Food Experiments: Moroccan Lentil Stew and Kickboxing

When I first joined the gym by my house, I had been out of college (and my college-era martial arts training) for about a year. One of my goals was to get back into something close to the great shape I had been in for martial arts, and I decided that I wanted to go to a few kickboxing classes. I miss martial arts still, but I will probably never be willing to sell my soul to them to become a black belt. To remedy this, within my first month, I went to my first kickboxing class.

It was pretty darn horrible. I thought I was going to throw up for most of the class, and I was surrounded by skinny little high school students who were doing everything I couldn't, six inches higher, and laughing and cheering the whole time. That was about two years ago, and today (at Steamboat Willie's instigation) was the first time since that I have decided to go to a kickboxing class. This was the class I originally had wanted to go to, because it adds weighted gloves and a heavy bar to the exercises to add some resistance.

I was absolutely terrified.


But, I am pleased to announce that the last two years of working out must have paid off, because...I made it all the way to the burpies at the end of the class before I thought I was going to pass out! And it was fun, in a horribly painful sort of way. But then again, I suppose that is kind of the point of anything based on martial arts. At the very least, it gave me a taste of what I had been missing, and it could definitely have the potential to get me back into good shape!

After about a half an hour of walking and stretching until I no longer looked like a cherry tomato, I was happy to come home to my next vegetarian experiment...mostly because it was in my slow cooker and ready to eat. This Moroccan Lentil Stew is my first experience with the lentil, and I can't say it's a bad one. The stew itself is delicious, and the lentils don't seem to have a lot of taste to me. AND for my vegetarian or mostly-vegetarian friends who have a hard time getting in enough protein--the beans and apparently the lentils add quite a lot of protein to this stew. As does the cheese that I smothered it in when serving it!

Just in case, I'll copy the recipe for this below, but I would strongly recommend visiting Stephanie's blog or buying her book if you have any interest in cooking--both are fantastic!



Moroccan Lentil Stew
I made this in a 5.5 qt crockpot...the programmable kind that I love because I can be gone all day and it never burns! It took me aboput 20 minutes to chop everything up and add it in the morning. And you can find dried lentils right by the dried beans in the grocery store, for those of you who have never used them before! Also, keep in mind that this makes a LOT of stew, but she says that it freezes well.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried lentils
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (and juice)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and grated

Directions

1. Chop the veggies and add them to the bottom of the crockpot.
2. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them with the lentils.
3. Grate the ginger and add it with the dried spices.
4. Stir in the vegetable broth and tomatoes.
5. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours.