Spinach dal

This is the perfect way to use up a big plastic box of spinach about to go bad, and half a bag of lentils.

I doubled the recipe, used green lentils, fresh spinach (well, fresh-ish), and no chiles.

From VeggieBelly:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
1-2 green chiles, slit (optional)
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 plum tomato, chopped
1 cup yellow lentils
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2 tablespoon heavy cream
1 cup fresh, washed, baby spinach leaves or red choy leaves, packed tightly

Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Add the cumin seeds. When they sizzle, add the green chile if using, and stir 30 seconds. Then add onion, garlic, and tomato. Stir on medium heat till they are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the lentils and turmeric and stir 2 more minutes.

Pour 3 cups water and add salt to the lentils. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer. Place a lid on the saucepan and cook till lentils are done, about 15 minutes. Using the back of a wooden spoon, lightly mash the dal, so that the tomatoes and onion pieces are mashed into the lentils. Add the heavy cream and spinach leaves. Stir the spinach leaves into the dal till they wilt, about 1 minutes. Add more water to the dal, if needed.

Serve hot with rice, rotis or bread.

Lentils with kale and butternut squash

This can either be a hot dish or a cold dish/salad.

1 butternut squash, peeled, roasted and cubed
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup lentils
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot, diced small
1 rib celery, diced small
1/2 onion, diced small
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1/2 pound chopped kale, about 6 cups
1 clove garlic, minced

Place the lentils in a medium saucepan and cover with water by 2 inches. Season generously with salt and bring just to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the lentils are tender but firm, about 20 minutes. Drain, rinse well, stir in the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. While the lentils are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrot, celery, onion and dried red pepper flakes, and cook until the onions and celery are translucent, about 5 minutes. Rinse the kale under water and add it, still dripping, to the skillet in heaping handfuls. Add the minced garlic and salt to taste, and stir to mix well. Cover the pan, leaving the lid ajar, reduce the heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is very soft, dark and frazzled looking, about 30 minutes. It should be very sweet. Stir the lentils into the cooked kale, taste and adjust seasoning for salt, pepper and vinegar. Gently stir in about 2 cups of the roasted squash before serving, snd sprinkle with cumin

Curried lentil salad

Thank God, I've finally used up all the lentils. I was starting to get really tired of lentils. No more lentil recipes for a while, I promise!

This curried lentil salad is really easy. It's basically cooked lentils mixed with a dressing of olive oil, rice vinegar, and curry powder. Salt and pepper to taste. You can add a little minced red onion and fresh garlic if you want. 1/4 cup olive oil to 2-3 tablespoons rice vinegar, and maybe a tablespoon of curry powder (or to taste).

Serve room temperature or cold.

Chicken and lentils

This is a great one-pot dish, somewhere between a stew and a big messy pile of goodness. If you want something closer to a stew, add more liquid; if you want something closer to chicken with juicy lentils, add a little less.

Bonus: I've almost used up all the lentils!

1/2 cup olive oil
1 whole chicken, cut up (I used a package of eight boneless chicken thighs)
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon coriander
1 bunch each cilantro and parsley, chopped
4 1/2 cups water or chicken broth
2 3-inch cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 cups brown or green lentils

In a Dutch oven, brown the chicken in the olive oil. Remove from the pan once browned on all sides, and add the onion, garlic, ginger, tomato sauce, coriander, cilantro and parsley. Salt and pepper. Add the broth (or water) along with the cinnamon sticks and lentils.

Cook on low, covered, for about 30 minutes or until lentils are almost tender. Remove the cinnamon sticks. Add the chicken back in and cook for another 10-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Lemony lentil salad

Typically, I work Saturday nights and then a Sunday double. Rather than drive an hour home, and an hour back, between 1 am Saturday (when I get off work) and 9 am Sunday (when I have to be back at work), I'll just crash with a friend of mine in Boston. That means I spend a minimum of 36 hours away from home, which means I bring a lot of food with me. Lentil salad is one of my favorite things to pack--it doesn't have to be refrigerated, tastes good at room temperature, and provides much-needed protein.

1 cup dried lentils
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon capers
1/4 cup minced chives
Salt and pepper

Put the lentils in a saucepan, cover with water, and add the garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 15-20 minutes or until tender.

Juice the lemons and put in a bowl along with the olive oil, capers, and chives. When the lentils are done, drain them, and add them hot to the dressing. Stir to combine with salt and pepper, and let sit. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Lentil salad with zucchini, tomatoes and arugula

From the LA Times:

1/4 pound zucchini, cut in 1/2-inch dice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided, plus more to taste
1 cup lentils
3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup torn arugula leaves
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Place the diced zucchini in a colander and sprinkle liberally with 1 teaspoon salt. Toss to coat evenly and set aside to drain until the zucchini has begun to soften (the cut edges will appear slightly rounded), about 30 minutes. Rinse well under running water and pat dry with a tea towel.

Meanwhile, rinse the lentils under running water and add them to a large pot of rapidly boiling, liberally salted water. Return to a simmer and cook until they are tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain the lentils, rinse under running water to stop the cooking, and turn them out into a tea towel to dry and finish cooling.

Stir the lentils, chives and garlic together in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season with with one-half teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper, or to taste. The mixture should be highly seasoned.

Stir in the zucchini, cherry tomatoes and lemon juice. Gently fold in arugula leaves. Add just enough olive oil to barely moisten the arugula (you may not need to add any). Stir in the pine nuts and serve at room temperature.

Lentil and potato curry

No posts for the last couple of days because I haven't been around to cook anything. I've been working pretty much continuously, but now it's my day off! This is what I'm making.

From Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: 1 cup dried brown lentils, washed and picked over

3 1/2 cups water, coconut milk, or stock, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 medium starchy potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Yogurt and chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

1. Combine the lentils, liquid, and curry powder in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low so that the mixture bubbles gently, cover partially, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils start to absorb the water a bit, about 15 minutes.

2. Add the potatoes and cover the pan completely. Cook undisturbed for 10 minutes or so, then stir gently and check to make sure the lentils aren't too dry. (At this point, you can add 2 tablespoons butter for a smoother mixture, if you want.) If they are, add a bit more liquid. Add salt as the lentils become tender.

3. Cover and continue cooking until the lentils are soft and beginning to turn to mush and the potatoes are tender at the center, another 5 to 10 minutes; add liquid if necessary. The mixture should be moist but not soupy. Add lots of black pepper, stir, then taste and adjust the seasoning and serve, garnished with yogurt and cilantro.

Crockpot sloppy lentils (a.k.a. vegetarian sloppy joes)

I don't know if you saw this article on the fact that 70% of supermarket ground beef contains pink slime; pink slime being ammonia-treated sludge, which takes otherwise unusable cow parts and renders them sort of edible. If you count washing things in bleach as making them edible.

Findings like this are why I don't buy supermarket ground beef anymore--that, and it doesn't taste very good.

That means I don't eat a lot of ground beef, which is fine with me. If you choose to cut back on your ground beef intake, there are plenty of substitutions--the obvious, like ground turkey and ground pork, and the less obvious, like this vegetarian version of sloppy joes made with lentils.

Even better, it's made in a crockpot.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes with juice
3 cups water or broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil in a skillet until soft. Add the chili powder, stir to coat, and transfer the mixture to a crockpot. Add the rest, cover and cook on low for 6-8  hours. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve on hamburger buns, maybe with cole slaw.

Swiss chard, barley, and lentil soup

I ate more junk food last week than I normally do in a year.

I love my family, and I love seeing them at Christmas, but my uncles are junk food fiends. I was in a house filled to the rafters with chips, store-bought pastries and pound cakes, enormous bags of M&Ms, and every kind of soda imaginable. It all got eaten, too.

So I was very happy that my mother sent me home with some goodies from her garden--several bags of fresh-cut herbs which are now drying, but most importantly, two great big bags of chard. Instead of having to run right out and buy groceries as soon as I got home, I've now got a several-day supply of greenery that I can supplement with pantry stuff.

My body is crying out for green stuff.

Last night I made a chard, barley and lentil soup, but I made it more like a slurry and less like a soup--I didn't put much liquid in there at all. You can put in more, if you like.

Here's the original recipe, reprinted below. I didn't put in carrots or dill (didn't have any) and I used shallots instead of onions (didn't have any).

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped peeled carrots
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 10 cups (or more) low-salt chicken or vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup pearl barley
• 1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
• 2/3 cup dried lentils

• 4 cups (packed) coarsely chopped Swiss chard (about 1/2 large bunch)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Heat oil in heavy large nonreactive pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and carrots; sauté until onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Mix in cumin; stir 30 seconds. Add 10 cups broth and barley; bring to boil. Reduce heat; partially cover and simmer 25 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with juice and lentils; cover and simmer until barley and lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Add chard to soup; cover and simmer until chard is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in dill. Season soup with salt and pepper. Thin with more broth, if desired.

Lentil salad with feta, mint and oranges

This started as a way to use up the last of the feta and turned into a new lentil standard. I was surprised by how much the orange and mint brightened the whole thing--those two things took an ordinary lentil salad to the next level. I don't usually spring for fresh mint this time of year ($2 a bunch!) but I was glad I did.

1 cup lentils, cooked in 2 1/2 cups of water until tender (about 25 minutes)
1/4 cup diced red onion or green onion (I left the onion out, so this part is optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
1 orange, peeled and chopped, with as much of the white part removed as possible
2 big handfuls of crumbled feta

Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon brown or dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Combine the first three of the viniagrette, then add the oil in a slow stream while whisking vigorously. Combine the lentils and other things, add the vinaigrette, mix. Serve at room temperature.

This makes a great dish to take to work for lunch, too--because it's best at room temperature, you don't even have to worry about putting it in the work refrigerator.

Lentil and andouille stew

This is a variation on the lentil and sausage stew recipe I posted last February. I used andouille sausage, and left out the swiss chard. I also added a bell pepper, deglazed with white wine, and used chicken broth instead of water. Also I threw in a handful of Italian seasoning. Good stuff.

Lentil soup

Yesterday was cold and rainy and aggravating, and definitely a soup day. So I threw this together in under 20 minutes when I got home.

Sauteed an onion and several cloves of garlic (all diced, of course) in some olive oil until browned and soft, and added several shredded sheets of proscuitto. Then two cups of lentils and most of a box of chicken broth, plus a can of tomatoes. I let that boil, then reduced to low, and cooked down until the lentils were done (less than 15 minutes). I stirred in 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar, plus salt and pepper, and served.

The lentils were a combination of red and green; any color, or combination thereof, would work.

Italian sausage burgers with lentil-cucumber-feta salad

Last night I used up two things I needed to use up: four links of hot Italian sausage, and some lentils leftover from when I made lentil burgers a couple of nights ago. Italian sausage burgers are the easiest thing in the world: just squeeze out all the meat, mash it together into burger shapes, and cook. The meat is already seasoned! Either hot or sweet Italian sausage works, or you could get crazy and do a mixture of both. I topped mine with a little melted Jarlsburg and barbecue sauce. Yum.

For the lentil salad, I took the cold lentils and added three small diced cucumbers, a handful of crumbled feta, and a few green onion tops. I made a little dressing with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, and a teaspoon or so of dry mustard, which I mixed together and then added to the lentil mix. Salt and pepper over all.

With my $1.99 bottle of Two Buck Chuck, it was a lovely midsummer meal.

Lentils with sausage and swiss chard

Oh, swiss chard, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I used plain green lentils, and the last of the gator sausage my sister brought me from the Gulf Coast, 'cause I'm cool like that. Any kind of sausage will be fine.

Several links of sausage
1/2 cup each chopped carrot and onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 1/3 cups dried lentils
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon each fennel seeds and fresh rosemary
2 1/2 cups (or more) water
1 big bunch swiss chard, roughly chopped

Saute the sausage over medium heat in a big skillet until cooked through. Add the carrot, onion and garlic, and saute until the veggies begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in all except the chard, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to medium-low. Let simmer about 20 minutes, or until lentils are done. Stir in the swiss chard and cover, cooking until chard is wilted and tender, maybe 5 minutes. Add more water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Cost: A big bunch of chard runs about $2, maybe a little less, this time of year. Lentils in bulk cost next to nothing; I'm gonna estimate about 40 cents for a cup to a cup and a half. Let's say $2 for however much sausage you put in, plus 50 cents for the rest. A little less than $5 total, and this will serve 4 as a main course, for about $1.25 per serving.

I whipped up a batch of cheese grits (I used gruyere cheese) and served this over top. YUM.

Lentil burgers

It sounds like something vegan hippies would eat, I know. But I recently had a bout of food poisoning from ground beef of indeterminate origin, so I've vowed to no longer eat ground beef unless it's organic, grass-fed, and all comes from the same cow. Seeing that grass-fed ground beef is WAY more expensive than I can afford on a regular basis, I've been trying out inexpensive burger alternatives.
This is one of my favorites. The burgers are actually really good, and you can add cheese and bacon to the end result if you like. I also made a sort-of aioli out of Sriracha chili sauce and mayo that complemented these perfectly.
Plus, since they're so cheap and healthy, you can add extra bacon and not feel guilty about it.
3-4 handfuls dried lentils
1/2 chopped onion
parsley
chopped sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup or so breadcrumbs
parmesan cheese
1 egg
seasonings (paprika, etc. as you see fit)
Dried lentils can be prepared in the same way as dried beans. To wit: soak in water overnight. The next morning, throw them in the crockpot and cook on low while you're at work. The next day, use them to make these lentil burgers. This method has the advantage of cooking out all the gastro-intestinal difficulties, and dried lentils are incredibly cheap.
Take the lentils and combine with the other ingredients. You may need to add more breadcrumbs/another egg to get them to hold completely together. Form into patties, and cook with a little olive oil, 3-4 minutes on each side.
Depending on how many sundried tomatoes you use (I used about 3/4 of a cup, chopped) and how much parmesan, you could conceivably make a batch for less than $1. Cost of hamburger buns and condiments are extra, of course; with a bag of 8 hamburger buns ($1.99), you're still looking at 8 big burgers for less than $3. I'll assume you already have ketchup and mustard in your fridge.That's about 38 cents each--a third of the cost of a Dollar Menu burger from McDonald's, and way healthier (and best of all, no chance of food poisoning).