A simple rice cooker meal

There's something cool about appliances doing all the work. I don't mean actually choosing my options - that's my job. But I do enjoy leaving dinner to cook without worrying about it burning or boiling over. It lets me go putter in the garden, knowing that when I'm ready for dinner, it will be ready for me.

The other night I made this great spicy mushroom rice dish in my rice cooker. I have a very low-tech rice cooker - turn it on and let it do its work. No fuzzy logic. No bells and whistles. And it works great. When the rice is done, the cooker turns to low and keeps it warm until I remember it's time for dinner. A simple salad or a steamed vegetable can round out the meal.

I sautéed leeks and mushrooms, added chipotles in adobo, then stirred in raw rice. I poured the whole thing into the rice cooker. When I have some smoked jack in the fridge, I stir in about half a cup diced at the end to add a "bacon-y" flavor. But the chipotles add enough flavor that it's not necessary. (Chipotles in adobo are dried smoked jalapeños in a spicy tomato sauce. You'll find them in cans in the international section of the grocery store. I use what I need then store the rest in a jar in the refrigerator where they'll last for a few months.)

Spicy Mushroom Rice
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 small leeks
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
8 oz crimini mushrooms, sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups water

Warm the butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Cut the roots off the leaks, then cut them in half lengthwise. Wash them well to get dirt out from between the layers. Thinly slice the white and pale green parts and add them to the warmed oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Raise the heat to medium and add the chopped chipotles, sliced mushrooms and chopped garlic. Cook until mushrooms darken and are tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the salt, pepper and brown rice. Pour into the rice cooker. Add the water. Lower the lid and turn on the cooker.

Serves 4-6.

This reheats well. It also freezes and defrosts well. It's a great go-to easy dinner dish.

Mushroom Oat Soup

This photograph does not do justice to this soup.

I love to switch up my grains. Last week I made mushroom barley soup with oat groats instead of barley. It was yummy.

Oats are fabulous healing foods. They are good for the heart, help lower cholesterol, and contain beta glucan — an excellent immune booster. And they aren't just for breakfast.

For this soup I used the whole groats - not the ones with husks on that are used for sprouting. They look a lot like barley, and add a similar silkiness to soups when cooked.

The parsnip adds an underlying richness to the soup. If you don't have one, just omit it. Or stir in a couple of teaspoons of tamari at the end to deepen the flavor.

You can use any combination of mushrooms that total approximately a pound. And if you're not able to go outside and pick a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary, you can use dried instead. Start with a sprinkle and let it cook a while before you decide whether to add more. They should enhance the flavor, not stand out too much.

Also, if you're using fabulous roasted vegetable stock, you'll only need a couple of cups in the large pot of soup. Use water for the rest of the liquid.

Mushroom Oat Soup
1/2 cup oat groats
1/2 oz dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms
3 medium leeks
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 lb oyster mushrooms
1/4 lb shiitake mushrooms
1/2 lb (or 6 oz) cremini mushrooms
6 cups vegetable stock
2 medium carrots
1 medium parsnip
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp minced thyme
1/2 tsp minced rosemary
2 tbsp minced parsley to serve

Put the oats in a bowl with water to cover by 2 inches and leave to soak 6 hours or overnight. Drain.

Put the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave until softened, about 20 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the liquid and slice them thinly. Reserve the liquid.

Cut the hairy root end off the leeks, then slice them in half lengthwise. Wash them thoroughly in cold water, making sure to rinse any dirt out from among the leaves. Thinly slice the white and pale green parts.

Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Slice the oyster, shiitake and cremini mushrooms thinly and add to the pot. Cook about 10 minutes until the mushrooms have released their liquid and it has evaporated.

Peel the carrots and parsnip and slice thinly crosswise.

Add the reserved mushroom liquid, drained oat groats, vegetable stock, carrots and parsnips to the pot. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, thyme and rosemary. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook until the oats are tender, about 35 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley. Serve hot.

Serves 8

This soup reheats well too.

Thick Bean and Tomato Soup

The weather is cooling off in the evenings (down to the 50s), making soup a welcome meal.

A good vegetable stock and some vegetables and grains or beans makes a great soup.

This Bean and Tomato soup is a little more complicated than I usually make, but it's worth the extra time. First I made a thick tomato soup and puréed it. Then I added cooked beans and more chopped vegetables for texture. When they were tender, dinner was served. (For my simpler creamy tomato soup, see here.)

We ate this delicious soup three times this week, and I've frozen the rest to eat in future weeks. It makes a lot, which is a plus in my book.

I love good soup.

Thick Bean and Tomato Soup
3 tbsp butter or olive oil
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced 1/2 inch
1 leek, white only, halved and sliced
3 onions, peeled and diced, divided use
3 cups diced celery, divided use
28 oz can tomatoes
1 lb tomatoes, quartered and stem removed
1 tbsp dried Mexican oregano
3 cups vegetable stock and 5 cups water (or some combination)
4 carrots, diced (about 2 cups)
2 fennel bulbs, diced (about 2 cups)
1 1/3 cups white beans, cooked (or 2 cans, drained)

Melt butter in large soup kettle and sauté potato, leek, 1 onion and 1 cup diced celery, stirring frequently, until onion just starts to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add canned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes; stir well, scraping any onion off bottom of pan. Add oregano, water and stock. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook, loosely covered, until soup begins to thicken, about 45 minutes.

Remove from heat and purée with an immersion blender (or in batches in a blender). Season with a teaspoon of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Depending on the saltiness of the stock you used, you'll need to add more salt. I added close to a tablespoon. (Still very little salt compared to packaged soups.)

Stir in carrot, fennel, remaining onion and celery, and simmer gently until they are almost tender. Stir in the cooked beans, and keep cooking until all is warm and tender, stirring regularly, about 25 minutes total.

Taste and season to taste.

Serves 10-16

Lasts a week in the fridge. Freezes well too.

Simple Stir Fry

I came home after a long day of work, put brown rice in the rice cooker, and sat down for a rest.

Then I put together this simple stir fry to go with the rice. We also had some cole slaw I'd made in the early morning before work and refrigerated. It was a simple, healthy and tasty meal.

As I wrote down the recipe, I realized it sounds long and complicated. It's really just two simple sauces, pre-cooked broccoli and tofu, and a few vegetables. Once you get into the swing of it, it's an easy recipe to pull together in under 20 minutes.

Simple Stir Fry
3 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp brown rice vinegar
1/2 tsp crushed red chile flakes
3 tbsp arrowroot powder
4 cups broccoli (florets and stems in 1 inch pieces)
14-16oz firm tofu, cut in 1/2 inch dice
2 tsp roasted sesame oil
1 tbsp organic canola oil
1 leek
3 large red radishes (3/4 cup diced)
8 large cloves garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
6 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk together tamari, maple syrup, vinegar, chile flakes and 1 1/4 cups water. Set aside.

Separately, stir the arrowroot into 1/4 cup water. (Arrowroot is an easily digested starch that comes from roots. You could use organic corn starch in place of it, but that's less easily digested.)

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and cook the broccoli and tofu for 3 minutes until the broccoli is tender crisp. Drain and dump in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Then drain and set aside.

Cut the root and dark greens off the leek. Cut it in half and wash out all the dirt. Slice crosswise into thin slices. Remove the stems from the mushrooms (reserve for vegetable stock) and slice the caps thinly.

Heat sesame and canola oils over medium-high heat. Add the leek, radishes, garlic and ginger. Lower heat to medium and cook, stirring, until fragrant - about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened - just a few minutes.

Add the tamari sauce, turn heat to high, cover and cook until bubbling, about 2 minutes. Then add arrowroot mixture (stir it first to reconstitute), stirring until the sauce is glossy, under 1 minute. Add the cherry tomatoes and reserved broccoli and tofu. Stir fry until heated through, 3-4 minutes. Serve hot over brown rice.

Thick Lentil Soup

On these chilly days, I automatically reach for the lentils.

Nothing is as warming as having a big pot of lentil soup in the fridge, ready to be re-heated in the middle of a busy day of gardening, or eaten in the evening by the fire with hot rolls and butter.

Best of all, lentils are a very good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. They help your body lower cholesterol and keep your colon healthy. And like all legumes, they are good for the heart. They have significant quantities of folate which lowers homocysteine and magnesium which helps your veins and arteries relax.

This is the lentil soup we've been eating this week. It's actually more of a stew than a soup. You can serve it over brown rice, or add a little extra liquid and eat it as a thick soup.

Vary the recipe depending on what's in your fridge. I was going to add turnips, but they seem to have disappeared from the Hollywood Farmers Market. I fried up some cipollini onions, which add a sweet rich flavor, but regular onions would be fine too, or even the small white pearl onions. If you don't have fresh rosemary, use 1 tsp dried. Rosemary is good for the digestion, so it's a good herb to add to bean dishes if you don't eat them enough that your body is used to breaking them down.

Like all good soups, this one gets better with age. So make a big pot and enjoy it throughout the week, knowing that it is good for your body and soul.

Thick Lentil Soup
1 cup green lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
4 carrots, diced
1 leek
4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
28-oz can diced tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
8-9 cipollini onions
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

Put the lentils, onion, garlic, carrots, leek, potato, celery and rosemary in a large pot, and cover with a quart of water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 45-50 minutes until the lentils are tender.

Add the tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Simmer gently.

Peel and halve the cipollini onions and fry in the vegetable oil until golden brown. Add to the pot.

Stir in lemon juice just before serving.

Serves 6-8

Healthy Fast Food

I was asked the other day if I know any healthy take-out places.

Actually, I don't. I'm sure Whole Foods and similar stores have good prepared meals, but I've only eaten them cold while traveling.

When we do take-out, it's pizza (spinach on my half) or Thai from our local delivery place (spicy eggplant tofu!). It tastes good, and the next day we are swollen with salt.

If I want healthy take-out, I look to my freezer.

Last week I dug out a container of Lentils Burgundy. This is a great dish because it tastes good, freezes well, and can be turned into soup by adding more liquid. I make it with Two-Buck Chuck, not burgundy, and it is still delicious. (Lentils Chuck doesn't have quite the same ring.)

When I originally cooked it, I used the large brownish-green lentils I buy at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Lentils are a good source of protein (9 grams per half cup) and have lots of iron. They are also loaded with heart-protective nutrients, including folate and fiber. My dad would recommend serving them with a nice sausage. I've never found the need.

While the lentils were defrosting, I reheated some leftover sweet potatoes, and prepared some Tuscan kale. I washed the kale, removed the stems, and chopped the leaves coarsely. I sautéd half an onion and a clove of garlic in a little olive oil. When it was tender I added the kale and a chopped tomato, sprinkled on salt and pepper, and let it cook, covered, until tender, stirring occasionally so it didn't burn.

It was a good healthy meal in less time than it would take to call for delivery.

Lentils Burgundy
2 1/2 cups brown lentils, rinsed
6 cups water or vegetable stock - I used 3 cups of each
1 bay leaf
2 onions, diced
2 tbsp oil
3 carrots, diced
2 leeks, halved, washed well, and sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme or 2 sprigs fresh
1 1/2 cups burgundy

Combine lentils, water or stock, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and cook until lentils are done, about 30 minutes. Don't drain.

Sauté onions and carrot in oil until tender, about 8 minutes. Scoop out and add to lentils. Sauté leeks in the same pan until soft but not browned. Add them to the lentils and cook gently until all the vegetables are tender. Then add the garlic, thyme and wine. Cook another 25-30 minutes until thick.

Serves 4-6.