They had a sale on lentils, and I love lentil soup so I bought a big bag.
OK so for two days I’ve made a nice pot of lentils for dinner and flavoured them with onions and some ham.
Now I’m bored with that
Any other ideas what goes good in lentil. I’m not looking for a fancy recipe as I’m not much of a cook. Basically I’m looking for “what else can I dump into a bunch of lentils while they’re cooking to give them some flavour”
An Indian-style dal or curryish kind of lentil stew is absolutely yummy. Curry spices according to your preference, but especially turmeric and cumin, and a nice lump of butter towards the end of cooking, with some lemon juice, and fresh cilantro if you’re not a cilantro-hater.
Mmmmm. I may have to go and make this myself this evening.
I make lentil soup with sliced-up smoked sausage, like Hillshire Farms. I also add canned or frozen spinach, and season with garlic powder and black pepper.
Nepali daal bhat (lentil paste with spices, served on a bed of rice and vegetables) is wonderful, though I unfortunately couldn’t tell you precisely what spices go into it.
There’s a soup on recipesource that’s lentils, chestnuts, and tomato paste that is remarkably tasty. Some nice crusty garlic bread alongside and you’re there.
Also, I’ve seen a pasta sauce of lentils, onions, ground lamb and some seasonings which I naturally completely forget now. I want to say small amounts of tomato paste and lemon juice.
Are you determined to eat them all in one go? It’s not like dry lentils will spoil.
Yeah I have a small flat with a small refridgerator. I can’t keep food outside the fridge or it gets buggy or micey LOL
Thanks for the ideas. I think I’ll try the tomoto sauce thing.
One thing I discovered is lentils have a timing for best flavour. If you eat them right away they tast like nothing. If you let them cool off too much they don’t taste well. But you have to let them cool off just for like a half an hour or so to get optimal flavour.
Sizzle some cumin seeds, fry a chopped onion with five cloves of garlic, then add ground coriander, cumin, garam masala, a litte fenugreek and some turmeric. Toss in a can of chopped/diced tomatoes. Mix in the lentils and add a half cup of plain yogurt.
Alternatively, I second the sausage idea, maybe adding some okra and possibly chicken with cajun seasonings.
I’m eating the red lentil salad from this blog entry for lunch this week and it’s delish for something that simple, just make sure you use lots of oregano. I only had split red lentils in the house and it’s still great - I’d feel comfortable substituting brown or green lentils for the red too.
I think The Great God Alton Brown made a lentil salad with bacon that was pretty yummy, but not as good as this one.
It is!! But I’m afraid I don’t have exact specs for it, although it’s based to some extent on Anna Thomas’ Spiced Dal recipe in Vegetarian Epicure Book II. The book’s partially viewable on Google Books but not that page (curses!)
Um, let’s see, I guess it’s about a cup of lentils, cooked soft in about 3 cups of water, then saute your curry spices (curry powder or mix your own, it really depends on what/how much you like, but make sure there’s plenty of cumin) in about a tablespoon of butter (or ghee, but I never bother making ghee). Add a little more butter and a small chopped onion and saute till the onion is soft and brown, put it all in the lentils (with salt to taste) and simmer about an hour or until you can’t stand to wait any longer, dump in another half-tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice and about the same of chopped cilantro, unless you really like cilantro which I do, so I put in about a handful. Let it go just another few minutes or until the cilantro’s kind of wilty, and om nom nom nom nom. Now I’m all hungry.
That sounds great. It’s Friday night’s dinner. I’ll try and find it at the library (the SO can look in the stacks for me while at work) but if not, I’ll go off what you said.
I like chopped onion, garlic, cumin, tumeric and fresh ginger. Fry the whole lot lightly before adding the lentils and moisture (water, stock, chopped tomatoes, whatever). Same recipe also works with meat or fish or potatoes or chick peas. Serve with fresh coriander leafs.
For a more western taste onion, bacon, carrot and celeriac or celery works well as a base for a soup or stew - also just fry that before adding the moisture and lentils.
I also sometimes add one or more whole or chopped hard boiled eggs (to either dish).
Both are pretty much a basic saute method. Sounds fancy, but you’ve probably done it many times already; you quickly fry something in a little bit of fat, and then turn down the heat, add moisture and possibly other stuff, scrape and stir all the juicy cooked bits off the bottom, and simmer it until it’s done.