Meatless Monday: Fakes me Ryzi: Brown Lentils and Rice

Andrew and I have recently been trying to eat a little less meat. I realized yesterday that unintentionally I'd been making a meatless meal for the last 2 Mondays. So, I decided why stop now? Meatless Monday is born.

We had Fakes me Ryzi, or Brown Lentils and Rice, which is a Greek dish. In Greek: φακές με ρύζι, pronounced fah-KES meh REE-zee. It sounded interesting and I wanted to use my green, yes green and not brown, lentils in something.

It was really quite good. I love cheese so of course, I topped my bowl off with just a little bit of shredded Monteray cheese. Delish.

We made Naan to go with it (a little Greek-Indian fusion). We ended up scooping spoonfuls of the lentils up onto the flat bread and eating it that way. Well, everyone except my father-in-law. He ate his Naan with butter and strawberry jam and let us eat his portion of the lentils :)

Andrew loved it- he kept giving me high fives all during dinner. It was so rewarding!

P.S. I made half of the recipe and it fed three comfortably with leftovers. Also, I just added a whole can (about a cup) of tomato sauce + a teeny bit of water to give it a little more liquid to soak up.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of dried small brown lentils
• sea salt
• 8 cups of water
• 1 small vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 cup of long grain rice
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of unseasoned tomato sauce or 3 tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in 1 1/4 cups of water
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary (or 1 bay leaf, or 1 sprig of fresh oregano)
• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup of olive oil (optional)

Preparation:

Rinse lentils under running water. Place in a large pot with plenty of cold salted water and boil over high heat for 10 minutes. Drain and discard water.

Add lentils, 8 cups of cold water, and bouillon cube to a large pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes and add rice. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue to boil, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Add tomato sauce (or tomato paste and water), rosemary (or bay leaf or oregano), grated carrot, chopped onion and garlic, pepper (and optional olive oil). When boil resumes, reduce heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes, until liquid reduces and is no longer watery (it will cook down to a thin sauce texture).

Remove pot from heat, cover with a clean dish towel, and let sit for 15-20 minutes until all or most of the remaining liquid is absorbed.

Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Yield: serves 10 as a side or salad; serves 6-7 as a main dish.