Tomato Curry Lentil Stew

I was searching for another good recipe that uses lentils, as I have lots of them, and found this one at allrecipes.com. I made a few changes to it and it turned out very well! I served it with applesauce bread topped with honey.


Tomato Curry Lentil Stew

1/2 cup dry lentils (I used one full cup)
1 cup water (I used much more, about 6 cups, and could have added even more)
6 oz stewed tomatoes (I used one regular sized can which was 14.5 oz)
1/8 cup chopped onion
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 tsp curry powder (I used one T)
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

I also added:

2 potatoes, diced
1 T beef soup base
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice

Combine lentils, rice and water. Bring to boil. Lower heat to simmer and add tomatoes, potatoes, onion and celery. Cover and let simmer 45 minutes. Check every 15 minutes to stir and add water if necessary. Add spices and let simmer 15 minutes more for flavors to meld.

Verdict: Very, very good! Hearty AND tasty. Everyone liked it and my husband loved it. Will definitely make again!

Ham, Black Bean, and Potato Soup

I originally found this recipe on my friend Jennifer's blog. She was trying it for some variety in using up ham. It was delicious! You could easily leave out the ham for a vegetarian soup.


Ham, Black Bean, and Potato Soup

6 cups broth (I used homemade chicken broth - leftover water from boiling a chicken carcass. Use vegetable broth if making this a vegetarian meal)
1 can black beans, drained
2 potatoes, diced
1/2 pound cooked ham, diced
can of stewed or diced tomatoes (the kind with green chili peppers if you want more zing)
1/3 cup onion, chopped (I just used half an onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp ground cloves

Sour cream, chopped olives, grated cheese, tortilla chips, etc for garnish.

Add all ingredients except garnish items to crockpot and cook on low for 8-1o hours, or high for 4-5 hours. Serve with garnish ingredients.

This was a hit and I will definitely make it again!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

This is a recipe I'd been wanting to try for a long time, and I finally got the chance this past week! I'm not sure where it's from originally, but I got it from my friend Susan's food blog. These turned out well and tasted quite good, but they were a bit more labor intensive than I normally like for a week night meal. I baked the sweet potatoes the day before so they'd be ready, but the entire process on the day I made them still took nearly 2 hours. The good news is that the mixture yields a LOT of hamburgers! We have quite a few in the freezer for another time.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers

2 T oil
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, grated finely
2 cups black beans, cooked
2 baked sweet potatoes, scooped out of skin
2 cups quinoa, cooked (red is best because it blends in with the other colors, but I only have white so that's what I used)
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs (or if you're me, Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing Mix!)
2 T caraway seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp adobo sauce (didn't have any so left this out)

Saute onions and garlic in oil until lightly browned. Add carrots and black beans and cook an additional 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat. Mash slightly in pan, until beans are half crushed.


Meanwhile, cook your quinoa. This was my first time to cook quinoa, and I figured it should be cooked similarly to rice. Well, I googled "how to cook quinoa" AFTER I'd started cooking it (when will I learn?) and the good news is that I figured correctly. The bad news is that I was supposed to soak and rinse it first, to remove the outer hull which can give quinoa a slightly bitter taste. Next time!


In large bowl (VERY large bowl) add remaining ingredients and add the cooked onion/garlic/carrot/black bean mixture from the stove. Mix thoroughly. If mixture is too moist, add more bread crumbs. Form into patties and cook as desired.


We were on our way to an evening soccer game, so in the interest of time I fried them. I think I'll try baking them next time.


Here they are, ready to go to the soccer game!

Mmmmm!

Little Man was reluctant to try them, but after his brother C (pictured above) had eaten his, he told Little Man, "they're not as bad as they look!" High praise indeed. We had a 12 year old houseguest this week, and he asked me if there was any meat in the burgers at all, and was surprised when I said no. "Wow! They're good anyway," he said. And he ate two. It took 3 to fill my husband up, but that could partly be due to the fact that he'd skipped lunch.

Verdict: Very tasty. Would like to try again with adobo sauce and now that I know how to cook quinoa. Not a fast meal though, so I may wait a while before making.

Italian Pinto Bean Soup

This dish needs a fancier name because it was really good. I mean, REALLY good! Italian Pinto Bean Soup just doesn't do it justice. At the very least I think I would call it "Italian Sausage and Bean Soup". The sausage gave it a really yummy flavor and added some "oomph" to the soup. The entire family loved it and I found myself wishing that I'd doubled the recipe. It is another one from Crystal at the Family Homestead.

Italian Pinto Bean Soup

4 cups dry pinto beans (or about 3-4 cans of prepared beans from the store)
water for soaking (if you start with dry beans)
8 cups water for cooking
1 T salt
1/2 to 1 pound sausage (leave out for a vegetarian meal. I used bratwurst from the freezer and just squeezed the sausage out of their little bratwurst casings)
olive oil (if not using sausage)
1 small or medium onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic (I used 1 tsp garlic powder instead - I need to buy a new garlic press!)
1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
1 T Italian seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

If you start with dry beans:

The night before, put the beans in a large pot and cover well with water. Let them soak overnight. In the morning, drain the water that they soaked in and then add the 8 cups of fresh water you will cook them in. Add salt to the beans and cook until soft. Once the beans are cooked you can drain the water, cool and then freeze them for later use, or set them aside still in the water to make the soup that same day.

If you start with canned beans:

Cook sausage along with onion, garlic, and optional green pepper. If you are not using sausage, cook the onion, garlic and green pepper in a bit of olive oil until soft. Then add the sausage/veggie mixture to the cooked beans in a soup pot. Add the remaining ingredients and heat until the cheese is melted and the flavors are blended. In individual bowls, garnish with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese on top.

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! A couple of the children picked out the green peppers, but that was it. It had my husband and I craving more. Will definitely make again!

Crockpot Beans and Rice

This is another recipe from Stephanie at crockpot365. It looked pretty good on her blog, and since we have lots of beans and brown rice in the house, I decided to give it a try. No offense to Stephanie, but it was a flop at my house. Not bad tasting, just really, really bland. My sweet husband and children, however, are totally on board with my experimentation and with eating whatever is set before them, so they all bravely ate it. C was the only one who LOVED it, telling me enthusiastically, "Mommy! You should make this again!" (well sweetie, you are welcome to all the leftovers!) I share it in hopes that you will get better mileage from it at your house, and because I said in my sidebar that I'd share flops too. :-)

Crockpot Beans and Rice

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 cup brown rice
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (I would add more)
1 tsp Italian seasoning (I would add more)
1/2 T dried onion flakes (I would add a full T)

Put the 1 T olive oil in the bottom of your crockpot and add the rice. Swirl the rice around in the olive oil until it is coated nicely. Drain and rinse the beans, then add them. Drain the tomatoes, saving the juice. Add them to your pot. You will need 2 cups of liquid, so add water to whatever amount of tomato juice you reserved so that you have 2 cups total of liquid. Add to pot. Add seasonings, stir well, and cover. Cook on low for about 6 hours or on high for 3-4. If you use white rice rather than brown it will be done faster, so be sure to check.

Verdict: If I am desperate for a meal sometime I will venture to make this again with LOTS more seasonings!

Turkey/Black Bean Sloppy Joe's

These were very good! My family members are not huge fans of sloppy joe's to begin with, but these were very tasty the first night, and even better at lunch the next day. I got the original recipe from Crystal at the Family Homestead, and then switched out turkey for ground beef.

Turkey/Black Bean Sloppy Joe's

1 lb hamburger (I used ground turkey)
4 to 5 cups cooked beans (I used black, and I only used about 2-3 cups)
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 green or red pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups ketchup
2 T worcestershire sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
3/4 cup water
2 to 3 T apple cider vinegar, to taste (I didn't have any so left this out)
3 T sucanat or sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Brown hamburger or turkey with onion and green or red pepper. Drain grease if needed. Add cooked beans.


Add remaining ingredients and let simmer long enough to get everything hot and blend flavors. She suggests serving on homemade whole wheat French Bread rolls, but I served on whole wheat hamburger buns from the grocery store! (I'm out of wheat berries and can't bake any bread or rolls until the ones I've ordered arrive).

Verdict: Well liked by all except Little Man, and he ate half of one with help. :-)


Next time I make sloppy joe's I'm going to try my friend Susan's recipe!

Moroccan Lentil Soup

This is a crockpot recipe from Stephanie at crockpot365. I will tell you right up front to click on the link and go to her blog and see the way it is supposed to look, because I had to substitute a few key ingredients and mine looks like some slightly soggy kidney beans and veggies. But I will also tell you right up front that man was this good! It had quite a kick to it, which my husband LOVED. He has lived all our married life with slightly toned down food, bless his heart, and this was a chance for his taste buds to really have a party! I was not aware that Moroccan food, like Thai food, is generally quite spicey hot (as opposed to temperature hot, a distinction our children like to make). The leftovers were even better the next day!

Morrocan Lentil Soup

1 cup dried lentils (I used red)
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I didn't have so left this out)
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (I didn't have pinto so used kidney)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 chopped carrots
28 oz can of diced tomatoes, with juice
4 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 tsp garam masala (had no idea what this was so left it out)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated (I used 1 tsp ground ginger instead)

Use at least a 5 qt crockpot for this, it makes alot. Chop up all veggies and put them in the crockpot first. Drain and rinse beans, add them to the pot. Add spices and then broth and tomatoes. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (I cooked on high for 6 hours). Soup tastes best the longer you cook it. Stephanie suggests taking an immersible blender and pulsing to blend the veggies and beans together before serving. I don't have an immersible blender so did not do this, and it was great without it.



Verdict: 4 of the children were forced to eat this under duress because of the spicyness. But because my husband loved it so much, I plan to make it again (with the right beans this time!). I will probably use a tad less cayenne pepper for the children's sake, and let my hubby add more to his bowl.

Black Bean Burritos

These tasted much better than black bean quesadillas according to my children (black is not their favorite kind of bean). Easy to make and well liked by all! Yay! This recipe is from Crystal at the Family Homestead. During the month of January, while I was planning and preparing for a small food budget in February, I decided to invest $8 in Crystal's ebook, "How to Cook with Beans." It was $8 well spent! She gives lots of tips for how to soak and cook beans, as well as pages and pages of recipes. I chose this one first because I have lots of cooked black beans in the freezer, and I thought the addition of shredded carrot would be interesting (my family could not find or taste the carrots, but it made me feel good knowing they were in there!).

Black Bean Burritos

6 cups of cooked black beans
2 cups salsa
1 cup shredded carrots
8 oz cream cheese
6-8 whole wheat tortillas (or white, whatever you have)
shredded cheese

Combine beans, salsa and carrots in pan and simmer for about 15 minutes to allow carrots to soften.


While bean mixture is simmering, layer tortillas in the bottom of casserole pan.


When carrots are soft, add cream cheese.


Stir to combine well, and cook just a few minutes more so that the cream cheese completely melts into the bean mixture.


Layer bean mixture on top of the tortillas, and then a layer of shredded cheese. Continue layering tortillas, bean mixture and cheese until you run out of bean mixture or pan, whichever comes first!


Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until cheese is nicely melted and bubbly. Serve with sour cream and salsa.


Verdict: Well liked by all, loved by some, will definitely make again!

Creamy White Bean and Apple Chili

This was delicious! A different take on chili. We ate it without meat, but if you wanted to add chicken or turkey, they would both work well in this recipe. I got it from the crockpot lady over at crockpot365.


2 cans of white beans, drained and rinsed (I cooked a whole crockpot of black eyed peas last weekend and then froze them in ziploc sandwich bags. If you do this, just pull out one bag full. They can be any kind of white bean, I just happened to have black eyed peas so that's what I used.)
1 onion, chopped
2 apples, cut in tiny chunks, no need to peel
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
3 T butter (first time I've ever put butter in my crockpot!)
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth, depending on whether or not you want this to be a vegetarian meal (I used vegetable, and I added a bit more because 3 cups didn't look like enough)
1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt
shredded cheese (optional ~ add after cooking, while serving)

The crockpot lady suggests using any crockpot over 4 quarts. I used a 6 quart crockpot and wish that I had doubled this recipe. It made enough to feed our whole family, but just barely. My husband loved this and was disappointed there were no leftovers to eat for lunch this week.

Put the butter in the bottom of your crockpot. Dump in the drained and rinsed beans. Chop up the onion and apple and add to pot. Add the spices and pour in the broth. Stir in the yogurt (be sure to stir this in well! there were little globs of yogurt floating in my broth because I didn't stir this in good enough. it didn't affect the flavor, but they looked strange). Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 (mine was done in 4). This is done when the onion has reached desired tenderness and the flavors have melded. Stir in the cheddar cheese before serving (I sprinkled a little cheese on the tops of the individual bowls). We ate some of my homemade bread with this chili, but any hearty bread or muffin would work great. The spices gave this just enough "kick" to taste really good, but not too spicy that the kids wouldn't eat it. And the cooked apple pieces were a nice texture. No-one knew they were apples until I told them!

Verdict: My husband, myself, and 3 of the children loved this. Two of the children tolerated it. I will definitely make this again!

Black Bean Quesadillas

We had these for dinner while watching the Super Bowl tonight. Our 8 year old son remarked halfway through the game, "we usually have chips and snack food during the Super Bowl. But we probably had no money and you were sick, so you couldn't go to the store for that stuff, right?" Right honey. :-)

These were not as popular with the whole family as the taco style lentils and rice. My husband, daughter G and son L loved them. Sons G and C liked them "a little" (their words). Little Man did not like them at all, and ate most of one quesadilla under duress.

This is Sabra's recipe from Sleeplesssabra.

Approximately 1 cup dry black beans - or 2 cans from the store

1/2 jar mild salsa (you can use a stronger salsa but they have quite a bit of flavor already)

Ground cumin (1 - 2 Tbsp)

Fresh cilantro (one bunch)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Tortillas

Sour Cream

Simmer the dried black beans for a few hours until they're just soft. If you use canned beans just drain and rinse them to remove the excess sodium.

Once your beans are cooked place them in a large bowl. Add a tablespoon of ground cumin and also a little salt to taste. Then, add in half of a jar of salsa. I prefer to leave my beans whole but you can also mash them a little if you want to change the consistency for your kids (that can also help keep the beans from rolling out of the tortillas). Then, chop and add the fresh cilantro and mix it all through.

For the last step, take a tortilla and place a layer of the bean mixture over one half of it (you are going to fold it over) and cover the beans with cheese. Fold the other side of the tortilla over it so it makes a half-circle and place it in a skillet over med-high heat. Toast it and flip it to toast the other side (just enough to heat it through and melt the cheese). Place it on a plate and top with sour cream.

The cumin and the cilantro really make this dish. It's just full of fresh flavor.

After we cooked a few in the skillet, we added them to a pan kept warm in the oven, so they would all be ready at the same time.


Inside you can clearly see the beans, cilantro, and salsa, with melted cheese on top.


A filling, delicious, and inexpensive vegetarian meal!

Taco Style Lentils and Rice

Oh my goodness, this was a HUGE hit!! I had my doubts while it was bubbling on the stove, but EVERYONE loved it. Every single member of the family! Yippee!!!! It was delicious and filling. The kids never knew (til they heard us talking about it later) that there was no meat inside the tortilla shells. Whenever I have served brown rice before everyone has complained. Well, again, no-one knew there was brown rice hidden inside of this dish! Cooking the lentils and rice together made it a complete protein, which means we got all the protein benefits of meat without the fat! You have got to try this! Trust me, it looks really really.....what's the word.....brown.....but it is absolutely delicious! It is also really inexpensive. Well under $5 total. I'm going to do a more exact cost breakdown the next time I'm at the store, just because I am really curious to see how cheaply I can feed my family such healthy and delicious food!

The beef bouillon eliminates this as a vegetarian dish (I think) but it obviously counts as a bean dish (I am trying to cook at least one vegetarian dinner and one bean dinner each week).

This recipe is from the Hillbilly Housewife website.

Note for larger families, I made this recipe according to the exact measurements and it was just enough for our family of 7. We were all satisfied but there were no leftovers. If you have hungry teenagers and/or more than 5 children, you will probably want to make one and a half batches or double it.

3/4 cup dry lentils (I used red lentils but you can use any type)
3/4 cup brown rice, uncooked
4 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes or 4 tsp beef soup base
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder (I skipped this because we didn't have any)
1/4 tsp garlic powder (I upped this to 1 tsp because of having no onion powder)

In a 2 quart saucepan bring the water to a boil. As the water is heating, add everything else. Bring the whole thing to a nice fat boil. Reduce heat to low. Place a lid on the pan and allow the mixture to simmer for 45 to 50 minutes or until water is mostly absorbed. It should have about the same consistency as cooked white sticky rice when it's done, though it will be slightly more goopy because of the cooked lentils.

This is what it looked like halfway through the cooking time:




You could serve this in a variety of ways. We chose to put a dollop inside soft tortilla shells, lay the shells in a casserole pan, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and a touch of mango salsa, and bake for a few minutes until the cheese was melted.


I served this alongside waldorf salad and it was a really delicious meal! (Please ignore the paper plates. :-) My wonderful hubby was in charge of setting the table and he always chooses paper.)