Month: September 2017

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Roasted Potatoes

Did you know there was a guy who lived off of nothing but potatoes for a year?  Potatoes get a bad rap, but they are actually very nutritious and a great way to keep you full on a plant-based diet.  We love them at our house.  We like these with BBQ Lentils.  Talk about a cheap meal–it’s great to have some of these in the vault to balance out some of the more expensive health foods I like to buy!

This recipe is always a winner, I almost always double this for our family:

2 pounds potatoes, cut into about 1 inch pieces

2 tablespoons oil (my preference is avocado oil because it is stable at high temperatures.  Other oils can break down and are not so good for you)

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Blot potatoes dry with a paper towel.  This step can be skipped but creates crispier potatoes

Place potatoes and oil in ziploc bag, close bag and gently rotate to coat potatoes in oil.

Cover rimmed baking sheet with foil and pour potatoes in an even layer.  Sprinkle with salt and bake for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, turn potatoes, reduce heat to 400 and bake for 15 minutes longer or until crispy golden brown.

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BBQ Lentils

I’ve been making this barbecue sauce with white beans – it’s one of the easiest recipes to pull together and put in the freezer.  Recently I tried the sauce on some cooked lentils I already had in the fridge and I liked it better!  Lentils are super cheap and easy to cook, so this was a win, win!

We like these with some type of potatoes: either baked in the oven or the microwave (super easy), roasted potatoes or mashed potatoes.

I have tried a lot of homemade sauces and this is one I’ve made more than almost anything else.  It’s quick and easy and flavorful.  I used maple syrup and add a few drops of liquid smoke.  Ideally you can mix it together in advance to let the flavors blend, but it’s not required.

I’ve never seen this in a recipe, but lately I’ve been soaking my lentils before I cook them.  I just put them in the pan and cover them with water an inch or so above the lentils and leave them on the counter until I’m ready to cook them.  Then I drain them, add new water and cook them on the stove with some salt and garlic.  They cook up faster that way and soaking helps to make the nutrients more available and reduces the tendency to cause gas.

I would use 2-3 cups cooked lentils to 1 recipe of barbecue sauce.