have bought red lentils but now what do i do????

[martini82]

hi have bought red lentils but dont know what to add them to. i dont even know if i like them, but thought they would be a healthy addition!!

please help with some recipe ideas!!

lentil and bacon soup!!! yumyumyumyum!!!

We do this chicken and lentil curry quite a lot.

Lentil dhal

Wash the lentils
Fry some spices (cumin seeds, black onion seeds, mustard seeds) in base of large saucepan. Briefly fry a bit of finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger, but not so much that it gets burnt/too browned. Add a sprinkle of dried or fresh chopped chili, depending on how hot you like things!

Chuck lentils in, add water to cover well, bring to boil and turn down to a simmer. Cook for 30 mins or so (until lentils Very soft and mushing together)

Taste, and season as necessary: you will probably need to add some salt. If you like stronger flavours, you could chuck some more ginger/garlic in at this point but cook for a while longer. I usually stir in some coconut cream or milk at this point.

Then - to really finish it off - you need to cook some more spices, garlic and ginger in butter, slightly browning. Chop or tear a big handful of fresh coriander leaves into the dhal, and pour the butter/spice mix over the top to serve

It is BLOODY DELICIOUS. Serve with rice, mango chutney and a splodge of yoghurt. My kids used to eat plates and plates of this, until they went to school and other kids told them they couldn't eat spicy things

Don't need to pre-soak them so they cook quickly - make sure you rinse them well as they can be quite dusty.

We love tomato & lentil soup with other bits depending on what I have in.

Most recently did it like this - chopped onion and a couple of potatoes, 3 or 4 carrots, all into large saucepan (I used to saute veg for soup but can't taste the difference so don't anymore). Add a tin of tomatoes, stock (veg/chicken depending on what you like), seasoning (I also add dijon mustard, Worcester sauce, smoked paprika but these aren't vital). Then stir in some red lentils - probably about one mug full. Bring to the boil then simmer gently till the lentils and veg are tender.

I then added half a jar of leftover roasted peppers and sort of half-blended so it was smoothish. Serve with lots of flat leaf parsley on the top and nice bread.

Freezes really well.

Peanut butter and lentil burgers!

Cook your red lentils till they become a puree, stir in peanut butter (crunchy) and cheddar cheese and roll in breadcrumbs.

It's a Sarah Browne vegetarian recipe- exact measurements probably on the web somewhere, always been one of my absolute favourite lentil recipes.

I always throw a good handful of red lentils into curries, and often put them into anything wet, like soups and casseroles. Put them in at the start and they go soft and almost disappear, plus they thicken things nicely so you don't need to use flour.

I often make this soup turkish spinach and lentil soup
it's very flexible, can use can of tomatoes, different stock, frozen spinach etc and it always works out a treat, and it's delicious!

Pasta with lentil and red wine sauce.

Fry some onions and garlic in olive oil. Then add 4oz red lentils, a small can of chopped tomatoes and 10 fl oz water. Cokk, with a lid on for 25 minutes, stirring every so often. Then add a dash of tomato puree, a good glug of red wine, some ground black pepper and some herbs (oregano, basil or thyme are all good). Cook for a further 15 mins uncovered, and serve with freshly cooked pasta, and some grated parmesan.

That serves 3-4 btw.

Google Nigella's vegetarian chilli recipe - v nice.

Lentil and coconut milk soup is lovely.

Brilliant in curries.

wow so many excellent ideas thank you all so much!! think i'll get to work on some of these ideas next week!!

Another lentil and bacon soup and lentil curry fan here.

So cheap, so easy and adaptable

Loads of recipes on in the internet that I adapt to our taste.