Smoky Red Lentils & Shitake with Sweet Potato Planks

Savory, smoky, umami and sweet... that just about covers it!

This was a cleaning out the pantry kind of recipe gone awesome! I had red lentils that I've been eyeing to use and came up with this soft-smoky lentil, savory and tender shiitake mushrooms that are balanced beautifully with these salty-sweet potato planks.

About Umami

I started with a package of dried Dynasty Shitake mushrooms, purchased at my local grocery store and they're awesome to have on hand. Having dried Shitakes in the pantry are a great addition to many meals because of their bold flavor and depth that they can bring and just need 30 minutes to rehydrate. Mushrooms are a newer love in my "food life" and Shitake especially has a flavor and experience known as "Umami". This is actually a newer 5th flavor that's been added to the taste palette officially in 2002 when the taste receptors were discovered. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.

Umami was first scientifically identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a professor of the Tokyo Imperial University. He found that glutamate was responsible for the palatability of the broth from kombu seaweed. He noticed that the taste of kombu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter, and salty and named it umami. Source: Wikipedia

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SERVING SIZE - 3 people

YIELD:

PREP TIME: 55 min (35 min to hydrate mushrooms, 20 other prep)

COOK TIME: 25 min

To rehydrate the dried Shitake mushrooms, boil a pot of water and remove from heat. Add in dried mushrooms and cover for 30 minutes.

Drain liquid and squeeze access moisture from the mushrooms with a clean kitchen towel. Cut off the stems and small dice the mushrooms for the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

LENTILS

• 1 cup Red lentils, dry

• 2 cups Water

• ¼ cup Onion, small dice

• ¼ cup Celery, small dice

• 1 cup Shitake mushrooms, small dice, dried and rehydrated, stems removed, and moisture squeezed out in a clean kitchen towel

• 1 ½ T Pork fat or vegan oil/fat of choice

• 1 tsp. Smoked paprika

• As needed salt and pepper to taste

• Fresh thyme leaves for garnish

SWEET POTATO

• 1 Ea. Sweet potato, peeled, cut into a block, cut in half (short-wise), then cut into ¼" - ½" planks (see photo)

• 1 T Olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS - Read first before starting

1. Potatoes: Preheat oven to 450℉ on broil setting.

2. Line a full baking sheet with foil.

3. In a medium bowl, toss the sweet potato planks with oil, salt, and pepper.

4. Lay each piece flat and spaced evenly on the lined baking sheet.

5. Broil in oven for 20 min on middle rack. Set a timer.

6. Lentils: Heat fat/oil of choice in a medium saucepan over med-high heat.

7. Add onion, celery, and mushroom with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Cook until tender. Add smoked paprika, combine well.

9. Stir in lentils and water and bring to a boil then down to a simmer and cover.

10. Cook for 6 minutes then remove from heat.

11. Potatoes: After 20 minutes on broil, remove sweet potato planks from the oven and carefully turn each one over (be careful they are soft).

12. Broil for an additional 5 minutes.

13. Plate your lentils and add sweet potato planks on the side. Season to taste and garnish with fresh thyme leaves. Enjoy!

Please let us know what you think of this recipe and if you made any changes that you would like to share with us!