Simple Spinach and Lentils with Rice and Quinoa

I know I like to make a lot of dishes that involve multiple ingredients, lots of prep and lots of pots and pans.  But, sometimes I want something super simple, but hearty, and tonight was one of those nights.

I had leftover golden lentils in the fridge, so I decided to do something with them.  I also picked up a big container of baby spinach after yoga (we go through two containers a week here), and decided I would incorporate that in the dish as well.

To start the dish, I sauteed some minced shallots in Earth Balance.  I then added some tomato paste concentrate.  When the brown bits started to appear in the pan, I added a couple of pours of vegetable broth.  I used Safeway Organic brand, which, unlike some other boxed broths, doesn't contain soy. Pacific Organic's vegetable broth is also soy-free.

I then added a few handfuls of the cooked lentils.  As the lentils integrated with the sauce, I futzed a bit with the dish, adding vegetable broth as I thought it needed more liquid, and tomato paste as it needed more color.  I then added several handfuls of roughly chopped baby spinach.  As the spinach wilted, I added even more to get even more green into the dish.

To season the lentils & spinach, I added some freshly ground black pepper and a few drops of sriracha, a Thai hot sauce that has become pretty trendy over the past few years. It's made of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. Some srirachas have fish sauce as an ingredient, but the one we use, which is made by Huy Fong Foods, does not.  

Despite the fact that there was salt in the vegetable broth and and in the sriracha, I decided it would benefit from a little bit of sea salt, so I stirred some in.

I wanted some sort of grain to go with the dish, but I hadn't cooked any up in advance.  Situations like this call for microwave bagged rice.  While some microwave bagged rices and grain mixes aren't veg friendly or have lots of unnecessary additives and tons of sodium, I have found a few I like courtesy of Seeds of Change and Safeway Select.  Tonight, I opted for Safeway Select Brown & Wild Rice with Quinoa.  90 seconds in the microwave and, voila, rice

I put the rice in a bowl and then ladled in some of the spinach & lentil mixture and gave it a quick stir.  I was so happy with this dish.  The sriracha had a nice heat that pleasantly snuck up on me, and I loved the texture and combination of flavors.  The warm lentils, rice & quinoa and spinach were very filling and satisfying, the perfect dish for a cold, winter day. 

Golden Lentil Cakes and Rainbow Carrot Coins

The new Whole Foods that has opened by my office has become a fun place for me to play during my lunch hour.  I am especially enjoying the bulk aisle and wondering why I haven't spent more time there.  Not only is the pricing better than the packaged goods, but I can control the quantity of food that I buy and only buy the amount I need for any given cooking experiment.  Also, the variety is excellent.

This week's bulk aisle find for me were petite golden lentils, which are teeny tiny little lentils with a bright yellow hue.  When I googled them to get ideas, I mostly came up with soups, but I decided to do something a little different.

Since the lentils were so tiny, I thought it might be fun to mix them with a bunch of veggies and form a patty.   Since I was craving stuffing today for some reason, I decided to also incorporate the flavors I associate with that dish, namely celery and sage.

While I normally just describe what I cook, I actually put together some semblance of a recipe this time, which I will post below after a few notes.

One thing I did do here in 1)the name of experimentation and 2)to keep this recipe vegan, was to use Ener-G Egg Replacer as a binder.   This product is a mix of potato starch and tapioca starch, and, when mixed with warm water in the correct ratio, can function as an egg for both cooking and baking.  Thus, it's a great option for folks who are allergic to eggs, vegan or who prefer not to eat eggs.  I actually found it to be a more reliable binder than using a real egg - my patties held together quite well!

Unfortunately, the local market was out of fresh sage, so I made do with ground.

I also made a pan sauce for the patties to add additional moisture using the leftover sauteed veg, a minced shallot, vegan bouillon and lots of soy-free Earth Balance.  The brand of bouillon I used was Rapunzel, which is one of the few bouillon cubes I've found that's soy-free.

As a side dish, I made rainbow carrot coins.  My local market was selling bunches of orange, yellow, red and purple carrots, which I thought would be a fun side for the patties.  While they lost some of their vibrant color when I peeled them (especially the purple ones), they were still pretty.  I sliced them in to coins, mixed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them for 30 minutes at 425.

And, without further ado, here's my lentil cake recipe!

Golden Lentil Cakes

 Makes 12 cakes (3-4 cakes per serving)


For the cakes:
 
2 cups of cooked petite golden lentils (For a lesson on preparing cooking lentils, click here)
3 small leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
4 celery ribs, minced
1 cup of grated carrot, chopped
Ground or fresh sage, to taste
Fresh thyme to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
2+ tablespoons of Earth Balance
1 cup of whole wheat panko bread crumbs
2.5 tsp Energ-G Egg Replacer plus 2 tbsp warm water (2 eggs, beaten, can also be substituted)
Cooking spray

For the sauce:

1 cube of vegan bouillon

1/2 large shallot, minced
3+ tablespoons of Earth Balance
Fresh parsley, chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Saute the lentils, celery and carrot in earth balance for 10 minutes, or until translucent.  Season throughout cooking with sage, thyme, salt and pepper.  Spoon cooked vegetable mixture into a bowl and set aside Reserve the same pan, including any stuck on cooked bits, for your sauce.


In a small pot, boil two cups of water.  Add in bouillon cube, stir and remove from heat.  Take the pan you cooked the vegetables in and add shallot and one tablespoon of the Earth Balance.  When shallot is lightly browned, pour bouillon into the pan and cook on medium heat.  Stir in more Earth Balance and fresh parsley throughout cooking, until sauce reduces (Mine took about 30 minutes to get where I wanted it.)

Meanwhile, if using Ener-G, combine the powder and water in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.  Combine lentils, cooked vegetables, fresh parsley and panko.  Stir in Egg Replacer or eggs.  Form the mixture into small cakes.   Spray a large saute pan with cooking spray.  On medium high heat, brown each side of the cakes (about 3 minutes per side - your mileage may vary.  Cook a bit longer if using egg to ensure it cooks through).  Once cakes are browned, put them in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

Serve warm, with sauce spooned over top.

Leftover Lentil Concoction

Since we have a huge container of lentils left over from this weekend's Moussaka, I will be experimenting a lot with lentils this week.  Tonight, I made a concoction.  After I put some wild rice in the rice cooker, I finely diced 1/4 of a large yellow onion and one of the pale yellow peppers we had in the fridge and tossed them in some olive oil.  Then, I crushed up three cloves of garlic and tossed that in, followed by some coarsely chopped grape tomatoes.  For color, I added chopped fresh parsley and finely sliced baby spinach.  In went the cooked lentils, and then I seasoned the whole lot with za'atar, tomato paste concentrate, vegetable broth, freshly ground black pepper and salt.

I would have liked a bit more color contrast - the lentils really blended in with the wild rice.  But, the texture was good and I liked the flavor blend.

There are lots more lentils left, so we'll see what else I can make with them.  One nice thing about making a big batch of something like lentils, beans, rice, quinoa, farro (and the list goes on) over the weekend is that you can use it throughout the week, but not spend a lot of time on prep.  You can then vary up your meals by using different produce items, seasonings, etc.  Now, I just need to remind myself to take my own advice and do this type of thing more often. 

Labor of Love Pre-Labor Day Dinner: Vegetarian Moussaka

When it's a three day weekend, I like to make a more complex dish for Sunday dinner than I might make during a regular week.  I don't mind spending two or three hours in the kitchen on a Sunday if I don't have to head to work on Monday.

Tonight's experiment was Moussaka.  Moussaka is an eggplant and tomato based dish that's layered and baked in the oven.  I tend to think of it as Greek food, but it also apparently is also a dish found in the Balkans and Middle East.  A number of traditional Moussaka preparations have minced beef, but there are a number of vegan and vegetarian versions out there. After looking at several sources, I decided on this lacto-ovo version from Allrecipes.com, which called for lentils instead of beef.

Lentils are an excellent addition to a vegan or vegetarian diet. In addition to being high in fiber, they are also a good source of folate and iron.  Dried lentils store for a long time, and, unlike other dried beans, do not need to be soaked overnight before they're cooked.  Lentils can be ready to eat in about 20-30 minutes, so they're also good for quick meals.

This recipe called for canned lentils, but I had some dried lentils in the cupboard, so I decided to cook up a large batch of them and save some for other dishes throughout the week.  There are a number of types of lentils.  The ones I used are French Green Lentils, which I purchased from the bulk aisle in Whole Foods.   

To slice the vegetables, I broke out my mandoline slicer.  This mandoline allowed me to adjust the thickness of the slices very easily, and I was able to slice an entire eggplant, two zucchini, four yukon gold potatoes and one large onion in less than five minutes, including washing the veggies and swapping blades.  It helped to cut the eggplant and zucchini into three or so pieces, and I'm definitely glad for the food guard!  I used the serrated blade for the eggplant and zucchini and the straight blade for the potatoes.

The browning of the veggies took longer, even using my ginormous saute pan, so I was glad to have saved time on the slicing!  I think it was about seven rounds of veg.  I got a little nervous about the veg sticking to the pan, so I gradually added additional tablespoons of olive oil.

While I let the veggies drain on paper towels, I worked on the sauce.  Since I didn't have liquid left over from the canned lentils, I added in some vegetable broth.  I also used half a small bulb of garlic, rather than one clove of garlic.  I mean, really, who only uses ONE clove?

For the roux, I used skim milk and Earth Balance.  I may try and make it with Almond Milk next time.  Also, if there is a next time, I am bringing in minions to help me with the endless browning of vegetables.

Since this was looking to be a fairly hearty meal, I decided to make a side salad with romaine, red pepper, baby carrots and sunflower seeds.  I dressed it with Silver Palate's Champagne Honey Mustard Dressing.


All in all, the start time was 6:25 and the meal went on the table around 8:45.  It would have been longer if it wasn't for the mandoline!  But, it was well worth the effort for something so yummy, as well as something that would give us some leftovers.  Husband and I ate half the pan, and I imagine the rest of the pan will not last so long.