Monday, March 24, 2014

Meatless Monday

Why do the weekends always fly by?  It's so not fair.  Luke and I had such a nice weekend.  He played golf Saturday and Sunday and I just enjoyed doing what I wanted, even if that meant doing nothing.  If you know me, you know I can't sit still for too long so my doing nothing only lasts about 30 minutes.

Saturday night was our date night.  We had dinner in downtown Columbia, SC at a restaurant called Basil.  It's a Thai restaurant and it's super yummy!!  The first time we went to Basil was a few years ago in downtown Charleston, SC with my brother and his wife and we loved it.  So Luke and I were both really excited when a Basil restaurant opened in Columba last year.

I have a new favorite drink.  It's a Pineapple Mojito. I don't usually like Mojitos, but the pineapple was calling my name so when I saw that on the menu, I thought I had to try it.  Oh my gosh, it's so good!  I told Luke he has to try to remake this drink at home! ;)

Yesterday I spent most of my afternoon in the kitchen.  Luke and I had separate meals for dinner but we cooked and ate dinner together so it worked out. :)  For dinner, I had Giada's lentil burger.

Giada De Laurentiis is one of my favorite Food Network chefs.  I love her show and her recipes!  Over the years, I've tried so many of her recipes and they've all turned out delicious.  I recently bought her new cookbook, "Giada's Feel Good Food" which offers a wide variety of recipes.  I've already tried several of the recipes in this cookbook and none of them have disappointed. 

The Lentil Burger with Lemon-Basil mayonnaise which I had for dinner is from her cookbook.  Oh my goodness, yum!  However, it is time consuming so don't expect to whip this recipe together within a few minutes and eat.  Once you combine everything, you have to put the "burgers" into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to set, but they're delicious so they're worth the wait. :)

Lentil Burger:

1/2 extra-virgin olive oil
2 large shallots or small onion, minced
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped (or 1 tbsp. dried thyme)
1/2 cup green peas
2 cans lentils, rinsed and drained (or 1/2 bag of dried lentils, rinsed, then cook for 20 minutes)
1/2 cup, plus 1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
1tbsp fresh lemon juice


In a medium skillet, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and add the shallots along with 3/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Cook until shallots are softened.  Then add the garlic, mushrooms, thyme and 3/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Cook until mushrooms are soft and set aside.

Using a food processor, puree the peas and half of the lentils until smooth.  Then spoon into a bowl and add the remaining lentils, 1/3 cup of cornmeal, mayonnaise, lemon juice and mushroom mixture.  Mix together with a spoon and then form into 6 patties.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cornmeal onto a cookie sheet and place the patties on top of the cornmeal.  Then sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cornmeal on top of the patties and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Cook the patties in the skillet until golden brown on each side.

Mayonnaise topping:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped (or 1/4 cup of the basil in a tube)
Zest of 1 lemon

In a small bowl, stir the mayonnaise, basil and lemon zest until combined.

Place the patties on top of butter lettuce.  Then top each pattie with sliced tomatoes and a dollop of the mayonnaise mixture.


YUM!!! :)


2 comments:

Unknown said...

I might just become a vegetarian yet! :)

Unknown said...

There are a lot of yummy vegetarian recipes that could win you over ;)

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