Ideas for polenta or lentils?
I'm in the mood for polenta or lentils, but I'm feeling uncreative. Anyone have any good dinner ideas? Looking for something more interesting than polenta with a tomato sauce, lentils in a vinaigrette, or lentil soup. Something warm, cozy, and quick would be great!
TIA!
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8 Comments:
I don't know where you are that you're craving cold-weather comfort food but you're a girl after my own heart.
I must admit that whenever I think of lentils, I default to soup. It makes me think of my childhood and simpler times. It's pretty straightforward, chicken stock, lentils, diced carrots and onions, maybe a small dice of potato and some type of meat. As an adult I use sausage but as a kid when we had next to nothing, my mom would by Hebrew National Hot dogs and slice them in. True confessions - every so often I get HN's and use them just to reminisce. If you like your soup thicker, you can puree 1/4 of it and leave the rest chunky.
As for polenta - so many ways to go. You could do a nice mushroom ragout, a nice thick veal sauce or a prima vera type prep with lots of veg. Cheese is a must - but reserve your cheese for a topping instead of incorporating it directly into the polenta because...
..Make sure you save some polenta and pour it into a loaf pan. Chill it and the next morning you can griddle it, apply a small pat of butter and pour some real maple syrup on it. Alternatively, you could do a fruit prep, given there's still plenty of fruit around.
If you keep the original polenta neutral (neither sweet nor savory), your choices are wide open for leftovers.
Enjoy.
therealchiffonade at 6:33PM on 09/05/09
Polenta I like to grill or make fries is fun. Lentils I like as a side with fish or in a steak salad. Curried is also yummy and used as a stuffing in tomatos, zucs or eggplant.
pjracz10 at 6:38PM on 09/05/09
How about lentil patties? There are lots of recipes out there (this one for example: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lentil-Cakes-Patties/Detail.aspx), but you could just look at a few of them to get the basic idea and then customize your own to go with what you've already got in your pantry.
fujimama at 7:07PM on 09/05/09
Lentils and sausage are a grat combo. And the best lentil dish I ever had was at a restaurant in Paris, where they had them as a warm and incredibly hearty salad with pork and garlic. Absolutely divine. I could have made a meal of it.
lemons at 7:15PM on 09/05/09
fantastic suggestions everyone!
CJ McD at 8:03PM on 09/05/09
I love to make sloppy joes with lentils instead of meat.
deetroitMI at 8:07PM on 09/05/09
There's a lot you can do with polenta by adding other foods to it. A friend of mine used to make Mexican style polenta, baked in a casserole dish with diced tomatos, peppers, onions, corn, cheese, and chili powder in it. And I once made a dessert polenta, with applesauce, cinnamon, and sliced apples. Polenta topped with a seafood and mushroom cream sauce is also very good.
cycorider at 10:48AM on 09/07/09
lol, eating lentil and sweet potato curry for lunch as I type... This is a crockpot recipe, so no good for tonight probably, but in the future... it's yummy!
(all quantities are highly approximate as cookbook is at home, not that I really followed it anway).
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup lentils (i used green)
that all goes in the crockpot. then, in a small saucepan, heat
some olive oil
some chopped garlic, maybe 2 cloves or so
a similar amount of chopped ginger
a tblsp of curry powder
maybe a tsp of cumin
heat all that up for a minute or so over medium-high heat, then add 1 box of chicken broth (no, I do not my own chicken broth or stock make). then dump the whole thing over the potatoes/lentils/onions in the crockpot. Stir and put the lid on, cook on low for 4-5 hours or so. Then (quickly) drop in some green beans (I used maybe a lb?) and cook on high about 15 mins until they are done but still juicy.
I served this with a dollop of homemade paneer on top which added a nice creaminess and freshness.
wasliche at 11:55AM on 09/08/09