It's the weekend, even though I am not working, so it doesn't really matter since everyday is the weekend. I still wanted to have some celebratory type of snack to cheer myself up from the misery of this disgusting cold grey city. Here I go complaining again.
There's snow and sand everywhere. Today it warmed up from -27 C to -10 C. I just can't stand going outside. I feel like a spoiled house cat, but it's depressing to be imprisoned in my apartment. I don't wish this on anyone.
In my last post, I mentioned that I had an abundance of red lentils. I had purchased a large sac a while ago and still have so much left. I usually only make soup with them, but occasionally use them, as a filler in burgers.
This time I decided to turn them into patties and add some spinach. I usually don't like to deep fry things. I did fry them a little bit. I couldn't resist shallow frying these to make them more fun.
The thing about red lentils is that they cook fast and get mushy fast, which is why I didn't boil them ahead of time. They were soaked over night instead.
Before soaking them I rinsed them many times until the water runs clear. Once you have the soaked lentils these patties can be made fast and very easily with the help of a food processor.
They can be seasoned and flavoured according to your personal taste. I was going for spice but nothing too elaborate. The chutney would do some of the work to provide taste.
Red lentil spinach patties
300 g lentils
Chilies to your liking
60 carrot
200 g onion
30 g garlic
10 fresh coriander
5 g minced ginger
150 cooked spinach
25 g sunflower seeds
Juice of half lemon
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste
The only thing I pre cooked aside from spinach, were the onion and garlic. I just caramelized them in a hot oiled pan.
After the onions were cooked they were added to the well drained lentils and all of the other ingredients except the spinach. Without using liquid, grind the mixture in the processor until smooth. If you use a blender you'll have to add liquid. I didn't want a super wet mix because I would add the spinach later.
I was fortunate to find fresh spinach for a decent price. Every single item of fresh produce that is available to us, is imported. Usually we get things from the United States or Mexico. The prices are not great right now. When I saw this spinach for 3 dollars I grabbed it. I had intentions of cooking it, since I only eat raw spinach if it's organic.
Without cooking it to the point of colour loss, I steamed it then squeezed out the liquid.
I didn't grind it along with the lentil mixture which was my original plan. It was one of those split second decisions.
The spinach was mixed with ground up sunflower seeds and lemon juice. The sunflower seeds were toasted and happened to be in the cupboard so I used them.
After putting the chopped spinach in the food processor until it was a little more chopped, I mixed it into the lentil mixture by roughly folding it in.I wanted to see the spinach threaded into the patties.
I fried them in a pan with a decent amount of oil.This reminded me of when I had to make crab cakes at a restaurant years ago. We were not allowed to stick them in the deep fryer. We were told that they had to be pan fried as advertised. We always cheated during the rush, which was most of the time, and deep fried them anyway. Nobody ever knew the difference. I'm bad I know.
At the very end I put the patties in the oven to keep warm while I quickly made a chutney. I had to think fast using the ingredients in my fridge. There was some tamarind and some date paste so I decided on a sugar free, yet sweet, chutney. With added raisins it ended up sweet enough. This was done super fast and it was super tasty. I know that this would probably be more elaborate if made by an Indian cooking expert.
Tamarind chutney
100 g tamarind
100 g raisins
60 g date paste
50 g onion
10 g ginger
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
Salt to taste
The onion was cooked first then the ginger and other items. When everything was cooked down, it was put in a blender to make a smooth but slightly chunky dip.
These things were very fast to make, and also inexpensive using the lentils.
Now for a bite!
These patties reminded me a bit of falafels, so I added a dish of tahini sauce as well, which was already in my fridge from another day.
I make my tahini sauce by blending tahini( sesame paste), lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. If it's too thick I add more lemon juice and sometimes olive oil and water then readjusting the seasonings.
I really loved these with the chutney. I used the left over chutney later on toast. Is that crazy? I don't usually make chutney.
I hope you all have had a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by.
design by: @KidSistersPhotos taken by me with a Nikon D7500