Lentils

[levicc00123]

I've got several bags of lentils cooking in the crockpot and I'm looking for usage suggestions. Also, does anyone else ile lentils? They're my personal favorite legume.

[Zohar]

The easiest thing would be to make a soup out of it, then you can freeze large amounts and it will keep well.

You can cook rice and add some lentils to it (1 cup lentils for 2 cups uncooked rice) and make mujaddra - first fry some onions, add the rice and lentils, then water (two cups water for one cup rice, usually), then salt, pepper, a bit of cumin and some turmeric. Garlic would work well too.

I also cooked lentils with tons of fried onions and garlic (with similar condiments) as a sauce for couscous.

There are probably recipes you could find for veggie burgers - probably adding tahini, breadcrumbs and other stuff into it (or if you don't mind, you could add eggs as well). I don't have any specific recipe in mind, but they shouldn't be hard to find online.

[Bakemaster]

Dal! Alternatively, Sarah will pop in sooner or later and post her recipe that she has for sweet potato and lentil curry, which is wunderbar.

[Zohar]

How could I forget Indian cooking! Bakemaster's right, naturally. Those are great choices.

[PictureSarah]

Dal! Alternatively, Sarah will pop in sooner or later and post her recipe that she has for sweet potato and lentil curry, which is wunderbar.

Ask and it shall be given.

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry with Warm Pita Bread

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups red lentils
Pita bread

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a saucepan or kettle, bring 3 ½ cups of water to a boil.
2. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, and 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potato, ginger, garlic, curry powder and bay leaf and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in the boiling water and stir in the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the lentils break down and the sweet potatoes are tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Season with salt.
4. While the potatoes and lentils are cooking, wrap a stack of pita breads in a slightly damp cotton towel, and place in oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serves 4

I prefer to serve it with brown basmati instead of pita bread. I also occasionally add some golden raisins and chopped walnuts to the mixture.

[PAstrychef]

There's great little recipe for an Egyptian dish whose name I now forget.
you take equal amounts of cooked lentils, rice and macaroni-I use elbows-and mix them with tomato sauce flavored with plenty of cumin and some sumac. You can add meat, but I've never found it really necessary. Now that I think about it, I realize that this dish is vegan.

[Zohar]

Sarah, just a question - a whole tablespoon of curry? It seems like a lot so I wanted to make sure it's not a teaspoon. Also, I think I'll make this soon.

[PictureSarah]

It's a recipe that I found online, not one that I made up...but I've followed it before, tablespoon of curry and all, and it turns out deliciously!

[voidPtr]

It's a recipe that I found online, not one that I made up...but I've followed it before, tablespoon of curry and all, and it turns out deliciously!

Thanks a lot for posting...I just happen to have a bunch of sweet potatoes I need to unload so I'm going to give this a try!

[Bakemaster]

Sarah, just a question - a whole tablespoon of curry? It seems like a lot so I wanted to make sure it's not a teaspoon. Also, I think I'll make this soon.

It's worth noting that Sarah is a dirty heathen who uses McCormick Curry Powder, which is kind of like instant noodle seasoning only yellow.

[Slurgi]

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry with Warm Pita Bread

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups red lentils
Pita bread

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a saucepan or kettle, bring 3 ½ cups of water to a boil.
2. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, and 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potato, ginger, garlic, curry powder and bay leaf and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in the boiling water and stir in the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the lentils break down and the sweet potatoes are tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Season with salt.
4. While the potatoes and lentils are cooking, wrap a stack of pita breads in a slightly damp cotton towel, and place in oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serves 4

This entices me to the extreme. I may actually test this recipe out on my roommates tonight. If it turns out good I could unleash it upon a female vegetarian friend of mine that's really piqued my interest...

Interestingly enough, it seems like a side-dish of kimchi (Korean cabbage--I fell in love with the stuff during a study abroad over there) would go really well with this, and that's a food I've been craving something fierce. I'll let the thread know how it went if I do actually make it.

[Slurgi]

Made the recipe for my roommates, but I forgot to cover the dish after adding the boiling water/lentils, so it was probably a bit thicker than it should have been, but that was OK, because I served it over a bed of rice with a side-dish of kimchi.

It ended up pretty good, but I think if I make it again that I'll cut down on the ginger and curry, but add a bit more sweet potato. Thanks for the recipe! Cheap, healthy, and tasty!

[Bakemaster]

cut down on the ginger

I know these words individually but together they are gibberish.

[levicc00123]

Awsome! I just made a cheddar sauce and added some lentils to it, and it turned out good. Thank you folks for your advice.

[Aardvarki]

I use lentils in my vegan chili. They do a good job replacing ground beef, because they give the same kind of texture. Then I replace the cubed beef with cubed potatoes and voila, my chili is vegan!

PROTIP: Since you cook chili for 12+ hours regardless (and if you don't cook your chili at least 12 hours, YOU ARE A BAD PERSON), you can just pour the lentils in uncooked at the start and let them cook the whole time, they'll turn out just fine.