Dinner Bowl #90

 

Here we have a meal with some shortcuts, that went far beyond my expectations: a version of the Mediterranean lentil grain bowl from This Savory Vegan's recipe.

I had beet stems in the fridge, cut off from the root and the leaves. (I've already eaten the leaves; you'll see the beets themselves later.) And for some reason, I figured they would make a good ingredient for a hummus. I boiled them in salted water for a bit, then made a pretty typical hummus out of them--chickpeas, tahini, garlic, seasonings and beet stems. The color turned out to be very similar to a roasted beet hummus. The only thing I'd say is that it's a bit challenging to get to to blend smoothly, because beet stems are a bit stringy (like celery). But I managed!

For the rest, I used my rice cooker for the rice and a pouch of precooked lentils for the lentils, so I really only had to chop and sauté some veggies (zucchini, garlic, onion, sun-dried tomato) and season it. I topped it off with fresh parsley and lemon wedges as suggested. I did not have dill and it didn't matter.

This was amazing. I added some flaky salt, too, and squeezed over the lemon juice, and it was all deeply satisfying. This was also the first time I've used the pouch of lentils I had bought from Wegmans a while ago (the "Steamables" line). Although it is tons cheaper to boil your own lentils, sometimes life has other plans. On this weekend day, I had a 1:00PM errand to run, so I needed a quick lunch.

If I didn't put pistachios in the hummus (which I did), this would be free of all major allergens; as it is, it is free of gluten and soy, at least, and it would be very easy to make a nut-free version.

You could also make this a quicker meal by using store-bought hummus and precooked rice, and under some circumstances, I could see myself doing that.