Quinoa-Lentil Falafel

Blogging Marathon#66: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Quinoa Lentil Falafel from Food52

Today I have a yummy variation to traditional falafel. This is made with quinoa and lentils instead of chickpeas and fava beans. I bookmarked the recipe from Food52. Original recipe used whole mung beans but I subbed them with some French lentils.

These falafel are baked and are healthier than the traditional deep fried version. Adding quinoa makes them more substantial and filling. Along with quinoa and lentils, chickpea flour or besan is added to bind the falafel and also to impart a nutty flavor.

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Greek Lentil Salad

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Lentils -- 3 Ways

Dish: Greek Lentil Salad

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Lentils -- 3 ways'. Valli wants us to use 3 different lentils in 3 different ways, so for the next 3 days I have some interesting dishes using lentils.
I love dals and I am always looking for ways to incorporate them into my daily diet. Lentils are one of the most important sources of protein for vegetarians and I stock up on quite a few varieties in my pantry.

For the first day, I made a Greek Lentil salad using Puy or French Lentils. These tiny lentils cook up in about 25~30 minutes and do not need to be pre-soaked. So it is really quick and easy to make this salad. Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine.

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French Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese

Blogging Marathon #26: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Salads & Soups
Dish: Lentil Based - French (Puy) Lentil Salad

Today's salad has "Lentil" as the star ingredient and one of my favorite lentils in salads happens to be French Lentils aka Puy lentils. These lentils look very similar to whole masoor dal, but are greenish with spots. They don't fall apart and still have a good bite when cooked which is perfect for Salads. 

Today's salad is inspired from a recipe that I received in my mailbox from Everyday Food. Recipe was actually for roasted vegetable salad with french lentils, but what caught my attention was the use of goat cheese. I've tasted goat cheese a few times, but never bought it myself. So I picked a small log of goat cheese on my recent grocery shopping and make this hearty & delicious salad. Goat cheese is creamy and has a tart taste to it.

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Warm Lentil Salad with Grapes

It's been snowing cats and dogs for us this winter. I've had enough of this lousy weather already and we are only 1 month into official winter (official winter in Northern hemisphere started on Dec 21st, 2010), so this is going to be one loooooooong winter. To top that of, this is our first snow season in our new home and the shoveling all that snow seemed to be fun the first couple of times, but now I've thoughts of moving back to our old apartment complex where the management took care of cleaning up everything. Well, since that's not going to happen, I'm thinking of starting to exercise a little, so I'm physically fit to do it myself and not start hyperventilating after 5 minutes of pushing snow. My 3 year old says, "this is hard work Amma", after messing with the snow for few minutes. I'm not looking forward to anymore blizzards and winter storm advisories.

Coming to the Lentil Salad: Salads are not something that I make that often. I like to eat salads from a bag for lunch or dinner, but I rarely ‘make’ salads at home. Being a typical south Indian, I think all the dishes have to be eaten with rice, which explains why I don’t make ‘salads’.

But when I saw the recipe for this Lentil salad in Vegetarian Times magazine, I know it was going to taste great and was waiting for the occasion to make it. I made this for Sunday Lunch for a few friends and I really enjoyed it (even for lunch the next day).

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine:

Ingredients:

French/ Puy Lentils – 2 cups, sorted, rinsed and drained

Leeks – 2 medium, thinly sliced

Fresh Mint – 3tbsp, finely chopped

Parsley – 3tbsp, finely chopped

Pistachios – ¼ cup, roasted and coarsely chopped

Red Grapes – 1½ cups, cut in half

Feta cheese – ¼ cup, crumbled (optional)

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Soak the lentils for 8 hours. Add 4-5 cups of water to lentils and bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Keep aside.
• Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan, add the chopped leeks and cook on medium flame until the leeks are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
• Add the leeks to cooked lentils along with pistachios, chopped herbs and grapes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Serve warm or at room temperature. Tastes great cold too.

To save time, you can cook the lentils the night before you want to make the salad and mix in the warm leeks and other ingredients just before serving.

Sending this Yummy Lentil salad over to Simona @ Briciole, who is this month's host for My Legume Love Affair (MLLA) event started by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook.

Also Sending this Salad over to Prathibha @ Chef & her Kitchen's "Only Salads" blog event which was started by talented Pari @ Foodelicious. Thanks Prathibha for telling me about the event.

Brown Rice – Puy Lentil Khichdi

This is my twist on classic moong dal khichdi and it was really really good. Puy lentils or French lentils are nutty and flavorful. They don’t have to be soaked before hand and their cooking time is same as brown rice.

You can definitely make this in the pressure cooker, but I prefer the closed pot cooking method.

Ingredients:
Brown Rice – 1 cup
Puy Lentils/ French lentils – ½ cup
Ginger – 1” piece, minced fine
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Green chilies – 3
Red Chilies – 2
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a heavy bottom pan, add cumin seeds, red chilies, ginger and sauté for few second.
  
• Add onions and chilies; sauté for couple of minutes.
  
• Add rice, lentils, salt and pepper along with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and cook covered for 25-30 minutes.
  
• Serve hot with raita.