinsed chana dal back into the empty bowl and add cold tap water to cover the chana dal with 2 – 3 inches of water. Let the chana dal soak at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.  Then remove the strainer with the dal from the water in which it was soaking. Discard the water.

Step IV: Add water, baking soda and cook
Place the chana dal that has been soaked and drained into a large pot, and add 6 cups of cold tap water to the pot. Add the baking soda and mix it around with a large spoon.

Bring the water to a boil and then turn the heat down to gentle boil (almost a simmer). Gently boil for 10-12 minutes, uncovered, or until the chana dal is cooked through but not mushy.  Note: While cooking the chana dal and water mixture will froth quite a bit, but that’s OK.

Chana dal cooking – lots of froth at first

Chana dal cooking – less froth later

Yeild: About 8 cups cooked chana dal and some liquid you can use in cooking or making soups.

Storage: Store your cooked chana dal in your refrigerator or in freezer.

Why baking soda?
Adding some baking soda when cooking beans or dal (split beans) is traditional in many South Asian recipes. It helps soften the bean/dal in less time than it would take without the baking soda. In my experience, the baking soda cuts the cooking time in half. Also adding baking soda, makes the resulting food more alkaline-producing and there is scientific evidence that this is good for bones.  I am NOT saying that you should start ingesting baking soda to help prevent osteoporosis! But it you are interested to learn more about an alkaline- vs. acid- producing diet and its effect on bones, see:  Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. Starting on page 349 of this American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article, you will find a short discussion of the health implications of an acid- vs. alkaline-producing diet.

A recipe for chana dal: Mark Bittman of the New York Times offers this recipe for chana dal.  I would make this recipe by first soaking the chana as mentioned above. Soaked chana  will take less time to cook than chana that’s not soaked, so you will want to adjust the cooking time. Also, you can always add a little baking soda to Bittman’s recipe if you like. And I would use olive oil instead of the oils he has suggested.

Enjoy and be healthy!
~Leni

Quick and Delicious Dal

Tandoor Chef’s Dal Rajasthani

I had company coming for dinner the other night, but had no time to cook the chana dal recipe that I had planned to make. So I simply combined a few packages of Tandoori Chef’s Dal Rajasthani with some plain cooked chana dal. Delicious!

Plain Cooked Chana Dal

At the table, each person topped his or her dal with chopped fresh onion, chopped fresh tomato, and chopped fresh cilantro. We also passed the Cilantro  Chutney for those who wanted a bit more spiciness.

Tandoor Chef’s Channa Dal (available at Whole
Foods and some supermarkets in the frozen food section)

Ingredient list:
water, split lentils (moong, toor, channa, urad & masoor dals), onions, diced tomatoes (tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, citric acid, calcium chloride), canola oil, spices, tomato pasts (tomato past, water, salt, citric acid), garlic, sea salt, turmeric, curry leaves, fenugreek leaves, oleoresin of paprika, bay leaves.

Nutrition information, per 5 ounce serving:
6 grams fat
0 grams saturated fat
0 mg cholesterol
470 mg sodium
14 g carbohydrate
5 g protein

And…after you mix the Tandoor Chef dal with your plain cooked chana dal, you end up with a delicious dal that’s lower in fat and sodium and has a lower glycemic index than Tandoor Chef’s Rajasthani Dal. So easy! So delicious! And so nutritious!

Enjoy and be healthy!
~Leni

Desi Chickpea Recipes — with my comments and changes

 

Showmethecurry.com’s Kala Chana Curry
I just made this Kala Chana or Black Chick Pea Curry and loved it – but that was with some changes. So here’s how I changed their recipe to make the dish we loved:

• Instead of using a pressure cooker to cook the black (whole) desi chana, I used the crock pot method described on the Mendosa page (see yellow highlighted box, “Preparing and Seasoning Chana Dal” found at bottom of the webpage.) Note: Since in this Desi Chickpea recipe, we are cooking the whole bean, not the split bean (chana dal), I prefer to soak the desi chickpea overnight in cold water, drain the water, and then cook the soaked desi chickpea per the directions given for cooking in the slow cooker on the Mendosa website.
• I used twice as much: asafoetida, ginger, and garlic.
• I used 4 times as much turmeric (1 teaspoon instead of 1/4 teaspoon) and I added 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. (For why turmeric and black pepper should always be used together, see Monamifood: Why turmeric and black pepper .)
• I used 1/4 more garam masala (1 1/4 teaspoons instead of 1 teaspoon)
• I used half as much salt.
• I used canned organic diced tomatoes instead of pureed tomatoes, and when I added the tomatoes to the dish, I smashed the tomatoes with a potato masher. It worked fine.
• I did not cook the tomato mixture down “until the oil separates from the mixture,” because I thought I might burn the mixture and my pan, so I just cooked it down until there was very little liquid left.
• Note: The showmethecurry.com recipe calls for chili powder, but they must be referring to red chile powder (ground red chiles), not chili powder (a mixture of ground spices used to make American style chili).

At the table, we passed chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped fresh onions, and chopped fresh cilantro so everyone could mix these into their curry as they liked. This mixture of cooked and fresh ingredients made the dish superb.

• Note: Early in the harvest season, onions are relatively sweet and when they have been stored a long time, they become sharp. If you want to take the edge off of sharp onions, just soak the chopped onions in cold filtered water for 15 minutes and then drain well.

I like serving this desi chickpea curry with (or over) steamed kale and along with slices of baked sweet potatoes. If you want rice, then a little brown basmati rice would be my choice. I also like to serve this with Monamifood’s Cilantro Sauce (chutney).

Vegetable Platter Blog’s Chana Dal Tadka
This is a really delicious dish! I will definitely make it again!

I made this recipe with the following changes and specific ingredients:

• The green chiles I used were green finger hot chiles (a chile that’s common to Indian cooking).
• I used the seeds of 2 green cardamom pods (not the whole pods).
• The cinnamon stick I used was Ceylon cinnamon (which is soft and can be ground up as specified in the recipe).
• Instead of cashew nuts I used walnuts (because they are a good source of the pre-cursor to omega-3 fatty acids).
• Instead of ghee I used canola oil.
  I used less red chile powder (only 1/2 teaspoon) instead of 2 teaspoons red chilli powder (by which I think the recipe writer must have meant red chile powder).
• I added freshly ground black pepper because I always use it in combination with turmeric.
• I “ground” the mixture in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. And next time I make this recipe, I will be sure to process the mixture until the pieces of cinnamon have become tiny. (I left a few big pieces this time and just removed them before serving.)

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Instant, Healthy, and Delicious Lunch

I threw this lunch together at midnight last night because I needed to have SOMETHING to eat the next day at work. It looked so pretty I took a picture of it (above).  I wasn’t so sure I’d like it, but it turned out to be DELICIOUS. The only thing I would do differently next time is include two – not just one – frozen frozen mango ‘cube’.

I really loved the mixture of quinoa, wheat berries, and mango — which I just mixed together with my fork after the meal had been heated. This contrasted nicely with the smoky-salty bean soup.  And then the kale mixed with the cilantro sauce, was another delicious and interesting flavor.

So if you are looking for a light and healthy – and easy to throw together lunch – try this one yourself!

Ingredients

1 pre-frozen portion of Whole Foods Black Bean Soup

1 pre-frozen flavor Cilantro Chutney

1 pre-frozen cube of pureed champagne mango ( Just puree peeled and seeded mango in blender, freeze puree in  silicone mini muffin pan, and once frozen store in a plastic freezer bag in the freezer – just like you may already do for all your ‘flavor cubes.’)

1 portion of cooked quinoa

1 portion of cooked wheat berries

For details on how to cook wheat berries without soaking them overnight, see Eating Well.

1 portion of lightly steamed kale leaves (stems removed)

Note: Kale is a member of the cruciferous family so it has all the benefits that cabbage has!

Directions

To make this lunch, I just assembled these items. That’s it! It’s that easy!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

BEANS: Black Bean Soup & Stew (the easy way!)

Why beans?

As mentioned in my previous post about beans , Dr. Servan-Schreiber states: “The anticancer diet is principally composed of vegetables (and legumes) accompanied by olive (or canola or flaxseed) oil or organic butter [by organic butter I think he means organic butter from grass-fed cows, which should have much less saturated fat than regular butter], garlic, herbs, and spices. Meat and eggs are optional. They don’t represent the main ingredients of the plate.” (Anti Cancer, page 119)

You may be someone who would like to cook a pot of legumes (beans and split peas) from scratch but somehow you never get around to it. I must admit, as much as I love to cook, I hardly ever cook beans from scratch. The last time I attempted this process, I soaked and drained the beans and then got sidetracked. When I was ready to cook the beans that had been set aside on my kitchen counter, they had already sprouted!

So for now, anyway, I would rather purchase the Whole Foods’ Smoky Adobo Black Bean Soup – found on the salad bar island at my Whole Foods store — than make my own Black Bean Soup from scratch.

BLACK BEAN SOUP & STEW (the easy way!)

Ingredients

Whole Foods’ Smoky Adobo Black Bean Soup

• 100% vegetarian
• Low in fat (2.5 grams per 1 cup serving),
• No saturated fat (0 grams per 1 cup serving)
• Lots of fiber (8 grams per 1 cup serving),
• A fair amount of sodium (680 mg per 1 cup serving) — but less if you dilute this thick soup as explained below

Directions

Here are some of the many wonderful ways you can customize Whole Foods’ Smoky Adobo Black Bean Soup and make it even more interesting and delicious:

• Add a few Tomato & Onion Chutney Flavor Cubes. This gives the soup more nutrition (more veggies plus turmeric and black pepper) and also reduces the sodium per serving.
• If the soup is very thick (as it often is when there’s not much left in the hot soup container from which you ladle your soup), just add a little water to yoursoup before serving. And then top each serving with chopped fresh cilantro.
• Or instead of thinning the soup with water, add a few Zesty Citrus Flavor Cubes – just enough to add a hint of orange and not so much as to make the soup sweet. The lively orange flavor and touch of sweetness tones down the heat (spiciness) and also thins the consistency. I thought this combination was outstanding, especially when topped with chopped fresh cilantro.
• Serve this thick  soup (like a stew) over any cooked grain or some quinoa and then top it with diced avocado and tomatoes.
• Puree this soup in a blender if you want a smooth texture. Or puree some of this soup and mix it with the rest of the soup for a variety of textures.

To freeze for use later:

• I like to freeze small portions of this soup in a regular-size (not mini size) silicon muffin pan. When frozen, just pop the frozen soup “muffins” out and place them into a plastic bag ( the kind for the freezer). Now you have small portions you can use anytime you want a little black bean soup or stew.
• When this soup goes on sale at Whole Foods, you can stock up and sock it away in your freezer. Just remember it’s there!

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we do at my house.

P.S. I have no interest or relationship with Whole Foods; I just like their soup.

Enjoy and be healthy!

Leni

BEANS: Lentil and Chickpea Soup (Crockpot)

Why beans?

When discussing the anti-cancer diet in general, Dr. Servan-Schreiber in his book, Anti-Cancer, states: “The anticancer diet is principally composed of vegetables (and legumes) accompanied by olive (or canola or flaxseed) oil or organic butter [by organic butter I think he means organic butter from grass-fed cows, which should have much less saturated fat than regular butter], garlic, herbs, and spices. Meat and eggs are optional. They don’t represent the main ingredients of the plate.” (page 119)

For Americans that are used to a meat and potatoes diet, it’s a challenge to create a meal that features legumes (beans, lentils or split peas) and that everyone will enjoy. To that end, I share with you my favorite Lentil and Chickpea Soup. In one variation or another (I almost never make the same recipe twice in exactly the same manner), it’s been a family favorite.

Lentil and Chickpea Soup (crock pot)

This recipe is based on the traditional Moroccan chickpea soup called Harira.

Ingredients

a few tablespoons olive oil

2 medium size onions, finely chopped

4 vegetable or chicken broth bullion cubes

4 cups water (preferably filtered water)

1, 19-ounce can chickpeas (including liquid)

1, 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

• The best flavor, in my opinion, is from the Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes
• I prefer Muir Glen canned products because they come in white enamel lined cans (no plastic liner)
• If you only have canned whole tomatoes on hand, you can use them, too. Using clean hands, squeeze the tomatoes so that they break apart and the tomato pieces slide through your fingers and into the crockpot. (Doesn’t sound great, but it works well.)

1 slightly heaping teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon Celon cinnamon

• For food safety information regarding different varieties of cinnamon, see the Update in the post, Cinnamon: Steel-Cut Oats in a Crockpot.

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• When I use chopped cilantro in cooking, I almost always use the cilantro stems too.

1 cup lentils (regular dried lentils from the supermarket are fine), rinsed

• The only lentils I could find in the supermarket were packaged with a flavor packet for making soup. So I used the lentils and not the packet.

2 Smooth and Mild Garlic Flavor Cubes

• My Smooth and Mild Garlic Flavor Cubes were frozen and had been made in a mini muffin tin. The cubes were slightly less than half an inch in height.

cooked quinoa

Additions to add at the table, so everyone can add exactly the amount desired

chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley (curly parsley is OK too)

lemon wedges

• It’s amazing how a few squirts of fresh lemon juice perks up the flavor

smoked paprika (optional)

• Smoked paprika is a marvelous seasoning, which adds a hint of smokiness and lots of vitamin A besides.
• Available at many gourmet stores and from Penzeys.

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

In a large heavy bottom saucepan, over medium heat, heat the olive oil, and when the oil is hot, add the onions. Saute the onions, stirring as needed. The onions are cooked when they are slightly translucent.  Add the cooked onions to the crock pot.

Reconstitute the bullion cubes with the water. Then pour the bullion into the crock pot.

Then add the following ingredients to the crock pot:

chickpeas (including liquid)

tomatoes

turmeric

freshly ground black pepper

cinnamon

chopped fresh cilantro

lentils

garlic flavor cubes

Cover the crock pot and cook on low overnight or while you are at work OR just as long as it takes for the lentils to cook (which is probably just an hour or two on low…but you should test them for doneness and not go by my time estimate, because it’s just an estimate).

To serve the soup…

Place a 3 or 4 heaping tablespoons of cooked quinoa into each bowl.

Spoon a few ladles of soup over the quinoa.

At the table, pass the following flavorings and garnishes…

chopped fresh Italian parsley (or regular curly parsley)

lemon wedges

smoked paprika

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Enjoy and be healthy,

Leni