Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Lentil Rice Casserole

*This was originally from Sue Gregg - not sure how *I* got it because I've never seen her cookbooks - I used to consider her "out there" but I think I've morphed into her type of cook. LOL Anyway - I got this somehow years ago. It was one of the older kids' favorites (as in the first three). Tonight Jamin finally remembered it (though he thinks it needs more spice) and Jared and Stacia ate it....the middle three (Arielle, Nolan and Zander) had mac and cheese and carrot sticks. SIGH.

6 C water
1 1/2 C uncooked lentils
1 C uncooked brown rice
1/2 C onion - chopped
1 t basil
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder (used granules)
2 T Sue's Kitchen Magic (I have no clue what this is - I used to use some brown gravy powder from Costco - tonight I used Vegetable Broth powder and it was good)

(I used to add an onion soup mix to this - tonight I added some onion powder).

1 1/2 C cheese (this would be the very minimum! and is added at the END of baking time)

Blend all but cheese together. I put it in my wonderful new pot (which I'll post a photo of some day) and bake at 350* for 1 1/2 hours (the recipe says 2 1/2 hours but it NEVER takes that long for me). Sprinkle the cheese over the top when it is done and let it melt. Stir it all in....eat.

As I said, we like this as a main dish, side dish, or served in a tortilla (favorite way). I made it exactly as the above recipe says so that I could comment on amounts....up those spices...at least 1 T of basil and 1/2 T of others....LOL I almost added celery and carrots to this...but then decided it wouldn't be fair as I wanted to see if Jamin and Jared would like it as well as the older three did.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a lentil? When you get your pictures working again, please post a pic of a lentil...It sounds healthy and natural which is probably why I don't know what one is, lol...We eat a lot of processed food...Since hbp I'm learning to go more natural/organic...We're not aging gracefully. {g}

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

A lentil is a legume. They are wonderful little things. They have a lot of benefits of beans but cook MUCH quicker. You should be able to find a small bag of them with the dried beans at Carrs or the Commissary.

Stephanie said...

This sounds wonderful! I've got a nice little bag of lentils coming from co-op this weekend so we might have to eat this Sunday. I like the idea of recycling it on Monday for lunch in tortillas too. :)

Jodi said...

I'm glad you posted this I'll be making it tomorrow as I think I have all the ingredients, even a Hain brown gravy powder which could be the magic whatever, LOL. I must admit I'd be tempted to throw some carrots in there too but we always have carrots with lentils and the idea is to try something different with them.