In the last week, I have gotten two lentil recipes either emailed to me or in my blog feed. Since I don’t really know much about the lentil, I did a little research to find out more about what I only know as a soup staple.
Lentils, often found in vegetarian dishes, get a quarter of their calories come from protein. According to Alton Brown, that’s as much as a steak. Except a 4 oz. tenderloin nets you about 250 calories and 12 grams of fat compared to the 115 calories and negligible fat from the same amount of lentils. If mixed with rice, you get a complete protein (all nine essential amino acids needed by animals…thank you college health class!). Lentils are also excellent sources for iron, fiber, folate, magnesium, and thiamine.
So they’re good for you…what can you do with them? Here are the two recipes that floated my way recently as well as a few others that are not soups. Because seriously, three posts in on the blog and only soups?!!?
Lentil & Vegetable Stew from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Lentil & Root Vegetable Soup from Cannelle et Vanille
Lentil Quinoa Salad from Melissa d’Arabian
