Lentils: on nom nom

[juliet]

So on my 101 things list I have an item about cooking something new once a week for three months. I started last night with something that only barely counts as new, but there we go. And it is at least seasonal, even sort of traditional.

Puy lentils and caramelized onions: boil puy lentils in a little water until soft (maybe 30-40 min?). Fry onions in olive oil on a very low heat until they caramelize (I didn't put mine on till about 20 min before the lentils would be ready; next time I'd put them on at the same time as the lentils). Tip lentils into onions, or vice versa, (drain the lentils a bit if they're too watery) and add a hefty slosh of balsamic vinegar. Cook for 10-15 min more.

Greens with chilli: chop a few cloves of garlic up, chop a chilli up or use the ready-minced stuff from a jar. Wash thoroughly and roughly slice a decent quantity of spinach and kale (or any other greenery). Heat up large slosh of olive oil. Fry all of the above until greens cooked - 5 min or so.

Baked sweet potato: put sweet potato(s) in oven. Bake at 200deg for about an hour.

All very nice, although I wasn't all that on the greens (but then I'm never a huge fan). The chilli & garlic was a Good Thing though. The lentils were ace.

This morning started my work year terribly well when I took the bike down & discovered Flat Front Tyre. Dammit. At least I got to fix it in the kitchen (warm) rather than outside (cold). Other than that, today work has occurred at least a bit, so that's good. Not looking forward that much to likely v v cold ride home, though.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I love lentils, but I'd make a terrible vegetarian as I always think they go best with salty, fatty meat (duck confit, bacon, sausages etc), especially in winter.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! Lentil and bacon soup FTW!

I was just thinking that I'd like to try the lentil and onion recipe, but with some little bits of sausage in...

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Last night I had lentil and smoked bacon soup, using a box of cooked lentils I'd shoved in the freezer ages ago after testing cooking them after five years or so in the cupboard, and bacon from the Leeds farmers market.

It was fab - with that much bacon I could have made twice as much.

I've decided lentils are basically potatoes - not at all interesting on their own, but provide a rather good flavour when paired with onion, cheese or pork.

[juliet]

See, I can't really imagine that, as I never ate lentils before I was vegetarian :-) (& haven't eaten that sort of meat in about 15 yrs so can't imagine that either...)

I do love lentils though.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of taking the goose neck from Christmas (which I threw in the freezer at the time) and making a nice lentil stew out of it.

I've got to say after the trip to France (and the goose at Christmastime) I feel like I'm ready to take a major break from salty, fatty meat - nothing's sitting right in my stomach these days. If only I had a nice vegetarian chef to cook for me instead of having to make everything myself! (Today I doubt I could even stand in front of the stove long enough to make a stew ...)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Baked sweet potato is gorgeous! Mmm...