Lentils - a unique product, rich in protein, vitamins and amino acids with low calorie content.
It also contains tryptophan, which gives vivacity and good mood. It remains only to cook tasty lentils.
Lentil porridge - the general principles of cooking
You need to know that there are four kinds of lentils on sale. They differ not only in appearance, but also in taste and cooking technology.
Red lentils are peeled (that is, freed from the hard shell) grains; It is perfect for cooking soup or porridge. It is prepared very quickly, 10-15 minutes, and is quite boiling soft. Rinse thoroughly before cooking.
Green lentils are unripe beans. It is also enough to wash it, but it will cook for at least half an hour.
Black lentils, with a pleasant smell - a great option for porridge, soaking it is not required, but it will be ready in 20-25 minutes.
Brown requires soaking, like beans, for at least 12 hours in cold water. After that, it will boil for about 30-40 minutes. The main purpose is soups.
In principle, the exceptionally beautiful French lentils de Puy is on sale. It is very tasty and prepared for long, suitable for any dish, does not require soaking. The main disadvantage is the high price.
For cooking lentil porridge, in general, any kind is suitable, but usually red, green or black is used.
Any of them should be thoroughly rinsed in two waters, lightly rubbed with fingers. It should be poured into boiling water, during the cooking process it is usually necessary to remove the foam a couple of times.
Various products can be added to lentil porridge, this grain crop is quite friendly and goes with almost everything. But do not get involved: she has her own pleasant taste.
A ready-made lentil porridge can be flavored with butter, vegetable or cream, of course, if you are a dish for pleasure, not for weight loss: lentil porridge is considered an excellent dietary product.
Recipe 1. Lentil porridge with vegetables
Most probably a popular recipe.
Ingredients
Lentils - a glass
Carrot - 1 root vegetable
Celery, root - 100 g
Turnip - 1 medium-sized root vegetable (possible without it)
Onion - 1 piece
Garlic - 3-5 cloves
Tomatoes - a couple of medium sized pieces
Corn oil or sunflower oil
Method of preparation
With tomatoes remove the skin, finely chop. Grate celery and carrots, chop onions. Turnip cut into small cubes or grate too. All put in a saucepan with oil and a little water and put out.
For this dish is better to take red lentils, but you can any other. Rinse it and boil until tender.
Put the lentils in the vegetables and warm for 2-3 minutes.
When serving, sprinkle with porridge finely chopped parsley.
Recipe 2. Lentil porridge with oyster mushrooms
In addition to oyster mushrooms, you can, of course, put in this porridge from mushrooms and forest mushrooms, which have been cooked before.
Ingredients
Lentils - 1 cup
Oyster mushrooms - 300 g
Garlic - 4 cloves
Oil any
Method of preparation
For this lentil porridge try using black or green. It is tastier if the grains are not strongly boiled.
Cook lentils, only then salt.
Wash oyster mushrooms, leave small ones whole, cut larger ones. If you took the mushrooms, they are better to cut the plates. Fry mushrooms with butter in a frying pan.
Finely chop the garlic with a knife, put it to the mushrooms and fry together with stirring for about a minute.
Arrange the lentil porridge on the plates, and in the center place a pile of mushrooms with garlic.
Recipe 3. Lenten Porridge from “Lenten”
This lentil porridge is cooked without butter, and if desired it can be added to an already prepared dish.
Ingredients
Any lentil - 1 cup
Garlic - 4 cloves
Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon
Greens (dill, parsley, celery, mint, green onions - to your taste) - a big bunch
For this dish is better to take red lentils, but you can any other.
Method of preparation
Boil lentils, a minute before the readiness add salt, tomato and garlic passed through the press. Sprinkle the cooked porridge from lentils generously with chopped greens.
If desired, you can add cumin, sesame, chopped nuts in this dish.
Recipe 4. Old Russian Lentil Porridge
Ingredients
Lentils - 1 cup
Dry white mushrooms - handful
Half a bulb
Any vegetable oil
Method of preparation
Dry mushrooms thoroughly rinse and soak overnight. Rinse again with cool water and boil in a sufficient amount of water. In the process of cooking, make sure that the mushrooms are not digested and boiled away.
When they are ready, catch them with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl. In a decoction, diluting it with water if necessary, put the washed lentils and cook it in mushroom broth until ready.
Finely chop the onion. If you like onions, then you can not cut it, and cut into half rings and disassemble into strips.
Boiled mushrooms cut finely enough, put together with onions in a pan with heated oil. Add a couple of spoons of mushroom broth and stew for 2-3 minutes.
When the lentils are cooked, quickly mix in the mushrooms and onions, cover with a lid and wrap the pan in a towel so that the lentil porridge sweat.
Recipe 5. Lentil porridge “Nourishing”
Ingredients
Lentils - 1 cup
Chicken Breast - 1 whole without skin
Garlic - 5-6 cloves
Tomato paste - 3 tablespoons
Carrot - one
Method of preparation
For porridge from lentils with chicken any type is perfect, but usually choose black, as it is less boiled soft.
With the chicken breast to remove the skin and cut the fillets. Place stones and fillets in a saucepan with water and cook until ready. Strain the broth into a clean saucepan, bring to a boil, add lentils and cook until ready.
Carrot rubbed smaller and stewed with tomato paste. Boiled fillet cut into pieces of arbitrary size. Combine everything, add garlic passed through a press and hold the lentil porridge on the fire for another minute.
Recipe 6. Lentil Porridge with Meat
For this dish is better to choose green lentils, or even brown.
Ingredients
Meat (pork, or you can even take a veal heart) - 0.5 kg
Lentils - 1 cup Garlic - 5-6 cloves
Greens to taste
“Krasnodar” type tomato sauce - at will and taste.
Method of preparation
Wash the meat, peel off the films, cut them like goulash or finer and boil in a little water.
Strain the broth and boil the lentils on it. 3 minutes prior to the readiness, lay in the porridge the meat and garlic cut into thin plates.
When serving, add oil and sprinkle with herbs.
Recipe 7. Lentil porridge “Three days before salary”
Ingredients
Lentils - 1/3 cup
Rice - 1/3 cup
Small groats (barley, wheat, “Artek”) - 1/3 cup
Onion - Half-onion
Carrot - a pair of pieces
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Oil any
Method of preparation
Wash lentils, shake fine cereals.
Boil the cereal and keep it on the fire until it is fully cooked, then squeeze the garlic in the press through the press, cover and wrap in a blanket.
Rub carrots, finely chop onion, stew everything with butter. Arrange the porridge of lentils in plates and season with vegetables.
Recipe 8. Lentil porridge with dried apricots and raisins
For porridge made from lentils with dried apricots and raisins, only red lentils are suitable: it is the most tender.
Ingredients
Lentils - 1 cup
Raisin - half a cup
Dried apricots - half a cup already chopped
Any nuts - a good handful
Method of preparation
Rinse dried fruits thoroughly and soak in cold water if necessary.
Dried apricots cut into small pieces.
Dry the nuts in the oven, microwave, or in a dry frying pan and peel off the foil. Chop up.
Put the dried fruit in cold water, bring to a boil, add lentils and cook until ready.
If you do not want to see half-cooked lentil grains in the plate, first boil the dried fruits, then cook the lentils on the strained broth and puree with a blender. Add dried fruit to the puree.
If you prefer sweetish porridge, add a spoonful of sugar when cooking.
When serving, add butter and garnish the lentil porridge with nuts, sprinkling them on top.
Recipe 9. Lentil porridge with nuts
The combination of lentils with walnuts is considered a classic. Although many like lentils with cashews or peanuts. Ingredients
Lentils, better red - 1 cup
Nuts - at least half a glass
Butter
Method of preparation
There is nothing easier than such lentil porridge. Cook lentils.
Peel, dry and remove the thin skin from the nuts.
Spice up lentil porridge with butter and sprinkle with nuts.
Recipe 10. Georgian lentil porridge
Ingredients
Lentils green - 1 cup
Garlic - 4-6 cloves
Walnuts - a big handful
Hops-suneli - a tablespoon or two
Cilantro - bundle
Onion - optional
Method of preparation
In order to cook porridge from lentils in Georgian style, it is advisable to take green lentils and walnuts, otherwise the national color of the dish will disappear.
Lentil put cook without salt.
If you decide to cook with onions, finely chop it and put it in the pan so that it becomes transparent, but not roasted.
When the lentils are cooked for about three minutes, add onion, hops-suneli, salt, chopped garlic and porridge.
Peel walnuts and chop. Season them with porridge. Sprinkle generously with chopped cilantro.
Recipe 11. Lentil porridge with buckwheat
If desired, you can make porridge from lentils and rice or bulgur. Rice or bulgur combined with any variety, and with buckwheat is better to mix black or green.
Ingredients
Lentils - 0.5 cup
Buckwheat - 0.5 cups
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Spicy herbs to taste: sage, rosemary; some like to add some cumin to such porridge.
If you wish, you can put in the dish a little finely chopped champignons.
Method of preparation
Lentils and buckwheat rinse.
Pour the cereal into a pot of boiling water and cook over low heat under the lid. A couple of times, you may have to remove the foam. A minute before readiness, add garlic and spicy herbs squeezed through a press to the dish if they are fresh. Dried must be added earlier: five minutes before the end of cooking.
If you decide to put and mushrooms, then they can be cooked immediately with cereals. And you can lightly fry the butter, and only then put in the finished porridge.
Recipe 12. Lentil porridge with cracklings
Such porridge can be cooked from any kind of lentil, it is not fundamental.
Ingredients
Lentils - a glass
Pork lard - about 200 g
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Bulb optional
Method of preparation
Put the lentils to boil, after thoroughly washing them.
Meanwhile, cook the cracklings. To do this, cut the fat into thin slices and start melting in a frying pan. Make sure the cracklings are not burned. At first they seem to be not preparing for a long time, but at some point they begin to fry very quickly. Immediately catch with skimmer ready cracklings. It is not enough to remove the pan from the fire: the oil cools down slowly, and the temperature is high, so the cracklings will have time to burn.
Drain most of the melted fat, it can then be used in the preparation of other dishes.
Fry sliced garlic on the remaining fat.
Pour the fat with the garlic and cook in the cooked lentil porridge.
Lentil porridge - Tricks and Tips
- Green and black retain the shape of grains quite well, while red boils soft. If dilapidated grains annoy you, puree the dish with a blender, and you will have a mess.
- Unlike peas, which like onions, lentils prefer garlic, and they must be added to dishes made from it. If you do not like garlic, try replacing it with the same onion and curry, the taste will be different, but also pleasant.
- When cooking to the very end, do not salt the dish. You can even, as in beans, add a teaspoon of sugar.
- In order to quickly chop the garlic or walnut, you must first crush it by pressing flat on it with a knife.
