Caramelized French Green Lentils

Fellow bloggers, please see my public service message at the end of this post*

Ditch the potatoes this month and try lentils! Side dish or main course...your choice! As part of the 'legume' family including beans, peas, chickpeas, etc., lentils are an excellent source of protein, fiber, carbohydrates and minerals.  They also contain no fat.

French green lentils are known for their firmer texture, and don't boil into a mushy consistency like brown lentils with which we are more familiar. Mostly grown in a volcanic ash region of France (around Le Puy), they are also now grown in certain areas of the United States and Canada in similar conditions.  French lentils are known for their greenish-gray mottled color and perfect "lens" shape.  They also have a more hearty, peppery and mineral-like flavor.  The word 'lentil' is French for 'small lens'.

They are more expensive than brown lentils but for a recipe like this, it's well worth it spending a little extra. I found mine at Whole Foods, but Bob's Red Mill brand and Food to Live, are two good brands sold on Amazon.

The inspiration for this recipe came from one of my newest cookbooks, Taste and Technique by Naomi Pomeroy.  The caramelization of the lentils is what inspired me to try this because I love caramelized everything!

I garnished mine with some peppery, locally-grown pea sprouts and served them with grilled salmon.  They would be delicious with most grilled and slow-roasted meats or poultry.  The left-overs (if any) are wonderful the next day as a salad for lunch.  Just drizzle with a little balsamic and extra-virgin olive oil.  I hope you give French green lentils a try!

These would also make a great side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas! 

Caramelized French Green Lentils

Printable Recipe

Makes a great side dish but hearty enough to serve alone. Leave out the anchovy paste for a vegetarian entree.  

Serves 4 to 6

Lentil ingredients:

¾ cup French green lentils

3 cups water or chicken stock

1 cup red wine (I used Columbia Crest Grand Reserve Cabernet which is a $10 bottle and good enough to drink with dinner afterward)

1 bay leaf (optional)

2-1/2 teaspoons salt

Vegetable Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

½ cup finely diced yellow onion

½ cup finely diced celery

½ cup finely diced peeled carrot

½ cup finely diced golden beet

½ teaspoon each Salt & Pepper

Sauce Ingredients:

½ cup red wine

1 small thyme sprig or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 small clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon aged sherry or red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (buy the tube in the canned fish aisle)

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Spread the lentils out on a baking sheet and remove any debris that doesn’t look like a lentil.  Rise lentils and put in a medium saucepan along with the water and wine, bay leaf and salt.  Bring to a low, simmering boil and cook, uncovered, until just tender.  This will take about 25-30 minutes. Drain any excess liquid and set aside, picking out the bay leaf, if using.

To cook the vegetables, heat the oil in a 12 inch sauté pan over medium high heat.  Add the vegetables, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just tender.  Taste test occasionally.  Set aside.

To make the sauce, first put the sherry, tomato paste, brown sugar, garlic, anchovy paste and Dijon mustard in a small jar with tight-fitting lid. 

Put the wine, thyme and garlic in a small sauce pan and bring to a low, simmering boil.  Continue to boil until the liquid has reduced to about 1 tablespoon, watching carefully at the end so you don’t boil away too much.  Using a fine-mesh strainer, strain the liquid into the jar with the other ingredients.  Close and shake together until combined. 

To complete the dish, place your largest sauté pan over medium to medium high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil.  Add the lentils and sauce and sauté, stirring frequently, until the lentils begin to brown around the edges and begin to caramelize slightly.  Add the vegetables and continue to stir and cook for another few minutes until the vegetables are hot.  Taste and add more salt and pepper, if necessary.  (This can be done in two batches, if your sauté pan is not large enough to hold everything).  Just before serving, drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil.  

Hearty Red Lentil Soup for the Winter and Travel Weary

Have you ever been slapped in the face by airline travel problems? Returning from our trip last weekend, we experienced one of those unexpected 'back-hands' from our airline. I guess whenever you have to make a connecting flight you make yourself more vulnerable to things going wrong. Lesson learned the hard way! A canceled flight, an unexpected overnight in another city and less than five hours of sleep before catching a 6:30 AM flight out the next day is exactly what happened to us.

So what do you make for dinner when you're exhausted? I could have opted for fast food and called it a day but, after browsing the food section in our Sunday paper, I found a simple soup recipe that called for ingredients I actually had on hand, which were lentils (I only had red lentils on hand), a container of store-bought stock, canned tomatoes and a few onions and carrots in the crisper.

Even though I had red lentils in my pantry which were purchased for another recipe, I had never cooked with them before. What a delightful surprise they turned out to be. I understand the main difference between red and brown lentils is the length of time of cook them - green lentils taking the longest amount of cooking time and holding their shape better. However, I found the flavor of the red lentils a little 'brighter', unless it was my tired brain playing tricks on me. I also appreciated the cheerful color of the soup. Not to demean brown lentil soup, I love it, but it just isn't pretty.

I also had some good cheddar cheese in the frig and French bread in the freezer so I made some croutons to add a little more heartiness to the soup. The soup was delicious and certainly helped soothe our weary souls!

Red Lentil Soup
Adapted from Good Food Book by Jane Brody and seen in an article in the Feb. 27, 2011 issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried marjoram, crumbled
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crumbled
1 can (28 ounces) chopped tomatoes with juice
7 cups beef stock (I used beef but chicken stock or vegetable stock would also work well)
1-1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed and picked over
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
6 ounces dry white wine (I used half that amount)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Croutons (recipe follows)

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and saute onions, carrots, marjoram and thyme, stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes.

Add tomatoes, broth and lentils. Bring soup to a boil and then reduce heat, cover pan and simmer about 1 hour or until lentils are tender.

Add salt, pepper, wine and parsley and simmer soup another 10-15 minutes. Serve hot with toasted croutons and grated cheese.

Croutons:

3-4 slices of French bread, preferably frozen
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Freshly Ground Pepper

Preheat oven to 350F

Place some olive oil in the palms of your hands and rub both sides of the bread lightly with the oil. Sprinkle freshly ground pepper on all sides of the bread. Remove crust and slice into cubes. Place the cubes on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 5-9 minutes or until lightly golden. They taste best if not over-baked.

Hearty Lentil Soup with Bacon and Asiago Cheese

Lentil soup will never win any beauty contests but what it lacks in the 'food runway' department it makes up for the 'great taste' category. 

I recently found Bistro Cooking at Home by Gordon Hamersley.  I'm very excited about this cookbook and already have several recipes earmarked. Hamersley and his wife, Fiona, run a delightful-looking restaurant in Boston that features rustic, bistro dishes. The first recipe from the book that I wanted to try was his wife's lentil soup, which sounded delicious for a cool late-summer evening recently.

I've made lentil soup many times before but this recipe was different in that it used bacon and kale along with a healthy addition of Herbes de Provence. One of the things that also appealed to me was the melted Asiago cheese croutons for served with the soup .

If the leaves are starting to turn red and gold outside of your kitchen window and the temperatures are cooling, I recommend you try this hearty soup. Just don't expect it to blind you with with it's beauty! Your taste buds will thank you.

Hearty Lentil Soup with Asiago Cheese Croutons
Adapted from Fiona's Hearty Lentil Soup with Bacon and Asiago Cheese from Bistro Cooking at Home by Gordon Hamersley

Printable Recipe

8 slices of thick-cut bacon, diced
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
2 cups kale, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces - tough stems removed
2 cups lentils, rinsed and inspected
2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
4 cups chicken stock (homemade, if possible)
4-6 cups cold water
1 tablespoon Kosher salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
French baquette bread, cut into slices for the number of people you are serving
Asiago cheese, grated (about 1 tablespoon per crouton)

In a large soup pot over medium heat, add the diced bacon, and cook until the fat is rendered, stirring occasionally, about 6-7 minutes. Add the diced onion, carrots, garlic and kale and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender, about 7 minutes. Add the lentils, Herbes de Provence, cold water and chicken stock. Raise the heat and bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 50 minutes. Add a little more water, if necessary. Add salt to taste and the red pepper flakes.

When you are ready to serve, heat the broiler and toast the baquette slices on each side. Top with the grated Asiago cheese and broil briefly until the cheese just melts. Place one crouton on top of each bowl of soup and serve with the rest of the baquette for dipping into the soup.

My Notes: I found the lentils required more than the stated 35-50 minutes of cooking time to become tender. I think a lid on the soup pot may have helped even though the recipe did not mention one. I used a more bacon than the original recipe called for and more carrots - just because I like them both!