Help With Lentils

neuro-praxis

I am looking for a recipe for a delicious, comforting lentil soup - nice and hearty. Other lentil recipes are welcome too. Help me out, foodies!

bonkey

I will when I go home. Herself has an ace lentil & veg curry soup. Its the business.

She also does a wicked lentil salad, which I'll dig up for you.

neuro-praxis

Cheers bonkey. Looking forward to it.

If anyone else has got one, please fess up, I'm looking for a range.

bonkey

OK...forgot the soup recipe last night, but here's the salad one...

Cook (brown) lentils according to packet instructions. May involve soaking overnight. Once cooked, rinse with cold water to cool and prevent further cooking.

Add some coarsely grated carrot (about 1 decent sized carrot in total for 4 people) and an equal amount of diced spring onion. I use a potato-peeler for the carrot here...short strips about 1" long at most. I basically peel as if I was trying to sharpen the carrot into a spike, then continue till I run out of carrot.

Add Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make the sauce. I prefer a 50-50 mix, or even more vinegar....some people prefer oily and not-so-vinegary. Whatever suits your taste. You want plenty of sauce, though....so a couple of tablespoons of each, at least.

Note: I use "regular" balsamic at this point, not anything old, syrupy and expensive.

Salt & pepper to taste.

From there, you can go where you like:
Add in some crispy bacon bits, or croutons, for example.
Halved or quartered cherry tomatoes would work too.
Drizzle some AAA balsamic on it after serving up.

...Whatever takes your fancy, really.

We do this instead of spuds/rice/pasta a lot in summer.

Kohlrabi, hollowed out, steamed/boiled, and then filled with this makes a great accompaniment to pretty-much anything off the BBQ for example.

Keeps 3-ish days in the fridge too, but you may find that you need to add a wee bit of fresh vinegar before re-using it.

bonkey

neuro-praxis...teribbly sorry...forgot this completely till now.

But, in case you're still looking for recipes:

1 tbl Butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1.5 tbl curry powder
1/4 tsp Turmeric
150g leek, cut into fine strips
200g cauliflower, cut/broken into florets
2 carrots , cut lengthwise into thin strips (about 3mm)
1L veg. stock
200g red/yellow lentils

- Melt butter & sautee the onions and garlic to soften

- Add curry powder & turmeric, and stir in

- Add leek, cauliflower & carrot. and continue frying for 1-2 mins

- Add stock, bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 mins

- Add lentils and cook for another 10 mins. (Note: this assumes the lentils only require this amount of cooking. If its much longer, you need to pre-cook them to within 10 mins of finishing, rather than cooking for longer, as the feg will turn soggy which will ruin the dish.)

- Add salt to taste

- Serve

Variations:

- Fry, grill or steam a chicken-breast (optionally seasoned with any combination of paprika, cayenne, salt and/or pepper). Cut into pieces and add just at the end. I'd go for frying, personally, but thats just my taste.

- The original recipe called for mixing 150g greek yoghurt with 1tbl finely grated fresh ginger, and using a spoon of this as a dressing on each portion.

neuro-praxis

Thanks Bonkey, you're a gem. And you are my only help with lentils.

Blub2k4

If you're interested I have a veggie burger recipe made on brown lentils and also some dahl recipes, I'm not mad about dahl myself but a lot of people like it.

Alun

One of my regular 'winter' recipes is a sausage and lentil casserole. I'm not sure whether I still have the original recipe anywhere as it's usually cooked from memory these days, but if you're interested I could try and dig it out if you like?

The Sweeper

I'll take the 'from memory' version if you can think it out - I tend to get a little creative with other people's recipes anyway.

Alun

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

I'll take the 'from memory' version if you can think it out - I tend to get a little creative with other people's recipes anyway.

Ok, here goes ... as you'll see I don't really do quantities either

Cook brown lentils as usual, or if lazy/rushed open tin of lentils and drain
Fry some lardons of bacon in a large pan until crisp, remove from pan.
Add some good quality pork sausages to the pan and cook until brown, remove from pan.
(The original recipe here said to clean out the pan at this stage and add some olive oil, but I just use the fat left over from the lardons/sausages)
Add some finely diced onion, carrots and celery sticks, roughly one large onion, 2 or 3 carrots and the same number of celery sticks.
Let all this sweat down nicely for a while.
Add a good sprig of thyme, season, and cover well with chicken stock.
Cover and let everything simmer gently for 10 minutes or so.
Add the lardons and sausages back into the pan, and allow them to warm back up. I cut my sausages up into bite-size pieces, but you can also leave them whole.
Add the lentils and stir.
Finally add a tub of sour cream, stir well, and gently allow everything to warm up to serving temperature. Don't boil!
Check seasoning. I like lots of black pepper
Serve with crusty french bread to soak up the sauce.

When I first made this I followed the original recipe religiously and it was far too dry. I sometimes add a bit more stock during the cooking process if that's the case. You want something for the bread to soak up, after all!

Asiaprod

You lot have convinced me to try Lentils, Never thought I would say that.

neuro-praxis

That casserole sounds delish - and would definitely like the lentil burger recipe too, Blub2k4, thanks!

/me takes notes

Blub2k4

I'll dig that out at home and pop it up here then.

beefa

I don't want to make any exaggerated claims about my lentil recipie but it can pretty much bring people back from the dead.

340g (12oz) red lentils
2bay leaves
1 tblspn extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2 carrots, finely diced
2 sticks celery, diagnolly sliced
1 tblsp lemon juice

Place lentils and bay leaves with 1.5l of water, bring to the boil then simmer for 2-3 mins, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 mins or until the lentils are tender but have not disintegrated.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a afrying pan. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 2-3 mins. Add the turmeric and cumin and continue to saute for 1 min. Add the carrot and celery and saute for a further 5 mins.

Add the vegetable mixture to the lentils and simmer for 15 mins, then add lemon juice and voila!:p

Supercell

I bought lentils a while ago and have been wondering what to do with them ever since, some great ideas here, thanks.