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lentils

Fall Lentil Bowls with Walnut Pesto

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I am SO, so pleased that this is going to be your dinner this week (go with it). These bowls are one of the best things to come out of my kitchen in recent months (and there are….a lot of contenders), are gluten free, vegetarian, and ridiculously yummy in a way that makes you not really that concerned about the health factor.

But the health factor is THERE with these lentil quinoa bowls. We’re talking quinoa, turmeric lentils, roasted sweet potatoes AND tomatoes, and walnut pesto that we’ve made several times this summer for these bowls, pasta, and lots of other yummy things!

The walnut kale pesto is not to be skipped, is my point.

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Lentil Bowls with Cauliflower and Tahini

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Continuing our month of vegetarian choices! I’m being extra careful to not use words like “cheat, guilt, good, bad,” and so on. I think that thought pattern surrounding food can be so damaging, but also I agree that in terms of physical health there are foods that are better for our bodies than others, if we’re talking lentils vs cheetos.

Now, in terms of mental health or happiness or convenience? We could go on all day about those things.

But today, instead of my not wanting you to have “cheat days,” we ARE talking lentils. I love lentils, but even if you don’t I think you could stomach these. They are SO flavorful (because salt) and honestly I could eat a bowl of them on their own. We made this into a fun bowl with bright pink pickled onions, a shortcut gremolata, and toasty roasty cauliflower, one of my favorite substitutes for meat because when roasted it has just the best texture.

The idea for this came from an Instagram account Jay follows but he couldn’t show me a recipe or the actual account or image (?), so he described a picture to me and this is what I came up with. So, if you made some amazing cauliflower bowls and this feels like a copycat, tell me! And I’ll credit you if it was your original image.

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Red Lentil Dhal

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BECAUSE FALL SO ORANGE EVERYTHING. 

Finally it is less than 90 degrees here, which means I’ve been freezing for most of the day, no joke. It was in the mid 80’s all weekend, hit 90 more than once last week, and tonight is going to drop down to 47F, riddle me that. The temperature drop has made me wrestle internally with Beck’s sleeping situation; she’s old enough for blankets but I have irrational fears of EVERYTHING killing her, so is a sleep sack and our favorite jammies enough? The answer is of course yes because she 1. doesn’t sleep outside and 2. sleeps perfectly soundly all night long, but that doesn’t stop me from ruminating on the subject for no reason at all. 

So we need some lentils to warm us up and to help us sleep better? Nice transition there. 

These lentils are so legit, though. Indian food is one of our absolute favorites in almost any form; we eat something with Indian flavors (which is a huge range, luckily for me) at least once a week, and one of our favorite things to do on super busy nights is to order Indian takeout knowing that we’ll have a delicious dinner asap and leftovers for a day or two. Curry reheats well, is my point. 

These lentils are similarly comforting, but don’t include any meat or animal products. I use chicken stock to make mine, but you can make this dish entirely vegan if you use vegetable stock instead. The spices in the lentils make the entire dish taste so warm, and the lentils I have cooked in 15 minutes or so, so the end result of the dish felt very slow-cooked and cozy while just taking a few minutes. I love these alone with cilantro and a lime wedge, but with rice, naan, or as part of a larger Indian meal would be really perfect as well. 

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Lentils Provencal w/ Kale + Spicy Sausage

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Beans, beans, what a wonderful fruit…IMG_3353

You know the drill.  Ew.  

And, ew because I kind of don’t like beans.  I don’t HATE them, but sometimes the texture isn’t the sexiest thing I can think of to eat (don’t EVEN), and there are usually ten thousand more calories that I’d like to eat that I don’t want to waste on fibrous legumes.  So, we don’t eat beans much.  

BUT, there’s this new French-ish restaurant in Greenville that’s run by a bunch of Americans who also own a lot of other restaurants and they have a green lentil salad that I absolutely adore.  And I figured it out.  The lentils aren’t mushy, and I like them that way.  If they get cooked too much I die a thousand deaths and demand to be taken to McDonalds at 1am because I SWEAR I’M NOT DRUNK AND I’M STARVING AND WHY DO YOU HATE ME?  …

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