Wednesday Stews

Today was a very busy day in the kitchen!  On my day off, I have been trying to make two dishes, with enough extra for both of us to take for lunch the next day or two.  So far, this has been pretty successful and today, I made a pasta sauce too.  The two other dishes were stews, both from 'The Kind Diet'.

The first one - Kabocha Squash Stew.  I decided to make this dish about 1 o'clock this morning, when I should have been sleeping, but instead was thinking up tasty food to make.  So, I got out of bed and got some azuki beans soaking, along with some kombu (seaweed), as the recipe calls for. After making the soup this afternoon, I kinda think I would have been better off staying in bed! This stew was way too hardcore for both of us. The seaweed flavor was very strong and the azuki beans had a texture that just didn't seem right to me. I don't think I'll be trying this one again.

The second one - Lentil Stew.  This was a perfectly nice soup, not amazing, but very nice.  It reminds me of minestrone.  This is the second lentil stew I have made, and both of them had tomatoes in them, which just seems odd to me.  I think I may omit them the next time I make this dish.

So, instead of having what I had planned for dinner - the kabocha stew, we had whole-wheat pasta with sauce from home-canned heirloom tomatoes.  I really love making my own pasta sauce, I think I am finished with store-bought sauce!