Legumes I Actually Want to Eat Everyday on the Slow Carb Diet – Spiced Bacon
Try this Legumes I Actually Want to Eat Everyday on the Slow Carb Diet – Spiced Bacon recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Legumes I Actually Want to Eat Everyday on the Slow Carb Diet – Spiced Bacon recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 t ground cumin
- 1 large onion diced
- 2-3 cans lentils
- 1 cup of bacon diced
- 1 tbs ghee or macadamia oil
- 2-6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1/4 t ground turmeric
- 1/2 t ground ginger (or use fresh ginger if you have it
- 1/4 t cayenne (this will give the dish some heat. â add l just add a bit of paprika instead.)
- 1 c water or chicken stock (make sure there is no suga you'll need to add salt to the dish. â i use a vegetable seasoning salt intended for stews to give the lentils some extra depth.
- Carbohydrate 27.50146 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.43048 g
- Fiber 5.23340011978149 g
- Protein 3.21698 g
- Saturated Fat 0.15864 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (282g)
- Sodium 11.614 mg
- Sugar 22.2680598802185 g
- Trans Fat 0.1171 g
- Calories 118 calories
Step-by-step
- Add ghee or macadamia nut oil to the pot.
- About 1Tbs should be fine, but you can add more as needed at any point during the cooking process.
- Add chopped onion to pot.
- Cook on medium until onion is translucent.
- About 6-10 minutes.
- Add garlic and reduce heat a bit so as to not burn the garlic.
- Stir until garlic becomes fragrant.
- About 1-2 minutes.
- I use about 6 cloves because I love garlic, but that may be bit intense for some people.
- If you aren’t so keen on the dragon breath, 2 or 3 cloves should do.
- Add chopped bacon or bacon crumbles.
- Once the bacon is cooked through, add all the spices and heat until they become fragrant.
- About 1-2 minutes.
- Rinse the canned lentils and add to the pot.
- Stir.
- Add 1 cup or chicken stock or water.
- Simmer over low-medium for about 15 minutes or until liquid reduces.
- If you used water instead of chicken stock or you didn't include bacon, you’ll probably want to add salt.
- Once most of the liquid has reduced, remove the bay leaf and enjoy.
Canned legumes require different handling than dry varieties because their starches are already gelatinized from the canning process, meaning prolonged simmering will cause them to break down completely rather than soften gradually. Rendering the bacon first in a wide-bottomed Dutch oven provides sufficient animal fat to sweat the diced onions without scorching the alliums, provided the heat is maintained at a steady medium. Ground spices like cumin, turmeric, and ginger contain fat-soluble compounds that must be bloomed directly in this rendered fat for sixty to ninety seconds until aromatic, a step that releases essential oils trapped within the dry powders. Swapping macadamia oil or ghee for the fat rendered by the bacon alters the flavor profile significantly, turning a savory, meat-forward dish into a lighter, more vegetal base. Fresh garlic added immediately after the onions become translucent prevents acrid burning, which happens when sulfur compounds in garlic are exposed to high heat for longer than two minutes. Rinsing canned lentils thoroughly under cold running water removes excess canning liquid, which often carries a metallic taste from the tin. Simmering the mixture with chicken stock rather than plain water introduces gelatin and sodium that naturally body the reduced sauce without requiring additional thickeners. When the liquid drops by half and coats the back of a spoon after about fifteen minutes, the pan should be pulled from the burner immediately to retain textural integrity in the legumes. Pairing these spiced lentils with a crisp, acidic green salad or bitter greens dressed simply in lemon juice cuts through the richness of the pork fat and balances the earthy density of the pulses.
