Mandala Art Lentil Curry Stew for RVFB

     

     

        Mandala Project involved community in art making with pulse and rice at BAAMfest, an event celebrating the multicultural South Seattle neighborhood of Rainier Beach, July, 2016. A collaboration with Elise, Lily and other good folks from the Rainier Valley Food Bank. I got the email from Elise from the Rainier Valley Food Bank inviting me to design a large Mandala to fill with colorful lentils and rice for their booth for BAMfest,  an art festival in Rainier Beach, I was quickly on board. 

       Dinner guests and I tested designs on dinner plates, a recipe for the pulse and rice was concocted, to be distributed after the event  \at the food bank so nothing would go to waste. We used gloves and people took off their shoes to keep the grains sanitized.  At the end, some rowdy kids romped through and disrupted this, but we still had ample supplies to distribute at the food bank. 

S.    Seattle Times reporter Alan Berger talked with us and photographed our project, see the online issue finds us as photo subject #12.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/baamfest-celebrates-multicultural-south-seattle/?

^{1.5 cup of mixed lentils and rice (washed and rinsed)}

^{32 ounce carton of vegetable (or chiken) broth}

^{1 cup of canned coconut milk}

^{1 Tbsp vegetable oil}

^{½ tsp ground coriander (or cumin)}

^{¼ tsp ground turmeric}

^{½ tsp curry powder}

^{¼ tsp ground clove (or a couple whole cloves)}

^{1 Tbsp grated ginger}

^{generous salt & pepper}

^{dash of cayenne pepper or hot sauce}

^{½ onion chopped}

^{3 cloves of garlic peeled and minced}

^{1 bell pepper (any color), diced}

^{2 small carrots, peeled and chopped}

^{cilantro leaves}

^{Freely alternate vegetables such as spinach, green beans, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet potato, precooked and chopped, or added earlier according to cooking time. Optional toppings or mix-ins: raisins, grated unsweetened coconut, cashews, hot sauce, cilantro}

^{Instructions:}

^{1.     Wash and rinse the lentils and rice a few times before cooking.}

^{2.     Add spices except for salt to 1 Tbsp of oil in a frying pan on medium heat and stir}

^{3.     add onion and garlic and a little more oil and cook about 3 minutes, stir in bell pepper and sauté about 2 minutes}

^{5.     add carrot and ¼ cup of broth, cook another 2 minutes}

^{6.     add lentil mixture, broth and coconut milk, cook 30-35 minutes until lentil are soft, adding more water if stew becomes too thick.}

^{7.     add salt}

^{8.     add any other pre-cooked or quick cooking veggies and heat 5 minutes more}

^{9.     stir in chopped cilantro and raisins at the end.}

^{Serve hot garnished with your choice of coconut, cashews, chopped green onion, cilantro, hot sauce, salt and pepper.}

 ^z