Boiled carrots with North African spices

I love carrots every way that I've ever had them... raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, microwaved, etc. There's something about their natural sweetness that draws me back to the refrigerator for a handful several times a day. Here's an easy and different way to cook them (from one of the cookbooks of the month!).

Boiled carrots with North African spices (adapted from "Vegetables Every Day" by Jack Bishop)

6 medium carrots (about a pound), sliced into 1/2" slices

1 Tbsp olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cinnamon

salt to taste

Bring several quarts of water to a boil, add carrots, and cook until tender (about 8 min). Whisk together remaining ingredients in a small bowl. When carrots are done, drain and mix with dressing. Serves 3.

This is tasty and different. I would suggest adding more cumin (although I must warn you that I'm in love with cumin and probably wouldn't mind adding it to my drinking water). It's a great alternative to butter and salt that usually adorns boiled and steamed carrots (not that there's anything wrong with that).

So far I'm really enjoying cooking through these books, and it's been quite successful. The only problem is that I have to prevent myself from getting out of control and cooking through every page.

African peanut soup

I saw a post for an African soup at Kalyn's Kitchen a while back. It sounded good and I made a mental note to make it at some point, but never got around to it. This week I came across several other versions of this recipe and figured that somebody was trying to tell me that this needed to be cooked pronto.

African peanut soup (adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen and The Kitchn)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

2 green onions, chopped

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

4 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp chili powder

dash of cayenne pepper

1/4 cup brown rice, sorted and rinsed

1/4 cup lentils, sorted and rinsed

1/3 cup peanut butter (I used some smooth and some chunky because it's what I had handy)

Heat oil over medium heat in pot (I used 3 qt, and it was just big enough). Cook yellow onion and celery until they begin to get tender. Add bell pepper and green onion and cook until tender. Add tomatoes, broth, curry powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, brown rice, and lentils. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until rice and lentils are tender (45-50 min). Whisk in peanut butter and remove from heat. Serves 4.

Whatever it was that kept sending these recipes my way knew what it was talking about. This soup is very good, but different enough that it's interesting. I was starting to get tired of soup (mostly because if I'm still eating soup it more than likely means that it's still frigid outside), but I really enjoyed this. It has just enough peanut butter that you can really taste it but don't feel like you're taking a spoonful out of the jar (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). The veggie taste really shines through, as well. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary, I highly recommend it.

On a slightly different note, you may have noticed the addition of a link to the Super Natural Recipe Search on the right. That's a new search engine from the author of the 101 Cookbooks blog, and she's compiled a number of recipes (both hers and from others) using natural ingredients. I highly recommend using it to find some tasty recipes.