SMF

With the prices of food in Canada reaching historic proportions...and meat going even higher... The frugal old curmudgeon in me wants to cook more lentils. Problem is most dishes just seem to end up tasting...bleh or overly similar to every other lentil dish I've cooked. I've made lentil curries which seem ok...but make me long for chicken. Convince me this large bag of lentils I bought won't go to waste and make make the children whine and complain about dad's cooking.

Have you tried lentil soup? Make it with some smoked ham hocks or a ham bone with some meat attached and be sure to add just a few (not a handful!!) of bay laurel leaves, don't forget salt and pepper. With some fresh bread and butter (or leaf lard since they couldn't afford butter) it was a mainstay of Prussian peasants. It's delicious. Add whatever else you have too. Carrots work nicely in it, as do onions (that's a hint!). You want to cook it long enough for the veggies to break down. Simmering is all that it takes. I've been known to add a few drops of liquid smoke if the ham is deficient, but I've also been known to add bacon or extra ham. I can feed a lot of folks on stone soup.

But there's more than just lentils. Other beans work just as well with the same basic recipe. During the holidays I could feed my entire work shift for 3 days with a shank ham and some beans. It didn't cost anyone more than $3 for all they could eat and leftovers for the next scheduled shift. Lots of coworkers told me that my split pea soup was the best they ever had and I added ALL of the leftovers to the soup after the first meal of ham. Soup is incredibly easy to make tasty and filling. One just needs to think "peasant". That's probably why it comes so naturally to me. I come from peasant stock and was taught by folks not long removed from yearly winter starvation. Mom could make a tasty meal out of a boot because she was taught by her mom, and mom taught me.

I can't guarantee that you and yours will like it. From what I see today, if folks don't get what they want they won't eat. But I do guarantee that what I'm suggesting is tasty and filling if one isn't spoiled beyond belief. If so, let them go hungry and eventually they'll find that they like it. I was taught that lesson at an early age, as one gets older it gets more difficult to learn, but hunger is a very powerful motivator. But when the belt buckle is rubbing on the backbone people have a tendency to wise up and straighten out.

I'm a big fan of Rancho Gordo beans. Unfortunately, they're not cheap for beans but they're excellent. They're never mealy or mushy.

I usually cook them with onions, carrots, celery and some chicken or hambone broth.

Their chick peas are good too. I use Clifford A. Wright's hummus recipe: http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/reci ... pe_id/735/

I think I posted it once before. It's good but can be a lot of work as he recommends peeling the chickpeas (all of them).

How about lentils cooked using an Indian (as in India Pale Ale ... or Desi) recipe?

-Dave

Lentils with curry and butter? - that's dahl, and very nice too. But I like dried green peas better for making a soup (or green and yellow, or even with lentils in there as well). You don't have to add a hambone or real meat, as if you like that taste some fake bacon bits will supply it. Pea soup is stupidly easy to make and might well be my favourite food. Let it go cold and set and you have pease pudding, just like the nursery rhyme. Standard fare, by the way, on Tuesdays in Nelson's navy, a pint of peas and a pound of biscuit per man. The meatless days were known as 'banyan' days after the Indian caste that wouldn't eat anything alive. I guess they didn't know about plants being alive?

Richard, if you have a Bulk Barn within reach you can have a ball. Rice, beans (includes lentils, peas, chickpeas) and maize/cornmeal will supply all amino acids and are cheap when bought dried. Having lived with a vegetarian since I was 18, and having gradually taken over all cooking duties (someone has to stop her from cooking!) I have slowly transitioned to using these three staples for the majority of our meals. A couple of times a week I let myself use fish, and perhaps once a week I use a pack of Yves fake meat made from soy protein. Buy all the fresh vegetables you can, paying attention to what is cheap in each season, and you have your vitamins and minerals too. I can supply many cheap vegetarian recipes. I learned cheap when I was a student and the grocery budget was £5 a week. Cheap as in go to the street market late on a Saturday and haggle them down as they have to throw the old stuff away before Monday. Lots of useful cheap recipes came from the south - corn dodgers, cornmeal pancakes, dumplings. All easy, nutritious and cheap.

Sorry for writing in telegraphese - rice is nearly done - chickpea curry tonight!

C.

Chris, I would be interested in your chickpea curry recipe. I sometimes buy it ready-made in a packet. I mentioned lentils because they are pretty easy (you don't have to pre-soak them!). I sometimes make a dahl from a recipe from "How to Cook Everything". 1 Cup of Lentils, 3 cups liquid (I usually use one can of coconut milk and chicken broth to make up the rest), and one tablespoon curry powder. You add a couple cubed potatoes 30 minutes in then add salt and pepper to taste. Goes will with some naan bread, but the texture can get a little boring after a while.

I'll write it out for you, at least, the latest version. I don't generally cook with recipes, but make things slightly different each time. You get the feel of adding an ingredient 'until it looks right' after a while.

BTW, if you go the dried beans route, you must buy a pressure cooker.

Chris

Why's that Chris? I ask out of genuine interest being somewhat of a lentil neophyte.

It speeds up the tenderizing of the beans. It can be done without one, it just takes longer. I don't use a pressure cooker for dry beans, but my mom did.

20-30 minutes in a pressure cooker will do as much as two hours of boiling dried beans in an open pan. Saves time and energy. Lentils and dried peas don't need it - they're small enough to cook through quickly whatever you do with them.

Chris

I wrote down how I made the chickpea curry in its own thread. Let me know if you want more bean/cornmeal based ideas.

C.

Sure, as many as you can find time to post.

Dittos