Did you know that May is Canadian Lentils Love your Lentils month? Well it’s been a perfect excuse for me to play around with lentils in the kitchen and come up with a couple of entries for the Love your Lentils contest.
When I received the lentils in the swag at FBC2013, I knew immediately that I wanted to work on a soup recipe (especially since the weather here in Toronto has been, shall we say, less than seasonal recently!). I loved Dorie Greenspan’s orange-scented lentil soup and wanted to play with those ingredients as I really enjoyed the combination of oranges and lentils. Instead of green lentils, I worked with red to create a carrot and lentil soup with notes of cardamon and orange. Perfect for this in-between weather we’ve been having where Mother Nature doesn’t know if it’s spring, summer or winter.
Next up, I was inspired by some puffy pillowy ricotta gnocchi that I made last week. So many people think gnocchi is so complicated but honestly, I whipped these babies up after a long day at work with very little effort at all….
And then I got to thinking, “I wonder if I can incorporate lentils into gnocchi somehow?” I mean, I love pan-fried pumpkin gnocchi (my “go to” recipe is from Steamy Kitchen), so why not switch lentil purée for the pumpkin and give them a bit of a twist?
A little experimenting in the kitchen came up with these:
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi panfried in tumeric butter. Because you really want these flavours to shine, you need to keep the serving simple so I chose to serve this with a mango-mint chutney. Flavours you won’t expect in a gnocchi but ones that will delight your tastebuds 🙂
Do you like the look of these two recipes?
Head on over to check them out on the Love your Lentils site. And hey, while you’re there, if you’re so inclined, I’d love a vote! There are some cool prizes to be won – a blogger, a home chef, and a voter will all win the chance to join Chef Michael Smith in Saskatchewan on June 23, 2013 for a culinary adventure.
Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter
Did you know – it’s Food Revolution Day on Friday May 17th? Find out how you can get involved and Cook it. Share it. Live it. for #FRD2013 in this post.
We LOVE lentils here, Mardi. I really love your take on the gnocchi. Fantastic!
Thanks so much Gail!
Beautiful combination of flavours, Mardi x
Thanks Shayma!
Ok, that is just crazy interesting….orange-cardamom soup and the gnocchi…very cool. Can’t wait to try.
Hey, I think Mr. Neil deserved credit for a supporting role, here…. 😉
I had for lunch the next day. Not ideal timing – really htese are best fresh out of the pan – but still quite good.
No wine pairing for lunch at work – !! – but I nice Gewurztraminer would have been my choice. Or even better an India Pale Ale, with the increased hops working with the slight spice.
Glad to know they were ok the next day!
Definitely going to make this soup to eat while camping this long weekend! I just noticed that the recipe’s ingredients list doesn’t include an amount for the orange zest — Wing it?
Sorry about that – it’s been fixed. It’s the zest of one large orange!
I’m going to try your lentil gnocchi they sound delicious. 🙂
They are a nice change!
Oh my goodness… This sounds perfect! Darron loves gnocchi, so I’ll have to give these a try. Thanks for the idea and inspiration 🙂
These were definitely interesting!
Mardi, this is such a great idea. So creative! Will definitely be trying this with my my FBC lentils.
🙂 Thanks!
Mmmmm lentils! Looks good. What about lentilsoup?
Yes, the lentil soup with cardamom and oranges is pretty tasty!