Yellow Split Pea Dal and Roasted Cauliflower

Lily and Connor pretty much licked their plates clean with this dish.  To serve four people you need at the very least two heads of cauliflower, although three would be best. Core, cut into florets, slice lengthwise, wash, and then roast on a baking sheet with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 375 degrees, turning at least once, until golden and delicious.  If you don't like cauliflower, you will once you try it roasted.

For the yellow split pea dal you will need a slow cooker, otherwise I think you'd have to soak the split peas over night and then cook them on the stove top.  Roughly the ingredients and proportions are:

2 T coconut oil
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1/2 c finely chopped carrot
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 - 1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 - 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 c dried yellow split peas
2 cans coconut milk
1 c vegetable broth

Fresh lemon, for serving
Fresh cilantro, for serving

Saute onion and carrot until soft, add garlic until fragrant, add spices until fragrant, add coconut milk and broth.  Taste, adjust seasoning and add salt to taste.  Stir in yellow split peas and put mixture in slow cooker and cook three to four hours, until split peas are soft.  This with more broth if desired, serve over roasted coconut.  It would be ideal to make this the day before and then roast the cauliflower the day you are eating it so that the flavors have more time to meld.  

Fruit salad. For real.

This is a serious fruit salad, meaning that the ingredients include fruit.  And only fruit.  You might be skeptical about the presence of fresh (tart!) cranberries and the absence of sugar, but the dates and other fresh fruit and just enough sweetness.  It passed the 4/3 year old taste bud test with flying colors.


1 pkg fresh cranberries (I had leftover fresh cranberries that I had stashed in the freezer, so I just rinsed them in a strainer to thaw and tossed them in the bowl)

2 c frozen wild blueberries

5 oranges, peeled and chopped

2 oranges, juiced

1 lime, juiced

4 to 8 oz fresh dates

4 to 6 Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped

Add the juice of 1 orange and 1 lime to the dates in a food processor or blender, and process until combined.  It is perfectly fine if it isn't completely smooth.

In a large bowl combine the cranberries, blueberries, chopped oranges, chopped apples and juice of 1 orange.  Mix to combine.  Add the juice/date puree and mix thoroughly.  That's it.  cover it and refrigerate until ready to serve

You can substitute tangerines or clementines for the oranges, firm but ripe pears for the apples, you could add fresh ginger or shredded coconut.  Or, you can just make it this way.