I absolutely love quinoa and lentils. I cook with them a lot, and lately I’ve been doing this a lot without a recipe. In an effort to not forget what works, I need to record it. Here’s what I made tonight– you make up your own version and thank me later. (No picture, cause it doesn’t look all that great).
This is heavily adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe, another food-related standby.
One large onion, chopped
One red pepper (sweet), chopped
One purple potato (other colors would work), chopped
garlic to taste, minced
dried spices to taste, but definitely thyme and cinnamon, plus pepper and salt
handful of golden raisins
3/4 cup white quinoa (I think white rather than red would work better in this recipe)
1/2 cup red lentils (really should be red.)
1 1/2 cup water
Saute the onion in a covered skillet until very translucent and maybe just beginning to get golden. Then add the pepper and potato. Stir this all around and then add the spices and salt. Cook more, until soft and fragrant. You will want to deglaze the pan from time to time. Then add the raisins, stir again. Now add the quinoa and lentils (remember to rinse off, as quinoa is poisonous before washing!!!), stir to mix with the vegetables. Add the water, bring to a simmer, and let cook for 15 minutes. I served with some yogurt and parsley, but use cilantro if you have it.
2 replies on “Quinoa and Lentils”
Last week, I had to make red beans and rice with green bell peppers. Talk about not pretty. I wonder if the red quinoa would make this recipe significantly prettier without botching the flavor. Have I gone bananas?
It might, but to me it would be more of a texture problem than a taste problem. Though since red quinoa has a nuttier flavor it might actually be a good flavor–but in that case I would up the raisins.
My other thought is that a few chopped up cherry tomatoes on top might help the prettiness. But it turned out all the cherry tomatoes we had were gone.