Tag: lentils

Three Tasty-Easy Recipes for Leftover Rice

Rice

There are two things that are staple foods in the Iranian cuisine: rice and bread. They eat rice with different kinds of meat stews or vegetable dishes. In North of Iran, near the Caspian Sea, there are beautiful rice fields which are widely famous for cultivation of different kinds of Persian rice.

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You can make 10s of gorgeous dishes with white/brown or wild rice. You can make rice with stew, curry, beautiful green herbs and vegetables or spices. You can cook rice in a rice cooker, in microwave or on the stove.

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Anyway, what led me to talk about rice was that sometimes after a party we have leftover rice on hand, so instead of wasting it, you would be better to turn your leftover plain rice into a fabulous new rice dish 🙂

I have three easy- quick and tasty recipes for turning your rice into lentils rice, herbed rice and potato rice.

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Ingredients for lentils rice

  • one cup lentils

  • 1 cube meat or vegetable stock

  • ½ tsp cumin powder

  • Pinch of black pepper

  • Butter

How to make it?????

Bring to a boil, add lentils, one vegetable or meat stock,  pepper and cumin. Reduce heat and simmer until they are tender but not mushy( it takes typically 20-30 minutes) and usually  it depends on the age of your lentils. Once it is cooked, add it to the leftover rice and gently mix. Spread some melted butter all over the rice and serve it.

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Ingredients for herbed rice

  • small bunch of chives or spring onions, finely chopped
  • small bunch of dill, finely chopped
  • small bunch of coriander, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Olive oil

How to make it?????

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped herbs, seasoning with salt, pepper, cinnamon and cumin. Saute for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat, fluff the rice with a fork, and stir in sautéed herbs and gently combine and allow it up for few minutes  and serve it.

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Ingredients for rice and potatoes

  • 5 baby potatoes

  • Pinch of chilli flakes

  • butter

  • Salt to taste

How to make it?????

Put the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Salt the water. Bring it to a boil and cook the potatoes until tender. Drain and add melted butter and sprinkle chilli flakes on them. Serve the rice in a plate and top it with buttery potatoes.

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Spicy Lentil Flatbread

Bread, Vegetarains

This flat lentil bread recipe is sooooo good and delicious. There are different kinds of lentils: red or orange, brown, green, yellow. I made my lentil bread with red ones. You can find all of them in your local super markets and Middle East grocery stores.

There are used different names in different languages for lentils, for example in Persian and Arabic it’s called ‘ Adas’, in English ‘ Lentil’ , in Azerbaijani ‘ Marje’.Maybe some of you do not know what red lentils are. I have attached a photo of this kind of lentil.

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You can make lentil bread with all of those lentils. This bread is very light, low in carb but high in fibre and good source of protein.

I frequently make this bread, because we enjoy it a lot. Recipe for this bread is flexible. I mean you have loads and loads of possibilities to change the flavour and create a new flavour and taste.

It’s super easy recipe to follow plus you can prepare the batter, pour it in a jar and keep it fresh in the fridge for next few days. Just bring the batter out of the fridge before cooking and bring the batter to room temperature.

This bread might be severed warm or cold and goes well with all kinds of soup, and you can top it with your favourite toppings. Good point of this bread is not only you can cook it in a pan but also you can cook it in the oven : 190C for 20-25 minutes.

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup red lentils, soak in cold water overnight
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tbsp chopped spring onions or chives
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 1 ½ tsp cumin powder
  • ½ tsp chilli powder
  • ½ tsp grounded coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Vegetable oil: coconut oil or sun flower oil

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Method

Soak lentils with water for 6-7 hours to remove starch. Then drain it.

In a bowl with your lentils add 2 cups of water, all above mentioned spices except spring onions or chives. Blend until smooth. Add chopped chives or spring onion. Mix well.Lightly oiling a pan with Olive or coconut oil.

Using a large ladle  and pour one  ladle of prepared batter into the pan. Make a round shape and make  sure it is not thin.  Each flat bread will take about 4-5 minutes per side to cook ( depends on heat and how thick you make the bread). Spray oil  top of batter and once one side cooked , flip over and let to cook other side.

 

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Azerbaijani Noodle Soup

Soup/aash

This noodle soup is popular in NW of Iran. It has a sour/sweet taste due to vinegar and prunes in it.. This is a noodle soup with cereals, meat balls, fried onions and dried mint sauce.

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Ingredients

200g Persian noodles ( if it is not available you can use egg noodles instead of Persian noodles)
1 large onion or 2 small ones
200g ground beef
2 cups of cooked lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans
1 cup prunes
2 Tbsp plain flour
½ cup apple cider or grape vinegar
Salt- black pepper to taste
1Tbsp dried mint
1 Tsp turmeric
Oil

Preparation

In a big pot with 8cups of water, add flour and bring it to a boil. Mix ground meat with one of grated onions. Combine together. Give small balls shape to the meat and fry them until they are brown.
Finely chop second onion and fry until golden. Keep some for the garnishing and use remaining for mixing with the soup.


Once water started to boil, add cooked cereals, all spices, prunes, oil, vinegar, fried onion, noodles, and meat balls. Cook it on low heat until soup is thick.
For the garnishing the soup, fry dried mint and garnish with fried mint and fried onion.

 

 

 

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Azerbaijani Noodle Aash

Soup/aash

This noodle aash is popular in NW of Iran. It has a sour/sweet taste due to vinegar and prunes in it.. This is a noodle soup with cereals, meat balls, fried onions and dried mint.

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Azerbaijani noodle aash
Ingredients
200g Persian noodles ) if it is not available you can use egg noodles instead of Persian noodles)
1 large onion or 2 small ones
200g ground beef
2 cups of cooked lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans
1 cup prunes
2 Tbsp plain flour
½ cup apple cider or grape vinegar
Salt- black pepper to taste
1Tbsp dried mint
1 Tsp turmeric
Oil

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Method
In a big pot with 8 cups of water, add flour and bring it to a boil. Mix ground meat with one of grated onions. Combine together. Give small balls shape to the meat and fry them until they are brown.

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Finely chop second onion and fry until golden. Keep some for the garnishing and use remaining for mixing with the soup.
Once water started to boil, add cooked cereals, all spices, prunes, oil, vinegar, fried onion, noodles, and meat balls. Cook it on low heat until soup is thick.
For the garnishing the soup, fry dried mint and garnish with fried mint and fried onion.

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Persian rice with lentils ( Adas polo)

Rice

lentil rice or Adas polo is one of  the most delicious rice dishes in Iran. It is a traditional-ceremonial dish.Lentil is called ‘ Adas ‘ in Farsi.

Lentil rice can be served with fried dates and raisins or with  fried ground meat ( beef/lamb). Lentil is a good source of Iron and vitamins.
You can serve dates and raisins within the layers of rice or once the rice is ready place them around or over the rice. It’s very easy to make this polo (Pilaf).

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20e

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Ingredients
200 g minced beef
200 g  rice
1 cup brown lentils, cooked
3 medium onions, grated
4 tbsp black and golden raisins
12-13 pitted and halved dates
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4  tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp saffron water
salt and pepper to taste
Butter or oil

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How to make it
In a pot, pour salted water and simmer lentils over a medium heat for 30 minutes until they are soft and tender. Drain and Set aside. Dissolve Saffron in 2 tbsp warm water. Add most of grated onion to minced beef plus spices (salt, paprika, turmeric and cinnamon). Mix well and set aside.
Heat the butter In a pan and fry the meat on a medium heat until get brown color. In other pan add some butter and raisins. Stirring constantly because raisins can burn easily.Stir it for 2-3 minutes. Then repeat it with dates until they are golden. In a pan add butter and saute the grated onions. Add some of sauteed onions to raisins and some to dates. Mix well and set aside.

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prepare the rice according to my recipe for rice with Tah dig. Add cooked lentils to the rice. Mix lentils with rice and set the rice in a pan. Cover top of the pan with a lid to prevent steam from escaping and let it to cook on a low heat.
Add 2 tbsp of cooked rice to dissolved Saffron and mix well. When you want to serve your dish in a plate, topped with Saffron and Serve it with dates, raisins and fried minced beef.

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عدس پلو

عدس پلو یکی از غذاهای سنتی و مجلسی در ایران می باشد. این غذای برنجی را می توان با خرما و کشمش سرخ شده و یا با گوشت چرخ کرده سرو کرد.

عدس منبع مناسب آهن و ویتامین ها بوده وتهیه ی غذا با عدس  منفعت زیادی برای بدن دارد.
برای تهیه ی عدس پلو می توان خرما و کشمش رازمان دم کردن بین لایه های برنج ریخت و یا زمان سرو کنار پلو یا روی آن ریخت. تهیه ی  این پلو خوشمزه بسیار آسان می باشد..

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مواد لازم

دویست گرم  گوشت چرخ کرده گوساله یا گوسفند

دویست گرم  برنج

یک پیمانه عدس قهو ه ای پخته

سه پیاز متوسط رنده شده

چهار ق غ کشمش

دوازه یا سیزده خرمای بدون هسته

یک دوم ق چ زردچوبه

یک چهارم ق چ دارچین

دو ق غ آب زعفران

نمک و فلفل به میزان لازم

کره یا روغن

طرز تهیه
در یک قابلمه آب و نمک ریخته و عدس را اضافه کنید و بگذارید به مدت نیم ساعت بپزد یا تا زمانی که نرم شود. سپس عدس آب پز شده را در آبکش ریخته و بگذارید آب اضافی آن خالی گردد. زعفران را در 2 قاشق غذاخوری آب گرم حل کنید و به کناری بگذارید. مقداری از پیاز رنده شده را به همراه ادویه ها ( نمک – فلفل– زردچوبه و دارچین) به گوشت چرخ کرده اضافه کرده و خوب ورز دهید.

ماهی تابه را روی حرارت ملایم گذاشته کره را آب کرده و گوشت چرخ کرده را در آن سرخ نمایید تا قهوه ای رنگ شود. در یک ماهی تابه ی دیگر کمی کره ریخته و کشمش ها را به مدت 2-3 دقیقه تفت دهید و مرتب هم بزنید چون کشمش فوری می سوزد.
همین کار را با خرما ها انجام داده تا به رنگ طلایی در آیند. در یک ماهی تابه مجددن کمی کره ریخته و باقی پیاز رنده شده را در کره تفت دهید. سپس کمی از پیاز تفت شده را به کشمش ها و کمی را به خرما ها اضافه کرده و مخلوط کنید.
برنج را آبکش کرده و عدس پخته شده را به آن اضافه نموده و با هم مخلوط کنیدو در قابلمه ریخته بگذارید دم بکشد. پس از اینکه برنج آماده شد 2 قاشق غذاخوری از برنج را با زعفران مخلوط کرده و برای تزئین روی پلو استفاده کنید. پلو را در ظرف مورد نظرتان ریخته و با خرما – کشمش و گوشت سرو نمایید.

 

 

 

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