Lentil Chili

This month’s Random Recipe challenge was to borrow a random cookbook from a friend and cook a randomly chosen recipe from the book. My cookbook this month was Still Life with Menu Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. My random recipe happened to be the lentil chili. I’ve never cooked out of this cookbook before, but after this chili dish I may need to add the book to my collection.

The only thing about this dish is I think it’s dryer than it should have been. My schedule during the week is nuts, so on Wednesday and Thursday I actually make dinner in the middle of the afternoon and then heat it up after I get home from my classes that go until 9 p.m. For this chili I did the first hours work of cooking in the afternoon and the last 10 minutes when I got home from class. I think the chili sitting there made it thicken up a whole lot more than had I done the whole dish at once and then eaten it.

The flavor was great though and that’s all that matters.

Lentil Chili

Ingredients
2 cups dried lentils
3 cups water
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
ground black pepper, to taste
crushed red pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add in the lentils. Lower the heat to a simmer and cover, simmering for 30 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, cumin, paprika, thyme, garlic powder, and onions. Stir in and cover again, simmering for another 30 minutes.

3. Add the salt and tomato paste, stirring into the lentils. Simmer for 10 more minutes, uncovered this time.

4. Stir in the vinegar, black pepper, and red pepper. Serve hot either alone or with toppings such as sour cream, cheddar cheese, etc.

* serves 4 large servings
* besides Random Recipes, this recipe is shared with Full Plate Thursday, Catch A Glimpse Party, Linkin’ Up Thursdays, & Showcase Your Talent Thursday  

 

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