Tonight after dinner I turned to my son and said, “Would you put away the leftovers?”
He raised his eyebrow and said, “Do you mean put them in the fridge, or put away the leftovers?”
Surely enough he’s on his fourth serving now and the food is gone. Teenagers!
They like this meal. And it’s cheap. It’s a great option for Meatless Monday, too. A bit more time consuming than our typical meals, but really not so bad, and it makes a lot — we shared half with the new neighbors, but usually we’d have enough for at least 2-3 meals, even with ravenous teens.
My secret recipe is that there is no recipe. I taste things while I cook. But they asked how to make it, so I figured I’d write it down….
~ 1.5 cups of dry red beans
~ a bay leaf
~ 1.5 cups of dry lentils
~ 1 small onion
~ 2-3 cloves of garlic
~ a handful of peeled “baby carrots”
~ 1 can of diced tomatoes
~ 1 green chile pepper, seeded (or about 1/2 of a small can)
~ 2T sunflower oil
~ 1T cumin
~ A dash of lime juice, a fair bit of salt, and some Tapatio
Sort and rinse the red beans, then put them in the pressure cooker with the bay leaf. Cover this with twice as much water, if that makes sense (so if they’re an inch in the pan, cover them then add an inch more water…). Bring to pressure, then turn it down and “let it rock” for 25 minutes. Chop your veggies.
Take off pressure and cool in the sink until it’s depressurized and you can take off the lid (I’m adding that part for the kids). You should have a fair bit of liquid left, if not, you’ll want to add a little.
Add lentils, onion, garlic, and carrots. Bring to pressure for ~10 minutes (pro tip: you can start some rice now too). Drain any leftover water then put it back on the stove once more, this time without the pressure lid.
Blend the tomatoes, chile pepper, and sunflower oil. Stir this into the beans and lentils with the cumin, salt (start with maybe half a teaspoon and add more as needed), lime, and tapatio. Heat through.
Serve over rice with avocado and more hot sauce. This takes roughly 45 minutes and makes ~12 servings. It works great as leftovers, too. 🙂
*Image via wuzefe on Pixabay  . Next time we make it I’ll take a picture.
Legend of Velda 