Frugal Recipes: Lentils & Rice

I LOVE my lentils. I spent a year in Peru as a foreign exchange student during my junior year of high school. Aside from my love for latin culture and dancing, I brought home a great love of certain new foods, including the great lentil. YUM!

Now, I have never found a recipe that comes even close to what we had in my Peruvian household, but I have tweaked several recipes to come up with something that satisfies me. The prices beside each item are my estimates of what each should cost, either at average price or average sale. I am assuming you would get basics (onion, spices) on sale, but might grab the bigger items like lentils or rice at full price. But I hope not . If I did this from my pantry, getting rice free and produce from a co-op, it would be about 1/2 the cost. Here, I am estimating this meal that serves 4 will cost $2.42, or ~.60c/serving. Being under $1/serving, I would serve with a side salad or a nice baked pear for dessert.

Health note: Lentils are a fantastic food. Green lentils in particular are a great source protein- 26% of their calories are from protein! The more orange/yellow varieties have less protein, though they may be more exotic looking. Lentils are also high in fiber, folic acid, vitamin B1 and iron. The high folate and iron make lentils especially helpful for pregnant mommies, not to mention they are easy to digest. Following my directions, the calorie content for one serving should be ~275 calories- and that’s including the optional french fried onions! So dig in!

*My* Peruvian Lentils

1/2 lb dry lentils (.75c when not on sale)

1 1/2 cup chicken broth (free from the last time you made chicken)

1 1/2 cup water

1 TBS of your favorite chicken seasoning- could be some dry mix of herbs, chicken or vegetable boullion, etc (lets say .15c)

1 tsb salt (if your chicken flavoring does not contain any)

3 dashes (or squirts) of Worcestershire sauce

2-3 cups of cooked brown rice prepared with 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1 tsb cilantro (.50c)

1/4 medium onion in thin slices (.18c)

1 roma tomato, diced (.25c)

1/4 cup lime juice (.59c)

French fried onions (optional)

Directions: combine lentils, broth, water, flavoring, salt and Worcestershire sauce in your crockpot. Heat on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-5 hours, until lentils are nice and soft. Meanwhile, slice onions and tomatoes and let marinate in lime juice in the fridge. About 5 minutes before serving, stir about half of this onion “relish” into the lentils and add more to taste. It cuts through the thick lentils nicely, in my opinion. Serve over cooked rice, sprinkled with french fried onions if you’d like. Enjoy!

Here’s to living- happier, healthier, more FRUGAL lives!

~Frugalmegan~