Get Ready for Fall with Pereg Gourmet Grains

Get Ready for Fall with Pereg Gourmet Grains

There’s already a slight chill in the air in the morning when I am taking my youngest to the bus stop.  I love fall because I get to bake all I want and my slow cooker becomes my best friend.  I love having a big bowl of warm soup on a cold evening for dinner and soon I’ll be enjoying lots of great new recipes or reinventing some of my old favorite thanks to the folks at Pereg Gourmet Grains.  I was provided samples for review from Pereg Gourmet, any opinions expressed are my own.

I love a good soup or stew, especially when it’s hearty and full of flavor.  When I was contacted by Pereg Gourmet Grains to try some of their products I was so excited.  I wan’t sure what they would send because they had so many great options and when my package arrived I was excited to try them out.  I received a combination of grains, one of the packages was chick peas.  I love chick peas because growing up in Trinidad we eat it a lot, especially in curry.-+

Pereg Gourmet has twenty different variety of grains for consumers to choose from including the four I received for review.  My four included the Soup Mix, Autumn Blend, Chick Peas and Pearl Couscous.  I’ve never cooked with dried chick peas before.  I remember the first time I tried cooking dried beans, it was a total disaster.  I didn’t realize that the beans needed to be soaked first and they ended up burnt and uncooked.  As excited as I was for the chick peas I didn’t know which one to cook first.  I ended up making the Pearl Couscous for dinner one night.  Cooking this couscous was so easy.  I just followed the directions on the package.  I used chicken stock instead of regular water and when it was finished I added a little olive oil and some Parmesan Cheese and it was that easy to make Parmesan Pearl Couscous for our dinner.

My family loved the pearl couscous, even the kids ate it all up.  There were delicious.  I couldn’t believe how easy they were to prepare and I immediately had lots of other great ideas for these delicious grains.  These would be great in a beef stew or chicken soup.  They would make any soup better to me.  If you are looking for recipe ideas Pereg also has lots of options for their products like this Autumn Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Kale recipe.  Connect with them on their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/peregourmet

Autumn Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Kale 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4, 1 ¼ cup servings 

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white onion, small diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and small diced, about ½ cup
• 1 pound sweet potato, peeled and diced into ¼ inch cubes (about 2 cups)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon all spice
• 1 cup Pereg Gourmet Autumn Blend Lentils, rinsed
• 2 1/3 cups vegetable stock
• 3 cups dinosaur kale, washed well, de-stemmed and cup into pieces
• Salt to taste
• ½ cup cilantro, minced
• Pita bread for serving 

Directions:

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and sweet potato with ¼ teaspoon salt and sauté until the onions are translucent and carrots and sweet potatoes and slightly soft, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Then add garlic, cumin and all spice, stir and cook for one more minute.

Add lentils and stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium low and simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until lentils are tender and have absorbed most of the liquid. Add extra stock if needed. Season with salt to taste. Stir in kale and cook until kale wilts.

Garnish with cilantro and serve with pita bread.