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

Black Bean Salad

Simple to prepare, this colorful side salad boasts a refreshing
lime and cumin vinaigrette.

With dreary gray weather outside, I was wishing for something lively on my dinner plate.  Black beans accomodate cilantro nicely with a cumin and lime vinaigrette in this Mexican style side dish.  We served this as a side dish to turkey burgers with green chiles and cheddar and a Caesar salad.

serves: 6                    prep time:  15 minutes

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons green onions or red onion, finely chopped

Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 small clove garlic, minced (or a dash of garlic powder)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium bowl, add the beans, pepper, corn, cilantro, and onion.  Mix together the dressing ingredients and taste to see if it needs more seasoning.  Add just enough to moisten the salad. 

This salad is ideal prepared in advance to give the flavors a chance to meld.  One can always add more peppers (try yellow and orange too), corn, and onion depending on your personal likes.  I packed this for hubby's lunch the other day and the dish came back empty.  Hmmm, left-overs must be good!

Calories per serving are about 140.  This dish is high in protein and high in good fats.  Also high in fiber at almost 5 g per serving.

-Kim Fielding