Cream Boosts Flavor Of Lentil Sausage Soup Cucina! Cucina! Shares Recipe; Low-Fat Substitutions Create Healthier Version

Dear Merri Lou: I really like the Lentil Sausage Soup at Cucina! Cucina! I have a good recipe but don’t really know how to add the creamy texture. Thank you for your help.- Marilyn, via e-mail

Dear Marilyn: Heavy cream makes the difference in the Cucina! Cucina! recipe, which general manager Karen Mercer shared with me. You can make the soup a little healthier by using one of the lower-fat sausages now available in stores, such as Isernio’s Italian Chicken Sausage (30 percent fat calories). To further trim fat, try substituting half-and-half (78 percent fat calories) - or, better yet, evaporated skim milk (3 percent fat calories) - for the cream (95 percent fat calories).

Lentil Sausage Soup

From Cucina! Cucina! Italian Cafe, Spokane.

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons dry lentils

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup diced onion

1/4 cup diced carrots

3 tablespoons diced leeks, white part only

3 tablespoons diced celery

8 ounces raw Italian sausage

1 quart chicken broth

1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

7 ounces heavy cream

Pinch of salt

White pepper to taste

1 cup spinach chiffonade (shredded into thin ribbons)

Rinse lentils and soak overnight in plenty of water; drain and rinse again.

Melt butter and saute onions, carrots, leeks and celery until softened. Add sausage and saute until lightly browned, breaking up into pieces. Add chicken stock along with the lentils and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 40 minutes.

Add mustard, red wine vinegar, cream, salt and pepper. Cook 10 minutes and adjust seasonings to taste. Add spinach and cook 30 seconds.

Yield: About 6 cups.

Nutrition information per 1-cup serving: 380 calories, 21 grams fat (50 percent fat calories), 22 grams protein, 27 grams carbohydrate, 94 milligrams cholesterol, 1,130 milligrams sodium, 13 grams dietary fiber.

Dear Merri Lou: One of my favorite salad dressings was the papaya seed dressing at Makena’s restaurant. Makena’s is no more, I’m sorry to say. Is there a way you can get the recipe or at least one similar? If you can, you’d not only make me happy, but many others. Thank you. Sincerely, - Geri, Spokane

Dear Geri: I wasn’t able to contact the owners of the former Spokane Valley restaurant, but I have found a recipe that I hope you find comparable. This salad from Graham Kerr is just super for a warm spring day.

Island Greens Salad With Papaya Seed Dressing

From “The Gathering Place,” by Graham Kerr (Camano Press, 1997).

Salad:

1 head napa cabbage, washed and cored

1/2 English cucumber

6 green onions, cut diagonally into -1/2-inch pieces

1 cup loosely packed mung bean sprouts, rinsed

4 cups washed and stemmed spinach

30 small cilantro leaves, very finely sliced

1 lime, peeled, sectioned and chopped, juices reserved

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

1 large, ripe papaya, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes or scooped into balls with a melon baller (reserve the seeds for dressing)

Papaya Seed Dressing:

4 slices of peeled ginger root, about 1/4 inch thick

2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 tablespoon papaya seeds

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon low-sodium tamari

Pick out 6 of the nicest, largest cabbage leaves (save the rest for another use). Cut out the white stems and slice them crosswise into strips; you should have about 1 cup. Wrap the leaves loosely in a towel and refrigerate.

Peel the cucumber and trim the sides flat so that it forms a long rectangle, then cut into 1/2-inch dice.

Put the cabbage stems, cucumber, onions, sprouts, spinach, cilantro, lime, lime juice and pumpkin seeds in a large, clean salad spinner. Add the papaya and toss gently. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the dressing, process all ingredients in a blender at high speed for about 1 minute.

Pour the dressing over the greens in the salad spinner. Give the spinner a few good turns to allow the extra dressing to spin off. Collect the dressing from the bottom of the spinner and sprinkle 2 tablespoons over the top of the greens (leftover dressing will keep in the refrigerator for several days). Place a chilled cabbage leaf on each salad plate and arrange a portion of the salad on top.

Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 88 calories, 4 grams fat (41 percent fat calories), 11 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams dietary fiber.

, DataTimes MEMO: Have a food question? Looking for a recipe? Merri Lou Dobler, a registered dietitian in Spokane, would like to hear from you. Write to Cook’s Notebook, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or e-mail to merrid@spokesman.com. As many letters as possible will be answered in this column; sorry, no individual replies.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Merri Lou Dobler The Spokesman-Review