This recipe is one of those recipes that have it all. It’s delicious (that’s the main thing right?), simple, quick to prepare and good for our body – sautéed green beans with mushrooms. The beans in the recipe are frozen, the kind I always keep in my freezer. The mushrooms are sautéed with red onions, garlic and spices. Than adding the green beans, that are cooked shortly in boiling water prior to that. The preparation of the whole recipe takes 10 minutes.

A quick word about cleaning the mushrooms. A well-known rule is that you shouldn’t wash mushrooms in water. Rinsing mushrooms means the mushrooms will absorb water into it and damage their texture. As a rule, most edible mushrooms are grown in a sterile environment and do not need to be cleaned at all before use. But, admit I always clean mushrooms by wiping it with clean paper towel or a very clean kitchen towel. I also pluck the tip of their foot.

How to make sautéed green beans with mushrooms?

Start with the sautéing of the mushrooms. In a wide pan, wide enough to later also contain the beans, heat olive oil. Add finely chopped red onion, a pinch of salt and black pepper and sauté while stirring for 2 minutes. After that, add coarsely chopped mushrooms and sauté for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to sweat. Add chopped garlic, and lots of it, and cook for just one more minute, until you start to smell the garlic.

At the same time, prepare the green beans. In the recipe I use frozen green beans, which have a short cooking time. The green beans are cooked in boiling water with half a teaspoon of salt, for 3 minutes. Start counting the time after the second boil. Then, strain the beans and add it to the mushroom mixture.

Along with the green beans, add to the mushroom mixture soy sauce, sesame oil and lots and lots of black pepper. In my opinion there is no need to add salt beyond what we added, and the soy sauce is salty enough, but taste and check according to your personal taste. If necessary – add of course. If you don’t have sesame oil at home – buy it. Really. It’s a great product. Despite its name, it’s usually not used as an oil but as a spice, and it brings great Asian flavors. A small bottle will last you for loads and loads of time.

Stir the mixture gently for a couple of minutes till evenly covered and that’s it. Already ready. You can eat it hot or cold. See the accurate recipe below.

Here are some more side dish you’ll enjoy:

• Baked Acorn Squash with Harissa and Date Honey
• Cauliflower Rice with Mushrooms
• Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Spiced Chickpeas and Yogurt Dressing
• Wild Rice with Red Cabbage

Sautéed Green Beans with Mushrooms

Prep Time 2 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 12 minutes mins

Servings: 4

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Ingredients:

  

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• 10 oz / 250 gr frozen green beans
• 7 oz / 200 gr button or cremini mushrooms clean and coarsely chopped
• 1 small or ½ big red onion finely chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce for GF please use GF soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon sesame oil for GF please use GF sesame oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• for cooking the green beans – a pot with boiling water and ½ a teaspoon of salt

Instructions:

 

• Clean the mushrooms with paper towel or a very clean kitchen towel, and slice them roughly.
• Heat a wide skillet with olive oil. Add finely chopped red onion, a pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes.
• Add coarsely chopped mushrooms and sauté for another 2 minutes while stirring. Add chopped garlic and cook for another minute until you can smell the garlic.
• At the same time, cook the green beans. Place the green beans in a pot filled with boiling water and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes from the moment of boiling. Strain.
• Transfer the cooked green beans to the pan with the mushroom mixture. Season with soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper. Mix carefully until the green beans and mushrooms are evenly coated with the seasoning, and cook for another one minute. Turn off the heat and serve. Enjoy!

Did you made this recipe? Let me knowLeave a comment or share it on Instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Sautéed Green Beans with Mushrooms הופיע לראשונה ב-The Happy Lentils.

Dreamy and VEGAN shepherd’s pie with green lentils and chestnuts as the base. I replaced the traditional potato puree with sweet potato puree and it’s soooo good. Delicious, comforting and sweet – a real celebration. This recipe has a few steps in it, but trust me – it’s so worthy.

How to make Vegan Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

This vegan sweet potato shepherd’s pie has 2 layers in it – the lentils layer as the base, and the sweet potato layer on top.

The sweet potato layer:

The first step will be cooking the sweet potatoes. There are lots of ways to cook sweet potatoes. One of my favorite methods is to roast it on a bed of coarse salt. That way, there’s no added liquid to the sweet potatoes, and all the sweet and wonderful flavors are highlighted and concentrated. The method is very simple – after thoroughly washing the sweet potatoes, brush it with some olive oil and poke it with a fork or a knife a few times. Prepare a suitable baking pan, and sprinkle cover it with coarse salt. It should be about 1/4-inch (or 0.5 cm) thick. Place the sweet potatoes on the coarse salt bed. Bake on high heat for about an hour, until very soft.

After the sweet potatoes are cooked, cool and then pill off its skin. The sweet potatoes’ skin should come off pretty easily. Place the cooked and pilled sweet potatoes in a bowl and mash them. Since they are so soft, you can easily mash them using a fork. You can also use a potato masher. To the sweet potato puree add olive oil, finely chopped parsley and season according to the recipe.

The lentils’ base:

While the sweet potatoes are in the oven, you can start making the lentils’ layer that is the base of the shepherds pie. Regarding the lentils – I always soak green (and also black) lentils for at least two hours. Soaking lentils is not mandatory, so it’s absolutely your choice whether to soak it or not. Start by briefly sautéing diced onions and celery. Add raw and finely grated sweet potato, and then the rest of the ingredients as listed in the recipe, like chestnuts, oregano, rosemary and crushed tomatoes. As for the chestnuts, I use ready to use peeled and roasted chestnuts.

Cook the lentil mixture over medium-low heat for about half an hour, with the lid closed . During cooking, the lentils will absorb all the liquids and soften. At the end of cooking, leave the lid on for a few more minutes, before moving on to the next step.

Assembling the dish :

Prepare your 8X12-inch (20X30 cm), or similar size, oven safe baking dish and grease it lightly with olive oil. Place the lentils’ layer at the bottom and smooth it. After that, layer the sweet potato puree over. You can use a fork to smooth down the puree and gently score the top a bit.

Bake the vegan sweet potato shepherd’s pie in the oven for one hour. If you desire to get a golden crush on top (and trust me – you do!), carefully take out the shepherd’s pie from the oven after 50 minutes, drizzle some olive oil on top, and return the dish to the oven for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Enjoy!

Looking for more recipes with sweet potatoes?

• Vegan Adzuki Bean, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup
• Lentils and Kale Stuffed Baked Sweet Potato
• Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Spiced Chickpeas and Yogurt Dressing

Vegan Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Servings: 1 8X12-inch (20X30 cm), or similar size, baking dish

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Ingredients:

  

1x2x3x

for the sweet potatoes puree –

• 3 medium size sweet potatoes – about 2.2 pounds/ 1 kg well washed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ cup parsley finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

for baking the sweet potatoes –

• 1 pound/ ½ kg coarse salt
• olive oil for brushing the sweet potatoes

for the lentil layer –

• 1 cup green lentils washed well and drained. although not mandatory – I prefer soaking the lentils for at least 2 hours
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 sprigs of celery (1 cup) chopped
• 1 small sweet potato (1 cup) pilled and grated finely
• 3½-oz / 100 gr peeled and roasted chestnuts coarsely chopped
• 14-oz / 400 gr crushed tomatoes ot tomato puree
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-3 springs of fresh oregano, chopped, or 1 tablespoon dry oregano
• 1 sprig rosemary (1 tablespoon) chopped
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup water

Instructions:

 

• starting with baking the potatoes – preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Prepare a baking pan lined with baking paper or silicone mat and sprinkle a thick layer of coarse salt on it, which will serve as a base for the sweet potatoes. Brush the sweet potatoes with some olive oil and prick them all over using a fork. Place them on the coarse salt bed, and bake for about an hour, until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Allow to cool.
• While the sweet potatoes are baking, start preparing the lentils' layer. In a wide, deep pan, heat olive oil. Add chopped onions and celery and sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add finely grated sweet potatoes and chopped garlic and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients – coarsely chopped chestnuts, crushed tomatoes (or tomato puree), oregano, rosemary, sweet paprika, salt, black pepper and one cup of water. Mix well, cover and bring to a boil. After boiling, lower to medium-low heat and cook for 25-30 minutes, until all the liquid evaporates and the lentils are soft. Leave covered for a few more minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, lightly grease a 8X12-inch (20X30 cm, or similar size) baking dish with a little olive oil.
• Prepare the sweet potato puree – remove the peel from the sweet potatoes, it should peels off quite easily. Transfer the sweet potatoes to a bowl and mash the sweet potatoes with a fork or a potato masher. Add to the mixture 2 tablespoons of olive oil, finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper and mix well.
• Assembling the dish: place the lentil stew on the bottom of the baking pan and flatten it using a fork or a spoon. Place the sweet potato puree on top of the lentils' layer and flatten it evenly. If desired, you can move a fork over the top layer and create a nice shape. Bake uncovered for an hour. If you want a nice brown crust of the top layer, carefully take the dish out of the oven after 50 minutes of baking, drizzle over some olive oil and return to the oven for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Enjoy!

Did you made this recipe? Let me knowLeave a comment or share it on Instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Vegan Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie הופיע לראשונה ב-The Happy Lentils.

Like every year, at the end of last year I made a list of things I wanted to do. I’m a list person. I love lists and therefore have millions of these for any cause or purpose. They help me get focused on what I need to do and actually calm me.

Ironically, my list of goals for 2020 included things like reading more books and making a huge jigsaw puzzle (I know, you should always be careful for what you wish for…), which I obviously marked as checked with no problem. However, it also had in it things like getting to know a new country, which weren’t quite as possible this year…

So this year I decided not to make my annual list. Not because I don’t have such, I actually have, and lots of it. But for some reason I don’t feel like it this year, nor do it seems to fit the spirit of current time.

So instead of a list of plans – I made a strawberry shortcake!

My strawberry cake is basically a light sponge cake, topped with sweet strawberries and then an almond streusel … let me tell you one thing – wow. The batter of the cake has in it both almond flour and yoghurt, which makes the cake especially soft.

There are 2 versions to the recipe – one vegetarian and the other vegan. The vegan recipes follows the vegetarian one. Both are excellent!

May we a sweet year!

Looking for more sweet recipes to make you feel good?

• Vegan cherry crumb bars
• Vegan chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate and pistachio
• Upside down orange muffins with semolina and spelt flour
• Vegan tahini ice cream- no churn

Strawberry Cake with Almond streusel

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 1 20″ round cake pan

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Ingredients:

  

1x2x3x

• 100 gr / 3½ Oz butter softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 200 ml /7 Oz natural yogurt or greek yogurt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup ground almonds
• 10 gr / 2 teaspoons baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 300 gr / ¾ pound strawberries washed and drained
• dusting sugar for topping as preferred

for the almond streusel –

• ½ cup sliced/ slivered almonds
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter softened )please see notes(

Instructions:

 

• Preheat the oven to 330°F/170°C and prepare a baking pan greased or lined with baking paper.
• Prepare the almond streusel mixture – place all the streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Using your clean hands, process the mixture so that all the almonds are evenly coated. Keep aside.
• Wash the strawberries and slice them vertically in half and / or quarters. Keep aside.
• In a mixer bowl with a flat beater on, place soft butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract. Beat the mixture on medium speed until a creamy and even. Add an egg, continue to process until it is absorbed into the mixture and then add the yogurt. Process until a uniform mixture is obtained.
• Add the dry ingredients – flour, ground almonds, baking powder and a pinch of salt and process until a uniform mixture is obtained. If necessary – stop the mixer and scrape the sides with a spatula so that all the ingredients are mixed evenly.
• Transfer the mixture to a greased pan. Arrange over the sliced ​​strawberries and top it with the almond streusel we kept aside.
• Bake for 55 minutes to an hour, until the cake is completely stable and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out dry. Let the cake cool before you slice it.
• After cooling and/ or before serving, sprinkle the cake with dusting sugar.

Notes:

• The recipe is also suitable for 30 cm/ 12-inch bread pan
• you can substitute brown sugar with regular sugar
• As for the streusel – personally I prefer to use coconut oil (love the flavor it adds), but of course you can also use butter. In any case, it should be in a soft state. If the coconut oil/ butter is solid- heat it in the microwave for a few seconds, and if it is liquidish – put it in the fridge for a few minutes.

Did you made this recipe? Let me knowLeave a comment or share it on Instagram and tag #thehappylentils

Strawberry VEGAN Cake with Almond streusel

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings: 1 20″ round cake pan

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Ingredients:

  

1x2x3x

• 1½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup ground almonds
• 1 cup brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 10 gr / 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 100 ml / ½ cup coconut oil in a soft or liquid state
• 125 ml /4½ Oz natural or greek vegan yogurt
• 113 gr / 4 oz apple puree
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 300 gr / ¾ pound strawberries washed and drained
• dusting sugar for topping as preferred

for the almond streusel –

• ½ cup sliced/ slivered almonds
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil softened

Instructions:

 

• Preheat the oven to 330°F/170°C and prepare a baking pan greased or lined with baking paper.
• Prepare the almond streusel mixture – place all the streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Using your clean hands, process the mixture so that all the almonds are evenly coated. Keep aside.
• Wash the strawberries and slice them vertically in half and / or quarters. Keep aside.
• In a large mixing bowl place all the dry ingredients: flour, ground almonds, brown sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt, mix. In a separate bowl, place all the wet ingredients: coconut oil (soft to liquid), vegan yogurt, apple puree, lemon juice and vanilla extract, and mix until well combined.
• Add the wet ingredients mixture to the dry ingredients mixture and mix well until a uniform mixture is obtained.
• Transfer the mixture to a greased pan. Arrange over the sliced ​​strawberries and top it with the almond streusel we kept aside.
• Bake for 55 minutes to an hour, until the cake is completely stable and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out dry. Let the cake cool before you slice it.
• After cooling and/ or before serving, sprinkle the cake with dusting sugar.

Notes:

• The recipe is also suitable for 30 cm/ 12-inch bread pan
• you can substitute brown sugar with regular sugar

Did you made this recipe? Let me knowLeave a comment or share it on Instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Strawberry Cake with Almond Streusel + Vegan Version הופיע לראשונה ב-The Happy Lentils.

“Mom, these pants are too small for me, it’s because I grew up.” Ido, 7, tells me almost every morning in recent weeks. And I look – the pants barely reach above his ankles. You can see his entire socks.. How about that, they were too big for him just a while back. “Mom, these leggings are too tight for me,” Tamar, 9, but acting more and more like a 14-year-old, says, and immediately takes them off: “Throw them away”. How could they be too small for her, I refuse to believe and examine her lower body, this pair is one of my favorites, it’s thick and warm, I wanted her to wear them forever..

[one-half-first][/one-half-first]

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After a while of putting it off, I finally switched out the summer cloths to winter in my kids closet this last weekend, a really unnecessary operation, if you ask me, since about three-quarters of these clothes shouldn’t have been in their closet long ago, but rather in a donation bag. And the closet is like yelling at me- they grew up, your kids grew up in a year, they’re not as small as they used to be, look at all those clothes, they’re all small on them. And it’s not like I needed a reminder. Every day, even a few times a day, it feels like time slaps me in the face and reminds me how my babies are not so much babies any more. And still, I found myself moving to the higher shelves swimsuits, shorts and tank tops, knowing my kids will never wear them again, simply because I find it hard to part with them.

Last year I organised my entire closet using the KonMarie method. The KonMarie method is basically an approach to organization and decluttering (but goes much deeper then this), founded by Marie Kondo, which she describes in her brilliant book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. The principle is simple- tidying up and discarding of objects so that you surround yourself only with… objects that make you happy, that spark joy(!). And according to the method I spread a-l-l my clothes, including bags and shoes, belts and scarves, and god knows what else I had in my closet. I held every garment in my hands and asked myself: does it makes me happy, does it bring me joy? You can only imagine that I finished the day with 10 (!) garbage bags packed with clothes and other accessories I didn’t need any more and a Japanese-like closet which included a very few items, but items that made me happy.

Organizing my kids closet using the KonMarie method didn’t go quite so smooth.. I did filter out quite a bit of clothes, but at the end of the process, my kids still had enough clothes they could wear every day during the season without having to do laundry even once. Obviously, the reason for this is emotional. The question I asked myself was whether the object brings me joy, and with my children, well, every garment reminds me of something, and separating from their clothes does not necessarily brings me joy, many times it brings me a burst of nostalgia and a sense of time slipping through my fingers. After all, it feels like just a second ago I folded Tamar body clothes from a ballet class and today I fold her girl scouts uniforms, knowing that it won’t be long till I’ll find myself folding other type of uniforms (in Israel army duty is mandatory) makes my heart miss a beat.

When my children were babies I would prepare them the famous babies soup and mash everything together, making sure that every teaspoon they swallow will include protein and carbs, vitamins and fats and minerals, all at once. In this respect (and many others), soup is a wonderful form of food, bordering on peace of mind. Today I spread everything on the plate, all the food groups are placed side by side, and they are the ones who choose what and how much to eat. And I look from the side, hoping that they will eat both from this and from that, not too much of one thing and not too little of another. And like with the clothes, I understand that these are not the pants that are shortening, but the legs that get longer. More and more choices are being passed on to them, the seasons are changing and time is flying by, and soon I’ll climb again to the upper shelves of the closet to put there all the winter sweaters, and then bring down again all the shorts, that will probably be a little shorter than they were the summer before.

I’ve always been in love with soups. Something in this warm, round bowl, which can hold a whole world in it, simply captures me. Red lentil and squash soup is a soup I make in the winter at least once a week, and it never disappoints. The coriander pesto gives the soup a twist, along with the chili pepper – don’t skip it.

Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Coriander Pesto
serves 8

Ingredients:
for the soup-
1 medium butter squash (about 600 gr/1.5 lb), sliced to large cubes
1 cup red lentils, washed and drained
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 cup coriander, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 cups water (about 1.5 liter/1.6 qt)

for the coriander pesto-
2 cups coriander, including stems
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
2 garlic gloves
1/2 green chili pepper (optional but recommended)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions:
1. Using a mortar and pestle (or other kind of a grinder), crush roughly coriander seeds and cumin seeds.
2. In a large pot over a medium-high heat, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the crashed coriander and cumin seeds, and turmeric, stir for about 1 minute to open flavors. Add the chopped onion and squash, stir and fry for another minute. Add the red lentils and then water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add half of the chopped coriander (1/2 cup), reduce to a medium heat and let it cook for about half an hour, until the butter squash and the lentils are soft and ready.
3. Turn off the heat and add the remaining chopped coriander (1/2 cup). Mash the soup into the desired texture – you can use a blender or a potato mash. I like using a potato masher so that the texture of the soup won’t be so smooth.
4. Prepare the coriander pesto- in a food processor place coriander, pumpkin seeds, garlic, green chili pepper, salt and pepper. Processors to a relatively smooth paste texture. Drizzle in the olive oil while the food processor is still running, till you get the desired texture (the pesto should be relatively thick). Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
5. Serve the soup in a bowl with at least one tablespoon of the pesto, and more pesto on the side.
6. You can keep the soup in the refrigerator for up to four days, or freeze in portions. The pesto is kept well in the fridge for up to 10 days, and it is best to pour some olive oil over it to help preserve the freshness.

Notes:
• You can use any type of squash instead of the butter squash. You can also use sweet potato.
• If you don’t have a mortar and pestle or other spice grinder, crush the seeds using a rolling pin or even a tin can, but don’t skip this process, not only for taste reasons but also for texture reasons- it’s quite unpleasant to encounter with whole seeds in your soup..
• Soups, in particular legumes soups, tend to become thicker after a day in the refrigerator. You can add a little water to this out its thickness.

הפוסט Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Coriander Pesto הופיע לראשונה ב-The Happy Lentils.