How Can I Make a Healthy (and Vegetarian) Main Course when I get home, only Right Now?

If you were to poll people on the reasons that they don’t make a healthy, homemade dinner when they get home, I’d bet you’d find that the most common responses would be 1) time, and 2) energy.  Sure, some people love to cook, but when you come home exhausted, cooking can feel like more work…like you’re still not done for the day.  Meanwhile, if you settle for something like a microwave dinner, or, worse still, fast food—you’re only making things worse by maintaining bad diet habits.

But if you knew you could throw together a dinner that’s super healthy and tasty in just 10 minutes, possibly even quicker, wouldn’t that make preparing something homemade worth just a little extra effort?  This is a red lentil main dish that I like to keep in heavy rotation, usually accompanied by some steamed vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage or beets, which of course can be cooked right alongside the lentils.  This version serves 2 adults with modest appetites, or 1 with a very hearty appetite, and can be multiplied in proportion for more servings.

Vegetarian Red Lentil Main Course

Ingredients

• ½ cup red lentils (I get them from bins at the health food store)
• 1 wide slice medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon curry powder
• Dash of salt
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 cup water

Pour the ½ cup red lentils and 1 cup water into a small saucepan/pot (use a medium saucepan if you’re making 1 ½ cups lentils or more; you want to leave a couple of inches between the top of the water and the top of the pot).

Turn heat to high, add a dash of salt, stir to separate lentils, and cover.

While water is warming, cut wide slice from onion and dice.  Move to side of chopping board, and then mince 2 cloves garlic.

Lift cover of pot and carefully slide in diced onion and minced garlic.  If water isn’t yet boiling, return cover (with this small-sized portion, water will come to boil quickly, so keep a frequent eye on it even while chopping onion and garlic).

Once water begins to boil, turn heat down to low.  Add in curry powder and stir.  If possible, balance pot cover on pot handle so that good amount of steam rises out, but not all of it (if you need to leave pot cover off altogether, that’s fine, but be sure heat is on lowest setting.

Depending on heat source and pan type, this part of the cooking can range from about 5 to 8 minutes.  Continue to stir lentil mixture every couple minutes, and as water gets low, monitor regularly.  You want water to cook down all the way so that it’s completely absorbed, but to turn off heat before lentils begin sticking to pan.  This takes some practice, but if you’re monitoring the final minute(s), you should be fine.  Stir lentils to check that water has been absorbed, and if so, add in optional cayenne pepper pinch, if using.

Serve immediately.  Accompany with preferred condiment, as long as it’s mustard, preferably of decent quality, such as Dijon.

And that’s it!  You have a nice, healthy, vegetarian main course that includes protein and plenty of good vitamins and minerals, and all in 10 minutes or under.  You may notice that some recipes call for the onion to be cooked in oil first to carmelize, but I find that this version still provides ample onion and garlic-ness, and is much quicker and easier.

Michael Shaw writes about food and nutrition at his website, No Flour, No Sugar Diet, where he includes a guide to unrefined sugar sources among other healthy alternatives to refined flours and sugars.

Photo courtesy: SteveFE