The (Truly) Starving Artists’ Vegan Cookbook – Pt. 3

Lentils are one of the simplest and healthiest staples in a vegan’s diet, but sadly they are often eschewed for the pricier tofu and/or “fake-meat” on the market. Fellow Veg-Heads, it is time to relearn how to love the lentil.

Most types of lentils (this includes peas and beans of all varieties) can be purchased dried or in the can. Do yourself a favour and buy dry in bulk. It will mean you’ll have to plan a bit ahead and soak them overnight in anticipation of a meal, but it’ll be well-worth it both wallet-wise and taste-wise.

For the recipe below, soak the lentils overnight, rinse well, then proceed with recipe as described. For the “varied grain”, I encourage you to alter your selection based on personal taste and budget. I also encourage you to change, omit or add the vegetable content of this recipe. It’s fairly flexible but always tasty.

Best of all, you can double or triple this recipe and freeze it for later.

Vegetable & Lentils with Varied Grain

½ cup dried lentils, red or brown
1 cup grain, your choice (couscous, quinoa, bulgur wheat, brown/white/wild rice)
1 cup to 2-and-a-half cups vegetable broth OR 1 to 2-and-a-half cups water, half an onion (diced), clove of garlic (minced, or garlic powder), salt and pepper
1 large carrot, diced
½ potato (any kind), diced
Handful baby bok choy, diced

Boil the vegetable broth OR boil the water with the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. When liquid is bubbling briskly, add the diced vegetables and reduce heat to simmer. Cover.

When a fork pokes easily through carrot pieces, stir in lentils of choice and then add the grain and cook as per regularly prescribed (Couscous:Water is 1:1 ; Quinoa:Water is 1:2 ; Rice:Water is generally 2:3, or 1-and-a-half cups water per 1 cup rice ; Bulgur:Water is 2:5 or 2-and-a-half cups water per 1 cup bulgur wheat, etc.).

In case you are a lousy cook (and, really, aren’t we all at times), I recommend you start this recipe using couscous as it is tasty, healthy, and hard to fuck up. If the couscous still seems uncooked while the liquid has dwindled to nothingness, you can often add another few tablespoons of water and it will still turn out alright. Alternatively, too much liquid can still be cooked away (ie. Steam) while the couscous remains delicious and unharmed.

HINTS: Buy lentils and grain in bulk at health food stores. Sprouted onions (it happens occasionally) can still be used in a recipe like this and flavour the cooking broth nicely.