red lentils 13 July 2006 at 10:37AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Old Style MoneySaving 208 replies 27.6K views

adouglasmhor

French lentil loaf.
This is a French traditional dish and it's lovely. Great for sarnies and rolls or with a salad or new potatoes. you can miss out the bredcrumbs* or put in a dollop of peanut butter instead. Or just use water or lemon juice instead of vinegar.
Line your baking tin with paper if it's not a silicon one though.

2 cups red lentils
5 cups water or light vegetable stock
2 medium onions
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons sesame oil or extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon sea salt, to taste (may sub regular salt)
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar
Wash lentils quickly, drain, and place the lentils in a 3-4 quart saucepan.
Add the water or stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Chop the onions and the garlic very finely.
In a large skillet, heat the oil.
Add the garlic, onions, and herbs and saute over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes, or until the onions and garlic are browned and fragrant.
Oil a 9-inch shallow baking pan or loaf pan and sprinkle with half the bread crumbs, completely coating the inside of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 375*F.
Chop the parsley finely.
When the lentils are done, stir them thoroughly to mash, add the onion mixture, bread crumbs, and parsley.
Season to taste with sea salt, vinegar, and pepper.
Pour the lentil mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until set.
Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing it up.

nell2

I'm just making a Red Lentil Lasagne for tea tonight.
Fry a finely chopped onion and garlic clove in a bit of olive oil.
Add a chopped pepper and about 4oz of mushrooms and cook gently for a few more minutes. Then add 8oz of lentils and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, herbs, about 1/2 pint of water. Bring to boil, then cover, reduce the heat, then simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils are cooked.
Use this between the lasagne sheets with cheese sauce over the top layer.
Really tasty, and quite healthy too if you don't go mad with the cheese.

nell2

purplecatlover wrote: »

i have a bag of red lentils that need using up. they say they are no saok and boil in 30 mins. anyone got any ideas for ways to use them?

also do i have to boil them before i add them to soup/stew in the slow cooker? (ive never used them before)

I think you need to fast boil them for about 10 minutes before you put them into the slow cooker to give them a good start.

purplecatlover

lots of ideas thank you everyone.

Primrose

Once you've got your kids used to eating lentils, do investigate Rose Elliott's books "The Bean Book" and "Not Just a Load of Old Lentils". They contain lots of delicious and cheap recipes using pulses. Your local library will probably have them in the Cookery Books section. Lentil soup can be beefed up up by dropped lots of chopped smoked bacon pieces in if you're not aiming for a vegetarian meal and eaten with crusty bread, is a filling meal on its own.

moanymoany

I don't get on with red lentils, so I bought some green ones to make lentil curry. Horrors, I got them out and discovered it says to soak them overnight of for 12 hours and then cook for 15/20 minutes. I decided to go ahead with my curry, but I used pearl barley, it was really nice.

I boiled up my lentils after soaking. I cooled and froze them in portions. The water with a few lentils in the bottom I used for soup by adding carrots, onions, celery, potato and a stock cube. Simmered the lot for an hour and it is delish.

So are the lentils.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/dhal-curry,787,RC.html

This is easy and tastes good.

neilersmc

its getting to the stage in January where the 6 weeks since i was last paid is an utter nightmare. roll on Thursday!!!!

Having a look in the store cupboard i have discovered 2 huge bags of red lentils. Could you give me some ideas and recipes to use them up - im not a fan of lentil soup.

angie_loves_veg

Might you like dhal? Great as a side dish for indian food OR great as a dish in it's own right served with rice.

Pink.

Hi neilersmc,

There's an older thread with some ideas for using red lentils that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

belfastgirl23

Fry an onion in some oil or butter till soft. Add about 250g red lentils. cook for about a minute with the onion. Add about a litre of veg stock. Presto, golden lentil soup