Raunchy Red Lentils & Potlikker

During my 26-day Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up, I'm allowed to have gluten-free cooked meals made with whole foods for dinner. Though I love my raw lunches and breakfasts on the cleanse, cooked food is where it's at for me. Nothing beats a warm bowl of soup on a cold, cold night. Luckily, this recipe for Rauchy Red Lentil Soup from vegan cookbook goddess Sarah Kramer met the criteria for an ACT-friendly dinner:

The recipe came from Kramer's 2010 Go Vegan wall calendar. Each month has one recipe and a kitschy-cute picture of Sarah. Since the January lentil recipe was cleanse-friendly, I figured the universe was trying to tell me to make this soup immediately.

And I'm glad I did. Tender red lentils meet tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, onion, and garlic in this Indian-inspired dish. And it's perfect for warmin' up on a chilly Memphis winter night.

On the side, I had a serving of Brown Rice and Collard Greens:

I made the collards using my own recipe (it's going in the cookbook, for sure!), but substituted agave for the touch of sugar in the greens to keep it cleanse-worthy. When the greens were done cookin', I poured the rich potlikker over the rice to flavor the plain grains. Potlikker is what Southerners call the liquid left after cooking greens. It contains essential vitamins and minerals that may have been cooked out of the collards, and it's damn tasty. No need to waste.

Hey testers! There's a new recipe up on the tester blog...