I’ve been doing meatless Mondays for quite some time now. Did you know many people claim that going meatless just once a week (for the whole day–not one meal!) can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity? It will also help you do your part to heal our desperately depleting planet…you can save massive amounts of water, reduce greenhouse gasses, and reduce fuel dependence just by skipping meat one day a week. Sounds like a win-win to me! Plus, you get to be creative in your kitchen and discover new dishes you’ve probably never made before. If you want to learn more about the benefits of meatless Monday, check out this site 😉
At first “Meatless Monday” was a challenge but now I have some really reliable dinner staples that I rotate (veggie tacos, spinach quiche, roasted root veggies, pasta or ravioli, and mac and cheese with various added veggies are my go-to’s). Then there are the nights where I just kinda of play around with the ingredients I have in the house and every now and then a masterpiece is born. Which is exactly what happened this past Monday.
I had gotten some red lentils at Whole Foods. I’ve never worked with red lentils before, but I’ve used brown lentils and green lentils and my kids love them. I decided to follow the instructions on the Whole Foods label to be sure I prepared them correctly. So, I rinsed the lentils, put the water on, let it come to a boil, added the lentils and set the timer for 40 minutes.
I went to chopping my root veggies, because my goal was to make root veggies in the crock pot and serve them with the lentils. Pretty simple and basic.
Wellllll…..after 20 minutes when I got my veggies and herbs and spices in the crock pot, I opened the lid to the lentils and to my complete surprise (remember, I still had 25 minutes left on the timer), they were completely pulverized!!!! Into a soup almost! After I stood there with my jaw on the floor for a moment, I had two thoughts: #1–this would be a REALLY easy way to make lentil soup for this kids! #2–This looks a bit like curry….
Which is how my dinner was born 🙂
I decided to make this into a version of an Indian dish. Now, I have kids that won’t eat ONE FLAKE of black pepper because it’s “too spicy.” So I use spicy things extremely minimally. That doesn’t mean your food can’t have lots of flavor! I added some cumin to this, a bit of garlic salt, and a TINY bit of turmeric (don’t tell the kiddos!). Then after tasting it, instead of making the veggies the star of the dish, I knew I had to make this creation the star of the dish.
I let the veggies get nice and done in the crock pot…love the smell of a crock pot filling up a house! So I ended up serving this dish layered like this: rice on the bottom, my new “curry lentils” over the rice, and veggies on top. IT WAS A HUGE HIT! I was asked by all my duckies (including papa duck) to put this baby in the rotation. So, I have! 🙂
Happy eating, friends!
Part One: root veggies in the crock pot
Chop your root veggies…the beauty here is that you can use any veggies you want! In this recipe, I used carrots, parsnips, potatoes, purple potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and added some pepper and a pinch of garlic salt. Throw everything in the crock pot. Add some vegetable broth. Enough to help make the veggies soft, but not so much that you end up with a stew instead of perfectly cooked veggies. The broth should cover the bottom of the crock pot about one to two inches. Set the crock pot for high 4 hours or low 6 hours. You will want to check it a few times to be sure veggies are getting tender but not pulverized. (Photo is after cooking!)
Part Two: curry lentils and rice
Use red lentils. Rinse and drain them (do not soak). Follow directions on package for water-to-lentil ratio. Bring your water to a boil. Add red lentils and set timer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, lentils should have formed a thick, pulverized stew-like consistency. Add cumin, turmeric, and garlic salt to taste.
Prepare a rice of your choice following directions on the package.
Part Three: plating 🙂
First plate the rice. Then ladle some of the yummy lentils on top of the rice to get it all juicy. Add veggies on top and serve hot. If you want it to look fancy, add a fresh sprig of parsley on top of the veggies. YUM!
Five Little Duckies 