Long Weekend - and a new casserole recipe

Because it's a long weekend, Ruth and I ended up making salads on Monday instead of Saturday.  Saturday I was attending a wedding and Ruth and Walter went with my parents to Calgary for David and Shirley's 50th anniversary.

Because it always goes faster if I cook the legumes and grains first, I put green lentils, split yellow chickpeas and brown rice to cook before we had even decided what we were going to cook.  These are fairly staple ingredients for us; we always try to do at least one recipe with a grain, and one with a pulse crop - and they take awhile to cook, so it's good to have them started ahead of time.

My dad had read something to us about rinsing any fruit or vegetable that is prone to mold in a wash made from one part vinegar to ten parts water, so we're trying that as well.  We had purchased fresh blueberries, some mini cucumbers, grape tomatoes, purple grapes and red onions - all of which can be prone to mold.  In fact, several of the red onions (we buy them in 10 kg sacks) had already started molding, so we'll have to see how this works.

We also tried a new casserole.  After we had made our Lentil and Brown Rice salad, we still had leftover lentils and brown rice - and we hadn't used the chickpeas at all.  So I searched for a recipe that involved all three of those ingredients.  Here's what I found:


Lentil, Chick Pea And Rice Casserole

2 TLB Garlic; minced
1/2 cup green lentils; washed
3 cups Vegetable stock; or water
2 TLB olive oil
1 cup Rice, uncooked
salt and pepper; to taste
1/4 cup Chopped fresh parsley
1 19-oz can chickpeas (or two cups)
2 TLB Fresh dill; chopped
1 Onion; chopped
1 cup Feta cheese; crumbled
1 1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese; grated

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, cook until fragrant and tender, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in rice and lentils; cook 2 minutes. Add chick peas and vegetable stock or water. Bring to boil. Lower heat, cover and cook gently for 20-25 minutes or until rice and lentils are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley, dill, feta and 1 cup of the cheddar cheese. Place in a 2 1/2 liter ovenproof casserole or baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheddar. If serving immedaitely, broil until cheese bubbles and is light brown. If making ahead, and reheating, bake in 375 F. oven for 20-25 minutes until hot. Makes 4-6 servings.

Now, to be honest - we already had the lentils, etc. cooked, so we didn't cook them in the frying pan with the liquid it called for, we just dumped in the cooked equivalent - so two cups cooked rice instead of 1 cup uncooked; 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils instead of 1/2 cup uncooked.  I also didn't have any dill on hand.   This was so good - that Ruth and I were scraping out the dutch oven after we filled the casserole dish - just so we could eat the scrapings.