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Friday, February 27, 2009

Food Storage Friday: Curried Lentils and Rice


I love
refried beans. I'm a big fan of hummus. And I love a good blackbean burger. But there are some bean dishes that I just can't do. I shiver at the sign of bean soup, you know the kind with the ham bone in it (sorry Mom)? Don't even get me near split pea soup (blah), and lentils have always scared me.


But when a food storage recipe hits you in the face, you gotta run with it. This one came out of Fitness magazine. Who'd a thunk it?



Ingredients: lentils, rice, curry powder, onion powder, oil, honey, balsamic oil, salt (not pictured) and water (also not pictured).



Start off by cooking your rice, either in a rice cooker or over the stove top. Directions for how I cook rice are here.



Warm up a pan over medium high heat. Check out this beauty Mountain Man got me for Christmas. That's true love baby.



When your pan is hot, add the oil.



After the oil heats up a bit add the curry powder,



Cook and stir for a little bit then add the onion powder



and stir it around to make a paste.




add the water



and the lentils. The recipe calls for brown lentils, but my typical grocery store only had one kind of lentils....and I don't think they were the brown kind judging from the end result (color wise). Next time I'll check out the fancy health food store.



Bring your mixture to a boil, lower the heat and cover.



If your pan doesn't come with a lid, tin foil works great.



Let the lentils simmer until they are soft. See, definitely not brown lentils. I was about to gag at this point---it looked way too close to split peas...



Remove from heat and stir in honey



balsamic vinegar



and salt. This practice of adding vinegar to beans after they've cooked is fairly common in ethnic cooking, I'm beginning to notice. It really gives the dish an awesome kick.


Put some cooked rice into a bowl



And ladle the lentils over the top



Add some sour cream if you're rotating. Oh how I love sour cream, I could write an ode.



End result? Green, yes, but surprisingly delicious. As in, my kids ate it! Mountain Man swore his love and dedication all over again after eating it. There were no leftovers. Thanks Fitness magazine, I forgive you for making me feel fat every month.



Curried Lentils and Rice

adapted from Fitness Magazine

2 cups rice
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp powdered onion
4 cups water
1 cup brown lentils
1 tsp honey
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp salt

Cook rice according to package directions. Heat oil and curry powder together in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion powder and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the water and lentils and bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 22 minutes, until lentils are soft. Remove from heat; stir in the honey, vinegar, and salt. Ladle over bowls of rice. Top with cilantro and sour cream if rotating.

11 comments:

Mungo said...

Yum! Okay, this is what I'm going to make for dinner tonight, thanks for the great idea. Really enjoy reading your blog, I have it in my Google Reader. Keep up the great work!

Cheers,

Mungo

Michelle said...

After trying the Curry Chicken recipe you posted, my husband said he could eat it every day! Since then I have been looking for some other curry recipes and since he also loves lentils, this will be perfect! Thanks so much. You are awesome!

West Family said...

Thanks for making me laugh as I read your post today. I really needed it!

Kim said...

Sounds yummy! I'll have to try this out and then decide if I want to add more lentils to my storage.

Preparedwarrior said...

I have been reading your blog for awhile and absolutely love the things you cook from storage items. Plus you have a great eye with the camera too. Always funny commentary.

I do have a question. How to you plan for the sour cream if you are truly having to cook from your storage plan? I love sour cream and this question is my biggest storage concern.

Thanks Roberta

Brooke said...

I have been reading your blog for a while. I used to come up with my three month plan. I am coming back to it to come up with a plan for a class I am assigned to teach.

This recipe looks delicious and different, which is nice to add to the 3 month list, and to my everyday menu.

Thanks for all your hard work. I appreciate how simple and consistent your blog it!

The Merkleys said...

I love your blog! Thank you! This one made me laugh my pants off. Hilarious commentary. Can't wait to try this recipe.

Tom/Tabitha said...

I have a question- when you say "when rotating" do you mean when you are just rotating food storage items and not "using" food storage, to keep items fresh and in date? And that's when you add the non shelf stable items?

That may not be clear, I see someone else asked something similar. Using food storage meaning not spending any money on groceries or going out for groceries and rotating meaning using food storage along with fresh, frozen, and perishable items that you have around, or with "extras". Am I understanding correctly?

Preparedwarrior said...

Hey, I just found out how to make sour cream from yogurt! Found it under EHow. Now I don't have to worry about figuring how to get my beloved sour cream. I can make it in my crock pot.

Nikki said...

LOLOL! This was really funny to read! I feel the same about beans and am a little skeptical about lentils, but you made it sound so good! Thanks.

VIPvc said...

Read this yesterday, made it for dinner tonight. Great recipe, easy, quick and tasty.

I'm definitely going to post a link on my blog.

Thanks so much your your continuing efforts.