Lentils and Rice

We continue on our quest to eat up all of the CSA vegetables before we leave town tomorrow night. This quest led to a strange combination of dishes for dinner last night. Each one was very good in its own right, but they were a bit odd together. We started with hummus with turnips and radishes (a recipe to follow in another post). I quickly baked some kale "chips," and immediately regretted turning the oven on. We rounded out the night with some kale with bacon and lentils and rice. The kale with bacon was delicious, but my husband aptly observed that it tasted like a BBQ dish. It would pair really well with some grilled meat, potato salad, etc. The lentil recipe was adapted from our Indian food store's recipe. It was also very good and would go nicely with a salad and some simple vegetables. Here are the recipes:

Lentils and Rice
1 small red onion, chopped
handful of garlic scapes, finely chopped
2 t ginger, chopped
4 T butter or oil
1/2 t garam masala
1/2 t cumin seed
1/2 t turmeric (I used fresh, but powdered will work too)
1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, minced
1 C rice and lentil mixture
4 C water
1 pinch salt

Saute onion, scapes and ginger in butter or oil until soft. Add the garam masala, cumin seed, turmeric and jalapeno and cook for a couple of more minutes. Add the rice and lentil mixture and water and cook over medium heat until tender (about 25-30minutes). Serve with cilantro and green onion or leftover chutney.

Kale with Bacon
5 slices bacon
1 bunch of kale, torn into pieces
2 T balsamic vinegar

Cook the bacon until starting to brown. Remove from the heat and cut into bite size pieces. Pour off any excess fat. Return the bacon pieces to the pan and add the kale. Once the kale is tender, add the balsamic vinegar and cook just a couple extra minutes.

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