Lentils; the supercheap superfood.

Hello!

I've recently turned veggie so i'm a big lentil fan! My favourite recipe is one from my mother gave me for a spicy lentil soup.

To make it you need

2 tins of tomatoes
150g of red lentils
2 carrots
1 onion
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 tablespoon of cumin
4 veg stock cubes (the recipe says 2 but I always double up as its nicer!)
1 clove of garlic
1.2 litres of water.

I blend it once its cooked as I think its nicer this way.

Another favourite of mine is to make moussaka and put lentils and tinnned tomatoes in instead of mince. It's really nice and I've tried both red lentils and green lentils mixed with mung beans.

I posted this on another thread but with no response yet, does anyone know how to stop lentils sticking to the bottom of a pressure cooker and burning. I make a chopped tomatoes, onion,carrots, celery, bacon misshapes and lentil type stew and it always burns at the end. Do the lentils cook well in a sc? I always have to cook carrots and celery in the microwave for about 10 mins before adding to sc otherwise they turn out rock hard.

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Lentil dhal, cheap and yummy and delicious served with rice.

Yeah we have this one;

Spinach, Coconut & Lentil Dahl

Ingredients:

200g split red lentils
400ml water
400ml coconut milk
250g finely chopped onions
75g dairy free margarine,
5 garlic cloves-thinly sliced
2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
4 cloves
3 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4 thick slices fresh unpeeled ginger
450g fresh, peeled & roughly chopped tomatoes
300g spinach
lots of ground black pepper
juice of 1 large lime
1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander
2 tablespoon fresh chopped mint
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Fry the onion in 50g of the margerine until golden. Add half of the sliced garlic, cumin, mustard seeds & cloves. Cook gently for about 5 mins. Stir in the turmeric & chili powder until well blended.

Add the lentils, water, coconut milk, ginger, tomatoes & spinach (I use the frozen spinach). Bring to a simmer, add pepper and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 30 - 40 mins or until the lentils are soft and have dissolved into the liquid.

Remove the pan from the heat.

Melt the remaining margerine in a small pan. When it gets frothy, add the rest of the garlic and stir until it starts to colour. Add this to the lentil mix.

Add the lime juice, corriander, mint & salt. Cover with lid & leave to sit for 10 mins. Remove ginger chunks And serve with naan vegan bread or any other type of flat bread.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30-40 mins


But we don't have the tomatoes in it, it's really yummy, and we serve it with rice, which feeds 4 of us amply.

Hi
OK you asked for it. We were vegetarian 15 years ago and I have quite a supply of lentil recipes - Lentil mush- Red lentils, onions softened, tin of tomatoes, and any veg left in fridge - carrots, peppers etc. rice, garlic, mixed herbs, bit of stock cook together until rice is done add tom puree
Lentil mousakka, lentil and vegetable bake,lentil patties and croquettes.
Lentil patties - 6oz lentils boiled in 3/4 pint water, until the water is absorbed about 30 mins. Cool. Mix with large chopped onion, 4 tbsps breadcrumbs herbs and pinch nutmeg.Shape into patties and fry.
Croquettes - similar until cool stage then add 1 tbsp oil, 6 oz hard cheese,2 oz peanut butter, 2 oz breadcrumbs, herbs, lemon juice1 tsp marmite. Coat each in egg and breadcrumb and fry.
Again lots of Indian dishes and if you can get hold of Sarah Brown's book lots more lentil recipes - let me know if you can't get it and I'll post some more.