I was shopping at Trader Joe's and saw this bag of Black Beluga Lentils and was intrigued. I had never heard of Beluga Lentils and was gleeful to see that these lentils had 16g of protein per 4oz serving. I'm always on the lookout for non-meat high protein foods, and something that is basically toss and serve, so I was game.
But of course, I did not want to eat the Belugas by themselves. I had to dress the dish up somehow so I came up with the idea to toss in some sweets to play with the typical blandness of lentils; mango, cherry tomato and left over corn on the cob I had from dinner the night before. I also thought sauteing some onion would add a warm twist. Although, truth be told, I like to put sauteed onions in everything as they remind me of the comfort of my mom's food.
At the Whole Foods salad bar, they had these multi-color cherry tomatoes which I thought would look festive set against the black color of the lentils.
I like cherry tomatoes because aesthetically I like the look of these baby tomatoes cut in half. Same with corn, I like the look of chunks of corn sliced off the cob. Even with food, you can't take the designer out of me.
Ingredients (serves 3)
- 1 bag Trader Joe's Black Beluga Lentils
- 1/2 mango sliced into chunks
- 12 cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1/2 ear of corn on the cobb sliced
- 1/4 of yellow onion sliced
- olive oil
- sea salt & gralic powder
Let's get cooking:
- The lentils are already fully cooked but the instructions call to either microwave or heat in the bag on the stove top which is the option I chose. I'm trying to microwave as little as possible nowadays opting for old fashioned stove cooking.
- In a pan, heat the olive oil and then saute the onions until they are limp. I love the taste of sauteedd onions.
- Toss in the bag of lentils with the onions, and season with sea salt and garlic powder. The lentils don't need much salt in my opinion but I'll leave that to your taste buds.
- Continue to saute the lentils and onions together in the pan for about 2 minutes. You just want to get everything heated with each other.
- Pour the lentils in a mixing bowl and let them cool down for about 5 minutes.
- Toss in the mango chunks, tomatoes, and corn, and mix all together.
The dish is ready to serve!
What's cool about this Black Beluga Lentil dish is that you can make it as a vegan main dish or as a side paired with some white fish like Tilapia or Sea Bass.
