Vegetable Red Lentil Stew, & 

Palak Paneer (Indian Spinach & Cheese)

I was busy doing summery things recently, including making dinner for special visitors ... Vegetable Red Lentil Stew, and Palak Paneer (Indian Spinach & Cheese). These are the leftovers. 

The Lentil Stew is based on Supper with Michelle's recipe. I say "based on," because 1) I used the Instant Pot (not sponsored ) and so needed to modify the instructions, and 2) I had no zucchini, the carrots weren't good, and after cleaning and tidying the house, I was just too tired to chop onions or cut up potatoes. (Apologies to Michelle. 😐) Instead, I used frozen chopped mirepoix mix (carrot, celery, onion), as well as frozen chopped broccoli. The lentils ended up very creamy. I hope that next time, I'll make it according to the recipe. My visitors and I enjoyed this version, so thanks, Michelle! 😃

The Palak Paneer is from Madhu Gadhia's New Indian Home Cooking, which has a lot of great, simple, healthy recipes. The Paneer (cheese) was also homemade, leftovers from the freezer. I don't actually press the Paneer very thoroughly, so I just broke it up and stirred it into the spinach. The key here seems to be slowly cooking the spinach for at least a half-hour, until it smells less like raw spinach. We also enjoyed this! 

Supper with Michelle Website, Vegetable Red Lentil Stew

Grilled Veggie Pakora Sandwich

Here's a new sandwich, assembled at home of (mostly) bought ingredients. I was inspired by the many Indian toasted sandwiches I've seen on Instagram. The filling is Veggie Pakoras (fried vegetable fritters), cut-up and mixed with instant mashed potato. The inside of each slice of bread is spread with chutney: cilantro on one side, tamarind on the other. The sandwich was fried in a covered pan, with some butter-olive oil mix, and coconut oil, until golden brown and crispy.

I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  My off-recipe experiments sometimes fail dramatically. 😐 However, in this one, the cilantro chutney added freshness, the tamarind chutney added sweetness, the Pakoras added spice and substance, and the mashed potato brought it all together. I'd say this was a success!