Goji Dandelion Red Lentil Curry

I haven’t posted any recipes in awhile, but this one was too tasty not to share!

As regular blog readers know, I’ve got a yard full of dandelions, and aside from harvesting the flowers for dandelion wine and dandelion jelly, I also gather dandelion leaves. Bags and bags of dandelion leaves! Sometimes I put them in green smoothies with frozen pineapple, banana and filtered water. Sometimes I steam them and just top with a hint of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. And sometimes I’ve been known to eat them wrapped around a slice of raw manchego. Tonight, I decided to make a dandelion soup.

I don’t measure when I prepare food, but here’s a guestimate:

Goji Dandelion Red Lentil Curry

Ingredients:

1.5 cups dried red lentils
filtered water to cover the lentils
1 strip of kombu seaweed
1 clove of garlic, pressed

half bag of gathered dandelion greens
half bunch of cilantro (not pictured)

three handfuls of dried goji berries
1 16 oz. can of coconut milk
Thai Kitchen green curry paste to taste (I used two generous scoops)

Method:

Cover the lentils with filtered water and begin to boil. Add in the kombu (for better digestion) and a clove of pressed garlic.

As the lentils and water begin to boil, put the dandelion greens and cilantro into a blender. Add enough filtered water (not the boiling water, but more water) to blend the greens into about a quart of nice, bright green liquid.

Add the blended water and greens to the pot of lentils and continue to boil. Watch to make sure the lentils don’t foam over. Turn down to low once you’ve established a rolling boil, at which point, you can add the three handfuls of goji berries and let it all simmer.

When the lentils are soft –about twenty to thirty minutes — add the coconut milk and green curry paste. Simmer for ten more minutes to meld the flavors. Serve and add a hint of sea salt to taste.

Goji berries hail from the nightshade family, just like tomatoes. Asians often add them to soups in order to impart a rich sweetness. In this soup, they perfectly balance the bitterness of the dandelions and go well with the subtle cilantro flavors. The spicy-sourness of the green curry rounds out the flavors, with the kombu adding that hint of fish flavor usually found in non-vegan curry dishes.

I got the idea for this soup while craving red lentils, noticing that I really needed to use up the rest of our cilantro, and researching where to plant my two new goji berry bushes:

Apparently, the bushes love full sun and can grow to sizes of eight to twelve feet in height and diameter. That’s a lot of goji berries! It also requires careful planning, since they like to spread once happily planted in their spot. I haven’t decided whether to plant them next to each other (with space in between) for a full goji hedge — a “fedge” (food hedge) in permaculture speak — or if I want to plant them in different areas to increase the odds of finding appropriate growing conditions. In the meantime, I will definitely add goji berries to soups again! Also known as wolfberries, these little gems pack a nutritional wallop: from beta carotene to anti-oxidants to fountain of youth chemicals and blood thinning capability.

Although I still consume the vast majority of my food raw, some things benefit from cooking. The boiling process mellows the sugars of the dried, sticky goji fruits, and it allows the dandelion greens to form a short-term herbal infusion, making some of the nutrients more bio-available than in their raw state. Besides helping with allergies and providing high vitamin A and calcium, dandelion greens offer so many benefits that I’m just sending you to the following link: click here to read a long list of dandelion health benefits. The results of eating kombu include: vitality and youthfulness, detoxification, adding essential trace minerals, and easier digestion of legumes.

Speaking of legumes, the red lentils made the list of the top ten healthy foods, due to their high fiber, high antioxidants, magnesium and folate. Additionally, scientists recently found a compound in nuts and lentils that blocks the growth of cancerous tumors.

Cilantro chelates mercury and heavy metals, and garlic does everything from boost immunity to thinning blood to keeping away vampires –psychic and otherwise. 😉 Coconut milk contains phosphorous for strong bones and manganese for good blood sugar levels, along with Omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids and various amino acids. A healthier option would involve cracking your own coconut to avoid the BPA in cans; however, I keep these cans on hand for very occasional, spontaneous meals. I’m a Lazy Raw Foodist even when I cook! The Thai Kitchen brand of curry pastes, including this green paste, are (as far as I can tell at this time) vegan. I keep both red and green flavors on hand, because they make fabulous soups and nori wraps on very short notice.

Most importantly for my purposes tonight, this superfood soup tasted savory, sweet, tangy and all around amazing! It had so many rich flavors that I can’t believe I only used water and no vegetable broth. TGWHL: Thank God/dess We Have Leftovers! 🙂

More Green Smoothies to Write Home About

Ever since Victoria Boutenko sent me a review copy of Green for Life, back in early 2006, I have begun most days with some sort of green smoothie. It got so that I didn’t even think about it: breakfast was simply green, very green, everyday green.

Until this summer. Suddenly, this summer I could no longer tolerate green smoothies. It didn’t matter which green or which fruit I used, after a couple sips, my stomach would lock up and not allow even a bit more down. If I managed to swallow some of these concoctions in the name of “health,” I would end up needing to juice fast for two days just to get my stomach settled.

This experience caused some interesting realizations, not the least of which was just how much of a raw foodist I’d become. The idea of anything else for breakfast literally had not occurred to me for several years! What exactly did “normal” people eat for breakfast? Cocoa Puffs? I attempted a few more green smoothie combos and did a few more unintended juice feasts before I called it quits.

I stopped drinking green smoothies for about two months. I started eating fruit for breakfast, or VEGA protein powder, or HempNGreens rawnola with sesame seed mylk (exceptionally yummy, by the way). I survived, but I did miss my smoothies. Then one day, I mixed some Vitamineral Green in coconut water and felt the same gut wrenching stomach pains. Ah-ha! Mystery solved: I had grown so accustomed to adding Vitamineral Green to all my smoothies that I hadn’t even noticed it as the one common denominator amidst all varieties of greens and fruit. This also explained why I could eat a kale salad but not a kale smoothie. It was never about the kale!

Anyway, long story short, I’ve been back on green smoothies again for about 2 months, and the time away increased my fondness for them. I have nothing against Vitamineral Green; I think it’s a fabulous product. My stomach just doesn’t appear to like it anymore. But it does love green smoothies! I decided to share two more favorites here:

SPIRULINA BELLY BLISS

This is a recent variation on an old standby, utilizing coconut kefir instead of almond mylk.

5-15 leaves dinosaur kale (depending how green you like your smoothies)

1 cup coconut kefir (coco meat + coco water, so it’s nice and thick)

1 cup water or coconut water

1 avocado

1-2 bananas

1-2 TBSP spirulina

1 tsp lucuma

1 TBSP liquid lecithin (soy or sunflower)

Blend and enjoy!

CACAO IS IN THE HOUSE

3-4 cups baby spinach

1 cup coconut kefir (meat + water)

1-2 TBSP cacao nibs

2 bananas

3 dried schizandra berries

1 TBSP liquid lecithin

splash of Jerusalem artichoke syrup

water to thin to desired consistency

Blend and chug for a supercharged day.

Want more lazy recipes that deliver maximum energy for minimum mess? Check out The Lazy Raw Foodist’s Guide for tips from Sarma, Shazzie, Anthony Anderson and many more people looking to make your health journey as easy as (raw) pie. Cheers to you!