Living off lentils....

Last Sunday I made a big pot of lentils, which I've been eating off of all week. The following lentil recipe is a hand me down from my Grandma. My Grandma rules. When I first became vegan she converted so many of her recipes to conform to my diet. I probably would have fell off the train when I was in my late teens, had it not been for her culinary skills. I still have about 100 note cards of her recipes, some of which I haven't used in years, but I'd like to revisit. Tempeh Reuben, vegan biscuits and gravy, tempeh cacciatore, mmmmm....... Frankly, most of them are probably a little too rich for my current diet (I'm for the most part following Fuhrman's Eat-to-Live program), but there's always room to splurge sometimes.

Grandma Harmon's Cooked Lentils

Ingredients:
1 - 1 lb. bag of lentils
1 - chopped carrot
1 - diced celery stalk
1 - 16 0z. can tomato sauce
1-1 1/2 c vegan spaghetti sauce
garlic powder, salt, pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Rinse lentils, then cover with water. Boil for 2 mins.
2. Take off heat, cover, and let sand for 1 hr. (Now everything I've read about lentils say that they don't need to be soaked, however I defer to my grandmother's cooking prowess.)
3. Add carrots, celery, tomato and pasta sauce. Add as much garlic powder, salt, and pepper as you like.
4. Cook lentils on medium heat until they are tender. About 10 - 15 min.

This makes a pretty large pot and I ultimately use them throughout the week. They can be used in a variety of ways. Of course they're good on their own served with a grain (rice or quinoa). I also like them a couple different ways served with pasta. The way my Grandma serves them is mixed in with macaroni noodles and add some Parmesan cheese (or soy Parmesan for me). I like to add some hot pepper flakes as well to this combination.

Another way to integrate it into pasta, is to simply add it to some additional vegan spaghetti sauce and serve it with pasta. This is one of the few ways I can actually get my son to eat legumes. He never notices them.

I've also seen some recipes for lentil hummus, which could be intriguing. So many possibilities for my, by far, favorite legume.