Lentils - suggestions for a way to introduce tem to the family?

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

I appear to have bought some dried orange lentils a few weeks ago - the pack claims they don't need soaking and only take 10 mins to cook...

I have never cooked lentils before and have a fairly meat orientated family - not that every meal is meat dominated, but there is meat somewhere in most things. We eat things like pasta bakes, home made meat pies or home made burgers, casseroles sometimes (though they are not a favourite in all honesty), home made soups (but ditto the casserole), spaghetti bolognese, shepherds pie, roast chicken and Mediterranean style roasted veg, home made pizza, sausage and mash, schnitzel and home made chips... the occassional stir fry with noodles... Not really lentilly!

Can anyone suggest a lentil recipe that my family might actually eat! Although I'd love to made curry, where we live (rural southern Germany) the right spices are very hard indeed to find and a curry powder type curry would not go down well! So I am afraid anything with a lot of varied spices is not going to be practical, sadly.

Any ideas? :/

Red lentil soup?

Any time I make a bolognese sauce (full of hidden veg including mashed butternut squash and plenty of passata) I add a good handfull od red lentils - they practically disappear - they'd go into anything you've listed above - shepherds pie, soups, casserole. You can also cook them and add them to fried rice dishes, curries (Pataks paste??), or make delicious dahl with curry paste lentils and coconut milk.

Lentil Tomato and Bacon Soup

4oz red lentils
2 or 3 thick rashers good quality smoky bacon
1 onion
garlic
3 carrots
oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
seasoning and a few italian herbs
enough water to refill the can twice

• Gently cook the chopped bacon, onion, garlic and carrots in a little oil until softened
• Add lentils, tomatoes, seasoning and water.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Blend to finish. (If it's too thick, add a little more water)

Lovely with crusty bread.

Lentils can be included in all your mince meals, cook up a handful and throw them in while it simmers, they'll be barely noticeable and add a bit extra fibre and bulk. You could do the same with your home made burgers.

They are great for thickening soup and casseroles and cook down to be barely there.

If you make them the supporting act, rather than the central element of a meal you'll have no trouble.

Failing that, how old are you kids? They make a great filling for rattles or you could sew some 'bean' bags.

Stealth :)

Tomato, bacon and lentil soup is lovely.

You can stick them in any sauce to thicken it - currry, bolognese etc.

Ah, thanks everyone! I really like the idea of adding them to any mince meal, brilliant! Didn't know that! Will try the soup as a weekend lunch too, on a day when I'm doing something I already know they like for dinner :)

Kids are 8, 6 and 2, guess the 2 year old would quite enjoy making a rattly thing, or just using them to stick onto a picture, but he has some shakers and bells already, and I not ling ago threw away the pasta and rice shalers his older sinlings had, and I want to cook them ;)

Thank you!

• oops, please excuse phone typos - ling = long, sinlings = siblings etc.

So do you just throw them in out of the packet or do they need cooking or soaking first? Have often wondered how to add them to bolognese or chilli etc.

Great tip for curries etc - order jars or tubes of curry paste from amazon or get people to send them from the UK (or bring in your luggage - you can get under 100ml ones if you only have hand luggage). They last for ages and mean you don't have to have millions of spices to hand. I make curries just with them and don't add any extra spice :)

Red lentils cook in 10-15 mins with no soaking. Green lentils cook in about 30 - 40 mins with no soaking - a little shorter if soaked

I chuck in a handful to any stew/pasta sauce. The texture takes a bit of getting used to so best to start small. My 2 really like lentil potato and sausage stew now but by golly it took some getting there!

The red ones will cook to a yellowy puree. Mix the puree with loads of cheddar cheese and peanut butter and then make into burger things. Rolling in breadcrumbs is optional.

The brown/green ones, cook and chuck in a handful of teeny pasta for last 5-6 mins of cooking time for a hearty soup. Add handful of cheese to that as well.

I have just bought this book called Pulse and it is absolutely brilliant, full of family friendly recipes.
Today DD aged 3 and I had chickpea and pancetta soup (though I used bacon) and it was lovely, really cheap and warming. My mum is coming tomorrow and I thought I'd make the thai style pumpkin and lentil soup.
I can't recommend it enough, it is really good, well written and with plenty of shortcuts. The writer actually has a small child so seems to know all about getting little ones to eat things.

Would definitely start by adding them to a chilli.

Added 200g of cooked red lentils to 400g of simmering mince, onions, mushrooms as the basis of spag bol for today and chilli for tomorrow. It gave me enough to actually feel confident putting half the meat mix aside for the chilli for tomorrow's dinner - I never feel I have quite enough mince to do two meals for 5, but a bit too much for just one meal, and then I serve everyone too much and there is waste...

Added pasata and herbs for the spaghetti sauce and it went down about the same as it usually would without the lentils, although as soon as he took a mouthful my DH immediately accused me of having not used "real" meat :o He didn't object exactly and said he could get used to it - approved of the fact it makes the meal work out cheaper :) My daughter liked it, my boys were unconvinced, but they are much less adventurous than their sister... Think they'll get used to it and adding lentils to mince will work out though. :)