Lentil burritos

My apologies. Pulse Wednesday became Pulse Thursday this week because I was at Farm Tech. Farm Tech is the biggest farm conference that I attend every year. Over 1800 farmers attend and we go to sessions on a wide variety of crop related topics. There are keynote speakers, and in addition to that, there is A LOT of socializing. After being an agriculture reporter for over seven years now, I can walk on the show floor and run into a farmer I know in a couple of minutes. I often meet people that I’ve been talking to on social media, but have never met in person, which is always really nice.

Anyway, I was so busy Farm teching, that I was too tired to write about my pulse recipe. So I’m a day late.

But I’ll make up for it by giving you a really simple lentil burrito recipe- This one is easy, quick and highly adaptable.

I love burritos, tacos, quesadillas or anything in a wrap. Expect lots of wrap type recipes in the next year.

Lentil Burritos
(Serves 4)

¾ cup split red lentils
1 ½ cup water
1 tsp canola oil
½ medium onion, diced
½ cup green pepper, diced (I just throw a green pepper in there)
1 large garlic clove, minced (I probably add more)
1 tsp chili powder
¼ tsp ground cumin
½ cup water
3 tbsp tomato paste

4 6-inch whole grain or corn tortillas

For garnish:
sour cream
salsa
low fat cheese
lettuce etc

1. Rinse and drain lentils. In saucepan, bring lentils to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Red lentils break down and should look a bit mushy. Slightly undercook them. Drain if necessary.

2. In another pan, saute onion, green pepper and garlic in canola oil, but do not brown. Add chili powder, cumin, cooked lentils, water and tomato paste. Stir for 2 minutes until the mixture thickens. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

3. Lay tortilla flat and place ½ cup of the lentil mix down in the center and roll it up. Top with whatever you want. (I use greens, salsa and cheese, but you can be flexible here)

Nathan liked these, but he would recommend throwing in some jalapenos. I haven’t tried making this with green, black or other lentils, but that could be cool. I think this would be a good one for kids. If you’re just making it for yourself, the lentil filling keeps well in the fridge for a few days. The first time I made these, I just ate burritos for a few days.

I got this one from Pure Prairie Eating Plan. This is a great cookbook with a really bad name. Dr. Catherine Chan and Dr. Rhonda Bell are two professors of human nutrition at the University of Alberta. They designed an eating program for people with diabetes. After it was designed, they realized that the recipes and eating plan could be useful to people who just wanted to eat healthy, low fat food. So they got some funding and released the cookbook. I was given this cookbook in a swag bag at a conference. I use it a lot, and I actually bought a copy to give to someone else. It’s full of useful, easy, practical recipes featuring stuff that you can actually find on the Canadian prairies. There are recipes suitable for vegetarians and omnivores.

Here’s the cookbook website- http://www.pureprairie.ca