Lentil fritters
Food for Thought with Suzanne Dunaway
I love these crispy apéro fritters made with healthy orange lentils, especially in the summer when we are having curry and cold cucumber raita to stave off summer’s heat.
They can be made with a hot green chile or none or a sweet green chile or a few slices of sweet red pepper thrown into the mix, but they are excellent with no peppers at all. I did add a small garlic clove to liven up the fritters. I can eat a plate of these all by myself.
They are good for one, right?
Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers in yogurt with a bit of garlic and mint are very good with these.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups orange lentils
- 1 large or two small sweet onions, chopped coarse
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger or a little more if you like ginger
- 1 small garlic clove
- Optional: a branch of fresh coriandre
- Olive oil for sautéeing
Method
- Place the lentils in cold water just to cover and let sit for 30 minutes to soften. Drain them thoroughly and place in the bowl of a food processor.
- Add all of the rest of the ingredients (except the olive oil), a little salt and pepper, and grind to a paste.
- Heat a large skillet and put in a tablespoon of olive oil to heat until just smoking. With a medium spoon, scoop up the lentil paste and place the contents in the skillet, pressing gently to flatten the fritter. Keep doing this until the skillet is relatively full.
- Let the fritters sauté until you see the edges taking on color, about 3-4 minutes.
- When nicely browned gently turn over the fritters and cook on the other side until crisp.
- Remove to a place and sprinkle with chopped fresh coriandre or parsley.
Meet the chef
P-O Life reader, Suzanne Dunaway, has cooked since she was 5 years old, when she made cinnamon pinwheels from her mother’s pastry dough.
She LOVES to cook. Some might say she LIVES to cook. The smells, the tastes, the textures…
She is a firm believer in simplicity and creates her recipes in the ethos of ‘anyone can cook’.
After years of experience in her own kitchen, cooking schools and private classes all over the world, in this weekly blog, Suzanne shares with us her PO-inspired creations.
With many strings to her bow, she is also an artist and columnist, with two published cookbooks.
Get a copy of her ‘No Need to Knead: Handmade Artisan Breads in 90 Minutes’ here
Or her 5 star rated book ‘Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen’ here
All content and recipes are copyright of Suzanne Dunaway.
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