Recipe
Lentils, lentils, lentils! They’re one of those foods that, if you haven’t had them before, they sound pretty dull, boring, and gross.
For some reason, they always make me think of pea soup, which makes me shudder.
But they’re not dull and boring at all- and certainly not gross. The number of ways to prepare them is endless, but my all time favorite way to use them is for a vegetarian version of sloppy joes.
And let me tell you: this gets husband approval, which is the ultimate judge of a delicious vegan recipe.
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
1 cup dried lentils
1 1/2 cups + 1/2 cup water
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1/2 can tomato paste
1 canned chile in adobo sauce, diced
oregano, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste
1/2 cup torn spinach leaves
Rinse lentils. Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to boil, then add lentils. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until tender.
While lentils are cooking, sauté onion and garlic. When onions start to brown, stir in tomato paste. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of water little by little, until the mixture reaches the consistency you want. {You can also wait until the end to do this.} Add in chile in adobo, seasonings, and cooked lentils. Fold in spinach leaves. Let cook until the spinach starts to wilt, then remove from heat.
You can use any kind of bun to serve the sloppy joes, but I rarely have buns on hand when I get a craving for them. It’s pretty easy to whip up your own, although I notoriously start the process without enough time to let the buns rise. I’ve learned to love slightly doughy buns. 
Spelt Buns
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 packet yeast
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 T canola oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
Mix water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside while preparing other ingredients, then mix all together. Knead until dough comes together and is slightly elastic.
Set the dough mixture in a warm place, loosely covered. Let rise for up to an hour.
After the first rise, punch the dough down & form individual balls. Flatten the balls slightly to make “hamburger-like” buns. Brush tops with water, slice an “X” pattern on top of each bun, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Let prepared buns rise for about 30 minutes on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing in half to make buns.
Serve the vegan sloppy joes on the spelt buns, or simply on a bed of spinach leaves.
What’s your favorite way to eat lentils?
Breakfast
I found a use for overly-dense homemade buns…..
Peanut butter & jelly!!! These buns are perfect for soaking up the jelly but not getting soggy 🙂
Nothing like a classic pb&j for breakfast. That sandwich probably literally weighed half a pound. Lesson learned: let dough rise before baking.
Sure sticks to the roof of your mouth! Good thing I had a nice mug of coffee to wash it down.
Coconut milk doesn’t froth up when you shake it the same way regular milk does, so I’ve gone back to using my Senseo to get a semi-frothy coffee. (It’s one of those individual coffee makers. I love it.)
Gotta keep this short because I’m off to…
my 1st physical therapy appointment!!!! YAY!!!
I’ve never looked forward to an appointment so much- I hope it’s helpful! I’m supposed to get fitted for orthotics (which I’m still wary of) and then start the PT.
Have you had physical therapy before? Did you find it helpful? I had it for my hips when I was a teenager. I don’t remember much about it except for the electric-shock-like machine that I thought felt amazing (which is a little sadistic, no?).
Have a great day!!
Dinner
In case you were wondering, you can’t skip both the 1st and 2nd rise when making bread.
Well, you can. But don’t expect nice fluffy results. 🙂
Whole Wheat Buns
1 cup bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 packet yeast
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 T canola oil
Mix water, yeast, and sugar. Set aside while preparing other ingredients, then mix all together. Knead until dough comes together and is slightly elastic.
Technically you should then let it rise for about an hour. I perhaps let it go 15 minutes.
Then punch the dough down & form individual balls. I flattened mine to make them more “hamburger-bun” like. Brush tops with water, sprinkle with seed of choice, and slice “X” pattern on top.
Let rise for about 30 minutes. Or 5 minutes, like me.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Definitely 20 minutes if you’re not going to let the oven preheat. (Yeah, like me.)
Still makes good tasting buns- just dense and slightly doughy.
They were the perfect vehicle for my “Veggie Joes”.
I’ve seen vegan versions of sloppy Joe’s everywhere, so I figured I’d give my own version a shot.
Veggie Joes
2 (ish) cups lentils (prepare by boiling until soft ~20-30min)
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2-3 cloves garlic
1 can tomato sauce
1 T Worchestershire sauce
2+ T chile powder
oregano, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste
Sauté onion, pepper, and garlic. Add in lentils, sauce, and spices. Cook 10 minutes. Serve plain or on slightly dense, doughy buns. 😉
Now I know why they’re called “sloppy”!!
I served them with zucchini “fries” on the side- sliced zucchini, pepper, and crushed panko bread crumbs- baked at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Whew. That was a lot of cooking for one night!
Next time I’ll try to be more patient with the bread. 😉 Or plan ahead, I suppose….
Cross training, Dinner
A somewhat possibly embarrassing fact about me is that I’m obsessed with the Today Show. For real. I can only catch the first few minutes before work, so I record it. All 4 hours. Everyday. (Cough cough loser cough cough.) That’s not to say I actually watch it all. In fact, I delete many of them unwatched. But just the idea of being able to turn it on in the background while I’m making breakfast/dinner/homework/etc is comforting.
I go into work late Mondays so I was actually able to watch some this morning. The husband came down right as Paula Deen came on. I think we were mostly paying attention because she was being a hoot (seriously, more than one part of this segment will more than likely end up on The Soup) but her sons made a pretty good looking burger that the husband really really wanted.
So I made him Paula Deen-inspired burgers for dinner. (Is he spoiled or what?!)
I used the basic idea behind the burger but just used whatever I had on hand instead. And I hate burgers so I decided to make mine using a slice of eggplant.
After put together the husband’s burger, I decided I wanted something more interesting than a slice of eggplant.
I chopped up the eggplant and sauteed it with chopped zucchini and garlic. After it cooled down a little, I zapped it in the food processor to break it up a bit, then stirred in some bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic, cumin, pepper, and a bit of egg substitute. Then I made a patty just like it was a burger and sauteed it.
Inevitably there was a little leftover, so I made some “meatballs” for another night.
I didn’t really measure anything but here were the sauces I used:
Ketchup- ketchup, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce
Herbed Mayo- olive oil mayo, basil, thyme, rosemary, lime juice
I didn’t have any hamburger rolls, and a good burger needs a good bun. I searched around for some recipes that didn’t take two days to make, but didn’t love any of them. I finally decided to use this Taste of Home recipe and tweak it to my satisfaction. 🙂
Spelt Kaiser Rolls
(The amounts are strange because I did not want anymore leftovers!!!!)
1/2 package active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
1/2 T sugar
1/2 T Splenda
~1/16 c canola oil
1/2 t salt
1 c bread flour (or all purpose)
1/2 c spelt flour
1/16 c egg substitute
1/2 tsp cold water
Poppy or sesame seeds
Dissolve yeast & sugar in half the warm water. Let sit 5 min. Add in the rest of the water, Splenda, canola oil, salt, flours, and egg substitute. Mix together to form dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth & elastic-y. Place in greased bowl in warm area to rise ~1 hr (I heat the oven up for a minute then turn it off and stick the bowl in there).
After rising, remove from bowl and punch down dough. Form into rolls. Let rise again ~30 min. Top with egg substitute & water mixed together, then sprinkle with seeds. Use scissors to cut “cross” pattern in top of each roll (to get that “kaiser” look).
Bake 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.
Finally all baked:
Finally I put the burgers all together with the buns, mayo, ketchup, patties, some romaine lettuce, and a sautéed red onion.
Check out that gourmet burger.
Of course what goes with burgers but fries?
I almost fully baked a potato in the microwave, then chopped it into wedges. I dredged the wedges in some egg substitute, then coated them with panko bread crumbs, rosemary, basil, and pepper. Tossed them in the oven to get a bit crispy, and done!
Pilates
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here or not, but occasionally after a long run, my back is the sorest muscle in my body, not my legs. I’m thinking I either run like crap or my core is really weak and it’s getting tired of holding me upright 🙂
Either way, it’s been awhile since I’ve been to Pilates, so I figured it was time! This is the best class. I love how I can miss it for ages and come back, and it’s still exactly the same. Of course as soon as I thought that to myself tonight, the instructor went and threw something new at us. But it was a great class!
The rolls were awesome. I have to say I was a bit proud. I grabbed another one as soon as I walked in the door from Pilates. Yum! Gotta go watch some DVRed House now!
