A few months ago Kandace signed up for a Centr account by Chris Hemsworth. I was a little skeptical, but for a little over $100 we got access for a year subscription. I underestimated the services Centr provides. It has workouts, recipes, and guided meditations. We had some fun with their vegetarian moussaka recipe.
I never realized how hard it was to find lentils at the grocery store. In all fairness, I’ve never purchased or prepared lentils before. I looked at Safeway for lentils, this turned into a fruitless effort. With COVID ravaging the grocery store, I thought, “maybe lentils protect people from COVID.” So that was why the store didn’t have any. The next week we went to the commissary. They had toilet paper, eggs, milk, but no lentils! I told you, secret weapon against COVID! We picked up the rest of the ingredients and I was cautiously optimistic Safeway was going to come through. We checked Safeway, and no luck. I even checked their website to make sure I was in the right aisle. The moussaka would have to wait another week. Finally we made it to Whole Foods, and hit the jackpot!
At this point, I am not even sure what I am making, or how to cook lentils. The recipe called for canned, and I had dry lentils. A little google search and we were on our way again! It was super easy to make, once we had the ingredients. Here are a few tips:
- If using dry lentils, use a bigger sauce pan than you think you need. They get bigger as they soak up water
- Grate your Parmesan cheese instead of using pre-shredded
- Baking time took about 10 extra minutes in our oven
So it turned out to be a great casserole, maybe not quite as good as my quinoa enchilada casserole… But still really good.
Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 medium eggplant diced
2 cans of lentils (14 oz) drained and rinsed
1 can chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups arugula to serve
Topping
2 large eggs
1 cup (8 oz) Greek yogurt
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 cup parmesan grated
Method
1. Preheat oven to 355 F
2. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic for 5 minutes until soft. Add eggplant and cook, stirring for 5 minutes until browned. Add the lentils, tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes until reduced.
3. Meanwhile whisk eggs, yogurt, and cornstarch together. Stir in parmesan and season with salt and pepper.
4. Transfer eggplant mixture into an oven proof dish and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Pour topping evenly over eggplant and bake for 30 minutes until golden.
5. Serve with arugula.
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