Monday, April 11, 2011

Meganr's Lentils with Red Bell Pepper and Feta

Decided to join our good friends at Olways for a delicious Meatless Monday! Give this satisfying and quick to prepare recipe a try - it's perfect after a hard day at work - and each of the four delicious servings has only 281 calories!

The nutrition facts can be found at Calorie Count!

Lentils with Red Bell Pepper and Feta

Ingredients:
1 C raw lentils, brown or green – (do not use red or black lentils)
1 red bell pepper, diced
½ C onion, red, minced
4 ounces feta cheese, roughly chopped into chunks
4 T balsamic vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1 T mustard
3 cloves garlic

Directions:

Cook the lentils in boiling water until just tender, about 15-20 minutes. Test to make sure they do not get mushy.

Finely dice the red bell pepper and onion and place in a medium to large bowl.

Finely mince the garlic or put through a press. Prepare a vinaigrette with the lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and garlic and mix well.

When the lentils are tender, drain them well. Add them to the prepared veggies with half the vinaigrette and mix. Allow the lentils to cool for about five minutes. Add the rest of the vinaigrette and feta cheese.

If you can do the extra calories, add a splash of extra virgin olive oil to the vinaigrette. Olive oil has 40 per teaspoon so adding a tablespoon to the vinaigrette only adds 30 calories per serving.

9 comments:

  1. Why should red or black lentils not be used?

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  2. You could probably use black, but I think those would be a tad too pebbly. The red lentils just get mushy and IMO, this dish needs non-mushy lentils.
    -meganr

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  3. I just made this dish and was thunderstruck by how wonderful it was! So simple. I had it with some fresh cut tomatoes and as I didn't feel like a pita, I had a whole wheat tortilla. Beautiful dinner and I thank you so much for sharing this!

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  4. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's been one of our favorites for years.

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  5. Oh my lord, made this for dinner and it's delish! This will become a regular meal for me. Thanks, Megan and Janice - mageeg

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  6. I had it left over and cold today and it was great that way too. Now I can't decide which way I like it best. It tastes different cold. Better make it again!

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  7. I am vinegar-phobic, I absolutely HATE the taste and smell. How much vinegar taste do you actually get in this dish? Does anyone think a 'v-phobic' would enjoy this?

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  8. If you hate the taste of vinegar I strongly suggest that you reduce the vinegar to 1 tablespoon. I hope that's enough, if you really are sensitive to the taste of vinegar, I bet you could replace it entirely by adding more lemon juice and a bit of olive oil (add in the calories)...but I'm going to ask Praying Horse to verify that. :D

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  9. If you are a true vinegar-phobe, I would leave it out entirely. The idea of adding more lemon juice, if you like that OK is a good one, but I would boost the flavor then by also adding some lemon zest in. This dish really needs something perky/tart, else it goes flat, so whatever you kind of flavoring you like in that direction could be tried.

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