Lentil Sloppy Joes

Investigating some camping-friendly vegan meals, found this one to try out:

Recipe
1 small onion, diced
1 anaheim pepper, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c red lentils
1 1/2 c broth or water
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vegan worcestershire
1 tsp chili powder
buns

Heat a pot over medium and add the onion & pepper. Saute a few minutes, then add the tomato paste, then garlic for a minute or so. Add the lentils and water, boil, and cook 10-15 minutes until tender. Add the other ingredients and simmer until it thickens, 3-5 minutes. Serve on buns!

Lentil Mushroom Shepherd's Pie

Found another veganized favorite to try out!

Recipe
Filling
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c carrot, diced
8 oz mushrooms, diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 1/2 c dried lentils, soaked and drained
2 c veggie broth or water
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 c frozen peas

Potatoes
5 c potatoes, chopped (~5 potatoes)
1/2 c cashews
3/4 c water
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried parsley

• Heat some olive oil in a large pot over medium-low. Add the onion, garlic, carrot & mushroom, and season with salt, pepper, and the spices. Cook 8-10 minutes until soft.
• Add the lentils, broth, tomato paste, and other liquids, and simmer until lentils are cooked, ~20 minutes. Add the peas at the end.
• Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until tender, ~20 minutes.
• Also meanwhile, make your cashew cream by blending them with water.
• Drain and mash the potatoes, then mix in the other ingredients.
• Put the filling in an 8x12 baking dish, and top with mashed potatoes. Broil on high for 5-7 minutes.

Spanish-Style Lentils & Chorizo

Bacon AND chorizo?  And with enough veggies to plausibly be healthy?  Another worthwhile one crowdsourced from here...

Recipe

4 slices bacon, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4 oz chorizo
1 c rice
1 c lentils
4 c water
1 c tomato sauce
cumin, paprika
oil, salt & pepper

Start with your bacon in some oil and crisp it up; you can take it out or not and add the onion, carrot, garlic, and spices, then green pepper, then the chorizo.  Once the meat is cooked through, add the rice, lentils, and water and simmer until soft.  Stir in the tomato sauce and let the flavors meld.

Notes

Don't know how necessary the bacon really was, but can't complain.  I used the end of my packages of lentils and rice - more like 3/4 c - and a whole pack of chorizo - 4x the recommended amount?!  So mine was much meatier than the original version.  Very tasty, and awesome left over!

Lentil Bolognese

A cheap, healthy, and plentiful Meatless Monday (plus a few extra days) recipe courtesy of reddit...

Recipe

1 onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
7 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
2 cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes
2 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 c red lentils
2 c water
olive oil, salt & pepper

Chop everything.  Start some oil in a large skillet and cook the vegetables until tender.  Next stir in the garlic, then the tomato paste, then the rest of the tomatoes and the herbs, baking soda, and some salt and pepper.  Then add the lentils and water, and simmer 20-30 minutes.  Serve over pasta.

Notes

I've struggled with this in a few recent recipes, and realized that you need plenty of liquid to cook through things like lentils (or sweet potatoes).  I let everything simmer longer than a half hour, and the lentils were still a bit underdone.

Overall, though, a tasty recipe to make in a big batch and have for leftovers (good with some sausage for non-veggie days)!

Smoky Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup

I'm still in the process of deciding whether I like butternut squash or I *really* like butternut squash.  Good results so far with roasting it, but to try something new, how about a soup?  After some iffy metric conversions, here's what I ended up doing:

Recipe

1 medium-to-small-ish butternut squash, peeled (obviously) and diced :p
1 onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
2 c vegetable stock
1 can coconut milk
(coconut) oil, salt & pepper

Heat a couple tbsps of oil over medium in a large saucepan, then add the squash, onion, and garlic.  Cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.  Then add the paprika, stir, and cook another minute.  Add the broth and simmer 15 minutes or until the squash is soft.  Blend or mash it up, then stir in the coconut milk.  Heat and serve, they recommend over lentils.

Notes

Lots of thoughts...

Is butternut squash season over?  This was the iffiest of the squashes I've bought and prepped in the last month or two...

Peeling and cubing butternut squash for roasting is work enough; dicing is a pretty big hassle.

I mashed instead of blending (with my non-existent blender); the chunky texture (particularly the onions, which didn't mash at all really) is not a problem!

I figured rice would be fine, but invested in a bag of lentils anyway.  Definitely a good call.  Wouldn't consider myself much of a lentil fan, but they add a nice earthy, peppery, savory flavor to the soup.

The soup is delicious, but like most vegetarian dishes, it seemed like something was missing.  Some spicy sausage might be a key addition...