Tuesday, May 31, 2011

♥crock-pot-lovin♥

As it is well documented in my blog – I am a new vegan and a lover of my crock-pot. If I can combine the two – I am a HAPPY HAPPY gal! And especially for lentils; (link takes you to a site for the amazing nutrional values of lentils) which I fell in love with at the Indian restaurant that Brian I had dinner at a few weeks back for our *anniversary*.
So imagine my glee when I found some vegetarian (okay they were technically from the *meatless* section) recipes via
Fix-It and Forget-It magazine – The Quick & Easy Slow-Cooker Meals Edition. (pg. 73)
Now I did have to adjust a few things to make this recipe truly vegetarian but I will post the recipe as is with my noted changes. (There are other variations of this same recipe if you were to Google it of course.)

Lentil Tacos
Makes 6 servings
Ideal slow cooker: 4-quart
(I doubled this recipe)

¾ cup chopped onion
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used fresh garlic – 4 cloves chopped)
1 tsp canola oil
8 ozs. Dried lentils, washed
1 Tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth (I used vegetable stock of course)
1 cup salsa
12 taco shells
Toppings for tacos

1. Sprinkle onion with garlic powder and saute in oil in a skillet until tender. Add lentils and spices and stir 1 minutes.
2. Place lentil mixture and stock in slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on low 3 hours for crunchy lentils or on low for 6 hours for soft lentils.
4. Add salsa.
5. Spoon aout ¼ cup mixture into each taco shell. Serve with desired toppings.

Now – I did not serve this dish in tacos. I served it over some basmati rice (just like I had it at the restaurant) and while it wasn’t exactly the same as the dish I fell in love with – it was really flavorful, YUMMY, and super filling!
I did add a bit of water at the end – so I might up the stock a bit. And I felt it needed a wee bit of salt and we also added red crushed pepper fakes (about a tsp or so) to give it some ZING as we l♥ve ZING!

I will definitely make it again and it made a GINORMOUS ammount of food that I will be enjoying throughout the week for lunch! (YaY for not having to cook or worry about lunch for a week!)

Oh and for the record – the green stuff on the side is frozen chopped spinach, red onion, canned mushrooms, red crushed pepper flakes (told ya we like ZING) sauteed in some canola oil. A family side dish standby and sooooo YUMM-o!

Happy crock-pottin’!
♥cyn♥

4 comments:

  1. Hi there! :)

    Greetings from GuitarTrump! Thank you SO much for stopping by and following - now returning the follow. :) I'm not a vegan, but I am a vegetarian. Haven't touched meat for 3 years...and I'm WAY better off for it, let me tell you!

    Hope your Memorial Day was swell. Cheers!

    Alex

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Alex -- I am new to vegetarianism/veganism and in the short time I have been one -- I feel amazing too! Thanks for the follow back!

    ♥cyn♥

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for stopping my blog. I'm returning some love and am your newest follower.

    I like lentils. I haven't prepared any in awhile, though. Your recipe sounds yummy. I love Mexican flavored foods so this would be an instant hit with me.

    Have an awesome week!
    ~Cathy Kennedy, Children's Author
    The Tale of Ole Green Eyes

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi! Thanks for stopping by and following! I'm here happily returning the follow!

    I'm not normally a huge lentil fan but this looks so good... I think I'd serve it over rice too. We love Jasmati rice and I think the flavors would be awesome together. (I'd probably add some meat to the recipe too, since we're not vegan or vegetarian.)

    Have a great rest of the week!
    ~Mrs B

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...