If you’ve wanted to make comfort food healthy, this recipe is for you. As I’ve told you in the past, I often try to make vegetarian versions of the meat dishes I cook. One of my favorite dishes is chicken pot pie, and today I decided to make a variation of the dish with lentils and pastina pasta. I placed the mixture in mini soup bowls and covered them with puff pastry baked until golden and flaky.
The dish is fairly healthy, yet very flavorful due to the generous amounts of ginger, soy bacon bits, coriander, parsley and cilantro. The flavors and texture are spot on for a cold evening meal.
1. Info for Vegetarian Pot Pie with Lentil Pasta
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 6
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Vegetarian Pot Pie with Lentil Pasta
- 5 tablespoons black lentils
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
- ¼ cups pastina pasta
- ½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 3 (5 x 5-inch) puff pastry squares, store-bought
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons chopped yellow onion
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cilantro
- 3 tablespoons curly parsley
- 1 tablespoon soy bacon bits
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can vegetable broth
3. Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- For the pasta: Bring about 1 quart of water to a boil. Add the pasta, bring back to a full boil, then immediately lower the heat to a gentle boil. That way the pasta is cooked all the way through evenly. Cook the pasta for about 8 minutes total. Salt the water half way through the cooking process (it will bring out the natural flavor of the pasta and the pasta will be more tender) and keep stirring every now and then so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Drain the pasta (do NOT rinse). Set aside in a large fine-mesh strainer.
- For the black lentils: Wash the lentils. Discard any floating or odd-shaped lentils. Wash and rinse thoroughly in several water baths.
- In a small pot, heat the oil. Add the onions and cook until golden. Add the ginger garlic paste, soy bacon bits and lentils. Stir well and add the vegetable broth and ½ cup of water. Add the julienned ginger, turmeric powder, mint leaves, cilantro and 2 tablespoons of curly parsley. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Bring to a boil then lower to a gentle simmer for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and keep stirring every now and then so the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pot; cook for another 15 minutes. Add the lemon juice.
- Add the pastina pasta and more water if necessary (I didn’t; it depends on how soupy you like it) and the remaining parsley.
- Lightly brush the inside of the mini-soup bowls with butter. Remove the excess butter. Fill the bowls with the lentil pasta mixture.