I Love Lentils

I had the perfect Sunday today. I came home from work last night, made a little midnight snack, took a bubble bath and read until the sun came up. I got to sleep in today, and when I woke up I cleaned up the house a little and went grocery shopping. If you read my last post, you can see that I've been a little grocery deprived, but I definitely made up for it today. I now have enough groceries to last the next month or two. I have a new rule that if I really want to cook more vegan recipes and eat less dairy, then I probably shouldn't bring animal products into my house. Then I won't be tempted to eat them.

Yeah, a little overboard.

Anyway, I had to put these groceries to good use so I got started prepping my veggies and packing everything up in the fridge and started brainstorming new recipes. I turned up my Jason Mraz playlist (I am so excited to see him on October 7th I can't even stand it!!) and got to cooking for the rest of the afternoon. I bought a huge bag of lentils today, and I was really craving hummus so I made some lentil hummus. Then I thought back to my year in Reno and remembered this really yummy lentil loaf that I made. It was like meatloaf, but with lentils instead of meat. It wasn't a vegan recipe, so I pretty much just made something up until I got the flavor and consistency I wanted today. Here's what I came up with. Pretty tasty if you ask me.

Zucchini Lentil Loaf
2 cups dry green lentils
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 zucchini, diced
1 cups diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups chopped kale (you could use spinach too)
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp ground flax seeds
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each rosemary, sage, oregano, parsley, and basil

For the glaze:
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large pot, cook the lentils in the water over medium high heat for about 15 minutes, until they're tender. Meanwhile, in a pan, heat the oil over medium high heat, and add the onions, garlic, zucchini, and kale. Cook until the veggies are tender, and the kale has wilted down a little bit. Add the veggies to the lentils, and puree a third of the mixture (I used an immersion blender, but a food processor or regular blender would work fine too). Combine with the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Spread the mixture in a large casserole dish and bake for about 20 minutes, until it is firm. After 20 minutes of cooking, top with the glaze and bake for another 10 minutes.

This was seriously delicious.

If you're not a vegetarian, meatloaf is a great way to sneak veggies into your food. When I used to cook for my little brother every night at our old apartment, he would turn his nose up at anything remotely healthy, so I had to get stealthy. I just started pureeing veggies and putting them into everything he ate. The greatest victory came when I made a batch of meatballs that used about a half a pound of meat and about 2 pounds of veggies, full of spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, and tomatoes. He told me they were the best meatballs he had ever tasted. Boom. Trickery. Some of my favorite sneaky combinations are turkey meatloaf with apples and dried cranberries, pumpkin puree stirred into tomato sauces, zucchini and mushroom mixed in to meatloaf or meatballs, and chopped spinach stirred into lasagna filling. Carrots, celery and onions can sneak into just about anything too.

My lentil hummus was much more simple. I pureed 1 1/2 cups cooked green lentils with 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup roasted red peppers the juice of 1 lemon, and salt and pepper, while streaming in 1/3 cup olive oil. I can't wait to spread it on some pita bread. Nomnomnomnom