Canal House Lentils

Easy it is, but tasty it is not! Rather bland verging on unpleasant. I will be using the batch I made as a base for a soup, but it will take a lot of doctoring.

I really like this recipe - so simple. I use a real tomato and al fez lemon tagine paste. We serve over coucous. In France we used canned lentils and reduced the water. In US, we used dried French lentils and soak in water for several hours. Those are our only variations from the recipe.

I amended this recipe to make a smaller portion. I subbed coconut oil, and used one clove of garlic, one leek, 1/2 tablespoon of tomato paste, and 1/4 cup of french green lentils. I cooked it for roughly 45 minutes with 1 1/2 cups of water, and the lentils were thoroughly cooked. I put in a dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos, plus s&p. Easy, delicious, and nourishing.

I made this and added ground beef that I cooked in the tomatoe paste and also added carrots. Was delicious! Although I had to cook lentils twice as long . So watch the lentils, Don't assume they are done.

Made as written except subbed an onion for leeks (will make with leeks next time. I have nothing against them. I love them!) and also finished the trinity with diced carrots and celery. Also increased the garlic. And used brown lentils simmered 30 min. Ok, so I didn't make it as written. But it was great! And for those thinking the soy sauce was just a novel way to add salt--NO! It's to add that wonderful umami sense which gives another layer of flavor to the whole thing. So don't skip it! Just watch any other salt additions through broth, bullion, etc. It was an easy to put together, easily adaptable recipe that will now be a staple! Side or main. Warm or room temp. Didn't feel the need to turn it into soup as there are plenty of lentil soup recipes but I can see why others did it and still loved the recipe.