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Will You be My Valentine?
Lovers lentils and chocolate strawberries š
Feeling the love? You will be after you see these recipe below!
š½ļø Loversā Lentils, with Textured Soy Protein
š½ļø Science Backs Eating Fermented Foods
š½ļø Sensual Chocolate-Covered Strawberries!
Healthy News Dose
4 Healthy Tips for Valentineās Day!
Special someone out there or not, Valentines day is typically an indulgent holiday, filled with chocolates and heavy dinners.
So hereās our 4 top tips on how to help stay a bit more healthy this Valentineās day:
Bake something relatively healthy for dessert at home instead of ordering dessert when youāre out. Want the love heart jammy cookies above? Click here for the recipe + 60 more! š
Check labels to evaluate how healthy your ingredients are: Look for desserts with unrefined sweeteners and low added sugar.
Ask for a fruit bouquet instead of chocolate! Or compromise between the two and consider making some chocolate-covered strawberries like the ones described at the end of this newsletter!
If youāre going to a party, plan ahead and make something healthy that you can bring an enjoy while you are there.
Alternatively, if you feel like splurging this Valentineās Day, donāt let me stop you!
From a cookās perspective, I tend to avoid going out with my wife on Valentineās Day, simply because the restaurants are usually at capacity, and the quality of service maybe isnāt as great as it could be on a quieter night.
For Valentineās Day in our home, if both of us arenāt working that night, we tend to cook up something nice, and generally will splurge on a fun bottle of wine.
The Cooking Corner
Loversā Lentils, with Textured Soy Protein!
Love lentils? These mushroom-heavy lentils are packed with deep and smoky flavors youāre guaranteed to enjoy! Textured soy protein works wonderfully in this dish as a meat substitute, although you can add certainly add a few links of chorizo if you are looking for a heavier version with meat.
This dish will leave you and your partner or friends feeling warm, cozy, and comfortable on this Valentineās Day, and itās so reasonably-priced per serving! I make lentils at home roughly once a week, all year round. It usually takes me about 2.5 hours from start to finish, as I prefer my lentils to be served completely soft and tender.
Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons cooking olive oil
2 sweet onions, medium dice
1 green or red or yellow bell pepper, medium dice
5 medium-sized carrots, cut into bite-sized chunks
16 oz (1 lb) button or Bella mushrooms, quartered
Ā½ cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Ā¼ cup dry white wine
1.5 cups dried lentils
4 cups vegetable stock, or water
1 bay leaf
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon sweet pimentĆ³n
1.5 Tablespoons smoked pimentĆ³n
Ā½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup dried textured soy protein
2 teaspoons sunflower seed oil
Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions:
Add three Tablespoons of cooking olive oil to a Dutch oven or large soup-cooking pot.
Add the diced onions, bell pepper, carrots, and mushrooms, and cook over medium-high heat for roughly five minutes, while stirring.
Add the chopped parsley and white wine, and cook for an additional fifteen minutes, until the alcohol has evaporated.
Add the dried lentils, along with the vegetable stock, and bay leaf.
Bring the contents to a simmer, and reduce the heat to low.
Continue to cook the lentils until they are completely tender.
While the lentils are cooking, add the remaining two Tablespoons of cooking olive oil to a small sautĆ© pan, along with the minced garlic cloves, pimentĆ³n, and red pepper flakes.
Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for a few minutes, until the garlic and spices are sizzling nicely in the olive oil.
Transfer the garlic and spiced oil to the lentil-cooking pot, and stir to combine.
When the lentils are fully soft, combine 2 cups of hot water with the 1 cup of dried textured soy protein in a bowl.
Allow the textured soy protein to soften in the hot water for twenty minutes.
Drain the liquid from the soy protein.
Add two teaspoons of sunflower seed oil to a small sautƩ pan, and add the drained soy protein.
Cook over medium-high heat while stirring until gently browned on the outsides.
Transfer the cooked textured soy protein to your lentils, and stir to incorporate.
Taste the lentils, and season with Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper.
Want 60+ more GF recipes? Click here!
Want a Bulletproof Immune System?
Did you know that fermented foods have been a part of human diet for almost 10,000 years?
Thatās a pretty long time, but itās as if weāve all forgotten about this ancient way of eatingā¦
Study after study proves eating fermented foods can literally have a positive effect on every part of your body and mind.
One study in 2022 saidā¦
āThis review clearly shows that fermented foods can affect the gut microbiome in both the short and long term, and should be considered an important element of the human diet.ā
Upgrade your plateā¦
Chocolate-Covered Strawberries!
Chocolate-covered strawberries are foolproof to make at home. Even your kids can do this!
To make the chocolate dipping sauce, melt Ā½ cup of chocolate chips in a small dry sauce pan over medium-low heat.
Make sure there is no water in the sauce pan, as this will cause your chocolate to crystallize.
When the chocolate is almost fully melted, add in 2 Tbsp of heavy cream, along with 1 Tbsp of butter, and stir until fully combined.
Dip the pointed end of each strawberry in the melted chocolate, and place on a parchment-lined platter.
Transfer the dipped strawberries to the fridge, to allow the chocolate layer to set and harden for roughly one hour.
Once the outside of the chocolate covered strawberries has set, you are ready to serve.
*Note if you leave the dipped strawberries in your fridge overnight, a small quantity of strawberry juice might leak out from the berries onto the parchment paper.
Donāt miss a recipe tip again by joining our exclusive foodie community over HERE.
Until next time!
Your fermenting friend,
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/be2363d2-b9b8-4142-bf55-5d2a8731dc6e/Find_Your_Space_to.jpg?t=1699977099)
Andy G
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