Amani's Lentils

Posted by Amani Bey in Science and Society - Best - Y on Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 7:13 pm

My family has a rule about having at least three colors on our plates. This allows for more vegetables and less starch. The color wheel bleeds off the page and everything is in the thirds. My recipe is a stew or sorts, but it encourages for many colors and vegetables, and has room to be a different dish each time.

As a Diasporic person in America , I have no set culinary culture. My grandmother converted to the Moorish American way of life in the 70s. The Moorish people were dark people with great influence in the Arab and Spanish world. My grandmother always cooked with chick peas, but I don’t like them, which is why I’m using my favorite bean, the lentil. Lentils were commonly traded in India but made their way on Moorish trading routes. Cumin, one of the most distinctive flavors in the meal, was grown in India, as well, but made it’s way to Spain and many other countries by way of the Moores. Tangine usually includes tomatoes, but I use a butternut squash sauce instead, as homage to my great grandmother who's father was Native American. It also tastes better. I’m slightly allergic to the acid in tomatoes. Mirepoix, or what most would call celery,carrots, and onions, hails from France and New Orleans. I spent a year there during 5th grade and my little sister’s family is from New Orleans. Kale is a European crop. This stew, is like my family, a mixture of things and flavors.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. of red split lentils

half an onion

spinach

Cumin

salt

pepper

Chicken Broth

Coconut Milk

Chicken

Butternut Squash

Tomato Paste

Zucchini

Steps:

Brown onions and zucchini in a pot with vegetable oil
Add pepper liberally
Put in half a can of chicken broth
Bring to a rolling boil
throw them lentils in
In separate pot Combine 1/2 can of coconut milk, butternut squash paste, a dash of tomato paste and cumin, add pepper and cayenne to taste
Put the coconut mixture in the lentils once the broth in the lentils evaporate.
Let the lentils cook down until they become paste-like.
Chop and add spinach.
Add more cumin and pepper to taste.

**This recipe gives more of an Indian cuisine taste than a morrocan taste. For a Morrocan flavor, replace coconut milk with tomato paste, or go half and half, use more cumin and no coriander. Add mirepoix.

Analysis

This meal is considerably very whole. Lentils are unprocessed, as are the vegetables within. I went to the Reading Terminal for the produce and when Iovine has organic produce from independent farmers for reasonable prices. Dollar bags of vegetables are accessible in the middle of the city. 1 cup of lentils contains 20% of the daily value of Potassium, 13% of DV carbs, 64% of fiber. The fiber in lentils is insoluble, meaning that it can not go ingot he blood stream but it is great for the bowels and colon health. It scrubs everything out. Cumin, which is a big spice in this dish, is great for digestion and fighting off infections. Its aroma has capabilities as well. The chicken and lentils both contain large amounts of protein which is broken down in the intestines and absorbed through amino acids and used for cellular structures. It's great for muscles. Lentils also increase oxygen flow, which is great for everything.

Coconut milk is a processed food, but many distributors have standards as to how its harvested. I admire the coconut because its harvesting involves the entire fruit (it's actually a one seeded drupe). The flesh and liquid within are consumed, the shell is squeezed and pressed for oil, and the husks are used for building structures. In Pacific cultures, the coconut tree has been called the "tree of life". This reminds me of the chapter from "Survival of the Sickest" about Lima beans , because it is good for but can also kill you if you're not careful. Coconut milk contains chains of saturated fats that are actually good for you, they're called MCFAs and they're absorbed and used for energy by the liver, but too much is not good for you. Both lentils and coconuts should be used in moderation.

The coconut milk I had came from the Philippines and was processed and packaged in the United States. The Philippines are over 3,000 miles away, yet the can I got from my corner store was only $1.29. Coconuts are what Americans consider "foreign", yet unlike other culinary oddities they are not very expensive, like that of french truffles, or South American peppers.

Personal Reflection

One of the greatest lessons I've learned from this unit is that you should know your body and how it works. Due to different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds we eat differently and have different reactions to certain things. The study with aboriginal peoples showed that certain groups of people are better adapted for a certain amount of living. I think the Western Diet is trash because the "West" has not existed for thousands of years, so people have not had time to evolve to be better adapted to the "sweets and meats" it entails. One size fits all diet and lifestyles don't fit. We concluded BMI does not work in class (I am 5 feet tall and according to BMI, I am 40 lbs overweight, but I am healthy as a horse). Treat your pancreas well so that you can last in life.

The food system is flawed because access to good food is hard. Impoverished people are more at risk for being obese. In order to fix this problem, many of the whole foods are too expensive. The FDA allows many things to let fly . I am cutting back on sugar and increasing my water intake. The relationship between my liver and pancreas is important and I need to respect it by not putting crap in my body. I feel the difference when my blood sugar is low. I go a little cray.

After cutting back on my sugars and drinking water, I noticed a terrible change in my mood, so I have been working on incorporating fruit into my diet.

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