Reddit reviews Arab Cooking on Saskatchewan Homesteads: Recipes And Recollection (Trade Books based in Scholarship)

I sometimes do the one-dish-for-the-whole-week thing too. These are my favourite and least expensive recipes:


Mint-Flavoured Lentil Soup -- Serves 6-8

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 med onions, chopped
  
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
  
• 1 small hot pepper, finely chopped
  
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  
• 2 cups stewed tomatoes
  
• 7 cups hot water
  
• 1 cup green lentils
  
• 1/2 tsp salt (original recipe calls for 2 1/2 tsps, but this was too salty for me)
  
• 1 tsp cumin
  
• 1 tsp pepper
  
• 4 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
  
  Method
  
  

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
   
2. Add onions, garlic, hot pepper, and ginger. Cook for 10 minutes.
   
3. Stir in rest of ingredients except mint. Bring to a boil.
   
4. Lower heat to medium. Cover and cook until lentils are soft (~45 mins).
   
5. Stir in mint and serve.
   
   This recipe comes from a great, but obscure cookbook called Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead. The author's family came to Canada during the Great Depression and this book is a compendium of all the traditional Syrian dishes that his mom made using cheap and easy-to-find ingredients. Each chapter is built around a specific ingredient like chickpeas, potatoes, burghul, etc. Totally useful when you're trying to follow a budget and only have few main ingredients in the kitchen.
   
   Simple Lentil Dal with Fresh Ginger Green Chiles, and Cilantro
   
   Okay, this is technically one pot and a pan, but it's so cheap and delicious that it's worth the extra washing up. The recipe is for four, but it's easily multiplied. Also, once you know how to make the basic lentil mixture (lentils, turmeric, salt, water), you can completely change the flavour of the finished dish by adding a different tempering oil. The one in the link is quite tasty, but this one is equally good and even simpler:
   
   Cumin and Dried Red Chiles Tempering Oil -- Serves 4
   
   

• 2 1/2 tablespoons of canola oil
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cumin seeds
  
• 2 whole dried red chiles
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon/lime
  
  Method
  
  

1. Cook lentils per the linked recipe above.
   
2. Combine oil and cumin in a pan. Cook over med-high heat until light brown.
   
3. Add the whole chiles. Cook and stir for another 30 seconds.
   
4. Take pan off the heat. Add cayenne and sprinkle a few drops of water on top to stop the cooking.
   
5. Stir the tempering oil into the cooked lentils.
   
6. Stir in lemon/lime juice.
   
7. Serve over rice or with naan.