VeganMoFo Day 17 - Red Lentil Surprise

I love cooking with red lentils! They cook up quick, dissolve into the liquid to make a nice thickened sauce, and have a pretty nice taste, too.

This is another new-to-us recipe and is taken from the November 2007 McDougall newsletter, a month showcasing one-pot meals.


Red Lentil Surprise

Preparation Time:  10 minutes
Cooking Time:  40 minutes
Servings:  8

½ cup water
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
½ teaspoon fresh minced garlic (or bottled minced garlic)
1  32-ounce box vegetable broth
1  15-ounce can tomato sauce
2 cups red lentils OR French green lentils
1 carrot, grated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon basil
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
1  7-ounce package baked tofu, sliced

Place the water in a large saucepan.  Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic.  Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, until vegetables soften slightly.  Add remaining ingredients, except for the tofu.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add tofu, stir gently and heat for about 2-3 minutes.  Serve over whole grain toast or rolls.

Hints:  This may also be made without the tofu and it is still delicious.  We like this with some fresh chopped spinach added at the end of the cooking time, either with or without the tofu.  This is also delicious served over rice or potatoes.  It reheats well so it is great as a leftover!


The only change I had to make was to skip the tofu. I already had it once earlier this week and really shouldn't have too much of it.

I served it over Yukon Gold potatoes. When I find some that are good, I eat them at least twice again that week, because I never know when I'll have another good bag of them.

It made for a very tasty meal. It looked nice with the potatoes and spinach mixed in. It had a little sweet taste to it, probably from the hand-grated carrot. It was so good my husband didn't even think of adding sriracha sauce. 

This would probably go great with pasta as well as potatoes, toast or rice. In fact, that's how I'm going to serve up the leftovers over the weekend, in pasta.