favourite brown lentil recipe?

asparagus1968

morning!


I got a big bag dried brown lentils in MrT.
I have seen lots of recipes in which to use them online but wondered if any of you lovelies use them at all?
thanks for reading.

Seakay

This is my favourite lentil loaf - good hot or cold you can also use the mixture to make burgers. The recipe is from Rose Elliot's "the Bean Book"
Never add salt to the cooking water of lentils or other legumes - it makes them tough.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

175g continental lentils (brown, green or puy)
1 onion, peeled and chopped up small
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
125g walnuts, ground or pulverized in the liquidizer
125g wholewheat breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method

soak the lentils for a few hours, then rinse them and put them in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Simmer gently for about 40 minutes, until they're tender but still holding their shape, then drain off any liquid.
Prepare a 450g loaf tin by putting a long strip of foil across the bottom and up the two narrow sides; grease it generously with butter or marg. Set oven to 190C Mark 5.
Fry the onion in the oil in a good sized saucepan for 10 minutes until tender and lightly browned; stir in the thyme and fry for a few seconds, then remove the saucepan from the heat and add the lentils, walnuts, wholewheat breadcrumbs, tomato puree, parsley and egg. Mix well, the season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the top (or chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour or more before forming into burgers). Cover with a piece of greased foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Leave the loaf to stand in it's tin for a minute or two after removing from the oven, then slip a knife round the edges of the loaf to loosen it and turn it out; strip off the foil.

skader

Mine is a traditional Pakistani dish called Masoor pilau. The 'masoor' means brown lentils, and pilau is the rice
Basically its a layered rice dish with spicy mince, potatoes, cooked lentils and rice layered with a topping of crispy fried onions.
Its cooked on a low heat once layered to allow the flavours to infuse, much like you would cook a pilau rice or biryani

Starrystarrynight

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22876/vegetarian+harira

Hubby & I love this Harira soup, which uses brown lentils. Very tasty.

pogofish

A nice quick and easy one:

Step 1 - Open bin.

Step 2 - Deposit lentils.

Step 3 - Go and make something you actually enjoy.

Sorry but I completely lost the taste for lentils when an economy-minded college flatmate sunk an entire month's food budget into a huge block of frozen fish and a great big bag of "lovely" brown lentils, then spent the rest on booze - You can imagine how many combinations of fish, lentils and beer it took before we were utterly sick of the stuff. Forever!

JIL

Chop mushrooms and onions and gently fry with some garlic, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some herbs and the brown lentils, add some stock. Let it bubble until the lentils cook through.

Use this to layer between some griddled aubergines and/or some sliced jacket potatoes. in a deep oven proof dish. You can also use courgettes and slices of tomatoes.

On the final layer of potatoes/aubergines, sprinkle on some cheese then top with a small tub of greek yoghurt mixed with an egg and a little milk.
Bake for about 40 minutes in a medium oven, cover with foil if it starts to burn.

Caterina

Pasta e lenticchie:

Fry a mix of chopped onion, celery and carrot in a saucepan. Add abundant cold water and lentils (enough to have a " broth" when the lentils are cooked, but not too watery) when the lentils are nearly cooked add a chopped tomato, some stock powder or cube, spices to taste ( pepper or chilli if you like spicy). Add broken spaghetti or any short pasta, enough to give a bit of thickness but still remain with soupy consistency. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan. This is a fantastic iron, protein and vitamin powerhouse of a meal, and delicious to boot!

asparagus1968

Seakay wrote: »

This is my favourite lentil loaf - good hot or cold you can also use the mixture to make burgers. The recipe is from Rose Elliot's "the Bean Book"
Never add salt to the cooking water of lentils or other legumes - it makes them tough.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

175g continental lentils (brown, green or puy)
1 onion, peeled and chopped up small
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
125g walnuts, ground or pulverized in the liquidizer
125g wholewheat breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method

soak the lentils for a few hours, then rinse them and put them in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Simmer gently for about 40 minutes, until they're tender but still holding their shape, then drain off any liquid.
Prepare a 450g loaf tin by putting a long strip of foil across the bottom and up the two narrow sides; grease it generously with butter or marg. Set oven to 190C Mark 5.
Fry the onion in the oil in a good sized saucepan for 10 minutes until tender and lightly browned; stir in the thyme and fry for a few seconds, then remove the saucepan from the heat and add the lentils, walnuts, wholewheat breadcrumbs, tomato puree, parsley and egg. Mix well, the season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the top (or chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour or more before forming into burgers). Cover with a piece of greased foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Leave the loaf to stand in it's tin for a minute or two after removing from the oven, then slip a knife round the edges of the loaf to loosen it and turn it out; strip off the foil.

sounds nice, have all those ingredients in except walnuts, because I don't like them,can I use different nuts?
Cheers

asparagus1968

skader wrote: »

Mine is a traditional Pakistani dish called Masoor pilau. The 'masoor' means brown lentils, and pilau is the rice
Basically its a layered rice dish with spicy mince, potatoes, cooked lentils and rice layered with a topping of crispy fried onions.
Its cooked on a low heat once layered to allow the flavours to infuse, much like you would cook a pilau rice or biryani

mmm, will look up recipe for this thanks

asparagus1968

starrystarrynight- good for lunches at work,thanks


pogofish- sorry to bring back bad memories!


JIL- i'd like that, but my DS doesn't like mushrooms,aubergine,courgettes etc. may try this when he is at his dads though,thanks


caterina- it was the nona of a lovely friend of mine that introduced me to lentils, she used to cokk and mix with lemon juice and herbs as a little snack.
will definitely have a go at this one too.


thank you everyone, brill ideas for me to try