From the Kitchen of Angie St. John
How did it officially become fall? In a blink of an eye the weather is changing, along with our taste buds. Last weekend we made some chili, just seemed like the right time. This past week, we also got our first eggs from our chickens and it was so exciting! Usually our chickens will lead us right to the eggs. So, I wanted to make cornbread with one of our first eggs, and make it a little more magical for dinner! I couldn’t help but share a photo of our flock with you and our first egg!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! And, we’re big fans of placing a hunk of the cornbread right in our bowl, to enjoy with the chili!
Lentil Chili
4 carrots, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 medium onion
5 mini sweet peppers
1 huge clove of garlic
1 can kidney beans
1 cup dried lentils
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes (any flavor)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
dash of curry powder
dash of salt and pepper
Oil (any type, I used vegetable)
Instructions:
1. Dice the carrots, celery, onion and sweet peppers and throw them into a soup pot with some oil. Sauté them up for about five minutes while adding a teaspoon of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and curry if you’d like.
2. Rinse the beans and the lentils over cold water and add to your soup pot. Open up your cans of diced and crushed tomatoes and add those next. Then add water to both empty tomato cans and dump that into the soup pot too.
3. Now let everything in the pot come to a boil and then turn heat down to simmer. You want to cook until lentils are tender but not mushy (about 17-20 minutes). This should be enough time for your veggies to cook, as well.
4. Stir occasionally and then bring heat to low with a lid partially covering the pot. At this time, I like to make the delicious cornbread.
Cornbread
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk (any type, I used soy)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup oil (I used vegetable)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 stick of butter
1. Preheat oven to 425 F
2. In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir.
3. In a separate bowl, add the wet ingredients and make sure to toss around to beat the egg.
4. Combine the wet with the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Pour batter into 8x8 greased pan and bake for 20 minutes.
*Once you take the cornbread out of the oven while still hot hot hot, melt some butter (of your choice) on top. At this time, you could also drizzle some raw honey on top! Honey will give your cornbread some extra sticky sweetness.