I used a recipe! Yep. I did. Very rare, for me but this one just sounded too good. Was heading to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving and needed to bring a dish. Wanted something that had lots of nutrients and could act as a meal in itself in case there wasn’t much else I could (allergic to wheat and dairy) or wanted (won’t eat processed food or meat treated with antibiotics) to eat. This sounded perfect and has some of my favorite foods all rolled up in one – lentils, kale, mushrooms and walnuts. Yum! If you haven’t checked out Ohsheglows.com, then you are missing out. Great recipes, some of which I’ve loosely followed in the past.
So on to the main dish. I followed the instructions from Angela’s recipe pretty closely, so just look at her site for the instructions and ingredients. I thought at first “why do I need to toast the walnuts”. Then after taking them out of the oven, I know why. Once out of the oven, they gave off a most delicious smell, almost like roast poultry, but richer and earthier perhaps. My husband said something similar when he walked in after the whole mixture was done, which now also smelled strongly of garlic, oregano and rosemary. My whole house in fact smelled like a four course holiday meal was about to be served.
I left the mixture in the fridge overnight and rolled them up into balls and baked them the next morning. To go on the side, I also made Angela’s pear cranberry sauce also included on the website. My one mistake, cooking it in my cast iron pan.
The acid from the cranberries took the seasoning right off! So the pan spent the next several hours in the oven on self-clean smothered in coconut oil to re-season.
As I suspected, only a handful of people gathered for Thanksgiving tried them (not an adventurous crowd). One person tried them thinking they were meatballs, and said if I hadn’t said anything he wouldn’t have known, although he did think they tasted a little dry for meatballs. LOL. I agreed and think next time I’ll add olive oil to the lentil mixture.
I thought they were so good, that I’ll make them for Christmas too!
A Foodie Family 