06 March 2006

Sloppy Lentils & Sourdough Bread

It is exactly midnight on Sunday (well, technically it's Monday) and I am stuffed from dinner. Yeah yeah, I know it's late but I decided this morning that I was going to go to the store at 9pm to give myself an hour before they close. We live super-close so it's no problem and I knew I was having one of two things that was fast. This dinner ended up being done around 11:15-11:30pm and I am trying to stay up for a while before sleeping for what is now going to be five hours.

The wonderful spread you see here is my version of "Sloppy Lennies" by Jennifer Shmoo (Lunchbox blog) and she adapted her version to make it for a kid based on another recipe. In that case, I am following a recipe from Jennifer's-mother's-uncle's-brother's-girfriend's-third cousin, or something like that.

My recipe includes (but is not limited to) the following. I served this with sourdough bread. WFM was out of my usual Seduction Bread (sorry Jess [of Get Sconed], I'm trying to get the ingredients for you). I will post the ingredients for the sloppy lentils as well as the bread.

This meal was amazing.
Let me describe the photo below first. Jennifer-Shmoo has a 7-year-old boy. He refuses to eat anything green. I love my greens, but there are veggies that I would rather not eat. That is, unless, they are secretly pureed. In my case, I do all the cooking so I know what I am hiding from myself, but it doesn't matter. I like onion flavor but not the texture, so I have no problem "hiding" onion that is chopped super-small in some foods. I wasn't hiding anything but the onion today, but I decided to mince up a few other things while I was at the onion in my super-cute 1.5 cup mini food processor (best thing, Kohls, $15). I minced up onion, carrots, garlic and fresh kale. Yum.

Ingredients:
Sloppy Lentils
-red lentils (rinsed, sorted through, no need to pre-soak)
-part of a white onion
-big handful of kale
-1 large carrot
-2 cloves garlic
-H20
-tomato sauce
-tamari
-basil, dried
-salt and pepper, to taste

I threw all this in a large pot, let it boil, covered it, lowered the heat, and simmered for about 30 minutes. Served immediately with bread. I don't know why this photo below is darker. It's not doing justice here! Refer to other photos if you are going to make an aesthetic decision to make this or not.

Ingredients for the bread.
Organic Rustic Sourdough Boule Bread from WFM
water, organic wheat flour, malted barley flour, organic sprouted wheat berries, organic wheat bran, organic six grain (wheat, barley, corn, millet, rye, triticale), organic cornmeal and sea salt.
Cheaper than Seduction bread, not as many goodies inside, and a bit "tough", but still managed to be wonderful!

Overall, this meal was awesome. This was really flavorful, warming, full of nutrients, smelled really good while cooking, and half-way through eating it I realized there's no fat. I am going to make this again soon, and it was quick, easy and hardly a clean-up at all.

Fin.

18 comments:

Susan Voisin said...

I love the idea of chopping up the veggies in it. Will have to give it a try!

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Shelly, I agree, it was so good, and you should try it now.

Susan, hi! I loved the idea of all the veggies too. Especially the kale, as it added nice greens that you cannot see (not that I would mind seeing them, just the onions).

This meal really was fabulous, I just ate too late at night.

Julie said...

Looks great-makes me want to heat up some of my lentil soup I froze. But, no--don't let me! I'm swimming in Pad Thai!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

These dishes are gorgeous and I am hungry, plus lentils seem to be one of my favorite new foods.

I'm still curious about the seduction bread. The best bread I've had lately is the half rye/half whole wheat peasant loaf. I really look forward to boiling cookies, too. I did make cookies this weekend, but they were baked ones for guests.

Flo @ Yielded Heart said...

Hi, Leslie. I made that for lunch on Friday, minus the kale, of course, though I wouldn't mind it a bit. I still have left-over in the freezer and maybe I'd warm it up with some kale.

Eat Peace Please said...

Hey Julie. I still have Vive Lentil Soup that's frozen too! I am saving it for a RAINY DAY. ah ha, not gonna happen, so I'll just eat this when I feel like it! Can you believe today is the 140th day that it hasn't rained here? What the %#@*?!?

Hey Jess. Have you ever had Ethiopian food? There's two ethiopian restaurants in town (and probably a lot more nearby) and I love the misir wat, spicy red lentils with injera (teff grain bread, like pancakes, sort-of). I love lentils in almost anything! I'm wanting Seduction Bread just as bad as you want the ingredients! Last night when WFM was out of the bread, they told us to call in advance (even earlier that day because we went an hour before closing) and they would make us and save us a Seduction Bread. How awesome! I'll hopefully be getting some soon.

Hi VeggieWoman, no I didn't use steamed kale. I'm too lazy for that (in a way). As a matter of fact, I didn't even take the kale bag out of the fridge, I just reached my arm inside the fridge (and bag), ripped off a big handfull, rinsed and threw it in the processor and then the pot. You're right about how it cooks for so long anyway. To me, it looked more like a spice like oregano or basil, but basil was the only "green" spice in there.

Hi KaiVegan, this recipe sure is getting popular! I sort of made mine in between the kid version and the adult version. We hardly had leftovers, that just means I'll have to make it again soon.

Thanks for your comments everyone. For those who commented on older posts, I'm working on it.

Catherine Weber said...

I made another different version of sloppy lentils myself last week, (thanks to vegan lunchbox inspiration!) and I added some soy sauce, veg Worcestershire sauce, and a splash of Balsamic vinegar. Those three things added so much depth and smokiness!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Leslie- I'm glad you reminded me of Ethiopian food. I have not tried it yet, but there are quite a few restaurants in town that I am meaning to check out. I grew up a ridiculously picky eater, and actually only began eating Indian food the past year or two, sad but true, but dramatically changing.

Eat Peace Please said...

Hi Catherine. Ooh, I like your version. I'd have to try that some time.

Hi Jess. I have a feeling you would like Ethiopian food (as we seem to have very very similiar eating "ways"). Usually the vegetarian section of an Ethiopian menu is all vegan. Check to be sure though.

I grew up a ridiculously picky eater as well, and it's true how tastebuds always change. I like so many more foods and prefer more flavors now than ever before. I am still working on Indian food myself, but I am not opposed to anything but cauliflower dishes.

Take some photos when you eat at the Ethiopian place! I am going to try a new place around here, as the place I used to go to keeps getting critical health violations and I refuse to go there any longer.

Dreena said...

These lentils look SO savory and flavorful... I love the addition of the kale too, clever you!

Harmonia said...

Everything looks MARVY! Great pictures! You should be a food photographer!

Anonymous said...

Those look so darn good - as does everything else you've been making lately. I love the "treats" - and boiled cookies, who would've thought! (THough I'm going to be anal and say that when I read boiled cookies, I thought you actually formed dough into cookies and boiled them, so I was a little bit mislead...hehe).

Great stuff as usual, just wanted to let you know that I'm still reading even though not commenting as often as I'd like too.

Eat Peace Please said...

Miriam, I guess we think alike with even more things, as I was mislead as well! It could possibly work the other way around, but it seems like it would fall apart.

Thanks for the comment especially at this busy time for you. I hope you are doing well and I think of you and your well-being (and "E").

It'll be nice when you're "back" but at the same time your life will be filled so differently! I can't wait to see FAMILY meals you prepare. Thanks for still reading.

Eat Peace Please said...

WOW! THANKS HARMONIA. Looking forward to The Munchies tomorrow!
Our list was (guilty) long...

Harmonia said...

Mine's up!

Stop by and give me ideas for Kumquats!

Shawn Powers said...

I'm not really a "measuring" type cook -- but could you give me a rough estimate regarding the water to lentil ratio you use? I haven't really cooked lentils, so I'm not sure how much water they'll absorb, and I don't want to make lentil soup (at least not right now!)

Thanks!

Shawn Powers said...

Got your recipe -- thanks. :)

I'll be making it tonight after we get home from church. It's a little funny that I'll be making it very late, much like you did in your post.

If I did that on *purpose* it might be creepy, but coincidence I can live with. ;o)

Thanks again.

Eat Peace Please said...

Shawn, I'm most likely having them tonight too. But, my goal is to eat somewhat early, who knows what early is in this house!?!

Good luck with the recipe, I'd love to see photos and hear a verdict. Are you serving this to the whole family? If so, I forgot to mention that this serves 2 hungry people + a bit of leftovers for one. If you are feeding 2 adults and 2 children, I'd even double the recipe.