January 15

Pepper Salmon and Ginger Red Lentil Soup

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• Pepper Salmon [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1.5 pounds salmon (rinsed)
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 4 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon peppercorn
  • 2 tablespoons oil

  Instructions

  We start by putting the soy sauce, garlic, lemon juice, and sugar, in a resealable plastic bag. We stir this and then we cut the salmon fillet into 5 portions (1 leftover!) and put these into the plastic bag. We coat the salmon well and refrigerate the salmon for about 30 minutes.

  While the salmon is marinating, we put the peppercorns into a small resealable plastic bag. With our pestle, or you could use any heavy pan, we pound the peppercorns until they are coarsely ground.

  When the salmon is marinated, we heat our non-stick pan with the olive oil on medium heat. We remove the salmon pieces from the marinade and dry the pieces with a paper towel. We throw out the plastic bag with the rest of the marinade. We sprinkle the coarse peppercorns onto the non-skin side of each piece and then put 3 of them pepper-side down into the heated pan. We cook for 3 minutes, flip over gently, and then continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes until done. We want a knife to just go through in the thickest part of the salmon fillet. When done, we take the salmon out of the pan with a spatula, and place on a paper towel lined plate. We let rest while we cook the rest of the salmon.

  The salmon is delicious, although next time we should add ginger to the marinade!

• Ginger Red Lentil Soup [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1 cup lentils
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 bay leaves dried
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1 slice ginger (sliced quarter-size)
  • handful carrots
  • salt & pepper
  • 1/2 cup tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup bell pepper (minced)
  • 1 cup onions (chopped)
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 tablespoon ginger (minced)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon coriander
  • sprinkle cayenne
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • cilantro (chopped)

  Instructions

  We start by spreading the lentils out on a piece of wax paper and then we pick out any debris. We put the lentils into a large bowl, cover with water, stir, and carefully dump out the water. We repeat, adding more water, stirring, and dumping out, two more times. Then we put the rinsed lentils into our dutch oven, cover with the water, and start heating the pan. We add the bay leaves, garlic, a slice of ginger, and some salt, and cover. In our food processor, we grate some carrots until we have 1/2 cup. We add this to the lentils, and bring the mixture to a boil, lower it to a simmer, and cover for about 15 minutes. We want the lentils to be tender before we add the tomatoes. We add the tomatoes, bell pepper, some more salt and some pepper and continue to simmer gently while we prepare the onions.

  In a large pan, we heat the olive oil. We add the onions and cook on medium-low for about 5 minutes until translucent. Then we add the ginger and continue to cook for a few minutes. We add the cumin, coriander, and cayenne, and cook for another minute. We add this mixture to the dutch oven and cook for a few more minutes. When we are ready to eat, we add the lemon juice, and taste for salt and pepper.

  We garnish each bowl with cilantro and serve immediately.

• Edamame
• White rice