From Food

Around a week ago I decided to go on a slow carb diet. Basically for 6 days you eat beans, meat, and veggies and avoid dairy, breads, and grains. And on the 7th day, you cheat, you can eat anything you want. I needed to make large batches of things that I could eat throughout the week so I would not be tempted to fall off the wagon. I took out a recipe for Ethiopian Spiced Lentils that I used in the past and enjoyed. I made my own modifications below:

• Used pretty much all the spices mentioned in the recipe but not necessarily in those amounts. I took the approach add seasoning, taste, add more seasoning.
• I omitted the red wine vinegar (mostly because I thought at the time it wasn’t allowed on the diet – still not sure if it is)
• I soaked the lentils over night before cooking. Technically you don’t have to soak lentils but it is always helpful to release gases in the beans/legumes.
• I sauteed carrots along with the onions and garlic.
• I always end up cooking things longer than recipes say. I tend to cook at slightly lower temperatures than they recommend. This was probably simmered an additional 5-10 minutes.
• I ate the dish without rice.

What I would change about how I prepared this dish:

• Either omit the peas altogether or cook them with the lentils so they are mushy. I am not a big fan of sweet peas. I would rather know that they are not even there.
• I would cook the carrots with the lentils so they are also mushy. It was distracting to have crunchy carrots in what was essentially a mushy dish.
• Make it slightly less spicy hot – a little less red pepper.