Beluga Lentils with Fresh Garden Vegetables

Hmm, what to do with all this goodness?  Let's create something.

Some of the first vegetables to come out of the summer garden are squash, bell pepper, and new red onions.  Adding in some cauliflower and cabbage that needs to be used up, let's make a salad!

Lentils are a great base for all things added to it.  They provide an excellent source of fiber as well as trace minerals, protein, and B vitamins.  Add in the nutrition from the vegetables and you have a nutrition-packed side dish.

Serves: 8
Cook and prep time:  about 40 minutes

2 cups dried Beluga or black lentils, picked through and rinsed
Olive oil, 2-3 tablespoons
Fresh garlic, 1-2 cloves, minced
Your choice of vegetables.  We used the above combination of cabbage, orange cauliflower, crookneck squash, green pepper, and new red onion.  Cut them into a uniform size.

Cook the lentils according to package directions.

While the lentils are cooking, prep the vegetables.  Thinly slice the cabbage, cut the cauliflower into small florets, dice the crookneck squash and green pepper, and thinly slice the red onion.

I love the colors.

In a suitable pan, heat a couple tablespoons olive oil with garlic for 30 seconds. Add prepped veggies to pan and cook until wilted and fragrant.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

These are ready to be added to the lentils.

When the lentils are just tender, drain them and add in the cooked vegetables.

This dish was really easy to prepare.  Left-overs are delicious.

Nutritional analysis for 1/8 of the recipe:  about 300 calories, 12 g fiber, almost 9 g protein, 16 g fat with the majority being monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (only 6% saturated), 32 g carbohydrates, over half your daily allowance for iron, almost half your requirements for vitamin C, plus lots of other vitamins and minerals.

- Kim Fielding