Armenian Lentil Balls - Vegetarian Recipes - The Yoga Sanctuary Newsletter

VEGETARIAN RECIPES - NEWS FROM THE YOGA SANCTUARY

Recipes from Janine's Kitchen ~ September 2005 Recipe

Armenian Lentil Balls
Difficulty - easy ~ Serves 4-6 as a main. Great with salad.

My friend, Larissa, brought this to my place for a potluck I had. Great cold, room temperature or hot! Really easy to make..makes me want to buy an Armenian cookbook!

2 cups red lentils
1 cup fine bulgur
2 small onions or 1 large finely diced
1 tsp salt
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
3 scallions
2 tbsp ground cumin

1. Wash the lentils until water is pretty clear.
2. Place lentils in a pot and fill with water until water level approx. 1" above the lentils
3. Bring to a boil and simmer until done. Approx. 5-8 min
4. Meanwhile, heat a skillet with olive oil and fry the onions until translucent. about 8-10min.
5. Once the lentils are done. They should be a bit wet still. In other words, it shouldn't be dry. Add salt, onions, cumin and mix it up in the lentil pot.
6. Add about 1/2-3/4 of the bulgur depending on how wet your lentils are. I have also added more than 1 cup of lentils because I thought the lentils looked too dry! It was still really tasty so don't worry about that! Mix the bulgur in and cover the pot and let it sit until the rest of the water is absorbed by the bulgur. Leave for about 15 minutes or longer
7. Chop scallions and mince up parsley.
7. Take a spoon and stir, the mixture should resemble thick cookie dough. If it seems too watery still, add more bulgur and let it rest longer. You can also taste it at this point. The bulgur should no longer be hard but soft and melded in to the mix.
8. With a bowl of water nearby, wet your hands and mold into balls, footballs, any shape you like and place on a platter. I use about a tbsp for each ball.
9. Once done, sprinkle with scallions and parsley and drizzle with some good olive oil.

You can serve it. It will still be warm, or refrigerate it at this point and serve later on or the next day. I've also halved the recipe for myself. It still feeds me for several days.
Enjoy!

Hi all, my name is Janine and I'm excited to share with you recipes that I've collected over the years. Maybe even your favourite recipe! I love to cook and I love to eat. If you would like to share a recipe for consideration into this column please email it to janine_woo@yahoo.com.