Hello my darlings! I'd like to take just a quick minute to encourage you to help kickstart Home Grown Food Products! Home Grown Food Products (HGFP) is a small-scale, intentional food processing business making all natural, holistically healthy food products for the benefit of their community. They are located in McMinnville, Oregon, a town of over 32,000 residents in the lush Yamhill River Valley, approximately 35 miles southwest of Portland. HGFP is operated by just a handful of environmentally-friendly stewards of the earth, one from my hometown of Palmer, Alaska! They have until December 30th to reach their Kickstarter goal. See their Kickstarter page here. Even if it's just one dollar, it's the small contributions that add up to make the difference! Feel good this Christmas by helping out a local, small-scale, healthy food company with integrity.

So, go do it! Then, make this delicious Thai Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew. When Todd and I first started removing animal products from our lives, this was one of the first things we made and we loved it! It's pretty quick and very hands off. I'm so excited to share it with you!

This stew is thick, and filling. It's sweet and hearty and has a wonderful Thai influence. I really like to use red lentils because they cook so quickly. They also happen to be the most nutritious of lentils and the prettiest too!

Thai Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew

Serves 6

4-6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup red lentils
2 medium sweet potatoes, unpeeled and diced
15 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes
2/3 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp. lemongrass paste (optional)
sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 small green cabbage head (or half a large one), chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

--Notes-- Using brown or green lentils will significantly lengthen the cooking time. Dice the sweet potato fairly small, to ensure a shorter cooking time.

In a large soup pot, bring the vegetable broth, lentils and sweet potatoes to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, uncovered and stirring occasionally or until the lentils and sweet potatoes are cooked. The lentils should not be hard, yet, the sweet potatoes should still hold their shape.

Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes and coconut milk.

In a large frying pan over low, heat the coconut oil. Then add in the turmeric, lemongrass, ginger and red pepper flakes. Saute for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Now, add in the garlic, onion and cabbage. Saute for about 10 minutes, or until the cabbage is limp and cooked through.

Produce On Parade - Thai Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew Add the cabbage mixture to the lentil and sweet potato mixture and stir to combine. At this point, if you want a thinner soup, feel free to add more coconut milk or water.