LARG

So, in my college dining hall we had this one delicious soup on the menu rotation. It was called "lentil and roasted garlic soup," but we referred to it as LARG. I realize "LARG" is not an appetizing name for a soup. LARG also did not have an appetizing appearance. It looked a lot like sewer sludge. However, it was DELICIOUS. One of the very best things on the (admittedly mediocre) dining hall menu rotation.

And then, my junior year I think, they changed food providers and WE LOST LARG. Until now, kind of? My friend Molly found a LARG recipe in a cookbook and she & I both made it and have been discussing how best to recreate the LARG of our college days.

Ingredients

• 1 whole head of garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• a couple of carrots, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound French lentils
• 8 cups vegetable stock or mineral water (I used vegetable Better than Boullion to make the stock)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic 

Disclosure: I didn't have any rosemary or balsamic vinegar. I'm not fancy, gosh.

Anyway, first heat the oil in a big pot and add the onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes. Then add the s&p and bay leaves. And the rosemary if you have any. Then add the broth and lentils, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour or until the lentils are tender. (If this happens before your garlic finishes roasting, take it off the heat.)

MEANWHILE roast a head of garlic. I used elephant garlic and it was pretty awesome. I realized I didn't have any foil so I put in in a bread pan and covered it with a cookie sheet and some olive oil. Kind of ghetto, but it worked!

Then, put the roasted garlic in a blender or food processor, maybe with a little water. Once it's blended add it to your soup along with the fresh minced garlic and the vinegar (if you have it) and bring it back up to a boil for a few minutes.

And then it's done, hooray! I made it when my college friend Julia was here and we both agreed it would be more college-authentic if you blended the whole thing to make it more sludgey. However, your mileage may vary, because maybe you don't want your soup to resemble sewer sludge for some reason??

Needs to be sludgier.

My cat Duarte approves. Or at least does not blatantly disapprove.

Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Seed Pesto

I got this from vegweb.com's recipes; it is AMAZING.

Ingredients:
1 head of roasted garlic (I bought mine pre-roasted from Sunflower Market)
1-3 cups of basil (up to you how much you want; the original recipe called for three cups, but there's no way I was fitting three cups into the magic bullet)
1 cup + a smidge of Olive Oil
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 cup walnuts (or other nuts)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (which makes it cheesy-like)

Blend all ingredients, gradually adding the olive oil and garlic -- make sure it's the right amount of garlic for you (I would guess I used about...10 cloves? Roasted garlic is milder than raw, so don't be afraid).

Use on pasta -- though we're considering also trying it on the vegan eggplant I posted about a few days ago!

I didn't measure the olive oil, just kept adding, and I think I added too much -- but it was so delicious. Highly recommended, and our new favorite vegan "thing."

Easy delicious pasta sauce!

So a forewarning: I RARELY, if ever, cook according to anything one could conceivably call an ordinary recipe with measurements. I do a lot of adding ingredients, tasting, and adjusting accordingly. Thus most of the measurements included with this recipe are rough estimates and depend, of course, on tasting. [From here forward I'll take more note of what actual proportions I use!]

Ingredients:

2 regular cans of diced tomatoes (I recommend the Italian-style kind that have basil and oregano in them, but any kind will work)

2-3 spicy Italian sausages*

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

A small handful of chopped fresh onion

3 tablespoons chopped jar garlic

3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, diced

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1-2 tablespoons dried basil

1-2 teaspoons salt

2-3 teaspoons cracked pepper

Optional: 1-2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar/balsamic vinegar/red wine (doesn't have to be good)

*I've also made this recipe with chorizo & ground beef; for vegetarians/vegans it works very well with fake ground-beef, or is also delicious without (but in that case I recommend another can of tomatoes).

Take a large sauce pan, and cover the bottom with the olive oil. Remove sausages from casings (this is extremely easy to do and essentially involves squeezing the sausage filling from the casings) and break into small chunks - about bite-sized. Sauté sausage pieces with 2 of the heads of garlic and the onions. As the sausage begins to cook, add the tomatoes directly to the pan with the sausage. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Note: the ground beef and tofu-ground beef take less cooking time; and obviously, skip the meat-prep step entirely if you intend to serve without meat.

Add the jar garlic, salt, and pepper, stir, and let simmer for about a minute. Taste. Add basil and oregano. Taste. Adjust proportions of any spices according to personal preference. Let simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the garlic and onions from burning and the sausage from sticking. Add a splash more olive oil to taste; at this point add vinegar and/or wine (I recommend only adding one, but your personal taste preference can dictate if you'd like to use both). Reduce heat, let simmer for 5-10 more minutes.

Good over pasta, in eggplant parmesan, baked with portabello caps, over veggies, etc! Served over your average-sized serving of pasta this makes about 7-9 servings (proportion based on the eating habits of 4 women in their early 20s, aka my roommates and I - this usually will feed the four of us once, and me alone about 4 times besides).

Simple Bean Dip

Sorry for the lack of pictures, y'all. Our puppy chewed the camera cord, so we have technical difficulties.

Anyway, here is the simple bean dip I made for Super Bowl today:

1 can of pinto beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
3 cloves minced garlic
2-3 TBL of lime juice
Cumin (I didn't measure)
Salt, pepper, cayenne (I didn't measure)

I used the Magic Bullet (yes, from all of those really lame infomercials) to mix this all together. Play with the spices, and feel free to add others, or perhaps lose the lime (Nicole isn't a fan of lime, so I'll try it without next time). I really liked the "kick" the cayenne gave this.

The Super Bowl is over, and it's all gone!