Creating Recipes! - Black Bean and Lentil "Burgers" and a Red Lentil Dip

Last night after work, I met up with a friend of mine who is really into cooking and baking. She isn’t vegan, but she eats pretty healthy and knows a lot about nutrition. Actually, she’s lactose intolerant so most of her recipes are already nondairy- I just needed to find a way around the eggs. She keeps a chicken scratch journal of recipes that is honestly a gold mine. It’s full of yummy dish ideas that she copied from the internet or just jotted down from memory. Some are even original creations that are just waiting to be tested. I was really interested in her lentil and black bean “burger” recipe. This was one that she came up with herself so I was thrilled to debut it with her!

 

Her recipe called for the following:

 

1 can black beans drained

1 cup red lentils

1/2 red onion

3 garlic cloves

1 jalapeno pepper

2 tsp chili pepper

1 tsp iodized salt

1 tbsp ground pepper

1/2 cup of oat flour

 

She started by boiling the lentils in water. (It’s a one cup of lentils to two cups of water ratio.) After the lentils were completely cooked and the water was all soaked up, she threw them into the food processer with the spices (chili pepper, salt, and ground pepper.) In the meantime, I mashed the black beans with a fork to keep some of the texture. After mashing, we combined the lentils and beans. Next to go into the food processer was the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Once pureed, we added it to the mixture. Lastly we added the oat flour for thickness and to keep it a patty rather than a sloppy joe. All that was left to do was form the mixture into individual patties and cook them! We threw the burgers on the stove top with a little bit of olive oil and gave it 4-5 minutes for both sides. Voila! Our homemade creations were ready to eat!

I garnished my burgers with some fresh kale (rather than a bun) and topped it with some of her homemade sweat tomato sauce. Don’t ask me what’s in it yet because I don’t know, but it was amazing so I’m on a mission to find out and recreate it!

I was inspired by my friend’s ability to come up with such an awesome dish! I’ve tweaked recipes before, but I’ve never started from scratch! On a whim, I decided to throw some ingredients of my own together for dinner tonight and made a lentil dip! Any one tired of hummus?

I used only a few ingredients:

1 cup of red lentils

1 tsp iodized salt (less if desired)

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cumin

Ground pepper to taste
Dusting of cayenne pepper

Just like in the first recipe, I boiled the lentils in water. After they were fully cooked, I threw them in the food processer with the remaining ingredients. I didn’t add any oil because I wanted to keep it clean and light. I served it warm with carrots and crackers but I think celery would go great with this dip as well. I think next time, I might try it as a spread for a sandwich and see how it goes with some avocado and sprouts ;). I didn’t get a chance to try it cold yet, but I really enjoyed it warm!  

Kale Chips

For a while now, I've been hearing people rave about how easy kale chips are to make and how delicious they are. It took me up until now to try making a batch mostly because my first and only experience was with store bought kale chips that were kind of disappointing. In fact, the bag is still sitting on a shelf in my pantry. Nonetheless, all the good gab made me want to give khips a second chance- only this time, I'd make it fresh. 

First things first- they came out amazing! Kale chips really are delish and I was way wrong with my first impression. HOWEVER, they are not as easy to make as I was let on. There are only three ingredients, but the prep is important in order to make a successful batch.

Using a bundle of curly leafed kale, extra virgin olive oil, and iodized salt, I made two cookie trays worth of kale chips. I first rinsed all of the kale and dried them as much as possible. (The oil wont stick if the leaves are even a little wet.) Next, I cut out the stems using kitchen scissors to get rid of the bitter part of the vegie. After giving them another pat with a dry towel, I coated every inch with a thin layer of EVOO. You don't want them too greasy, but you want the oil to cover the entire leaf. I did it by tossing the kale in a large mixing bowl with my hands. (A basting brush could also work in this situation but I didn't have one. Use what you've got!) Using cookie sheets toped with wax paper, I laid the kale out strategically and pre headed the oven to 300 degrees. Lastly, I toped them off with an even dusting of salt and baked for 10 to 15 minutes.

For a first timer, I think I did pretty well. Some of them came out crispier than others (which I still haven't figured out why...) but I didn't burn them! :) Also, I could have gone a little lighter on the salt. I'm not a huge salt person as it is and sea salt is powerful stuff. After cooling, I was bold enough to bring them with me to a friends house. Within the hour the two of us had killed both batches! They're so guilt free and tasty, not only vegans will be reaching for this snack!