Right - beginner lentil recipes please. It's a whole new world...

[OhBling]

DP likes lentils. I like lentils. I am sure they're very healthy and good for me with lots of positives like offering the choice of eating less pasta.

But...

I have a weird, totally irrational, fear of them. I don't know how to cook them, how to flavour them, what to do with them. Every cook book says lentils should be a mainstay of your cupboards - I have lentils. They do nothing but look at me reproachfully in their glass jars.

Help needed please. We are not fussy eaters so easy, tasty lentil recipes gratefully accepted.

melmum, we've just had that for lunch minus the coconut milk which I hadn't thought of. It's delicious

thisis totally delicious

it uses puy lentils - really yummy

Peanut butter, cheese and lentil burgers.....

Don't have any quantities as I've made them so often I just chuck handfuls of everything in...but it's basically a red lentil mush, with 3 big tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter and loads of cheddar cheese, made into burgers and (if you can be arsed) rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, or if you can't, just fried any old how.....

(they're in Sarah green's veggie cookbook)

Pasta with lentils is a staple in our house, and everyone loves it including our 3 year old:

1 can of lentils
200 g of small pasta
olive oil
onions
pancetta or bacon (optional)
parmesan
vegetable stock

saute the onions and add the pancetta/bacon if you want (leave out for a vegetarian dish). toss in the drained lentils, add the boiling stock (enough to comfortably cook the pasta in, you can add more or less depending on how soupy you want it to be), then add the pasta and cook in the stock for the recommended time. depending on how much stock you added, and whether you want it "dry" or "wet" you can drain the whole thing or not- i don't. add a bit of olive oil and parmesan, sprinkle with pepper and voila. quick, nutritious, cheap, and really delicious!

OOh they sound lovely, although not sure my peanut butter-hating DP would agree...might have to save those for next time I'm on my lonesome.

We love this.

We do it without sausages for a veggie meal or with chicken if we fancy something different.

DH asks that it is on the menu at least once a week.

I mean Sarah Brown's veggie cookbook...

These all sound delicious, I'm in the same position as OP - would choose to eat when I'm out but don't cook at home

Quick question re puy lentils - how much water when cooking - just to cover or lots?

puy lentils

This is a lovely winter warmer recipe for Puy lentils. It also freezes really well so is worth making double quantities to reheat when you can't be arsed haven't got time to cook.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1708/lincolnshire-sausage-and-lentil-simmer

Several other good lentil recipes on the bbcgoodfood website as well.