Bean there, done that.

So this week I tried a new pasta recipe. This was another one that I found on my free Whole Foods app. I made it exactly as the recipe said. It was okay, lacking a bit in the flavor department.

The dish is called Linguine with Spinach, Artichokes, and Red Lentil Sauce. When you cook the lentils they become very soft and become creamy, giving the illusion of a cream sauce without the dairy. I love this concept. First, I have to say that I didn't have enough lentils for the recipe. Why, you ask? Well Whole Foods doesn't sell pre-packaged bags of dried red lentils so I had to buy it from the bulk aisle. This is the aisle that is sort or candy-storeish. You fill your own bags with whatever amount of any item you would like. So this recipe only called for 3/4 cup of red lentils, I eyeballed it. Not a great idea. I way under eyeballed it -- (side note/story... I had an eye exam yesterday and I have spots on my retinas so now I have to see a retina specialist. I'm not saying this is why I way under eyeballed the lentils, I'm just saying this is pretty coincidental. haha). The point is, I only bought about a 1/2 cup of the lentils which resulted in less creamy, saucy goodness. Looking back, I only paid $0.52 for my underestimated beans... it wouldn't have made a hill-of-beans difference (no pun intended) if I just got a little over zealous in the bulk aisle, given my entire grocery bill for 2 recipes and a couple random snack items was like $65!

Back to the recipe. Here it is. I prepped everything before I started cooking. It makes the process much easier and also makes clean-up a lot easier. Next time I would use less garlic and more lentils (like you're supposed to) and I would maybe add some additional herbs and spices.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
3/4 cup dried red lentils
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 pound whole wheat linguine
1 bunch spinach, stemmed and roughly chopped
4 artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and quartered
Directions
In a medium pot, heat mustard seeds over medium heat until they begin to pop, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully add broth, 1 cup water, onion, lentils and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until lentils are very tender and falling apart, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and stir until lentils break apart to make a sauce. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add linguine and cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes; drain and return to pot. Immediately add spinach, artichoke hearts and lentil sauce to hot pasta, toss well and serve.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=2882

And here is how mine looked.

I think you can definitely tweak this one to your liking.  But I do love the spinach and artichoke combo.

I received a few of the books from Amazon yesterday so I will get to reading those starting this weekend so I will be learning a lot more, hopefully, about the vegan lifestyle.  I have found that I do great at home, but it's difficult at other people's houses.  For example there was a gathering at my mom's house this week with tons of good looking food, but my choices were kind of limited to raw vegetables and ice.  LOL.  Yes, I ate ice.  People were asking me how the whole vegan-thing was going and I said, well I'm eating a cup of ice if that gives you any sort of indication.  Until next time...

Knowing I did my part in not contributing to these guys' death makes me feel good and glad to be a new vegan!