Red Wine Lentils with Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese

Greetings from Singapore! As I mentioned in my last post, I've gone to Singapore for a research conference, which my sister and I will be following up with a very brief trip to Thailand. I've been here for a couple days now and absolutely love it! I've gotten to do a bit of sightseeing and shopping, and I've tried some great food so far - I'll try to do a post about the food when I get back!

As promised, I'm trying not to ignore my blog while I'm away so I'm sharing a recipe I made before I left. This is also my second entry in the Canadian Lentils Recipe Revelations Contest which ends March 19th, so I wanted to make sure I posted it on time!

If you saw my recent recipe for peanut butter lentil granola bars, then I don't have to bother repeating how healthy and versatile lentils are in cooking. They pair really well with meats like fish, but they are a good source of protein themselves and I love eating them as a base for a vegetarian main course, as they're used in this recipe for red wine lentils with roasted vegetables and goat cheese.

This dish was inspired by a recipe I saw on Cooking Light, but I ended up changing around so many of the ingredients and steps that I think it's safe to call it my own now. It's made of green lentils mixed with root vegetables that are roasted in a red wine dressing, then the whole thing is mixed with a really flavourful red wine sauce and topped with a bit of crumbled goat cheese. The result is a truly delicious dish with an earthy flavour from the lentils and vegetables that's deepened by the red wine sauce but brightened up by the bits of tangy goat cheese.

I know this dish wouldn't win any beauty awards looks-wise (and it doesn't help that it was getting dark at the time I tried to photograph it), but despite its looks, you have to trust me that this really is a wonderful dish! What amazes me most about it is how it actually reminds of me meat - every time I heated up leftovers in the microwave, I could have sworn I could smell steak, probably because of the red wine sauce. That also makes me think that this would be a great dish to introduce skeptical meat eaters to vegetarian proteins like lentils. I gave some of my leftovers to my meat-eating boyfriend who has never had lentils before, and to my vegetarian sister who's quite familiar with them, and they both loved it!

The ingredients list may look a little intimidating, but a lot of the items are actually pantry staples (I only needed to buy carrots, parsnips, beets, tarragon, and goat cheese), and the recipe isn't difficult to prepare if you time all the steps right. I've tried to write the recipe directions in a way that makes it easy to know exactly when to do everything so that the dish will come together quickly and easily.

As with my lentil granola bars, if you want to help me out with this entry to the Canadian Lentils contest, feel free to leave me a comment on this blog post or head over to my post on the Canadian Lentils Facebook page to 'like' it. As the contest is now coming to a close, you'll also be able to find lots of other entries on their page, so be sure to check them all out if you're interested in finding more recipes using lentils! Thanks guys! :)

Red Wine Lentils with Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese

Inspired by Cooking Light

Serves about 4-5

Ingredients:

For the roasted vegetables:

1 cup yellow pearl onions, ends trimmed and peeled
12 oz chopped peeled carrots (about 2 to 3 large carrots)
8 oz chopped peeled parsnips (about 1 to 2 parsnips)
12 oz beets (about 4-5 medium beets), peeled and chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon

For the lentils:

3 cups water
1-1/2 cups dry green lentils

For the red wine sauce:

1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water
½ a vegetable bouillon cube
Salt and pepper

For topping:

4 oz crumbled goat cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Chop all the vegetables (pearl onions, carrots, parnsnips, and beets) into small, even pieces, about ½” thick, and transfer to a large bowl along with the garlic cloves. Mix the red wine, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and tarragon in a small bowl, then pour over the vegetables and toss to coat. Transfer the vegetables to the baking sheet, place in the preheated oven, and set the timer for 40 minutes.

When there are 30 minutes left on the timer, combine the lentils and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the water reaches a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 25 minutes (which should be the remainder of the time left on the vegetables).

Chop the onion and garlic and prepare ingredients for red wine sauce.

When there are 15 minutes left on the timer, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Once hot, add the onions and garlic, and sauté until softened and golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the tomato paste, thyme, and tarragon, and stir for another minute. Add the red wine, water, and bouillon cube, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer about 5 minutes, until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

At this time, your lentils and vegetables should be done cooking. Check both, and allow to cook longer if they’re still hard. Otherwise, combine the lentils, vegetables, and red wine sauce and stir together.

Divide into bowls, top each serving with about 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese (or more, if desired), and season with salt and pepper if desired. Serve warm.

Thanksgiving Week Day 6 - Roasted Vegetable Galette

For the main course in my Thanksgiving Week menu, I decided to share a recipe for a vegetarian dish. As I mentioned in my first post of this series, I don’t know the first thing about roasting a turkey and I don’t think most people need a new turkey recipe anyway. What I think people do need inspiration for is a main dish to satisfy the vegetarians at the table, who may not be too fond about the idea of tofurkey (at least the vegetarians I know aren’t)!

I’ve been wanting to make a galette for a while now, so I thought this would be the perfect vegetarian main dish to share for Thanksgiving Week. I first chose a recipe from Eating Well that had a much healthier crust than most other recipes, with whole wheat flour and only a bit of olive oil instead of butter or cream. Since I would be eating the whole test version myself, I thought this was a good decision. Unfortunately, the dough didn’t agree with me. Even after adding way more water and oil than the recipe called for, the dough was a big crumbly mess. I still wrapped it up and put it in the fridge, hoping that it would magically transform into a workable dough by the morning. Well, no such luck. I spent what felt like hours trying to roll out the dough the next day and when my arms could barely even lift the rolling pin anymore and my dough was in a million pieces, I gave up.

I then decided to go with a trusted baking source, even if it meant an unhealthy dough. Martha Stewart’s dough recipe called for a whole cup of butter, which scared me a little bit, but I convinced myself that if it meant I would have a manageable dough, it was worth the splurge. Besides, I’d already burned off about a thousand calories trying to roll out the other dough earlier!

I whipped up the new dough and it was so soft and easy to work with that I wanted to kiss it. Instead, I covered it with roasted vegetables and goat cheese and baked it into the most delicious dinner I’ve had in a while. You really can’t go wrong with a buttery, flaky pie dough, sweet roasted vegetables, and creamy baked goat cheese. This galette is definitely something the vegetarians at your Thanksgiving meal will appreciate, and the meat-eaters will be jealous of. Even if you don’t have any vegetarians to serve, this galette would still make a lovely addition to the table, either as a side dish or an appetizer if cut into smaller slices. Or, you could just make this on a random weeknight to eat all to yourself so that I don’t have to feel as guilty about doing it too!

If you want a healthier idea for a vegetarian main course, check out the Day 6 recipe over at Vanilla & Spice for butternut squash and apple quinoa. And if you still need more inspiration, then check out the links at the end of this post!

Roasted Vegetable Galette

Crust adapted from Martha Stewart, Filling adapted from Eating Well

Serves 6-10

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Pulse flour and salt briefly in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse about 10 seconds, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining. Add 1/4 cup of ice water and pulse until mixture begins to hold together. If it’s too dry, add up to 1/4 cup more ice water until dough holds (but is not wet or sticky).

Remove dough from food processor and shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.

For the filling:

1.5 cups chopped peeled carrots

1.5 cups chopped peeled parsnips

2 cups chopped peeled butternut squash

3 large shallots, peeled and chopped

1 head garlic

~2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

¼ to ½ cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Chop carrots, parsnips, and squash into ½” uniform pieces. Combine vegetables (carrots, parsnips, squash, shallots) with 1.5 tablespoons olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on the baking sheet.

Cut the tips off one end of the head of garlic and drizzle the exposed cloves with a teaspoon of oil. Wrap garlic in foil and place on the baking sheet with the vegetables.

Roast vegetables and garlic until tender (they don’t have to be completely soft because they will go in the oven again later), about 20-30 minutes. The garlic may need an additional 10-15 minutes in the oven on its own.

Transfer the vegetables to a large bowl. Unwrap the garlic and let cool slightly. Squeeze out the garlic cloves into a small bowl and mash with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the mashed garlic to the vegetables and toss to coat.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.

Once dough has chilled, roll it out on a floured surface or pastry mat into a 15” circle, about 1/4” thick. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the dough onto the sheet. Arrange the roasted vegetables on top of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle goat cheese over the vegetables.

Fold the border of the dough up and over the filling to form a rim, pleating as you go. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 50-60 minutes. Serve warm.

For other vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish ideas, check out these links:

Vegetarian nut loaf from A Couple Cooks

Thanksgiving meatless loaf from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

Layered sweet potato torte from Vegetarian Times

Pumpkin orzo with sage from Cheap Healthy Good

Spicy squash salad with lentils andgoat cheese from Smitten Kitchen

Butternut squash casserole from Ezra Pound Cake

Stuffedacorn squash with pine nuts, sour cherries and sage from The First Mess