Southwestern Lentils and Brown Rice
Adapted from plateandpairings.com
Yesterday I had some lovely chicken bone broth that I had made in my Instapot. I had never made bone broth in my Instapot so I did what I usually do and Googled it. Well, one thing lead to another, as it often does when Googling, and I found a beautiful recipe for Southwestern Lentils and Brown Rice at plateandpairings.com.
The author had adapted the recipe she had discovered and I decided to adapt it further based on what I had in my kitchen and ingredients that nourish me. I had lentils, rice, and yellow squash. I didn’t have some of the other ingredients, but I didn’t let that stop me!
My suggestion to folks just starting in the kitchen; relax, breath, start with a simple recipe, be willing to make a mistake, and have fun. If that still sounds overwhelming, reach out, I will be happy to help.
Southwestern Lentils and Brown Rice - Instapot Recipe
Ingredients
4 garlic cloves minced and allowed to sit 10 minutes
Olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot
1/2 red onion finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper finely chopped
1-2 yellow squash cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup basmati brown rice
1 cup lentils
3 cups vegetable broth
1 can petite diced fire roastsed tomatoes 15 oz.
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Hatch chili powder
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper
Plain yogurt and avocado slices for topping
Directions
Set the Instapot to saute and once it reads Hot, add the olive and add onion, bell pepper and saute until onion is transparent.
Add the squash and minced garlic and saute 2 more minutes.
Add cumin, turmeric, chili powder, oregano, salt and black pepper. Stir to combine. Add liquid from tomatoes and broth to total ½ cup and stir, scraping all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.
Add rice, lentils and remaining broth. Set to manual and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Allow pressure to naturally release for 15 minutes then release remaining pressure.
Remove cover and stir. You may add more broth if would like your dish to be a little more soupy.
Serve in bowl and top with a dollop of yogurt and avocado slice.
Non-Instapot Recipe
If you do not have an Instapot, use the same technique with a pot on the stove to sauté the vegetables and deglaze the pan. Once the lentils, rice and broth has been added, cover and allow to simmer on low medium heat 30 minutes or until the rice and lentils are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.