Toasted Skillet Popped Lentils seasoned with parsley and cayenne pepper. These nutty lentils make a delicious, low calorie under 20 minute meal. If you love popcorn you will love these! Gluten Free + Vegan + Low Calorie
Well, no sugar coating things here. Recovering from my surgery these last few days has been awful. The day of the actual surgery I was fine, but the next day was horrific.
My poor Mom almost took me to the emergency room in the middle of the night because the pain meds were doing nothing for me except making me sick, but I was in too much pain to move from my bed.
I don’t tolerate pain medication very well especially tylenol and that’s all I can have right now. Thankfully, Mom cancelled her plans to leave over the weekend to stay longer until I’m doing better.
The next day the doctor removed the packing and I felt some relief. Still I had quite a lot of pain over the weekend. My nose itself doesn’t hurt, but my sinus cavities are really swollen and congested.
I feel like I have the worst sinus infection of my life and look like someone beat me up. My right eye is swollen half closed. I pray it goes back to normal. It’s my worst nightmare.
Yesterday afternoon I began feeling a lot better. I hope that trend continues so I can sleep through the night. Sometimes a good night’s sleep can be everything you need to cure you.
That better happen soon because my hair is so dirty I can put it in a bun without a hair tie. I’m sure you all want to see me know. Hopefully, the short term misery will be worth long term sinus relief. On the bright side, my leg and feet aren’t hurting. <3
So now that you know how glamorous I look, let’s talk about something that is glamourous. This recipe! Sometimes I think we get so caught up in making fancy recipes that they’re too overly complicated for the average person.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t do complicated or fancy. All you need for this are five ingredients, 20 minutes and a skillet then you have an amazing tasting meatless dinner.
I discovered toasted lentils a few years ago and forgot about them until I was looking through an old box of recipes. You know the kind of box you keep with your Mom’s recipes and clips from magazines?
Well, I’m thankful for finding that box because I’m able to revive an old favorite. Pair this dish with some roasted vegetables and you have yourself a simple irresistible meal!
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Skillet Popped Lentils With Parsley
Ingredients
- 1 cups lentils
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Add the extra virgin olive oil to a large skillet bring to medium heat.
Once the oil is hot after about 3 minutes, add the lentils stirring them to coat in oil. After 5 minutes, the lentils will start to plump up.
Continuing stirring the lentils and moving them around the pan then add the salt, pepper, cayenne. Stir and cook another 5-7 minutes.
When the lentils appear brown around the edges, stir in the parsley. Remove from the pan and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
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Sorry you’re having a rough time with recovery, sending hugs!
Things are better this afternoon. Let’s hope this continues!
Well, at least you don’t have to shop for a Hallowween costume! As we’ve already discussed 😀 And I’m curious if I might like the lentils more this way! Will have to try!
True! My one eye is now open, but I have this weird bruise line. As for the lentils, I adore them cooked this way.
Oh no! I’m sorry you are having a rought time. Sending lots of posotive thoughts and hugs your way.
Oh thanks, Dannii! The worst is over now.
So sorry to hear that you had such a rough time of things this week. Glad to see you are doing better now. I never knew you could make lentils this way. Interesting! Thanks for joining us for Meatless Monday. Hope you have a better week
Yes, I absolutely love lentils this way. It’s like candy!
Oh no 🙁 I am so sorry you are having such a hard time in the recovery, but good you have your mum to look after you. Sending lots of love your way. Thanks for sharing the recipe, I had no idea you could cook lentils this way! Thats awesome!
Yes! You need to try it. They’re crunchy and delicious.
Love your honesty in describing your recovery. Sounds like it’s really been a pain (literally!). As I like to say, just another “is this real life??” health experience for your New York Times best selling book (insert crying/laughing emoji). You got this, girl!
Thanks, Anna! I wish I had a book. I feel like I could write one after all I’ve been through. P.S. I read your emails before surgery but didn’t have time to respond. Very helpful info! I’m convinced it’s what I want to do, but still trying to figure out how to make it happen.
Yay! So glad to hear it 🙂
This is right up my ally! Yum!!! Never turn down lentils!
But I hope you keep healing up well! Sending my best!
Thanks, Rebecca! Lentils are the best.
Oh girl I hope you are feeling better – sounds pretty horrific!! I’m all about a simple, easy recipe that doesn’t’ require a ton of ingredients. It’s been my focus lately. Lentils are so great with roasted veggies – especially squash! Yum! Feel better and sleep well my friend!
It certainly wasn’t fun, but I think I’m over the worst of it now. I still haven’t been able to sleep. Hopefully soon though!
I’m so sorry your recovery isn’t going well!!!! I hope it picks up. But I am WAY impressed with this simple and amazing recipe. I didn’t know you could pop lentils! Too cool.
Thanks, Leslie. I’m doing much better today and yes, you need to try your hand at lentil popping!
Ohhhhh Megan! You poor thing! I hope you feel all the way better soon, and that’s great your Mom is there to take care of you! 🙁
Glad you’re starting to feel a little better, recovering from surgery is no fun to say the least. Btw, I’ve never heard of cooking lentils this way and I can’t wait to try it! What a great idea, they look absolutely delicious!
Let me know if you try it. They’re fabulous!
I’m sorry but I’ve made lentils plenty, and this just isn’t working for me they aren’t plumping up in the skillet and now I have a bunch of brown hard lentils that might as well be a handful of dirt..
That’s unfortunate. Not sure where you went wrong. These are most certainly not dirt. In fact, they’re a favorite crunchy snack all my friends love. You may have cooked them too long, didn’t have enough oil or had bad lentils. Either way, you went wrong somewhere. Hope the rest of your day is more positive!
Haha… thanks I didn’t mean for that to come off badly I just figured something was wrong I cooked them for the 5 mins in the oil recommended and they never plumped up they stayed really hard and gritty they taste good but it was more like eating popcorn kernels that never began to pop even a little… in wondering if the altitude (I’m in Colorado around 7,500 ft.) would affect the heat and cooking time? I know it affects temp and water boiling ect. Wonder if I should have heated the oil longer and then dropped the temp and added the lentils? Not sure I’m not beat yet I’ll try again.
You might need more oil and a bit lower heat. Heat can do weird things at different elevations. They are supposed to taste like a popcorn kernel, only not hard and not like dirt. You may try soaking the lentils in water 30 minutes before cooking to soften them a bit.
I wonder if Jessica’s problem was using dry, uncooked lentils instead of lentils that were pre-cooked either at home or out of a can. Megan, which do you use? Thank you!
I used dry lentils not pre-cooked.
These look like so much fun! We love lentils and currently have a whole lot of them (my husband didn’t realize we already had two bags so he bought two more!). This would be a great way to use up some of our lentil supply. =)
That’s a lot of lentils. This will certainly help use them up! Hope you love the recipe.
I just bought some lentils and I don’t know what to do with them. I guess I will try this, love how there is basically nothing else required. I’m kind of confused what the texture will be like though. Are they crunchy or soft?
Not sure what surgery you had, but it sounds awful. Hope you are feeling better soon Megan!
They’re crunchy. Similar to making skillet popped popcorn, they plump up and get soft on the inside & hard on the outside.
These sounds yummy! But I have a question the calorie info at the bottom of the recipe says a 180 calories but then in the nutrition info it says 539. How many calories in a serving?
It’s 180. I switched recipe cards over the summer and the old ones are messed up.
Starting with pre-cooked lentils here, right?
No, the lentils are not cooked.