Lentil & Mustard Greens Soup: Hunger Challenge Recipe

I was really optimistic that I could make a successful lentil soup on a budget. I was pretty sure it would be tasty and it took very little time to make. It was filling and healthy and comforting. Lee said it was delicious. I used 2 bouillon cubes to try and get flavor into the soup, but what it really needed was spices and a bit of lemon juice. Some aromatics like carrots and celery would have been good too, but I was afraid it would push me over budget.



Lentil & Mustard Greens Soup
Total: $1.81 for 2 servings

Ingredients

8 ounces lentils 62.5¢
2 bouillon cube 28¢
1/2 organic onion 17¢
1 clove garlic 2.5¢
5 cups water
1 Tablespoon Smart Balance 9¢ (you could use butter or oil)
5 ounces, frozen mustard greens 62¢

Instructions

Chop the onions and garlic. Heat a large saucepan and add the Smart Balance. When melted, add the onions and cook stirring for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the garlic, water, bouillon cube and lentils. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer until lentils are tender but not mushy, about 25 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and mash some of the lentils using a potato masher, add more water if necessary and the mustard greens. Heat through and serve.

Rude awakening:
* I stayed just under budget, but there was no money for salad or a glass of wine, let alone dessert.

GET INVOLVED!

♥ Learn about the San Francisco Food Bank

♥ Join the Hunger Challenge

♥ Donate and a receive a thank you special thank you gift!

1. Click on donate to go to the donation page.
2. Fill out the necessary info and make a donation of $50 or more.
3. About 2/3 of the way down the form, look for a header that says, “Food Drive/Event Information (not required)”
4. Use the drop-down box to select “Bloggers Hunger Challenge,” so we’ll know you are participating.
5. Be one of the first 12 people to donate $50 or more and you’ll receive a brand new free cookbook as a thank-you.

The Hunger Challenge

In the 1970's my dad was out of work for a year. For as long as I can remember, my mother tended an organic garden and baked bread from scratch and during that year my dad fished for salmon and went clamming for geoduck. We ate lots of eggs from our chickens and sold the rest for $1 a dozen. But the truth is there was also a lot of dumpster diving.

Actually the guys in the produce department at our nearby Co-op supermarket would set aside the ripest fruit and vegetables that they couldn't sell, for people like my mom and her friends who would stop by and scavenge. I don't remember ever going hungry. My parents used to say we never ate better. We certainly ate healthy food and made the best of whatever we had.

With the exception of that year during the recession, the closest I've ever come to living on a limited budget was eating my dinners at a homeless shelter where I worked. There was a lot of cheap food--macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice, tuna noodle casserole. Some of it was good, most of it wasn't. I'm awfully lucky. I've never had to cut corners when it comes to shopping. I may choose not to spend $10 for a pound of shelled English peas at the farmer's market but I have been known to spend $4 for a pound of peaches and many times that amount for fine cheese.

The Hunger Challenge is a chance to try and walk a mile in someone else's shoes, to see what the experience of eating on a limited budget is all about. In this case that means spending no more than $1 per meal, per person. Succeed or fail, I know I will learn a lot from this experience and the recipes I develop will go to the San Francisco Food Bank as a resource for their clients. My goal is to come up with recipes that are easy, delicious, nutritious and fit the budget. If they are quick to prepare, so much the better.

There are lots of ways to help, build awareness and make a difference. Donate to the food bank, try living on $1 a meal, volunteer at the food bank, write a letter to your government representative--find a way to support those who are struggling. Won't you join me?

GET INVOLVED!

♥ Learn about the San Francisco Food Bank

♥ Join the Hunger Challenge

♥ Donate to the San Francisco and a receive a thank you special thank you gift! Your $1 donation allows the food bank to distribute $9 worth of groceries to local folks living on the edge.

1. Click on donate to go to the donation page.
2. Fill out the necessary info and make a donation of $50 or more.
3. About 2/3 of the way down the form, look for a header that says, “Food Drive/Event Information (not required)”
4. Use the drop-down box to select “Bloggers Hunger Challenge,” so we’ll know you are participating.
5. Be one of the first 12 people to donate $50 or more and you’ll receive a brand new free cookbook as a thank-you.

Shopping for the Hunger Challenge

I had a hard time deciding where to shop for a week of meals that were limited to $1 per person. I chose a big supermarket to try and buy a week's worth of food at one time. I don't know if someone on a budget would have the time and transportation resources to go from store to store for the best bargains.







Oatmeal
Barley
Pinto beans
Lentils
Macaroni
Spaghetti
Chicken bouillon
Organic raspberry jam
Organic peanut butter
Eggs
Cottage cheese
Mustard greens (frozen)
Organic green peas (frozen)
Smart Balance spread
Organic milk
High fiber bread
Cremini mushrooms
Organic celery
Raisins
Carrots
Organic romaine lettuce
Organic onions
Grated parmesan cheese

Total bill $55.02. Did I succeed or fail? Hard to say. A family on food stamps might not have $55 to spend at one time on food. But to get the best deals on products I usually had to buy in larger sizes. Some products were inexpensive but many really cost a lot.

Rude awakenings:
* Frozen vegetables are often a much better deal than fresh

* Bread is really expensive these days. I've gotten used to making my own and had no idea

* Some basic items like potatoes were very expensive and had to be left behind

* I tried to buy organic when I could, but it wasn't always feasible. Sometimes though, organic was cheaper than conventional

* The only meat I bought was bacon, which I will use as a flavoring, not a main dish

* Getting enough nutrients is hard! Some tasty foods are just not nutritious enough to make the cut

* Someone on a budget probably wouldn't have several types of olive oils, nut oils, and three kinds of butter. I chose Smart Balance because it is a healthier fat and can be used for cooking or on toast.

The Hunger Challenge kicks off on Monday I'll tell you more about it then, but for now, head to Blog Appetit and The Inadvertent Gardener to hear how my friends and fellow bloggers Genie and Faith are doing with the challenge.

GET INVOLVED!

♥ Join the Hunger Challenge

Pasteis de Belem--Lisbon, Portugal

"I just returned from Lisbon and only have one thing to say - Belem Pasteis de Nata"


Thanks to a reader for reminding me of what is the can't miss taste of Lisbon. While there are wonderful wines, tasty sausages, perfect cups of espresso and crispy salt cod fritters that all deserve your attention, you haven't truly experienced Lisbon until you have made it through the winding labyrinth of the cafe and bakery, Pasteis de Belem, in a pretty waterfront neighborhood of Lisbon and had a few fresh warm pastries.

Belem is a lovely area, right near the river Tagus, with views of the 25 de Abril bridge which looks amazingly similar to the Golden Gate bridge. It's green and spacious and filled with elegant architectural wonders; there are museums, monasteries, gardens and an outdoor market to explore. But one bite of the pastry, and all that is forgotten.

Known as Pastel de Belem, Pastel de Nata, (pasteis is plural of pastel) this little egg tart is the original version of the one you might find in a dim sum parlor. The crust is layers of crisp flaky pastry and the custard is eggy and sweet and melts in your mouth. Originally they were made by nuns with the eggs that were given to them as offerings. While the pastries can be found all over, I even had good ones at the airport, they are most famous here, the first place they were sold outside of the convent. The blue and white tiled cafe also serves excellent coffee, and other things to nibble, such as salt cod fritters, but the pastries are what have people lining up and jockeying for tables. Dust them with cinnamon and powdered sugar, check out the production behind a glass window and enjoy a treat loved by tourists and locals alike.

While I finish catching up, feel free to check out a few of my favorite photos from Portugal.

The Flavor Bible: Book review

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have done it again. They've written yet another book that is sure to be a classic kitchen reference guide for years to come. The Flavor Bible lists thousands of ingredients and what other ingredients complement them. A typical listing? Grits are compatible with cheese--cheddar and parmesan, corn, cream, garlic, mascarpone, nutmeg, black pepper, salt, andouille sausage, shrimp and Southern cuisine. These days I need ideas more than I need recipes so the format is perfect for me. The Flavor Bible helps solve the "what else can I do with brussels sprouts?" question and expands your culinary horizons with entries for unusual ingredients such as quince (which has an astounding 51 ingredients associated with it), or lavender.

The ingredient lists came about by reviewing menus, restaurant reviews and cookbooks from all across the country. Some ingredients also have a season, weight, volume, and technique(s) indicated. But there is more to the book than just that. Top chefs from Jose Andres to Vikram Vij share their philosophy about using specific ingredients and techniques and there are also lists of intriguing dishes and "flavor affinities" such as butternut squash, risotto and sage or mango, almonds and lime. The book is very similar in format to their earlier award-winning book, What to Drink with What you Eat.

My only nitpicks are that the list of chef experts are mostly from the East Coast and tend to be focused on European cuisines. There are no chef experts representing the cuisines of Asia (with the exception of India), South America or Africa, that said, the book does include quite a wide range of ingredients such as fish sauce, yuzu, plantain and achiote. Also, since even a book such as this cannot be comprehensive a little more room in the margins would have been nice so that notes could be added. Still I recommend this book wholeheartedly. I am already finding it an endless source of recipe inspiration and impossible to put back on the shelf.

Off to Portugal!

A few years ago I wrote WinePassport:Portugal. It was a great project, and I learned a lot about Portuguese wines, but there was no budget for a trip to Portugal. Ever since then I've been very eager to visit. I was in Portugal once, 20 years ago and now I am going back!

I will be in Lisbon, Porto and the Douro Valley for one week. I may or may not be posting from the road. I will have lots to share upon my return, I'm sure. I don't think I'll have much free time, but if you'd like to share your top tips for Portugal, please feel free to leave a comment.

Bedside Reading for the Culinarily Inclined

What do you consider a good beach read? Something entertaining? Light and fluffy? What about a bedside book? I like a vacation read that I can completely lose myself in, but next to my bed I need something I can pick up and put down endlessly. Right now I have a few of those books.

The first is How to Be a Better Foodie and it's subtitled "a bulging little book for the truly epicurious." Can I just say if there is anything more irritating than someone using the word foodie, it has to be someone using the brand name epicurious as if they made it up. It's a website, ok? Despite the annoying title, the book is a lot of fun. It's filled with little tidbits of information that you will either find essential or completely trivial but either way it is equal parts entertaining and informative. Do you know how mustard got its name? What to savor in Franche-Comte? What and who inspired the famous blue Le Creuset? What season to eat fresh lotus flower root? It's all in there and then some. It's not a book to read cover to cover but it it enjoyable nonetheless.


Another book I dare say you won't read cover to cover is A Food Lover's Treasury. The tidbits in this book are all literary. Browse through bon mots or longer passages. You might find the perfect tagline, I rather like "one can say everything best over a meal." The book is organized in a pleasantly idiosyncratic way, again, it's perfect for picking at, like a plate of tapas or mezze. The book favors authors from England and English speaking countries with a few exceptions. Authors from Jane Austen to Emile Zola are included in the book so you're sure to find something to enlighten, enchant or just to while away the time until you fall asleep.



My final pick is The Food Snob's Dictionary. It's the kind of book that can make you feel smug for knowing who Gilbert Le Coze is, the difference between Wagyu and Kobe and how to correctly pronounce Grant Achatz. Of course, my esteemed local bloggers may take great offense to the definition of the Ferry Plaza Marketplace as a "one-stop San Francisco mecca for Food Snobs" then again, maybe not. The recent popularity of the Omnivore's 100 is an indication that we like showing off what we know and what we've tasted. This book falls in that category and the definitions are sometimes witty, sometimes snide and sometimes up for debate.