Me & My Cookbooks, plus Red Lentil Artichoke Stew

OK, so I may have a slight vegan cookbook addiction.

This is pretty much all the vegan ones, not counting e-books.

This was definitely a post-vegetarian development.  Before November 2008, I had about 6 cookbooks, and I thought I was overloaded.  Now, I have around 27 vegan only cookbooks, plus 3 vegetarian, plus a few others that are omni but have a large vegan (or veganizable) selection of recipes.  This is also not to mention the myriad of absolutely phenomenal bloggers who are out there putting out great recipes, sometimes daily.  Some of them do have cookbooks out, or coming out (for example, I can guarantee that my next purchase will be The Happy Herbivore Cookbook by Lindsay Nixon of www.happyherbivore.com, due out this month), but some of them don't, and you really need to explore the world of vegan blogging.  I have to admit I have only been a lurker and haven't commented (I am surprisingly internet-shy), but these people are my heroes!

Tonight's recipe is something I originally found in a flyer at Whole Foods about recipes under $40, all of which happened to be vegan.  It also appears in my newest acquisition, The Vegan Table, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.  Although I made quite a few changes, I am not comfortable including the actual recipe (I'd rather err on the side of not stealing), but I did find another adapted recipe on another site that is practically the same, so I will link to it and tell you my changes.  Here is the link:  Red Lentil Artichoke Stew.

The spices in the recipe seemed to give more of a Middle Eastern or Indian flair to the dish, but I decided to go more Italian.  My changes:

• I am not a cumin fan, so instead of several teaspoonsful, I only added a dash.  
• I eliminated the coriander.
• I added about a teaspoon of basil.
• I added a dash of oregano (would have been more, but I ran out.  I am an oregano maniac.)
• For the salt/pepper to taste, I went with no salt (plenty from the tomatoes & artichokes) and added about 1/2 tsp of pepper.  
• I increased the red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp.

Another quick note is that at the beginning, the onion should be sauteed in a bit of water.  This eliminates any need for oil, which is a great bonus, making this a low fat, high protein, whole food meal.  I served over brown rice, and we had a few glasses of Green Truck white wine, which I would highly recommend.  It's organic and vegan, and John said it's his favorite white wine ever.  Usually my heart belongs to red, but for this meal, the white was a nice match.  I don't know anything about wine pairing though, so don't kill me if I sound like an idiot.

This was SO GOOD.  Like, go make it now, in other words.  The great thing was, most everything was already in my pantry.  I had to go buy a lemon for the juice, but that wasn't a big deal.  We had a nice big portion each, and even with that, we both have enough for lunch tomorrow.

I am headed back to work tomorrow.  (GROSS.)   I have to say, it has been so wonderful to be off at the first of the year, starting things off right and having plenty of time to relax but still be able to devote time to my new project and to myself.