(Lentil, Kale, Quinoa, Black Bean, Sakekasu Miso)
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 medium yellow onion – diced
2 medium carrots – diced
2 large stalks of celery – diced
6 cloves garlic – minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
1½ tsp grated fresh ginger (or ½ tsp ground dry ginger) – Japanese tube ginger is convenient
5 cups water (or soup stock of your choice for richer umami flavour)
1 cup red lentils
½ cup quinoa (I used white, but any colour will do)
1 can black beans – rinsed
1 large potato – diced (I leave skins on if it’s organic)
1 pouch (125g) Abokichi Sakekasu Miso Soup paste
½ bunch kale – washed, stems removed, chopped
Cooking Directions:
Heat olive in oil in a large stockpot on medium-high heat, add the diced onion, carrots, and celery and sauté for a few minutes. Add the garlic and continue to sauté for another minute.
Add the cumin, turmeric, and ginger and continue cooking while stirring constantly until spices become aromatic, another minute or so.
Add water (or stock), lentils, quinoa, black beans, potato, and Abokichi Sakekasu Miso paste to the pot, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered until lentils and quinoa or soft, approximately 30 minutes. Throw kale in to wilt a few minutes before serving.
Notes:
This recipe was a happy accident. I wanted to make this Lentil, Kale, Quinoa Stew which I made recently and loved, but I didn’t have the chopped tomatoes that I thought I had. For the past two months I have been kind of challenging myself to use up food from the pantry where there are large sacks of rye kernel, lentils, quinoa, spices, buckwheat flour, etc. This stuff is mostly left over from when we closed the Abokichi sandwich shop and café. We like the miso soup version of this recipe even better than the original tomato. I would happily make this over and over again. This is not a Japanese dish and yet the miso flavour works so well.