Vegetarian Red Bean and Spinach Soup

Found a treasure the other day at the library in the non-fiction section! You should browse it sometime, looking for interesting titles...found ice sculpting, interesting historical artifact books, backyard herb gardening, and...drumroll please...treasure of treasures: "Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East"!

Yumalicious!

I doubled it for our group.

1/2 cup dried red kidney beans (or red beans), soaked overnight in cold water (or 2 cup softened beans)
6 1/4 c. water
2 T oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dried lentils, washed and drained
1/4 cup long-grain rice, washed thoroughly under cold water and drained
1/2 lb fresh spinach (I used about half of this), washed thoroughly, drained and chopped
juice of 1 large lemon (I forgot this and it was still super yummy, but I think the lemon would have been great)

Drain the beans and place in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of the water.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the beans are tender.  Add a ltitle more boiling water if necessary.  Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and fry, stirring frquently, until soft and golden.  Stir in the turmeric, salt, chile, black pepper and the lentils, and fry for 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the remaining 3 3/4 cups water and the contents fo the bean pan and bring to a boil.  Simmer for a further 30 minutes.

Stir in the rice and spinach and cook for a further 20 minutes.  Test to see if the lentils are tender; if not cook them a little longer.

Stir in the lemon juice; taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary, before serving.

pg 21 "Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East" by Arto der Haroutunian.

"BYU" mint brownies--from my mom

Brownies:

1 1/4 c. Butter

2 1/2 c. sugar

6 eggs

1 Tbls. vanilla

2 c. flour

10 Tbls. cocoa

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together all ingredients.  Spray jellyroll pan with Pam or grease.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Don't over bake.

Mint topping:

5 c. powdered sugar

1 c. butter, softened

2 tsp. mint extract

3 Tbls. water

Green or red food coloring

Mix together with a mixer and spread on cooled brownies.

Chocolate Glaze:

1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 c. butter

Melt in microwave until smooth.  Spread on frosting.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

This is a wonderful recipe, and yes, it does call for 3 cups of butter.  They are very rich, and taste much better straight out of the refrigerator.  We tried them first, of course we couldn't wait, before putting in the refrigerator, and they tasted much better later.  Our oven and pans are too small for a jellyroll pan, so I used 2 cake pans and it worked great! but made many, many brownies.  With my small frig, it used half of the space, but I had enough to take on my apartment inspections for treats.  Enjoy!