Lentil is the most ancient food culture. It is used to make soups, mashed potatoes, cereals, salads, bake bread and flat cakes.
Lentil lovers have a fun and easy-going nature. Why? It's simple: lentil contains amazing amino acid tryptophan. It produces serotonin - the hormone of joy. Thanks to this substance, mood improves, depression disappears, stress is better tolerated.
There are a lot of varieties of this legume plant: there are brown, red, green and even black lentils resembling beluga caviar! The most fragrant variety is French puy. Usually it is used for making salads, as the puy keeps its shape, does not boil soft and has an amazing pepper flavor.
Not all housewives use lentils, but in vain. This plant has a high nutritional value, is a complete substitute for animal protein and allows you to cook an amazing variety of dishes.
The whole secret of lentils - in its proper preparation, since different varieties have different cooking times.
Lentil Salad - General Cooking Principles
To fall in love with this plant, you can start with a simple: prepare a salad with lentils. It goes well with dairy and meat products, vegetables and fruits, as well as various sauces and dressings.
To cook lentils correctly, you need to fill the seeds with cold water, taking two parts of water to one part of the lentils. After boiling pour olive oil. Just one tablespoon will be enough to soften the wayward character of the beans. Then everything is simple, but strictly: the brown lentils, popular in America, should be boiled for a quarter of an hour, red for half an hour, green for forty minutes.
With boiled lentils can be combined with chopped goat or sheep cheese, feta, mozzarella. An excellent company of legumes will be fresh or baked vegetables: tomatoes, onions, carrots, pumpkin, beets, bell peppers. Very tasty salad with lentils and meat, fish, chicken. The crushed ingredients can be refilled with a sauce of lemon juice, balsamic or red wine vinegar, olive oil, honey. The aroma of lentil salad is diversified with fennel, cinnamon, mint, cumin, basil, garlic, onion, curry, mustard.
Salad with lentils and goat cheese
The original salad with black lentils, pumpkin squash and goat cheese will fall in love with gourmets. Pumpkin squash does not have a specific sweet taste and melon flavor, and during heat treatment it breaks up into fibers. Pumpkin seeds, fragrant goat cheese, mint and cumin turn the dish into something absolutely fantastic and incredibly beautiful.
Ingredients:
• one pumpkin squash fruit;
• ten tablespoons of black lentils;
• 150 grams of goat cheese;
• a glass of peeled pumpkin seeds;
• a few leaves of arugula;
• two tablespoons of olive oil;
• spoon red wine vinegar;
• five leaves of fresh mint;
• a large tablespoon of zira and paprika;
• large sea salt.
Preparation:
Lentil pour warm water and leave for ten minutes.
Cook soaked lentils in the same water. Cooking will take ten to twenty minutes.
Pour the lentils in a colander, leave to completely get rid of moisture.
Peel the pumpkin, cut into cubes, sprinkle with olive oil, cover with paprika and cumin and mix well with oil and spices.
Bake the pumpkin in the oven at a temperature of 220 degrees until golden brown. Cool completely.
Fry the peeled pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet until they are golden.
Arugula tear hands and put together with mint in a large salad bowl.
Dice goat cheese and send to greens.
Put the pumpkin in the salad bowl, then the dried lentils.
Prepare dressing: mix a spoonful of olive oil with a spoonful of wine vinegar.
Season the ingredients with the sauce, mix gently so as not to turn the contents of the salad bowl into porridge. Decorate with pumpkin seeds.
Mediterranean salad with lentils
Red onions and bell peppers give this lentil salad a fresh Mediterranean flavor. Tomatoes and feta in a company with basil, balsamic vinegar and green salad turn the dish into an original self-contained snack. To make it not so sharp, you can remove the vinegar from the recipe. Green salad can be replaced with arugula - it will not affect a great balanced taste.
Ingredients:
• glass of lentils;
• medium bulb;
• large tomato;
• 150 grams of feta;
• two cloves of garlic;
• two red bell peppers;
• one hundred grams of fresh basil;
• a tablespoon of lemon juice;
• two spoons of olive oil;
• a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar;
• ground pepper to taste;
• a bunch of leaf lettuce (or arugula).
Method of preparation
Boil lentils, rinse with cold water, leave in a colander.
Chop the onions, chop the garlic (it is better to just chop with a knife), fry in a pan with hot olive oil until ready for about three minutes.
Put the lentils in a deep container, add butter with onion and garlic.
Cut into thin slices of Bulgarian pepper, send to lentils.
Pour all the vinegar and remaining olive oil, salt, sprinkle with pepper and chopped basil. All ingredients are well left to mix for pickling for an hour.
Put the salad in a serving dish or a wide salad bowl, garnish with chopped lettuce and feta pieces.
Salad with lentils "Beet fantasy"
The simplest, but very tasty original lentil salad can be made from ordinary beets, tomatoes and red onions. Natural apple cider vinegar, honey, ground hot pepper and curry will be required for the dressing. Constant feta will give the dish spicy sourness.
Ingredients:
• two medium beets;
• 150 grams of greenish-brown lentils (puis);
• two tomatoes; • a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar;
• one hundred grams of feta;
• two red onions;
• tablespoon of sugar;
• as much honey;
• half a spoon of ground red pepper;
• tablespoon of curry;
• salt.
Preparation:
Cut the beets into four parts and bake in foil for an hour with butter, vinegar, honey, salt, sugar, pepper and chopped garlic. The oven must be preheated to 200 degrees.
Boil lentils in salted water.
Fry finely chopped onion in olive oil.
Put sliced tomatoes in a frying pan and fry with onions, salt and sprinkle with pepper.
In a separate container, mix lentils and tomatoes. Put on a platter or in a salad bowl.
Lay the diced beets on top of the lentils, then decorate with chopped or crumbled cheese.
Grilled lentils and pepper salad
Tricolor grilled peppers look very festive in a salad with lentils, olives and tomatoes. Their spicy languid aroma is perfectly combined with fragrant fennel, cilantro, green onions and lime juice. Gourmet treats!
Ingredients:
one bell pepper red, green and yellow;
• medium bulb;
• one and a half cups of lentil puy;
• medium tomato;
• half a cup of green onions;
• ground black pepper, salt, vegetable oil to taste;
• one bay leaf;
• bunch of cilantro;
• one third cup of fresh lime juice;
• a quarter cup of pitted olives;
• a teaspoon of ground fennel.
Method of preparation:
Sprinkle the cleaned peppers with butter and bake them on the grill with the skin down. As soon as it starts to burn (about ten minutes), remove the vegetables from the grill.
Salt the pepper, sprinkle with pepper, put in a plastic bag.
After fifteen minutes, remove and easily peel.
Cut the pepper into small slices and fold into a deep container.
Boil lentils with bay leaf and half onion. Strain the water, bay leaf and onion to throw, and put the lentils to the peppers.
Stir, salt, sprinkle with pepper.
Cut the tomato, cilantro and green onions, send to lentils and peppers.
Season with lime juice, oil, add fennel and olives cut into ringlets or halves.
Mix gently and place in a salad bowl.
Salad with lentils, chicken and broccoli
Spicy smoked chicken meat goes well in a salad with lentils, broccoli and red onions. Garlic, balsamic vinegar and mustard add spicy flavor and spiciness to the dish.
Ingredients:
• 125 grams of lentils;
• 350 grams of smoked chicken;
• 250 grams of broccoli;
• medium red onion;
• a clove of garlic;
• a quarter cup of olive oil;
• two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar;
• spoon mustard.
Preparation:
Chop broccoli very finely, cook for two minutes, then pour over cold water.
Grind the garlic and salt in a mortar until smooth.
Combine garlic with vinegar, oil and mustard, mix.
Finely chopped onion fry in olive oil to transparency, then add the cabbage and finely chopped smoked chicken.
Fry for two minutes, then shift to a salad bowl.
Add boiled lentils, season with sauce and serve.
Salad with lentils "Meat"
The original taste is different salad with lentils, minced meat, peas, cucumbers, chicory and cherry. Cream-cream sauce gives the dish tenderness and light sourness. Fantastically delicious salad!
Ingredients:
• one hundred grams of red lentils;
• two hundred grams of minced meat;
• two bulbs;
• egg;
• 150 grams of green peas;
• as many cherry tomatoes;
• one cucumber;
• one thing chicory;
• salt and pepper to taste;
• three spoons of vegetable oil;
• a cup of sour cream;
• three tablespoons of cream;
• a bunch of dill.
Preparation:
Mix the minced meat with egg and finely chopped onions, mold walnut-sized balls and fry in a frying pan. Boil lentils and peas (separately). Water to drain. Wash pods with cold water and dry.
Chicory tear hands.
Put chicory pieces into a bowl, cut into halves of cherry tomatoes, thin slices of cucumber and pea pods.
Cut the second onion into transparent half rings and place in a bowl. Mix.
Add lentils and minced meat balls to the salad.
Prepare the sauce, carefully mixing the cream, sour cream, chopped dill, pepper and salt.
Dress up the salad dressing.
Salad with lentils and salmon
Fish with lentils? Easy! Salad with lentils and salmon can decorate the holiday table. Cook it very quickly, as canned lentils and salmon are used.
Ingredients:
• one third cup of lemon juice;
• half a spoon of black pepper;
• 850 grams of canned lentils;
• 400 grams of canned salmon in its own juice;
• half onions;
• two spoons of Dijon mustard;
• a bunch of dill;
• one red bell pepper;
• one cucumber;
• one third cup of olive oil;
• salt.
Preparation:
Prepare a dressing of lemon juice, mustard, pepper, salt, olive oil and dill.
Pepper cut into cubes, onion half rings, cucumber thin slices. Mix.
Add lentils and salmon cut into small pieces.
Mix gently, fill and serve.
Salad with lentils and dried fruits
Very tasty, beautiful, unusual turns out salad with lentils, dates, dried apricots and pine nuts. Excellent company lentils is bulgur - wheat groats. The flavor of the dish gives cinnamon, mint and parsley.
Ingredients:
• half a cup of red lentils;
• half a cup of dried apricots;
• half a cup of pitted dates;
• a glass of bulgur;
• half a spoonful of cinnamon;
• half a glass of parsley;
• five mint leaves;
• two tablespoons of olive oil;
• a quarter cup of lemon juice;
• three tablespoons of pine nuts; • two spoons of lemon zest;
• salt.
Preparation:
Cook bulgur with cinnamon in salted water. Chill.
Boil and wash lentils in cold water.
Fry the nuts (without oil).
Dried fruits and herbs cut, remove the lemon zest and squeeze the juice.
Mix all ingredients, season with lemon juice, zest, butter and serve.
Lentil Salad - Tricks and Tips
- Lentil is a source not only of protein, but also of fiber. It improves digestion, improves immunity, and has a beneficial effect on the urogenital system. But the most surprising property of lentils is its ability to prevent cancer due to its high isoflavone content.
- People with sensitive intestines need to pre-soak dry lentils for five to seven hours, and preferably all night. It is better to leave it soaked in warmth, so it will quickly give up the components that are difficult to digest. Then you need to drain the water and cook according to the scheme.
- Legumes are easier to digest with spices: coriander, black pepper, turmeric, ginger, asafoetida.
- It is not necessary to salt water for lentils: it will cook for a long time. Lentil should be salted a few minutes before draining water.
