Adventures with Lentils
Well I just barely squeaked in here at the end of January to launch my flagship blog of 2010. The fact is that I am just ending a 2-week homemade soup detoxification and had about 3 – 4 cups of sprouted lentils sitting on my counter top. I was so sick of eating soup or anything runny that I was considering what to do with all the lentils. I typed lentil recipes into google and found a variety of Indian dishes along with Lentil Loaf. So at the start of this blog I have just finished cooking and eating my first Lentil Loaf, recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse. I didn’t even know Emeril could make a vegetarian entrée but I found it on Google along with all the other Lentil loaf recipes. I chose Emeril’s because it wasn’t smothered in Ketchup or BBQ sauce. And it wasn’t vegan, because those recipes had too many ingredients. After all I wasn’t trying to recreate a vegetarian version of the meatloaf of my childhood that had traumatized me to the point of never wanting to eat anything else ever again for 20 years with the word “loaf” in it. This was simply, lentils, brown rice, vegetables, nuts and cranberries, Oh my!
I followed the video so there was no written recipe; I just put the ingredients in as he did eyeballing the amounts. I was so proud when I removed it form the oven, stood back and looked at the top all golden brown. After letting it cool a bit I tried to flip it like Emeril did in his on-line video, to no effect only half the loaf wanted to come out. I flipped it back over in the baking dish and decided to slice it. I put a big slice of lentil loaf, on the plate with a side of spinach salad. I took the first bite and decided it was pretty darn good, the cranberries added a bit of sweetness, although I believe that I had added way too many lentils into the recipe and in the future would have balanced the portions more. The excess lentils made it a bit dry. Thank goodness that I had copied down a recipe for Cilantro dressing from an Indian site that had many lentil recipes. The cilantro dressing made all the difference in the world and was filled with immune enhancing medicinal plants & herbs. If you want to give it a go just put the following in a food processor: Juice of 1 lime, 3 tbl of olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 1 inch chopped ginger, ½ jalapeno, 1 large handful of cilantro, ½ avocado, 1 small tomato. Wow, what a refreshing and delicious addition to a dry pile of lentils.
Food is our Medicine, Have fun with it!
I believe that buying; preparing, cooking, and eating food should be a grand adventure. If you have never sprouted lentils, give it a try, be adventurous, there are tons of recipes out there, chances are the first time you try one it will come out mediocre but the next time you make it will be better. Experiment with different herbs, and taste combinations. There are over 5,000 chemical constituents in each plant, herb or vegetable we eat. Each plant has medicinal properties and is programmed to help our bodies in a specific way. Feed yourself and your cells the nutrition that leads to good health!
