We’ve had a few snags and set backs during Reno-cation week and things are going much slower than expected. We’re not too surprised though because this happens with every single reno project that we do! We’ve been going strong from about 9am until midnight most days this week and we still aren’t done yet.
After spending the entire day yesterday painting the trim and ceiling (oh wow, I almost wrote ‘sealing’, I must be tired!), today we begin painting the COLOUR (Hint: it’s BOLD!). We have been planning this colour since we moved into the house in 2008 and it is so exciting to finally see it coming to fruition!
We matched the dining room trim colour to the trim in the kitchen so it would flow nicely from one room to another. (The trim doesn’t look very nice in the picture above because it is next to harsh white primer!)
In the background of this photo you can see the kitchen trim + wainscoting. It is the same in the dining room. :)
I have a feeling it will all come together in the end…
Sort of like this delicious Dal Makhni dish that I made earlier this week, adapted from Vegan Yum Yum.
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Vegan Dal Makhni
Adapted from Vegan Yum Yum.
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 cup uncooked masoor dal (or French or green lentils- I used green)
- 2-3 cups water
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (or 1-inch piece cinnamon stick), or to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom (or 2 green cardamom pods), or to taste
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced (I only used 1 tsp b/c I don’t care for ginger that much)
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
- 1 and 1/4 cup tomatoes, diced
- 1/2-3/4 tsp kosher salt, to taste
- 1/2 cup water, to thin out
- 2/3 cup cashews
- 2/3 cup water
Directions:
1. Cook the lentils in 2 cups of water until tender, about 40 minutes. Bring lentils to a boil and then reduce to medium heat. Add more water when necessary to avoid burning (I think I used 3 cups water over the course of cooking the green lentils). You can prepare the lentils the night or morning before to save time.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Now add in the spices (cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, and ground cloves) and cook for another 3 minutes or so.
3. Add in the minced ginger and garlic and stir well. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add in the tomatoes and salt, and cook until slightly reduced for about 5 more minutes.
4. Stir in the cooked lentils and additional 1/2 cup water, if needed, to thin out.
5. Make the cashew cream sauce by blending the cashews in a blender and then gradually adding the water to create a sauce. Stir this cream into the lentil mixture in the skillet, saving a little to add on top for serving. Makes two 1-cup servings.
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First things first, cook the lentils. You can do this ahead of time of course.
I used ground spices which are never as good as using fresh, but I didn’t have the fresh spices on hand so I used what I had. You can always sub in fresh spices if you prefer (see recipe).
Sautee the onion for about 5 minutes and then add in the cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, and ground cloves.
Now add in the garlic and ginger and cook for a few more minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the cashew cream sauce by blending the cashews with water until smooth.
Stir in the cooked lentils.
Stir in the cashew cream sauce, reserving a bit for serving.
Cook for another few minutes and serve with a big hunk of bread!
The cashew sauce made this dish so creamy and rich…I loved it. It was a delicious meal…I only wish I had doubled the recipe!
Well, I have some BOLD and FUN colour to paint now and I’m very excited! This is the fun part. 
After the wall colour is done, we have wainscoting to paint and then install. I’m not sure if we will finish today, but I really hope we can!
Do you have any funny (or disastrous) reno stories to share? Feel free to link to before and after pics if you have some too!
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{ 85 comments… read them below or add one }
Mmmm…great recipe Angela! That cashew cream sauce looks SO good. Definitely going to give this a try soon! :-)
looks so good!!!!!! have fun painting!
That looks so good! You guys have good reno fuel!
Can’t wait to see this color you speak of!! As for that recipe-I’ve been trying to like lentils since becoming vegan a year ago but haven’t been so successful. This is one that looks so good though that I shall have to try it! I love that it has a bit of cashew cream with it…mmm.
have you tried the orange/red lentils? They get all fluffy when cooked :)
Okay, you have awakened the lentil dragon inside of me! I’ll definitely give the orange/red lentils a try, as well as use up my bag of black-eyed peas that’s been sitting in my cupboard for too long to make Jessica Porter’s “Black Eyed Pea Croquettes” (from “Hip Chick’s Guide…”)
Thanks!!
In my family, we eat lentils like they are going out of STYLE. I am making this tonight, anything with lentils, and especially cashew cream, is a winner in my book!:)
Looks sooo good! Nice hearty winter meal! Do you need to soak the cashews before you blend them? Any other recipes for a cashew cream, I’m intrigued! Bisous from Paris
No the recipe didn’t call for soaking, although you could if you wanted to!
This looks so good!! I love all those flavors and lentils :)
Good luck with the painting!
My bet is you’re using some red paint today. :)
I can’t get enough Indian food right now. This may have to happen tonight! Do you think there would be any problems using black beluga lentils instead?
Omygoooshhhhh that looks freaking good :) I love lentils + bread, they just go together so well for some reason!
Gah I used up the last of my cashews yesterday, otherwise I would seriously make this TONIGHT! Lentils are the love of my life :)
Any renos that involve wallpaper are just absolutely horrible. My mom redid our entire kitchen stripping it of wallpaper and it was the longest project ever.
Cooking amazing meals & renovating!?! Gosh, you’re like super woman!
It does take longer than expected to do home renovations. We recently painted our hallway and foyer and it seriously took a month!
I love lentils and am excited to try this dish with the cashew cream sauce! Good luck on the remainder of your reno!
Holy moly!! That looks delicious! I had a contractor
Do my renos . It was a mess. Hehe… Thank God that’ s over.I’m still trying to get my house
Together.all in all it was a blessing that I could have it
Done. Plus, I have an amazing bathroom;-)cc
WOW you guys are putting in a lot of hours! I’m sure the final result will be totally worth it though. Can’t wait to see it! :)
I’m SO making this tonight! I have all the ingredients :).
I recently painted my room then realized I hated the color and had to repaint it the next day…
5+ hours one day followed by another 5+ hours repainting over the horrible color = not a good time!
It did turn out great though once it was done.
agh it’s the worst when you dont like the colour!
Wow, I never would have thought that making a cashew creme sauce would be so easy!
we are smack in the middle of redoing our kitchen. since we bought a very old house-built in 1924-we come across some major problems all the time. everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much. but we love our home!
i plan to do some renos here at our condo, when we have some money.. i dont know how people can afford to do so much at one time.
that dish looks fab.
For me every event involving moving everything out of a room is a disaster. I can’t stand chaos and right now I am surrounded by boxes and huge bags that make me want to run away. I sympathize with you in this and I really wish there was someone to cook some comforting lentils for me while I’m moving out :) .
I’m so impressed by all that you do in your work and your home life–thanks for inspiring us!
I’m so impressed by all that you do in your work and your home life–thanks for inspiring us!
Thanks Elizabeth :)
This recipe will definitely get made this week! The kitchen looks like it’s really coming along. :)
I’ve never tried Dal, but it looks thick which is a bonus!
I really just want the bread though :)
Seriously, can you come cook for me?
I will cook for you and you can come do renos….sound good? haha
I think all renovation plans end up taking a lot longer than anyone expects…no matter how much pre-planning is done!
I agree! It’s that ‘wishful thinking’ I guess.
Yum, I love lentils. I’d probably really like this recipe.
I’ve never had the opportunity to Reno, hope to soon, though!
Oooooooooo I can’t wait to see what colour you chose! I love following your reno posts :)
P.S. Good thing painting is a good workout too!
haha umm yea…totally skipping my traditional workouts this weekend!
Looks like the perfect dish to cap off winter with! I am always looking for new ways to incorporate lentils – I love them, but don’t get very creative on my own – thanks for the inspiration!!
We’re renovating right now too, and it’s a pain in the rear end. :) A
Oh yum, I love dal. Thanks for the recipe. Hang in there re: renos. It’ll all be soooo worth it!!!
This recipe looks delicious!!
I’ve been exploring your blog for a while now. But this is my first time commenting.
I think the only kind of reno stories are the nightmare ones. My childhood (as I grew up in a 100 year old house) is full of them. Including the time that we decided to move the shower and discovered that the structural wall when we opened it up had been involved in a fire and was basically just charred wood. Scary!
And I’m so excited to try this recipe. I’ve been making an effort to eat more lentils and I may very well have everything I need to make this baby for dinner tonight. Thanks!
This looks sooooo good. I have all the ingredients except for cashews. I can’t seem to keep those in the house – I eat them all up before I have the chance to use them. I probably buy about 5 containers before I ever get around to making that delicious vegan mac n cheese.
This recipe looks amazing! I am going to make it tonight! Last night I made your brushetta, and it was to die for! I also made your detox coconut macaroons, and my mom LOVED them (she wants me to forward her the link to your site) and my boyfriend who HATES coconut gobbled up 3 of them and declared that they were amazingly good. He couldn’t believe he actually liked something with coconut in it! Thanks Angela :)
Glad you all enjoyed them!
Funny renovation story- My dad was out of town for the weekend and my mom thought it would be nice to surprise him by making over a few things in the house. (I have no idea why she thought to do this since he is better at stuff like this but it was too late to convince her of otherwise.) So we ended up picking out what we thought was a nice subtle green for our laundry room- it ended up being blinding, neon green like Shrek! Boy was he surprised with how much work he was going to have to do when he came back!
haha ouch!
I just bought Vegan Yum Yum! I need to make something out of it, but currently I’m just staring at the beautiful photos!!
the broccoli dal and tomato risotto are both fab!
As much as I loved building our house from the ground up, there’s something to be said for an older house that you can slowly work on together. I’ve always found older homes to be warmer and more inviting, new houses don’t have that [at first anyways]! So, since our house is new, we don’t have any reno stories. But, I do have a couple pictures of our house being built!
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/11255_350747165703_829895703_9923326_1859932_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/18534_439034865703_829895703_10746311_5052069_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/25148_10150160718515704_829895703_11666352_2476674_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/28128_393577584588_512414588_3831358_3815209_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/28128_393577569588_512414588_3831355_5090175_n.jpg
gorgeous! Love your cabinets :)
My reno-nightmare has to do with our window trim. It was covered in layers of white paint and I had the great idea to strip it back to its natural appearance to match our mantle and our wood floors. We pulled all of the trim off of every window. ALL of it. I started to strip the paint off and it took me an entire day to do ONE piece and all of the paint didn’t even come off! That night, we junked all of the old trim and bought all new. I tried to save money by redoing the old trim, but in this case, the cost of new trim was well worth it!
I dont have any disaster pics on my blog but basically anything that has to do with home reno, furniture assembly, car seat installation, kids/baby furniture assembly (swing, crib, high chair, etc)…has nearly ended in divorce for us. I am smart enough to just do it MYSELF now, not even ASK for help. And if I am truly in over my head or it’s too heavy to manage for me, I call a handyman company. I’d rather not get a divorce over a high chair :)
Love the lentil dal recipe. I have been making tons of lentils lately. Sloppy joe lentils, salsa lentils, and also a curried ginger & raisin lentil dish with tomatoes. Similar to what you posted. I bet you’d like it :)
Have a great Sunday, Angela. And the pic of you eating pizza…you’re gorgeous!!!
What a great lentil recipe! My style for sure.
I have no reno stories because I have had no desire to have the mishaps or stress that come with them. :)
Love your pretty pic!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE dal!! I’ve never seen it with green lentils though. I like the mushiness of red lentils.
After hearing so many disastrous renovation stories, I’m pretty sure I never want to undertake my own. My house will just have to suffice as it is!
I love anything incorporating cashew cream sauce. In fact, I could probably just eat it with a spoon!
oh this looks delightful indeed!
Your reno is looking great! I can’t wait to see what color you chose. We are just finishing up our nightmare of a kitchen reno. When we bought our house in May, our kitchen had this hideous flowery and fruity wallpaper that I had said had to go! We started removing the wallpaper in sept with DIF. The wallpaper was not coming off well and taking pieces of the drywall with it, so we tried a steamer. The steamer worked wonders on 2 of our walls, however it wasn’t going to work on the 2 walls with cabinets. We brought in a contractor who redrywalled our walls for us. Last week, we primed and painted our walls yellow. The kitchen looks amazing now! We have had one last snag with the kitchen…we took 3 cabinets off the wall to make it easier to remove wallpaper and paint, however since it was redrywalled, one of the cabinets does not fit :( Now to brainstorm through this snag…. Here is a link to the album, i hope it works!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2413823&id=15707989&l=39ae46a028
Your vegan dal makhni dish looks amazing! Can’t wait to make it.
wow it looks great! we have a ceiling in the living room that we might have to rip down. Im not looking forward to it!
That looks delicious! Keep up the good work in the renovation :)
Ah, I think hiccups are the name of the game when it comes to renovations! Well done to you for keeping your spirits up.
Meanwhile I’m in awe of the cashew cream in dal idea! Magnificent!
Another fab recipe! Good luck with the rennovations.
Love the looks of this recipe! I’ve just started getting into using more Indian/middle eastern spices, so I’m excited to try this! Do you have any suggestions for how to make a nut-free version of the cashew cream??
Im not sure….Id say avocado puree but it would probably change the taste?
I think it would still taste great with the dish though! Thanks for the idea! :)
np! let me know if you do try it…i’d be interested if it works!
That looks so good!
My disaster story: I decided to pain over my bright yellow room without priming first. Yeah. Not so good.
I squirm just a little bit every time I hear about renovations. It took us 6 months to have our house painted. My dad did it for us and he’s a professional, but the timeline and constant dirt and dust made me nuts!
Thank you for the recipe- it looks amazing!
Mmmm, looks super yummy indeed! I love me some lentils anytime. And did I hear cashew sauce? I’m ALL over this yummy, vegan recipe!
The recipe looks fantastic! I made some vegan dal makhani earlier this week…but yours looks way better! I love using cashew cream in Indian recipes- I make Palak “paneer” (with tofu) and use cashew cream in the spinach and it is the bomb dot com!
Oh. My. Gosh. Our renos were a NIGHTMARE!!!! We bought a house that had a hoarder living in it, and the house stunk, and was NASTY!!!! We gutted it down to the core, and did new ceilings, floors, dry-wall, bathroom, kitchen … everything!!!
You HAVE to see the pics!! The difference is crazy – especially the nasty bathroom and kitchen!
http://everydayfoodiecanada.blogspot.com/2010/01/meals-with-family-and-main-floor-after.html
Oh I can’t wait to see what bold color you picked for your walls. I love colored walls. My kitchen is orange, basement bar is red, bedroom is red and orange, guest bathroom orange and so on. All different shades too. I think it makes a room so cheerful.
Props to you for choosing such great colors!
What a simple and healthy idea~It looks delicious. Is Indian food your favorite, Angela? :P Just wondering since you seem to re-create them often. Of course, they’re very vegan-izable too.
Going to have to try this one- I like that it uses already cooked lentils rather than cooking them as part of the recipe – so I can make them ahead or (gasp) use canned lentils in a pinch :)
This dish looks so good! The cashew sauce must be amazing!
That looks tasty!!! Mmmm.
My boyfriend and I were painting my bedroom, we underestimated how much furniture I had… fun fun! We painted hard all day (with the air conditioner off!). I was beat and we decided to finish the next day. He called me at 9am the next morning! All excited to finish painting….. yeah…. he’s one of THOSE people. He’s too cute : ) *as a side note: I’m a night owl and not a morning person*
I am so glad I found your blog…though I should have found it sooner because I think I follow you on twitter…oops. Wow, what amazing recipes! I am adding you to my subscriptions right now!
Yum! Since spending a month in India last fall, I have been getting some overwhelming cravings for Indian food. I dream about some of the things I ate there. It was like vegetarian heaven (or, for me, plead-mild-ignorance-of-gee vegan-heaven). There were so many choices. Dal was definitely a delicious standard. mmmmm!
I’ve got to say I’m envious. I love doing the home reno thing, but with a brand new house, there is little work to be done. I suppose I should count my blessings :)
sounds like you guys are both going to need a vacation after your ‘staycation’ :)
…but if your decorating is anything like your food, im guessing it is going to be perfect and well worth it!!
What an amazing recipe Angela!!!! :D You always make the best foods!!! And have the BEST BLOG! :D
I am sold on anything involving lentils and Indian food. I wish I had cashews!
Hi Angela!! LOOOONG time enjoyer/reader of your site, first time writer! :) Just a quick question and I hope not a too-duplicated one – what do you think about taking an immersion blender to this amazing concoction – I love my soups creamy so it occurred to me! :) Keep on with the glowing and all the wonderfulness you do!
Hey Karen!
Thanks so much! I haven’t used an immersion blender before but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work? Goodluck!
Hey darlin, thank you! :) I shall and I absolutely will let you know – I’ve had pretty good success with using the blender with my own “made-up” lentil soups, so I’m sure THIS one’ll be spectacular – I’ll try hard to get on it tomorrow perhaps! Some veg/vegan I am – I still can’t past my childhood texture issues with whole legumes…sheesh – LOL… ;) And sorry I’m “late” – I didn’t get the alert when there’s a reply so I didn’t know you’d come ’round, eek!
I love this recipe and was struck by the urge to cook it but couldn’t find it. Used recipage and searched by lentils, tomatoes and cashews and looked under tall your entrees and it wasn’t there. Finally did a site search and on the last page of results this gem of a recipe was finally, finally, finally found. My way of pointing out that your recipage may need some updating/reorganization and I need to use my book marks more efficiently.