Greens with Brown Lentils, Brown Rice Noodles with Artichoke Hearts, Corn-off-the-Cob (No Added Fat)

Merry Christmas! In the afternoon, my five-year-old daughter helped me to make a nice batch of big oatmeal raisin - chocolate chip cookies. I modified a recipe that I found online by slightly reducing the raisins and adding a bit of fair-trade organic (in fact, all the ingredients were organic) chocolate chips, plus walnuts and the zest of one organic tangerine. The cookies were quite good!

Tonight for Christmas dinner, my wife asked me to use up a package of greens that she had. I decided to cook lentils and greens as a main dish. I love artichoke hearts and had picked up a favorite packaged one yesterday. I was looking forward to making a pasta dish with the hearts, and did that as well.

Finally, I made some corn-off-the-cob as I usually do by turning my gas burner on and turning the cob (after removing the husks and silk) slowly over the flame, then using a knife to cut off the kernels. I sprinkled on just a little bit of fresh Meyer lemon juice and think I forgot to put a bit of salt on. When I would cook with more fat, I'd also put a little Earth Balance vegan margarine on. Here is how I made the greens and the noodles:

Greens

Ingredients

• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1/2 cup brown lentils
• Two medium carrots cubed into approximately 3/8" pieces
• Half small yellow onion, cut into half along the equator, then cut into half moons maybe 1/4" thick
• 4 cups (packed) de-stemmed mixed greens like kale and collards
• 1/2 t salt
• 1t freshly ground black pepper
• (Optional) 2t black sesame seed (good source of calcium, iron, and fiber)

Process

1. I got a large stock pot with water and a vegan bouillon cube boiling then added the lentils. Brown lentils usually take a 1:3 ratio of water and cook over 30-45m; I just used ample water since additional ingredients were going to be added. I didn't cover the pan.
2. About 10 minutes later, I added the carrot and, about 2 minutes after that, the onion
3. In another 15 minutes or so, I added the greens and salt and let it all cook for another 10 minutes
4. Having cooked for 35 minutes or so, I turned the heat off and let the vegetables sit until I was about to serve everything else
5. When ready, I poured off the liquid (I offered, and they accepted, to my Dad and wife a cupful each of the nutritious liquid, which they liked), added the pepper and sesame seed, and served

Noodles

Ingredients

• Vegan bouillon cube
• About half of an 8 ounce box of wide brown rice noodles
• Approximately a dozen artichoke hearts. I use a 6 ounce package of  "natural" ArtiHearts^TM but prefer their grilled varieties. I thought I'd use a plainer variety because of my daughter's preferences. One can steam artichokes and use their hearts or buy (not very tasty, in my opinion) canned artichoke hearts.
• Medium tomato cut into half inch cubes
• 1T (or more; I think I used 2T) nutritional yeast
• 1/2 t salt
• (Optional) 1t or a little more shelled hemp seeds (a good source of omega-3 essential fatty acids and Vitamin E)

Process

1. I got a medium stock pot with water and a vegan bouillon cube boiling then added the noodles. They're great to work with as they only take 4 or 5 minutes to cook, have a nice texture (though I heard that when cooking in large quantities, rice noodles may get very soft and start to dissolve away), and are gluten-free, great for those who want to avoid gluten.
2. I also added the artichoke hearts. They came cooked, but I just wanted to warm them, so let them have the 4-5 minutes of being in the boiling broth.
3. When the noodles were done, I drained them, added the raw tomato, nutritional yeast, salt, and hemp seeds, and served.

Results

I loved the pasta but, alas, my wife wanted some hot sauce and salt, and still thought it was good but not great. My Dad seemed to enjoy the noodles, and we all liked the greens and corn.

Ideas for the future

I really liked the combination of noodles and artichoke hearts and would like to try additional ingredients like bell pepper and maybe green peas sometime. This would be even better with fine mai fun rice noodles or angel hair, allowing the artichoke to be a bit more dominant. The greens were good; a little bit of potato or sweet potato could be a nice addition.