Get Happy! Get Plants!

I’m happy to announce my cooking class, Get Happy: Plant-based Foods to Boost Your Mood still has a few slots left. It’s vegan, virtual and free, happening this Thursday and hosted by Miami Dade Public Library. Register now and reserve your spot. 

Class is free and open to the public, you don’t even need a library card. Here’s a happy taste of what’s coming:

• folate
• magnesium
• zinc
• vitamin D
• essential amino acids

These are the natural ingredients linked to goodwill. They’re legal, abundant and available without a prescription in:

• pulses — that’s dried beans and lentils
• leafy greens
• mushrooms
• seeds and nuts

Think of these mild-mannered foods as superheroes of uplift in disguise, and many of them come together in my recipe for red lentil soup with spinach, mint and pepita pesto.

How to Make Red Lentil Soup with Spinach, Mint and Pepita Pesto

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the minced onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the vegetables start to soften and turn translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Pour in the red lentils and stir so they get the luster from the oil, then the bean or whole wheat flour. Give everything a quick stir so the mixture forms a paste.
3. Pour in the vegetable broth. Stir in till everything coalesces and becomes smooth. Heat to a gentle boil. Add the pinch of saffron, which needs to bloom in hot liquid, then work in the tomato paste, paprika, pepper flakes and quinoa or millet.
4. Stir occasionally until soup returns to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to medium.
5. Let it cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Soup will have thickened and turned creamy.
6. To make the pesto, whiz the mint, spinach, pepitas and garlic together in a food processor until they form a bright green paste. With the food processor motor running, pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. You’re done. Season to taste with sea salt.
7. To serve, place a handful of chopped spinach and mint leaves at the bottom of each soup bowl. Ladle in the hot lentil soup. Top with a dollop of pesto.

All pulses (dried beans) contain folate but lentils, the tiniest of the pulses, pack the most. Folate, a vitamin, also known as B-9 (like benign), increases serotonin production, which releases happy-making neurotransmitters in the brain. All that, plus lentils come loaded with fiber and protein, need no presoaking and are the quickest-cooking pulses, providing satiety — that’s the happy belly feeling —reason to be cheerful right there.

Leafy greens are also fabulous with folate.  Think of foliage, leafy, abundant greens. They’re also gold mines for magnesium, a mineral that dusts away depression, so you get a double dose of well-being with no struggle. All leafy greens deliver — kale, collards, chard, dandelion, turnip, and mustard greens — but spinach is the most easy-going green.  It plays well with others in salads, smoothies, soups and stirfries.

Magnesium stabilizes blood sugar and regulates hormones including cortisol, better known as the stress hormone. Don’t need any more stress, thanks.  It’s not just in leafy greens.  Find magnesium in nuts and seeds, too.  Nuts and seeds give you a lot to smile about. They’re rich in zinc, a mineral that makes your skin and disposition glow  They also make you happy by way of crunchiness and luscious healthy fats.

Mushrooms  — I’m not talking psilocybin, I’m talking vitamin D. Vitamin D, is called the sunshine vitamin because our bodies produce it naturally when our skin is exposed to sun. Vitamin D also adds some sunniness to our nature. Dermatologists and sunscreen manufacturers urge us to limit our time in the sun and most D-rich foods aren’t vegan or animal-friendly. Cheer up, mushrooms offer delicious vitamin D delivery, and adaptogens, too.https://www.uclahealth.org/news/what-are-adaptogens-and-should-you-be-taking-them.  Adaptogens are natural properties in mushrooms and other plantlife that allow our minds, moods and bodies to roll with the punches life throws at us.

Skip supplements.  They’re not regulated and they’re not proven performers, either.

Antidepressants like Lexapro, Effexor, Wellbutrin, and their pharmacological friends come with a long list of side effects that don’t make me happy.

Cheer up — lentils, spinach, nuts, seeds and mushrooms interact with our bodies naturally, synergistically, magically. They give us a bigger, better, more sustained lift and they taste better than fistful of pills. So does dark chocolate. It’s hedonic. Hedonic means it’s pleasure-giving, from the way it melts on your tongue to its deep rich sweetness.  And oh, yeah, it’s crazy with antioxidants.

Dark chocolate, along with leafy greens, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, are your mood-boosting, body-supporting besties.  They’ll be there for you happily ever after.

Sign up for my Get Happy class.

Pursuit of Happiness Red Lentil Soup with Spinach, Mint and Pepita Pesto

Pursuit of Happiness Red Lentil Soup with Spinach, Mint and Pepita Pesto I have not one but two lentil soup recipes in Feeding the Hungry Ghost, one basic and one scented with Indian spices. I have a recipe I posted on my website last week. But lentils aren't just sustainable, they're incredibly versatile, so here’s a brand new lentil soup recipe. Made with red lentils, which cook up in no time, it’s rosy, mellow and velvety and topped with a zing of spinach pesto (nice tossed with pasta, by the way).

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Ingredients

  

For the red lentil soup:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 small onion minced
• 1 cup red lentils picked over and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons chickpea flour lupin flour or whole wheat flour
• 8 cups vegetable broth
• 1 pinch saffron
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons quinoa or millet
• sea salt to taste plus extra chopped spinach and mint leaves for serving

For spinach, mint and pepita pesto:

• 1 cup fresh mint leaves
• 2 cups fresh spinach leaves
• 1/4 cup pepitas pumpkin seeds, toasted and cooled
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• sea salt to taste

Instructions

 

• Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the minced onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the vegetables start to soften and turn translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Pour in the red lentils and stir, so they get the luster from the oil, then the bean or whole flour. Give everything a quick stir so the mixture forms a paste.
• Pour in the vegetable broth. Stir in till everything coalesces and becomes smooth. Heat to a gentle boil. Add the pinch of saffron, which needs to bloom in hot liquid, then stir in the tomato paste, paprika, pepper flakes and quinoa or millet.
• Stir occasionally until soup returns to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to medium. Let it cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Soup will have thickened and turned creamy.
• To make the pesto, whiz the mint, spinach, pepitas and garlic together in a food processor until they form a bright green paste. With the food processor motor running, pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. You’re done. Season to taste with sea salt.
• To serve, place a handful of chopped spinach and mint leaves at the bottom of each soup bowl. Ladle in the hot lentil soup. Top with a dollop of pesto.

More recipes and reasons to be cheerful

• Seven Seed Quinoa – springy, spinachy and seedy (but good seedy)
• Lentil and Brown Rice Soup with Lemon and Mint – a soulful bowl for those weird spring days that still feel like winter.
• Mushroom Etouffée – A Creole classic made vegan.  It’s sumptuous  — but secretly simple and quick to make.
• Hetty Lui McKinnon gives mushrooms a risotto treatment — but with oats.  Her new cookbook, Tenderheart, comes out in May.
• Now this is what I call chocolate pudding. Recipe courtesy of Fran Costigan , dear friend and genius pastry chef who wrote the book on vegan chocolate.
• Reasons to be Cheerful, a newsletter highlighting positive initiatives around the world.  Founder is David Byrne, former Talking Heads frontman and the creator of American Utopia. How fun is that?
• Sign up for my Get Happy cooking class happening this Thursday.

Thank you for reading my vegan stories and plant-based recipes. I sincerely love to connect with listeners and would like to hear your feedback, takeaways, “ah-ha!” moments, etc in the comments.

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