When you don’t eat meat, you’re always looking for ways to get protein. Although I could eat beans just about every day, sometimes I’m at a loss for how to make them more interesting. These smashed lentils are super easy to make and do not contain any ‘crazy’ ingredients, but the simple twist of smashing them at the end, changes it up a bit. Instead of having your traditional mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes or yucca…) try smashing your beans–you get all the wonderful comfort of the smashed texture and all the protein of a legume!

Smashed Red Lentils (Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils–dry

1 small red onion–diced

1 anaheim pepper–diced

2 cloves garlic–minced

1 tablespoon sofrito (Goya or homemade)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cup vegetable broth

1/4 teaspoon fennel seed

1/8 teaspoon celery seed

salt/black pepper

Method:

*Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add onion, anaheim pepper, a large pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Sweat the onions and peppers for about 7 minutes or until barely soft. Add garlic, sofrito, fennel seeds, and celery seeds. Mix. Cook 1-2 minutes.

*Add dry lentils to saucepan, along with the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and then drop the heat to low. Simmer 25-30 minutes. Smash mixture until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes . Serve with fresh herbs.