The Daniel Diet

For the next 10 days Brent and I are going vegetarian. We have decided to cut out all meat from our diet and also seriously cut back on other animal products such as milk and eggs. Why eat vegetarian? There are lots of reasons people decide to abstain from eating meat, but for one, by eating plants rather than animals it consumes less of the world's resources. I'm not saying we are becoming vegetarians but we have been trying to incorporate more meat free meals into our meal planning. Each night I'll post the recipe for dinner and we will tell you what we thought of it.


Tonight's meal came from the cookbook "Extending the Table":
Dhal (India)
Fry in 2 T. oil until golden brown:
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. ground tumeric
1 1/2 t. round cumin
1 t. ginger root, finely grated (optional)
1/4 t. ground cardamom (optional)
Add:
1 c. dried lentils or split peas (if using split peas, soak overnight)
3 c. hot water
1 t. salt or to taste


Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. Remove cover and simmer over very low heat, stirring frequently, about 20 more minutes, until lentils are mushy and thick, about the consistency of refried beans. Garnish with onions, thinly sliced and browned, or a squeeze of lemon. Serve with rice.

We each had a small bowl with rice and Dhal and found it to be very filling. We also had some raw carrots on the side. Brent said the Dhal was a little dry and I'm not sure that he loved the recipe, but he did like it. I personally really liked it. I would definitely make this again.

Why 10 days of eating vegetarian? We were inspired by Daniel 1. Give it a read. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%201&version=31