BEST LENTILS dish EVER

Welcome back to today's episode and a special hello to Eurogrammy. How was your workday? I've been making these smashed lentil tacos for quite some time and figured it's time to get it out there. So first we're going to start off with one cup of lentils. A quick rinse and drain on the lentils and then I'm just going to jump into sharpening my knives. I get a lot of comments on knife skills and what kind of knives I use. The sharpest knife is always the best knife. And I picked up this handy water stone off of Amazon. It's pretty inexpensive too. The knives I use are dahlstrung and shun. I'll pop a link in the description along with the full recipe and link to our website. So while the lentils are draining, we're going to dice one onion. And as I mentioned in previous videos, I like to keep everything making the same size so it all fit on the spoon. So the onion should be diced as small as the lentils, if possible. I am preparing this recipe a day ahead for a group coming over for some plant-based innovation, but this can also be made the same day. So we're going to add these to a separate bowl and keep them to the side when we put the dish together shortly. Along with the onion, we're going to mince two shallots and four cloves of garlic, as fine as you can get them. And once you get the dicing done, give yourself a pat on the back because the hard part's done. So now we're going to heat a medium saucepan and add a little bit of oil. Just a light coating, like three or four tablespoons to coat the bottom of the pan. And then we're going to add our spices to toast before adding the onions. For all my no-oil friends, you don't have to use oil here. You can just steam sauté, add a little bit of broth, but you won't be toasting the spices that way. And stick with me, I'll give some more tips on what to do when you don't use oil in this recipe. So we're going to sauté just for a couple minutes, give it a quick couple stirs, let it soak in. All that flavor. And then we're going to add the cleaned lentils to the pot. We'll also add one can of tomato, plum tomatoes. And I just like to squish them right over the pot, except be careful because they do squirt all over the place. And this is also why I wear an apron. So once you squeeze those in, we're going to add a total of three cups of water. So if you can, if you count the tomatoes as like half a cup of water, then I'm going to add two more cups of water. Two and a half. Yeah, you're following me. So then I'm just going to bring this to a boil and then lower on a simmer. Unlike rice, I can stir this and check on it. So I do that periodically. And then once it's done and the lentils are nice and soft, I just turn off the heat and let it sit to cool down. And then I'm going to add a good size handful of crushed tortilla chips. This is for added flavor. It's going to make it delicious. So in order to make the tacos, I want this completely cooled, almost solidified, and that's where the fat helps. So if you're not going to use any of the oil, what I would do is just blend half of this to make it thick and sticky. So then we're just going to cool this down in the refrigerator for a couple hours or overnight. So I did mine overnight. And this is where I get to tell you about my favorite ice cream, the WikiKitchen birthday cake ice cream. It is super delicious. And it's not ice cream. It's better. I shouldn't be eating this right now because it is morning and I haven't even had coffee yet. It's available in the U.S. at Kroger's and in the U.K. at Tesco. So now we're going to make the additional, well, after I enjoy a cup of this amazing coffee in my favorite mug, we're going to start making a fresh pico to go with the tacos that we're going to smash in a minute. So first I'm going to start off by slicing two tomatoes and dicing and then popping that stuff right in the bowl. And you can use any tomatoes, large or small, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, whatever you like. The point is here is just to dice them fine and they're going to be super fresh to go along with these smashed lentil tacos. And I mentioned we're going to make pico and all that is is a fresh salsa. And we're going to do this one non-spicy, so I'm not going to add jalapenos, but I will add half a red onion. Save the other half for something else. Dice the red onion super small, super fine. Add to the bowl. Quick wipe down and clean up. And then up to the cilantro or coriander from my U.K. friends. And just a quick rough chop on the coriander. And I'm writing down a handful in the recipe, but you can use as much or as little as you like. And then the next ingredient would be lime. So I'm going to use the juice from two limes and by rolling them onto the counter just helps it loosen up so you get more juice out of it. So I squeeze that lime juice right into the bowl, give it a quick stir and taste test just to make sure it's good. And notice I didn't add any salt to this because I don't want it pulling the liquid out and just having a bowl full of liquid. So if I'm going to salt it, I'll salt it on the plate. All right, now for the fun part. I get the lentils from the refrigerator. I'm going to add some vegan cheese. I added about a cup and a half of smoked vegan cheese and just stirred through. Every time I open that package, Granny Frankie comes running. So I'm just going to stir that right in with the lentils. It's nice and solid. Nice pack of fresh tortillas. I'm just going to add lentils to half of it and then fold it over and press it down to stick. And I'll do this repeatedly. This morning I'm only making two just for the video, but I did get a dozen of these tacos out of this batch, so you know. This makes 12. Then we're going to heat up our cast iron pan. You know I'm a huge fan of these cast irons. And a couple flicks of the tongs. I'm going to add a little bit of oil to the bottom of the pan. I haven't done this with no oil this part, so I don't think there's a problem as long as you have a well-seasoned pan. I do like to add the cover of another pot that fits nicely onto here to help steam it along and just to make sure everything's nice and melty and gooey inside. And then just give them a flip. Toast each side. And then done. It's very easy after you start to get everything prepped up and ready. And these came out gorgeous. So quick pan care. Just quick rinse under the water. Wipe out a little bit of oil just to re-season the pan. And then I'm just going to start building the plate. Add the shredded lettuce, the fresh salsa. I'm using some Greek vegan yogurt instead. I couldn't find any vegan sour cream. And then I'm just adding the smashed tortilla, which is amazing. I can't wait to eat this. But I got to take a few more photos, show you guys this amazing dish. It truly is an easy, amazing, family dish, single guy dish, whatever, single woman, anybody. This is an amazing dish that is full of flavor. You're gonna love it. It's great to serve at parties or for anybody coming over. Anytime, any day. I even enjoy this in the morning because it's only 10 a.m. right now and I'm shooting this. And yeah, here I go. Stuff in my mouth. Coming to an end of this video you guys. Appreciate you. Smash that like. Subscribe if you like it. Tell your friends. I'll tell Frankie. Everybody say hello and have a great day.