Sausage and Lentil Stuffed Cabbage – The Lentil Adventure Gives in to Bacon…

Tags

bacon, barley, braised, cabbage, cabbage rolls, cream sauce, lentils, sausage, Stuffed

This little recipe took a couple tries to get it right, but I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I was getting tired of lentils, big surprise, but in particular I was getting tired of lentils as part of a vegetarian meal.  I wanted something that felt fancy and rich, but still helped me chip away at my massive box of lentils.  Making these stuffed cabbage rolls a second time was good for me because, on the second go-around, I figured out how to keep from dirtying every pot and pan in the house and how to simplify the sauce and the side dish for these delicious little cabbage rolls.

One thing that I really love is that this dinner, has that ‘Sunday-Supper’ feel to it in the sense that it takes a while to put together but it tastes like a million bucks and makes your whole house smell like braised wonderfulness.  It’s super-tasty but at the same time, it stretches out a mere half pound of ground sausage into a protein and veggie packed dish.  I hope you like it!

Sausage and Lentil Stuffed Cabbage – served with buttered herb noodles

Serves 4 – cost approx $1.41 per serving, including noodles

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry lentils ($.50)
• 1/2 cup pearl barley ($.15 – this is a good item to look for in the bulk aisle!)

• 1 head cabbage ($.99 I got a great deal!)

• 4 slices bacon, divided use? kinda… ($.44)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 lb country sausage – this is the leftover half of my sausage roll from the pasta night! ($.99)
• 3 eggs ($.45)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, you know, the kind that comes in a green can, not the kind that comes in a big wheel… ($.50)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs or 2-3 Tbs dry – I used some fresh thyme and sage ($0 from my Daddy’s garden!)

• 2 cups stock – any type!
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 cup sour cream ($.35 – look for ‘it’s about to expire’ discounts!)

Budget an hour or so of your time to put this dish together and another hour for it to braise in the oven. This isn’t a quick week-night meal to throw together.  I would strongly advise reading this recipe all the way through.  Start by putting the lentils and barley in a small sauce pot and covering with water.  Simmer about half an hour or until the lentils are fully cooked.  I’ve noticed that they seem to cook at a similar rate…  When done, rinse in a colander and put in a large bowl that you will later assemble your filling in.

While the lentils and barley are cooking away, go ahead and prepare your cabbage.  Blanching and shocking it is absolutely necessary.  (I tried to be lazy and skip this step, it’s bad, don’t do it!)  This process makes the cabbage leaves pliable and easy to fill with stuffing and they seem to cook much better and more evenly when you stuff them and bake them.  First, get your set up going: one pot salty, boiling water, one large bowl salty, icy water and a landing place for your blanched and shocked cabbage, I used a casserole dish lined with a tea towel.  Like so.

Next, cut around the base/stem of the cabbage with a paring knife.  Gently pull apart all the leaves until you have a nice big pile of them.  Like so.

Then, start to move the cabbage leaves, 3-5 leaves at a time, through the blanching and shocking station.  First, you dunk them in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then into the ice bath for a minute or so then into the resting/draining spot.  Ta-da!

[Unnecessary, but dishes/time saving note: keep your pot of hot water on hand for cooking the noodles in later!  Also, use the casserole dish to build your stuffed cabbages in later.]

Ok, so by now we’ve got blanched and shocked cabbage leaves, just begging to be stuffed.  So let’s make some filling to oblige them.  In a large saute pan, cook up the bacon and set it aside for it’s ultimate destiny, being crumbled over the top of your finished dish.  Saute up the onion and garlic in the bacon fat for about 5 minutes and then scoop into the bowl with the lentils and barley.  Add in all the other ingredients in that large set (the eggs, ground sausage, herbs, etc…) and mix thoroughly.  In that same saute pan, cook up a little bit and taste for salt and adjust the seasonings as necessary.  Hang onto that pan for making the sauce at the end.

Now, onto assembly!  (Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 350F)

Put about half a cup of filling in each leaf and roll them up like little burritos.  It made about 16 cabbage rolls for me.

Ho-kay, now pour in 1-2 cups stock.  The level of liquid should come up about half way up the side of your beautiful little cabbage rolls.  Cover and pop into a 350F oven for 45 – 60 min of braising time.

Last step, I promise, when the cabbage rolls all cooked up, gently drain out the delicious stock into the reserved large saute pan.  Don’t worry about getting it all, just what you can without accidentally dumping the cabbage rolls onto your stove top.  Reduce by half over high heat, then turn to medium and stir in the sour cream and paprika.  Simmer to combine for 2 minutes, taste and add salt as necessary.  Pour your delicious sauce over the little cabbage bundles of joy and garnish with the reserved crumbly bacon.  Now the clouds should part and a chorus of angles should sing merrily while shining heavenly light down upon your creation.  Serve with hot buttered noodles, enjoy!

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Lentil Shepherd’s Pie – The Lentil Adventure Lingers Awkwardly…

Tags

ideas for leftover mashes potatoes, lentils, mashed potatoes, one dish meal, one pot wonder, vegetarian

My fireman is such a good sport about this whole food-blog business.  He puts up with me standing on a chair at the dinner table to get a good picture.  He uses his phone’s flashlight app to better light my pictures while I’m standing on said chair.  He fishes out the right colored plate that I asked for for the particular meal.  He eats the same meal a few times in the same week if I’ve become fixated on getting a recipe ‘just right.’  He eats lentils week after week if I’ve become fixed on a particular ingredient, like I have been recently.  (Don’t feel too bad for him, I’m also currently experiencing an home made ice cream fixation.)  He nicely answers all my little questions like: How is the texture?  What would make this better?  Does it need more salt?

As we were eating this vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie I asked him “Does this taste almost like meat?” and then he laughed at me and said “No, but it’s very good as it’s own thing.”  For a little while I thought he was trying to make me feel better about a recipe that just wasn’t there yet, but then he took seconds, and then thirds.  I had made myself a little, personal-size portion, he ended up eating part of mine that I couldn’t finish and almost this whole pan!

This recipe isn’t going to fool your family if you try to pass it off as a dish with meat, but it’s pretty darn tasty and quite filling to boot.  It’s hearty, warm and quite vegetarian.  Creamy and potato-y on top and thick and stewy on the bottom!  It would be a good potluck or side dish if you have a mixed crowd of meat eaters and vegetarians.  Also, if you used a dutch oven it would be a one-pot-wonder sort of a dish.  Plus, it can be made ahead (or even frozen!) and cooked when you’re ready to eat.

Now, I wanna talk about mashed potatoes for a sec.  (I called for leftover mashed potatoes in this recipe, but fresh ones would do just fine too.)  In the last year or so I’ve started to always make a huge pot of mashed potatoes; it seems to me like it takes only a tad more effort to prepare and mash up a double batch of potatoes than a single batch and there’s so much you can do with the leftovers!  If I’m not planning to make a second dish with them, like a Shepherd’s Pie, I like to freeze up little 1 or 2 cup portions to use in other dishes.  Mashed potatoes are great to thicken up soups, stews or chowders or you can make potato rolls.

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 4 – cost approx $.98 per serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb dry lentils, cooked – makes 2-3 cups when all cooked up ($.50)
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 onion, small dice ($.50)
• 3 ribs celery, small dice ($.11)
• 3 carrots, small dice ($.10)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3 oz or 1/2 small can of tomato paste ($.25)
• 1/4 cup A.P. flour
• 3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce – or soy sauce if you’re going vegetarian for realsies
• 2 cups stock, any kind, I used vegetable stock
• 1 cup frozen peas  ($.19)
• 1/4 fresh herbs, minced – I used thyme, sage and parsley ($.25)
• 3-5 cups leftover mashed potatoes ($1.50)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese ($.25)

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Begin by melting the butter in a large oven proof pot.  (If you don’t have one, make the lentil mix in a large saute pan and transfer to a casserole dish.)  Saute up the onion, celery, carrot and garlic over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through.  Season with salt and black pepper.  Add in the tomato paste and flour and cook for 5 minutes while stirring frequently to brown the paste and cook out the raw taste in the flour.  Next, add in the Worcestershire sauce then the stock.  Bring the mixture up to a simmer and be sure to scrape the browned goodies off the bottom.  Add in the cooked lentils and herbs and let simmer for 5 minutes or so.  Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Now, top your lovely lentil filling with a nice layer of mashed potatoes and sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top.

so cute…

Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the top of the mashed potatoes is slightly browned.

Lentil “Meat” Loaf – The Lentil Adventure has kept calm and is carrying on…

Tags

ground beef substitute, lentil meat loaf, lentils, vegetarian meat loaf

Whhhaaaaat?!?!  I know that something like this is what comes to mind whenever the word “meat” is in quotations:

But rest assured, gentle readers, I know exactly what’s in this recipe and I promise you it’s all wholesome vegetarian goodness!

Lentil “Meat” Loaf – served with mashed potatoes

Serves 4 – cost approx $.90 per serving with ‘taters too!

I took a half batch of my lentil burger recipe from last week (https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/lentil-veggie-burgers-the-lentil-adventure-boldly-goes/) and sauteed up half a diced bell pepper and a small onion and mixed that in with the lentil mush.

Then I formed it into a little loaf and baked it in my favorite cast iron pan at 375F for 30-45 minutes basting it with a simple ketchup/bbq sauce mix and, I’ll be damned, it almost looks like the real deal!

Add some mashed potatoes and some ketchup on the side, (if that’s all good and nostalgic for you, like it is for me and my fireman…) and you have yourself a fine vegetarian meal!

Lentil Veggie Burgers – The Lentil Adventure Boldly Goes…

Tags

burger, lentil burger, lentils, slider, vegetarian, veggie burger

It’s not often that my first tries at a new recipe go really well, but I have hope for this one!  I used another pound of lentils from my box to make up some lentil veggie burger patties and they were pretty darn good.  They’re still not absolutely perfect, but they’ll do for now and I can feel the potential residing in their little, lentil-filled, hearts.

My fireman helped me taste-test this recipe as I was tweaking the spices and adjusting the seasonings and he gives this one his manly-man seal of approval.

Don’t get me wrong, the man would rather have a porterhouse, but seeing as we’re saving money, there’s gonna be a few more meatless Mondays than steak dinners around here.  That being said, he liked the both the taste and texture of this veggie burger and said it was one of the best veggie patties he’s ever had.  Homemade Sriracha aioli didn’t hurt though.  I’ve found that putting some pizzazz into a side or sauce that I know he’ll really like (and I’ll like too!) goes a long way to make a vegetarian meal into more of something special and less of a sacrifice.

Plus, homemade mayo/aioli is THE proverbial shit.  If you need any further inspiration to making your own mayo, check out this article from a way cooler blogger than me:  http://foodisthebestshitever.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/how-to-make-mayonnaise-with-the-mayonnaise-nazi/

Lentil Veggie Burgers – Slider patties on potato rolls with Sriracha aoili and Honey Lime Slaw

Serves 6-8 – cost approx $.26 per serving!  About $1 per serving with sides and fixin’s

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats or oat flour ($.15)
• 1 lb cooked lentils – should be cooked through but not mushy ($1 in most discount grocery stores)
• 3 large or 4 small eggs ($.42)
• garlic salt, to taste
• 4-6 Tbs soy sauce or Worchestershire sauce – I used equal portions of each, but stick to soy if you’re wanting to go strictly vegetarian because Worry Sauce has anchovies in it…
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• pinch paprika

Break out your food processor and first pulse up the oats until it’s mostly flour-like.  It’s ok if there’s still some larger pieces.  Dump the oats out into a large bowl.  Next, put in the lentils and pulse them a few times, without mixing.  You’re looking for the bottom to get almost fully pureed but for there to still be some larger pieces on the top; this lends to a good, meat-like texture.  Scrape the lentils in with the oats.

Add all the remaining ingredients and stir until homogeneous.  Make a little taster bite and saute up about a tablespoon of the mix to see if the seasonings are to your liking.  Wet your hands and form up some patties.  This batch will make about two dozen sliders or a dozen full size veggie patties.  You can freeze the patties for later too!  I tested out a batch and they went straight from the freezer to the griddle perfectly.

It helps to roughly divide the patties in the bowl before digging your paws in, like so:

These burger patties can get cooked up on a griddle, like so:

I do not recommend you put them on a outdoor grill (trust me, I know from experience) but they can most certainly be put on a grill pan for a more traditional burger-look, like so:

Or probably you could bake these little guys too…

Here’s the sides that I served my little sliders with for a total meal cost of about $1 per serving, seriously, my sides cost way more than my main protein!  Let’s hear it for lentils!

How could you not love something so colorful!?!

• Potato rolls ($.50 for a homemade dozen)
• Honey Lime Slaw – a really simple slaw, it’s just 1/4 cabbage shredded up, a few shredded carrots, 1/2 bunch cilantro, salt to taste, a drizzle of honey and half a lime ($1)
• Sriracha Aioli – stir in Sriracha hot sauce, a squirt of lemon juice, a minced garlic clove and some minced parsley into a cup of (preferrably homemade) mayo.  ($.50)
• 1 sliced avocado ($.50)
• Oven fries ($.50)

Mediterranean Lentil Salad/Stuffed Peppers – The Lentil Adventure Endures

Tags

feta, lentil salad, lentils, low carb, low fat, Mediterranean, stuffed pepper, stuffed vegetable, vegetarian

I love when things surprise you by being a lot better than you thought they would be!  It’s moments like that which make me think that maybe my soul isn’t totally dead and corrupted by cynicism.  I hope that if I ever get to the stage where nothing is a happy surprise to me, that someone reminds me to just go try more new things…

Anyway, onto the point: the food!  I had an idea for a lentil and barley/tabbouleh/farro salad that sounded okay, but this one really turned out fantastic and got even tastier when stuffed inside some roasty peppers.  A true vegetarian delight!  My best-est friend in the whole wide world is a vegetarian, and I need to remember to make her this next time she visits.  After I was done being pleased with myself at making such a tasty dinner, I realized that it was a very low carb and low fat meal to boot.

This recipe is a baller cold salad for those hot summer months and a great filling for any vegetable you want to stuff.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

Serves 4-6 – cost approx $.72 per serving

Ingredients

• 1 lb lentils ($1 in most stores)
• 1 cup pearl barley ($.29)
• bay leaf

• 6 oz crumbled feta ($.99)
• 2 ribs celery ($.31)
• 1/2 bunch parsley, minced ($.25)
• 1/2 bunch green onions, minced ($.25)
• 1 lemon, juice and zest ($.25)
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp cumin
• pinch nutmeg
• salt, to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste or optional
• 2-3 Tbs olive oil

To make the lentil salad, start by combining the lentils, barley and bay leaf in a pot with enough water to cover and simmer until fully cooked and tender, about 20-30 minutes.  Drain in a colander and rinse under cool water, remove the bay leaf.

Combine the cooled lentils and barley with all the remaining ingredients, taste to adjust the seasonings.  Now you have an amazing, vegetarian lentil salad that’s wonderful cold or at room temperature.

You could add any other finely chopped vegetables that you like/have in the fridge/need to get rid of (such as onions, mushrooms, carrots, hot or sweet peppers…) to this dish too!

Lentil Stuffed Vegetables

Cost approx $2 per serving

• 2-3 peppers/zucchini/eggplant/mushrooms per person

Preheat the oven to 375F.  To prepare whatever veggies you’re going to stuff hollow them out and cut a thin slice off the bottom and sit them flat on a baking sheet.   Finely dice any usable scrap from the veggies and add it to the salad.  Stuff the little suckers to the gills then pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender but not mushy.

Curried Vegetable Mish Mosh Soup – Sunday Soup-day gets spicy!

Tags

carrot, curry, ginger, lentils, potato, soup, vegan, vegetarian

It was difficult for me to come up with a name for this soup.  It’s a mash up between the classic ‘carrot and ginger’ combination, the hearty texture and consistency of a split pea soup, an Indian dal, and a basic roasted veggie soup.

This soup follows my basic ‘Roasted Veggie Soup’ procedure, just like my first Sunday Soup-day recipe: Tuscan Squash Soup.

(https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/tuscan-squash-soup-with-rosemary-foccacia-rolls-sunday-soup-day/).

It just goes to show how one technique can yield drastically different flavored dishes based on what veggies and seasonings you choose.  I really love how healthy these soups are.  It has a good mixture of starchy potatoes, veggies and lentils.  This one is even vegan!

Curried Vegetable Mish Mosh Soup – with naan bread

Serves 4-6 – cost approx $.52 per serving, including bread

Ingredients

• 4-5 carrots, peeled, 1″ dice ($.25)
• 1 onion, 1″ dice ($.35)
• 4-6 russet potatoes, peeled, 1″ dice ($.40)
• salt – to taste
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 4 Tbs veg oil, divided use
• 1 1/2″ piece of ginger, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 serrano chilis, minced, optional – I seeded mine to take some of the evil out and it was a pleasant medium, pervasive heat, but use as much or as little as you like
• 1 cup lentils, rinsed ($.50)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder
• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves ($.10)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Prepare the  carrots, onion and potatoes then put them on a sheet tray and toss with the salt, dry spices and 2 Tbs vegetable oil.  Roast for approximately 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so.  You want to slowly roast the veggies till they get soft and slightly browned.  This step can be done ahead of time and you can pull the soup together later, at your convenience.

Heat the remaining 2 Tbs of vegetable oil in a large pot.  Saute the ginger, garlic ans chilis 2-3 minutes.  Add in the lentils, turmeric, curry powder, fenugreek powder and vegetable stock, bring to a simmer.  When the lentil are soft and fully cooked, about 20-30 minutes, add in the roasted veggies.  Simmer all together for 5 minutes or so.  Puree well with any sort of blender you have.  I think an immersion blender is easier, but a regular blender will give you a finer puree.  Check the seasonings and the consistency.  It you want a thinner soup, blend in more vegetable stock.

Pour yourself a bowl and garnish with some cilantro!

Fun Fact for the Lush: Much like IPA beers, the gin and tonic was a drink born out of the British occupation of India.  Tonic water, containing the medicine ‘quinine’, was bitter tasting but necessary for the British soldiers to drink, as to prevent them all dying horribly from malaria.  So they turned lemons into lemonade, so to speak, by adding gin and lime to their tonic water!