Lentils!!! Food Facts and Recipes

My latest food craze - LENTILS!!!!  I came across some recipes using these tiny little legumes and so started doing my research.  Learned some things:  they are high in fiber, iron and B vitamins, they can help lower your cholesterol and stabilize your blood sugar, and they are loaded with protein.  Well, since I'm always looking for  foods naturally high in iron (I've struggled with anemia my whole life) and protein (we all could probably use more protein!), this sounded like the perfect food!  In fact, it has been listed as one of the Top Five Healthiest Foods in the world!  Oh, and they're CHEAP!  I'm all for cheap, LOL!  I made up this recipe earlier this week:  Lentil Pancakes.  I really didn't expect anyone at my house to like them but they turned out be a big hit!!!  They ate them all and were begging for more!

Lentil Pancakes

1 egg
1 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 T honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup ground lentils (strong blend or coffee grinder can be used to grind the dry lentils into a fine flour)

Beat egg.  Stir in coconut milk and oil.  Add all dry ingredients except the lentils and blend.  Blend in lentil flour until smooth.  Cook on griddle over medium heat (grease griddle with coconut oil).  Turn pancakes when edges become dry and most of top is bubbly.  We ate ours with pure maple syrup.  Yum!

Another recipe I experimented with this week is Dosa!  Here's how I made mine:  Take 1 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup lentils (both dry, uncooked) and put in a bowl covered with water.  Let sit out overnight.  Next morning, drain and rinse, then puree in food processor or blender till smooth, about the consistency of hummus.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave out for 24 hours.  For mine, the top started to turn a little purple and smelled so I scraped that off and tossed in the trash, but the rest of the batter was perfect!  I then mixed in some sea salt, garlic powder, and curry powder.  I wanted to add in chopped onions but then realized I was out!  I greased a springform pan and put the batter in (about 1/3 inch thick) and baked at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.  It made the house smell SO good!  After baking (till the edges were turning brown and no longer doughy in the middle) I removed the sides of the springform pan and removed.  I did a double recipe actually.  We snacked on the one (tastes just like sourdough bread!), and the other I wrapped tightly and froze for later to use as a pizza crust!  Will update later how the pizza turns out once I give that a try!