Beans / Lentils

Here's my mung bean curry recipe:

1 cup mung beans
olive / vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp chili powder (more if you like it hotter)
1 tsp panchpoori mix (optional--I started using it just to use up the package)
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, chopped

Soak mung beans overnight.  To cook bring to a boil, then cook for about 30 minutes until beans are tender but not turning to mush.

Fry dried spices in oil (use enough oil to make a paste out of it).

Cook chopped onions, garlic, and ginger, and salt in a little oil for about 20 minutes (until onions are tender).

Add carrots, tomatoes, sugar and fried spices and simmer til carrots are tender and tomatoes are cooked down (this seems to take at least a half hour).

Add mung beans and stir in chopped coriander.

Wow, Andee... that sounds delicious! 

That does sound good! Saving to the hard drive to try my hand at it sometime!

That does sound good! Saving to the hard drive to try my hand at it sometime!

Wow, Andee... that sounds delicious! 

Thanks!  It's one of my stand-bys!

OK guys, I'm looking into all of this stuff. I've got a bag of red lentils, but I seem to be having trouble finding the other kinds. Even Tesco online doesn't seem to have brown continental lentils. All of the puy lentils on there seemed to be precooked?

What are lentils vertes? http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=256535758

I suppose the easiest thing to do with the red lentils is to make a soup. Any other ideas? I do see mung beans on the Tesco site, so that curry is definitely on my list. For the macos, do you just use what you normally would use for taco seasoning?

Jewlz, if you're interested in Lentil Soup my (Texan) friend has a killer secret recipe for yellow lentil soup that I bet I could get out of him for a few special Sarah Patron Margaritas. If you're interested, I'll break out the limes... 

Jewlz, if you're interested in Lentil Soup my (Texan) friend has a killer secret recipe for yellow lentil soup that I bet I could get out of him for a few special Sarah Patron Margaritas. If you're interested, I'll break out the limes... 

Sure, I could give it a go! 

Jewlz, I use red lentils when I make this creamy lentils & rice dish:
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/creamy-lentil-and-rice-dish-khicheri-recipe/index.html

Also, I've made a cannellini bean salad using tuna which my husband loves (much to my surprise, too).  You take one can of tuna, half a can of cannellini beans (rinsed), one large shallot or a small red onion (chopped), parsley (chopped), lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.  Literally, just mix it all together.  You can serve it on bread or with a proper salad or by itself.

You asked for a good black bean burger recipe earlier.  I have a great one.  It's from Veganomicon and they hold together REALLY well.  It's hard to get homemade veggie burgers that don't fall apart but these are great and really tasty.  I'm not sure how easy it is to find vital wheat gluten in the UK (also called gluten flour) but otherwise the ingredients are pretty basic. 

2 cups or 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup plain whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon tomato paste or ketchup
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (optional)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 small onion
About 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus olive oil spray
Whole wheat buns

Mash the beans with a fork in a mixing bowl. You don't want to puree them; just get them mashed so that no whole beans are left, but leave some half-beans.

Add the wheat gluten, bread crumbs, chile powder, cumin, water and tomato paste (and cilantro) but don't mix yet. Use a microplane grater to grate the garlic in. Use the large holes on a box grater to grate the onion.

Mix everything together with a fork and then proceed to mix with your hands until the mixture is firm and uniformly mixed (about a minute).

Preheat a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat.

Divide the burger mixture into six equal pieces. Roll each piece into a firm ball. Use your palm to press the ball down on a clean surface to form a patty that is about 1-1/2 inch thick. Press so that the patty is flat on both sides. Make six patties.

Pour a thin layer of olive oil into the pan. Cook the patties three at a time for 5 minutes on each side, gently but firmly pressing down on them with a spatula. Spray with olive oil before turning them over, for uniform browning. Once cooked, the patties should be very firm when you press down on them.


My notes: I just throw the garlic and onions in the food processor to chip.  Much easier.  Also, I pulse the beans a few times but make sure not to puree them too much!  If you don't have whole wheat breadcrumbs handy ( or any breadcrumbs at all), I toast a piece of bread and then toss that in the food processor as well.  Also, I tend to bake them all at once instead of frying and then re-heat on the stove as I eat them.  I bake them on 350 for maybe 20-30 minutes?  Until they're cooked through. 

mmm, I'm going to have to try some of these.

My DH is a solid meat and potatoes guy, and whenever I would talk about beans and/or lentils being good, he'd humph and haw and not want them.  I finally stopped trying to talk him over and started just sneaking them into some of our dishes I knew he loved.  For instance I would make a good beef stew then I'd throw in black beans or lentils.  After doing it a handful of times, he realized that beans are good when prepared well.

I had to laugh a few months ago when he decided to make a stew for the family and got really upset because we were out of black beans.  He was suddenly of the opinion that we had to have beans to make stew, and it wouldn't be the same without them--talk about a turnaround!

Ross is a hard-core carnivore, and I can get him to eat my red lentil veggie meals.  If you cook them soft, puree them, and add some spices, oat flour (run raw oats through food processor) and cooked onions/veggies/beans, you get the makings of a fabulous veggie burger.

Or, use the lentils in place of beef in sloppy joes or spag bol.  Both yummy.  Or, as has been said, in a daal curry.