Food on Fridays: Lenten Lentils

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Food on Fridays with Ann

We are attempting to eat more simply during Lent.

So I made my first pot of lentils and rice.

Lentils for Lent…Lenten lentils.

Perfect.

The Belgian Wonder and I already ate some with a little cheese sprinkled on top.

Tomorrow night I’m going to add a few ingredients to the lentil-rice combo so that they become Hillbilly Housewife’s Taco Style Lentils & Rice recipe.

Then I’m going to make Honey Baked Lentils from Doris Janzen Longacre’s More-with-Less Cookbook.

Honey Baked Lentils

Serves 8

350 degrees, 1 hr

Combine in a dutch oven of saucepan:

1 lb (2 1/3 C) lentils

2 t salt

Bring to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce heat. Simmer 30 minutes. Do not drain. Discard bay leaf.

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine separately and add to lentils:

1 t dry mustard

1/2 C chopped onions (I sauteed them with the bacon instead of mixing them here to shave a little off the cooking time)

1 C water

Cut in 1″ pieces:

4 slices bacon (I cooked this with the onions in a skillet to crisp it up a bit)

Stir most of the bacon into lentils and sprinkle remainder on top.

Pour over all:

1/3 C honey

Cover tightly. Bake 1 hour. Uncover last 10 minutes to brown bacon.

Options:

Bacon may be partially precooked if desired (I desired). Substitute 1/2 lb browned ground beef or sausage (never did this, so I can’t vouch for other meats), or omit meat completely (I like the bacon flavor, but I’ve made it without).

Delicious served with hot baked rice. Pass soy sauce. (This is true.)

I’m also planning to make Lentil Soup from LaVonne Neff’s The Lenten Experiment. She published the blog to share her experience in January of 2009, when she began an experiment “to see if my husband and I could eat adequate amounts of tasty and nutritious food on a food-stamp budget. I also wanted to see what I might learn from the attempt.”

Finally, I’m very much looking forward to trying a recipe submitted to Cooks.com by a Benedictine monk, called “Monastery Lentils for Lent.” It sounds so simple and so good, starting with vegetable broth and thickened with some of the cooked lentils that are removed from the pot, whirred in a food processor, and added back in for a creamy texture.

Clever monks.

Are you eating any differently for Lent?

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