297639 Tue Jun 29 12:33:17 -0700 2004 14 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1643326 I know lentils are pretty easy to make but mine never taste anywhere close to as good as they do in a restaurant. What's your favorite simple way to cook/season them? Tue Jun 29 12:33:17 -0700 2004 0 elena 1 1643334 This is a very simple version of Dahl. Great over rice or with chapitas or naan. Dahl (Serves 6) Food and Nutrition. April/May 2003. Arielle. Synchronicity, the Magazine. 58:09 2 cups Water 1 cup Red Split Lentils 1 28-oz can Diced Tomatoes or 6 medium Tomatoes, diced 1 tsbp. Olive Oil 1 cup diced Onion 1 cup diced Celery 1 tsp. Salt 1/2 tsp. ground Cayenne Pepper 1/2 tsp. ground Turmeric 1/2 tsp. ground Cumin 1 tsp. whole Mustard Seeds (preferably brown or black) 1/2 cup fresh Cilantro (Coriander), chopped coarsely 1 Lemon, juiced 1 tbsp. Butter Rinse lentils and place lentils and water in a large pot. Do not add salt. Cook over medium-low heat about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Mixture should be mushy. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet. Add mustard seeds and cover quickly with a lid or splatter screen. They will begin to pop in the oil and will be all over the kitchen unless they’re contained. You should hear the mustard seeds popping and hitting the lid/screen. After 30 seconds or so, remove the pan from the heat. After a moment (to let the mustard seeds stop popping), uncover and add the onion and celery. Stir, then add turmeric, cumin, salt, and cayenne. Continue to sautee until onion and celery are tender. Add canned or fresh tomatoes and simmer about 5 minutes. Add cilantro and simmer about three minutes. Stir in cooked lentils, lemon juice, and butter. Simmer another 2 minutes or so and serve. Good over rice or with chapitas or naan and a yogurt-cucumber salad. Note: Use 1 tsp. Curry Powder in place of turmeric and cumin. Variations: Add cooked shrimp or chicken for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. Tue Jun 29 13:14:33 -0700 2004 1643326 0 Colleen 1 1643335 Elena- I saw Colleen's recipe and it looks good as well. This is one I tried from The Epicurious website this past winter and I became addicted to it for about 1 1/2 mos.! Dont let the "Soup" in the title fool you. You can make it thicker (a stew) or thinner by the amount of broth/water added. Also the texture of the spinach adds a certain something to the whole dish. Good Luck. CURRIED LENTIL AND SPINACH SOUP 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped peeled carrots 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon curry powder (preferably Madras-style) 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper 9 1/2 cups (or more) water 1 16-ounce bag dried lentils (about 2 1/2 cups) 1 6-ounce bag baby spinach leaves 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add next 4 ingredients; sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in curry powder, ginger, cumin, bay leaf, and dried crushed red pepper. Add 9 1/2 cups water and dried lentils; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered until lentils are tender, adding more water by 1/2 cupfuls to thin soup, if desired, about 25 minutes. Add spinach and cilantro; simmer until spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill soup uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm soup over medium heat, thinning with water if desired before serving.) Ladle soup into bowls. Top each serving with spoonful of yogurt. Makes 4 main-course servings. Per serving: calories, 479; total fat, 9 g; saturated fat, 1 g; cholesterol, 1 mg Bon Appétit February 2003 Cooking for Health A Cook’s Notes from Epicurious.Com : i followed the beginning of the recipe, except when adding the lentils, i popped the whole thing into the crock pot. i added only 5 cups of water and added chicken soup base (Costco). i also put 3/4 of the soup in a blender, which thickened it and gave it a great texture. when we came home from shopping, the smell knocked us out when we opened the front door. we couldnt wait to sample it before adding the spinach and cilantro. Incredible...the best soup i ever made!!!! Tue Jun 29 13:33:01 -0700 2004 1643326 0 Chas 1 1643359 A lot depends on the type of lentils. Red lentils tend to fall apart - in a good way - and are sometimes called "soup lentils" due to this fact. The darker they are, the more they tend to hold together: brown get sort of mushy, green hold together pretty well, dark green to black stay fairly firm and have a bit of bite to them. This tends to determine what you'll do with them. The easiest way I've come across to make red lentils is a sort-of Turkish preparation from Clifford Wright. Little more than a grated onion sauteed in butter until translucent, then add lentils/chicken stock/s&p to taste, cook over low heat until they fall apart into a thick textured "mush," turn off the heat and stir in dried mint. The mint adds something very refreshing. I've been a big fan of the dark green lentils lately, making stews with lots of saffron and potato. With summer here, these dishes are usually too hearty. Brown lentils seem to go best in cold salads, seeing as they neither fall apart (red) nor remain too hard (darker). I don't have any recipes in mind, but there have to be French/Spanish/Middle Eastern recipes out there. Rien Tue Jun 29 15:52:37 -0700 2004 1643326 0 rien 1 1643368 My favorite lentil recipe lately is the warm lentils with bacon from Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything. Warm Lentils with Bacon 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 lb slab bacon (best quality you can buy -- I use pancetta and it works great), cut into small cubes 1 medium onion, chopped 1 carrot, peeled & diced 1 tsp minced garlic 3-4 cups chicken, beef, veg stock, water, or 1/2 red wine and 1/2 water. 2 cups lentils salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 bay leaf 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dry 1 tsp red wine vinegar Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan and cook the bacon until brown. Remove the bacon and set aside. In the fat, brown the onion and carrot about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute or so. Add most of the liquid, leaving approximately a cup aside for later. Bring to a boil, then add in the lentils, salt and pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. Cover partially and cook over medium-low heat approximately 30 minutes, until the lentils are tender. If the mixture becomes too dry, add some of the reserved liquid. Once the lentils are soft, you can raise the heat to cook off the remaining liquid. Stir in the vinegar. This really helps to brighten the taste. Remove the bay leaf. Add in the cooked bacon, stir, and serve. I eat this all the time -- a lot of the time over a bed of arugula ... see a salad suggestion on my blog link below. Link: http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/2004/05/spring_salad.html Tue Jun 29 16:16:20 -0700 2004 1643326 0 jen maiser 1 1643370 I do a lot of lentil salads this time of year, usually topped with goat cheese or feta. If it's for guests I'll be more careful with proportions and colors, but it can also be done with whatever is in the fridge. There really is no recipe, more of a method. It's fairly open to interpretation or mood: - Cook the lentils in water with salt and bay leaf added until done, but firm. Drain and rinse. - Other ingredients are usually onion (red, white, scallion or whatever), bell pepper, celery, carrots, etc. All diced. - Dress with an olive oil vinaigrette, sometimes with cumin or other spices, sometimes with lemon zest. - Be generous with the fresh herbs, usually parsley and/ or oregano. - Toss and cover the top with a layer of the goat or feta cheese. Refrigetate. Tue Jun 29 16:21:12 -0700 2004 1643326 0 Tongo Rad 2 1643380 Sounds good. For those of us not very knowledgeable about legumes, what is your proportion of lentils to water? Link: http://www.bistrodraw.com Tue Jun 29 17:41:09 -0700 2004 1643370 0 galleygirl 3 1643406 In this case you don't have to be that exact because you're straining them, but my rule of thumb for something like lentil soup is three quarts water per (dry)pound of lentils. Tue Jun 29 23:33:06 -0700 2004 1643380 0 Tongo Rad 4 1643411 Also, to clarify- a pound of lentils is way too much for this dish. I usually use a half pound when entertaining, less when it's just me and my wife. I didn't include measurements in my original post because I wanted to stress the flexibility of the salad, but here's a baseline of proportions that I usually shoot for: 1/2 lb dry lentils- seasoned, cooked and drained 1/4- 1/2 cup bell pepper 1/4- 1/2 cup celery and/ or carrot 1/4 cup onion 1/4 cup chopped parsley and/ or oregano 4 TBSP olive oil/ 2 TBSP vinegar and/ or lemon juice- plus salt, pepper and spices (optional) 1/2 cup feta or goat cheese --- That looks like a good start but I must confess that it's an approximation. It's just one of those things where I've never really measured things that precisely but always get satisfactory results. Wed Jun 30 00:25:40 -0700 2004 1643406 0 Tongo Rad 1 1643384 In my family, lentils were always made as soups or stews. The key is to make a ham hock (or ham bone or smoked pork hock) stock the day before. Strain the stock, discard bone and fat, putting any wanted meat into the stock, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, peel the fat layer off the top of the stock and cook your lentils with carrot, celery, onion, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf in the stock. This will have a smokiness and depth of flavor that canned chicken stock etc can't achieve. Good luck. Tue Jun 29 17:58:30 -0700 2004 1643326 0 e.d. 1 1643413 I love the recipe for Puy lentils with roasted carrots and beets on www.saveur.com -- simple bec once the ingredients are assembled it goes into the oven and that's it. Especially delicious served with seared or grilled duck breast, but also a nice light main course. Wed Jun 30 00:58:30 -0700 2004 1643326 0 foodfirst 1 1643439 my favorite lentil recipe is so easy and so good. this is best with the smaller french dark green lentils. for about 1 cup of lentils: finely dice about one celery stalk. in small saucepan, saute in olive oil with 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves until golden. add lentils, salt to taste, and water to cover by about an inch or a little less. do not be stingy with the salt. cover and simmer gently for about 35-40 minutes. be careful towards the end as this kind of lentil can go from undercooked to overcooked rather suddenly. if there's a lot of water left toward the end, take the cover off, turn up the heat, and boil it away. or if all the water is absorbed before the lentils are done, add a little more water. at the end, drizzle some olive oil over the lentils - as much or as little as you like (the better the oil, the better it will taste - this is a good time to break out your best). this is one of those recipes that is magical in its simplicity. i have tried dressing it up (adding pancetta, etc.) and the enhanced versions are never as good as this simple one. Wed Jun 30 11:08:42 -0700 2004 1643326 0 queue 2 1643443 I make a very similar version to this, and agree, the simplicity is what makes it. The recipe is (roughly) one lb. french lentils du Puys one onion, sliced in half, stick a couple of cloves in each half 2 bay leaves whole cloves garlic (how much depends on how much you like garlic) put in pot, cover with water plus an inch or so, cover and simmer for 25 minutes or so and check. When done, pull out the garlic, onions and bay leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and red wine vinegar, S&P to taste. I love this recipe! Wed Jun 30 11:25:25 -0700 2004 1643439 0 Smokey 1 1643455 Im assuming you dont want soup - since there are a million recipes for this, especially the great lemony mideast/turkish kinds. These are all for green/brown lentils (not the pink type) (1) Rosemary Barron's greek lentil salad, with parsley, mint, preserved lemon, etc - fantastic - its been posted on the site several times (2) a recipe on one of the french green lentil boxes- cook the lentils simply with a bay leaf and peppercorn, salt to taste; when water is absorbed, dress with heavy cream, chopped parsley and chopped shallots. salt and pepper to taste - this is heavenly. (3) the lentil soup (sorry, could make it less soupy) in Marcella Hazan's first cookbook, with sauteed aromatic veg diced pancetta and I think a little tomato, again, heavenly. Maybe some nutmeg inthere (4) the soupy/stewy/salady lentil/spinach/sliced potato/fresh coriander/lemon juice dish in Paula Wolfert's original Mediterranean cookbook - a similar recipe appears in a number of middle eastern cookbooks in addition - served warm or cool it is totally addictive. Wed Jun 30 14:06:30 -0700 2004 1643326 0 jen kalb 2 1643475 Here's the link to the paraphrased Barron recipe. Sounds like a perfect summer meal. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/292694#1598536 Thu Jul 01 09:07:41 -0700 2004 1643455 0 plum