Quickie Lentils

This dish is made extra quick and easy since it uses lots of canned items. In fact, this is such a quickie I'm feeling a smidge guilty for posting it. However, since Amy's asked for more lentil ideas and Christie asked me to jot down what I did, here it is!

2 15oz cans of lentils drained and rinsed
1 7oz can of diced green chilies
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon sweet, smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sriracha sauce to taste

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for at least 20 minutes for the flavors to "marry". Yep, that's it. Put this in tortillas with salsa and greens for tacos or burritos. Serve as a topping to steamed grains, potatoes or yams.

Yes, I suggest Sriracha to give some heat to this dish, just add as much or as little as you like. I find in small amounts it adds a brightness and just a little heat to any dish, plus sometimes seems more easy to control than using powdered, hot chilies.

Except for the lentils you can really wing it with this recipe (really more a "suggestion" than a "recipe"). Heck you could even wing the legumes and use garbanzos, pintos, red beans... you get the picture. By all means, if you don't want to use canned legumes, don't. Just make the legumes first and use them drained -- about 3 cups or so.

Add more or use less cumin if you want. A squeeze of lime would be great in this. Fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves chopped up and added on top would be lovely (our's had gone nasty in the fridge... ooops). Leave out the green chilies if you don't have them. Add some mustard seed, powdered coriander, tumeric, ginger and black pepper (or just some garam masala) to start taking this more of an Indian dal direction.