Tangy Red Lentils Recipe

Tangy Red Lentils

From scrumptious 16 years ago

Add yours

30 minutes to make
Serves 5

The perennial vegetarian dilemma - you want to make a quick dinner, but there's nothing quick and easy for the protein part of the meal (no beans pre-soaked, etc.) and you really don't want another veggie burger. Read more These lentils cook up quick, have a great flavor, can be eaten cold or hot, and can be made from things in the pantry. Enjoy! (Recipe slightly adapted from Penny Block's "A Banquet of Health") See less

vegan
vegetarian
protein
easy
quick
healthy
cheap
side
maindish
colorful
tangy
lemon
rich
boil

Ingredients

2 T. olive oil shopping list
2 T. lemon juice shopping list
splash of mirin (optional - can use a little honey instead) shopping list
1 T. rice vinegar shopping list
1/4 t. turmeric shopping list
pinch salt shopping list
pinch pepper shopping list
2-4 green onions, chopped fine shopping list
2 cups water shopping list
1 cup red lentils, rinsed, picked over, and drained shopping list
1 strip kombu (optional) shopping list
1 clove garlic, minced shopping list

How to make it

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, mirin, rice vinegar, turmeric, salt, pepper, and green onions. Set aside.
Combine water and lentils in a small/medium pot.
Bring to boil over high heat.
Once boiling, give lentils a stir, then reduce heat to low.
Add garlic and kombu. (Kombu is a type of seaweed. Adding it makes the lentils easier to digest - less gas!)
Cover pot and simmer 30 minutes. (Keep an eye on them - they like to boil over.)
After 30 minutes, check lentils. (They should be soft and a bit mushy - they won't hold their shape any longer.)
Drain any excess water. (In my experience there shouldn't be any - your lentils should be somewhere between soupy and thick.)
Remove kombu strip and discard.
Toss with vinaigrette.
Serve hot (with rice, perhaps) or cool and serve over a bed a greens.

uncooked red lentils Close

People Who Like This Dish 26

noraneedles Nowhere, Us
inspiringflower Nowhere, Us
popkiss Natick
gabe Montreal, CA
virgosun San Francisco, CA
guttersnipe Berkeley, CA
yourparamourpapaya Troy, NY
samariah Schuylkill Haven, PA
jo_jo_ba Oshawa, CA
paintgirl Encino, CA
Plus 16 othersFrom around the world!

Reviews & Comments 11

All Comments

Your Comments

What do you think?

Add a Link?

Post a link to another recipe or group by pasting the url into the box where you want it to show up. We'll do the rest.

If you made this, attach a rating to your comments.

How Good Was It?

Post Message or cancel

chopchop 15 years ago
Tried this out last night, doubled up on the spices as i like it that way.... Fantastic though, DO IT!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
" It was good "
gabe ate it and said...
super yummy. i figured I'd make 1 cup, and eat half of it tonight, and save half for a snack tomorrow... oops, that didn't go quite as planned, I ate it all tonight (:
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
scrumptious 16 years ago
Oh! Just wanted to make sure credit was given where credit was due - the gorgeous "served warm" pic of the lentils as part of a yummy meal was prepared and taken by Heather!
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
softgrey 16 years ago
heather...
seems like they would be 'thicker' when cold...as served over the salad?...
perhaps that explains the difference in texture...
they look a lot more 'watery' in the 'served warm' pic that scrumptious posted...

both ways sound and look delish!

x-softie
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
" It was excellent "
heatherbudapest ate it and said...
It's funny, I had a little water in there, and I wasn't sure if it was "excess" -- the thing about lentils is that they can settle to the bottom of the pot, but then if you give them a stir, they reabsorb the water, or at least most of it. Anyway, I tried to pour a bit of the lentils through a strainer as an experiment, but it really splattered, leaving little dots of turmeric & lentil on my shirt! :) I think I'll just skip that next time, because I ended up just dumping them back in the pot right after that, and they were perfect. I think I was expecting them to be a little stiffer because of the texture I saw in your photo of them on the salad, and they are softer and more like the consistency of dal when you have first cooked them. I added my photo, so folks can see both textures. :)
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
scrumptious 16 years ago
Hurray! I'm so glad you tried and enjoyed them! It's nice to share recipes with you even from so far away. Your tweaks sound wonderful; I love recipes that can adapt to whatever is in the cupboard.

About the excess water - the instruction to drain is in the original recipe, but I have never had excess water. I left it in there because presumably someone at some point in recipe testing had some. So it doesn't specify in the OR (original recipe) and I can't say from personal experience... Did you have excess water when you cooked them?
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
" It was excellent "
heatherbudapest ate it and said...
PS. I know you love bitter greens too -- do you ever cook dandelion greens? They are *SO BITTER*! But they were palatable with your delicious tangy lentils and the rice.
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
" It was excellent "
heatherbudapest ate it and said...
Hey, so I made these for dinner just now, and ate them with dandelion greens, brown basmati rice, and a whole wheat roti from the Indian market. I have to say they were outstanding. I made a few changes, because I can never do anything by the book . . . Since I didn't have any green onions, I used about half a red onion in my doubled recipe. I omitted the kombu because I didn't have it on hand, but upped the amount of turmeric a bit and added it to the cooking pot instead of to the vinaigrette (I hear that turmeric also helps you digest legumes when they are cooked with it.) I used a bit more salt than you do, and quite a lot of pepper, and a little cayenne. And when the whole thing was finished, because I didn't have green onion, it looked a little bland in color, so I ran to the garden, where I have a profusion of herbs, and clipped some fresh tarragon and mint, which I snipped into the lentils. Delicious!! One question I had, though -- how do you drain the excess water? I wasn't sure if you just tip the cooking pot over the sink, or if you actually use a strainer . . .

Thanks so much for the excellent, healthful recipe! I can't tell you how long those red lentils had been sitting in the cupboard :)
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
" It was excellent "
heatherbudapest ate it and said...
Mmm, maybe I'll try this tonight with brown rice and the dandelion greens I just weeded in the garden :)
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
jo_jo_ba 16 years ago
Oh this recipe is great! I make it without the kombu and it's great comfort food.
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag
shirleyoma 16 years ago
Love Lentils! This sounds good!
Was this review helpful? Yes Flag

The Cook

scrumptious San Francisco

Subscribe to My Recipes

Like scrumptious's recipes? Never miss an upload!

The Rating

Reviewed by 4 people

Mmm, maybe I'll try this tonight with brown rice and the dandelion greens I just weeded in the garden :)

heatherbudapest in By the Lakeside loved it
Hey, so I made these for dinner just now, and ate them with dandelion greens, brown basmati rice, and a whole wheat roti from the Indian market. I have to say they were outstanding. I made a few changes, because I can never do anything by the book . ...more

heatherbudapest in By the Lakeside loved it
PS. I know you love bitter greens too -- do you ever cook dandelion greens? They are *SO BITTER*! But they were palatable with your delicious tangy lentils and the rice.

heatherbudapest in By the Lakeside loved it

A Few More Reviews

The Groups

More Groups

Search Inspiration