Red Lentil Stew

I've mentioned before that the boy dislikes lentils, but with this dish and the fresh flat bread, we might be approaching something close to a lentil dish that he actually enjoys (?!).  This is good because lentils are fabulous in both flavor and nutrition.  A 1/4 cup of dried lentils contains only 70 calories (and they just about double in size when cooked) and has 7 g of protein, plenty of fiber, and 15% of your daily iron requirements.   Also, they're 50% of your daily delicious requirement.

Red Lentil Stew

Serves 2 ...or 1 if you aren't eating gobs of rich bread and hummus on the side

1/2 c dried red lentils

2 c water

1/4 t ground coriander

1/4 t cinnamon

2 t cumin

1/4 t cayenne (or to taste)

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t paprika

dash of black pepper

1/2 t salt

1 c fresh spinach

1 large carrot, sliced into medallions

Clean the red lentils, making sure there aren't any pebbles/debris, then add to the water.  Bring to a boil, then add the carrot slices.  Turn down to simmer and let cook for 15 minutes or until the lentils fall apart when you gently stir.  Add the seasonings, then add the cleaned spinach to the stew and cook until the spinach wilts.

Serve with pita or some other flat bread.  I think this would be good with eggplant, too.

There you have it.  Healthy comfort food in a bowl.

Spoils from the Persian market

Barbari bread, Tribe spicy red pepper and tomato and veggie hummus, chickpea flour, red lentils, and sweetmeal biscuits!  Not pictured: Fuji apples and green onion.

A coworker suggested I look into Wholesome Choice, a Persian market in Irvine.  I'm so glad I checked it out, because look at these nommables!

First off, the barbari bread.  I was looking at the ingredients on the package when the baker asked me if I wanted a fresh one...hells yes!

Although the ingredients list checked out, I noticed it had unlisted sesame seeds, so I double checked that there wasn't any egg/milk in it.  Mm, nope, it's just a simple and wonderful bread.

Opened up, it's golden and perfect:

Yummmmm.  Armed with flat bread, I needed to get some hummus.  Fortunately, they were having a sale and these were pretty cheap at 2 for $3 and in a flavor I hadn't seen before... veggie tomato?

I also finallllllly got some chickpea flour.  And despite knowing that I'll probably be the only one eating them, I got some red lentils (who doesn't like lentils?!  The boy, apparently).

They were also having a sale on these biscuits.  I love Indian biscuits so I figured these would also be good.  We'll see about that tomorrow.

The next post ...the red lentil stew / curry I made!  I'm so happy, it's been a long time since I had lentils.  They are still one of my favorite legumes!