Ok, brace yourself for what I am about to confess....ready? I had never tasted a lentil until last month.....yes, yes, I know. In this era of healthy eating and super foods, I wrote lentils off as being one of those 'health nut' foods that surely was not going to taste good or be easy to prepare....kind of like how I still see quinoa, flax seed and all of those other 'odd' grains/legumes/mystery foods....
Surprisingly enough though, lentils were on a normal rotation for my boys when I prepared their baby food....I guess I just never took the plunge and tasted them myself...Anyway, I had a bag of lentils left over from the boys' baby food days and needed a way to get rid of them. I turned to my trusted food site: allrecipes.com and found a hugely popular/highly rated recipe for lentil soup. The ingredients sounded delicious and I had everything on hand -- great! There was just one problem....convincing my husband that lentil soup was not going to kill him....
My husband, like a lot of men out there, thinks that meatless meals do not quite classify as 'real' meals, and this lentil soup recipe was not only meatless, but made of.....well, lentils. So that night, he walks in and says 'it smells great in here.' To which I said 'thanks, I made lentils soup for dinner!' ........(chirp.....chirp.....) Husband: 'oh, that sounds good' (as he's trying to hide the confusion on his face) We sit down, in front of a giant bowl of steaming hot lentils, and my husband takes the first, hesitant bite (I already knew it was a great dish because I had taste-tested during cooking :)) -- and what was his response??? 'Thanks babe, this is really good.' Sure, he could have been giving me the party line, but a few more bites, and the sentiment was repeated -- after his second go-back I was convinced he really did like the recipe :)
So the other night, I decided to make the lentil soup recipe again, only this time, to throw my husband a bone, I decided to add some crumbled sausage.....hooray!! It was great! I actually preferred the soup without the meat, but it tasted great with it too. Here is the recipe I used -- and as the description says, it is easy and completely flexible. Again, I didn't measure any ingredients, just eyeballed it both times I made it, and both times it turned out great. Some changes I made though:
1. I left the lentils whole (did not puree at the end)
2. I used double the amount of lentils, but kept the broth measurement the same, I wanted a more stew/chili like consistency. I did need to add a little water while cooking to keep the lentils from drying out...so keep a eye on that.
3. Try not to look at the picture on the allrecipes site...to me it was pretty unappetizing. Yours will look better...I promise.
Surprisingly enough though, lentils were on a normal rotation for my boys when I prepared their baby food....I guess I just never took the plunge and tasted them myself...Anyway, I had a bag of lentils left over from the boys' baby food days and needed a way to get rid of them. I turned to my trusted food site: allrecipes.com and found a hugely popular/highly rated recipe for lentil soup. The ingredients sounded delicious and I had everything on hand -- great! There was just one problem....convincing my husband that lentil soup was not going to kill him....
My husband, like a lot of men out there, thinks that meatless meals do not quite classify as 'real' meals, and this lentil soup recipe was not only meatless, but made of.....well, lentils. So that night, he walks in and says 'it smells great in here.' To which I said 'thanks, I made lentils soup for dinner!' ........(chirp.....chirp.....) Husband: 'oh, that sounds good' (as he's trying to hide the confusion on his face) We sit down, in front of a giant bowl of steaming hot lentils, and my husband takes the first, hesitant bite (I already knew it was a great dish because I had taste-tested during cooking :)) -- and what was his response??? 'Thanks babe, this is really good.' Sure, he could have been giving me the party line, but a few more bites, and the sentiment was repeated -- after his second go-back I was convinced he really did like the recipe :)
So the other night, I decided to make the lentil soup recipe again, only this time, to throw my husband a bone, I decided to add some crumbled sausage.....hooray!! It was great! I actually preferred the soup without the meat, but it tasted great with it too. Here is the recipe I used -- and as the description says, it is easy and completely flexible. Again, I didn't measure any ingredients, just eyeballed it both times I made it, and both times it turned out great. Some changes I made though:
1. I left the lentils whole (did not puree at the end)
2. I used double the amount of lentils, but kept the broth measurement the same, I wanted a more stew/chili like consistency. I did need to add a little water while cooking to keep the lentils from drying out...so keep a eye on that.
3. Try not to look at the picture on the allrecipes site...to me it was pretty unappetizing. Yours will look better...I promise.
Since I am no lentil expert, I have no clue if these are 'red lentils' or not?? I'm guessing, not, since they appear to be green and not red ... :) they still tasted great!
As you can see, I don't have any pictures of the finished product....it was gone before I remembered to snap one! This recipe has won a coveted spot in my recipe binder (enveloped in a plastic sleeve cover and everything! ...the greatest award for a recipe in this house) -- Hope you give this one a try, have a great weekend!
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