02 April 2013

Meals Made Easy #10 - Curried Lentils and Spinach

Being Spring is taking a long time to really set in with warm temperatures and flora rebirth I am still finding great solace in comfort foods. Lentils have been a high priority lately. I rarely cook with meat at home so am constantly looking for high protein foods to keep the body happy. I got the base recipe from The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet and added a few of my own additions, of course.

This dish is high in protein, flavor and ridiculously easy. I like to eat it with paratha and while it isn't a low cal bread option it is mighty delicious.

Ingredients:
3.5-4c broth or water
1c dried lentils (red, green or both)
2-3 stalks of celery, leaves included, chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped
3-5 garlic cloves, minced
.25c chopped onion
1 tblsp curry powder (bought or homemade)
1 package frozen spinach
salt & pepper to taste

Rinse your lentils and pick out any bad dudes.

Add the broth, lentils, garlic, onion and curry powder in a suitable saucepan, bring to a boil and then simmer for 25-35 minutes until lentils are tender. Drain the spinach a smidge and add to the lentil - heat through, roughly 5-10 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper.

It doesn't photograph super well, it is spinach and brown/red legumes after all.




Easy Curry Powder

Curry powder is the shit. It is delicious, can be made as mild or as spicy as you like and is a fantastic addition to many dishes. Use as much or as little as you'd like. Mine is sort of a hybrid take on the standard. Curry is the best thing ever. Like everything I post it is to taste (I'm not a baker, OK?).

Ingredients:
1 tblsp cumin
1 tblsp tumeric
.5 tblsp ground ginger powder
.5 tblsp coriander
.25 tblsp nutmeg
3+ ground dried chilis

Mix together. Pretty easy, eh?