Cooking with lentils

spoonbadger

Hi all, i'm starting to get into cooking with lentils and was wondering if any of you could offer any suggestions. My first attempt was rather meh, it started off as kind of tomato based red lentil soup and ended up as (rather dodgy) lentil chilli : / . Going to try lentil shepherds pie tonight.

Any other recipe suggestions out there? Ideally stuff that wont require too many odd ingredients.

Also, where can i buy green/brown lentils in Dublin?

flikflak

I always get mine from the Asian stores round town. They are pretty good value.

bythewoods

You can pick lentils up all over the place, in Tesco/Lidl/Aldi and so on. There's a weird little Asian-y random shop in Christchurch which sells them quite cheaply, have picked them up there a few times.

I love lentils. My favourite thing to do with them is lentil and carrot soup. So easy.

Just saute an onion and some garlic, add a few chopped up carrots, a tin of tomatoes, about a cupful of lentils (soaked for about half an hour at least...) about a pint of stock and then whatever herbs and seasoning you'd like. Sounds so simple, and it is. You can keep adding more water to it as you're going, should be fairly liquid-y. It's done whenever the lentils and carrots are soft, and lasts for ages in the fridge. It's my go-to dinner! I've often chucked in other types of veg too, like courgettes and green-beans, you can pretty much put anything in. So nom.

sweet-rasmus

Oh yes, I had lentil shepards pie for lunch today. It is very yum indeed! I highly recommend it. I don't really know any recipes to link to.

And for buying them try to the asian supermarket on Drury St in Dublin City Centre. Or a similar asian store. Much cheaper!

bythewoods

sweet-rasmus wrote: »

Oh yes, I had lentil shepards pie for lunch today. It is very yum indeed! I highly recommend it. I don't really know any recipes to link to.

This one's lovely! You can use regular potato instead of sweet potato, and even though the wine is lovely in it, it can be left out too.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4382/veggie-shepherds-pie-with-sweet-potato-mash

paky

you can buy pre cooked lentils in a can in tesco. its way handier than cooking the normal ones (having to scrape all that foam and stuff)

spoonbadger

Shepherds pie turned out rather meh today, needed more seasoning but i'll know for future. Ended up buying lentils in that asian market near parnell street. Thanks for the suggestions y'all!

sweet-rasmus

I think some vegetable boullion (the marigold stuff) is great mixed in with the lentils for shepards pie! Some fried onions and celery first, then carrot, brown lentils and tin of tomatos come to mind too Then the potato topping.

schemingbohemia

Bit of fish-free worcestershire sauce or chef sauce can add a bit of zing too.