Vegan Social Media Recipes! ~ Crispy Artichokes & Beluga Lentils

Well here we are, folks. Back for another Monday and another delicious vegan recipe. I’m feeling less harried and far more relaxed than I have been for the past month or two, which is nice. I spent the morning playing tennis, which was amazing. It was nice out today, a whopping 27 degrees Celsius if you can believe it and we took full advantage.

Mondays are usually tennis days when it’s warm out because we go grocery shopping on Monday and it kind of ends up being a blah day after people-ing so much. But this past weekend was Easter here in Romania so not everything is open today, which means we bumped shopping back one day and spent the morning tennis-ing. Yeah, that’s a word.

Totally.

Anyway I worked out Sunday and after 90 minutes of tennis, I wanted something delicious and healthy and something that wouldn’t weigh me down for the rest of the day. Enter, Instagram. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, right? (Ha, kidding!) Anyway, I LOVE scrolling through all the amazing vegan foodies on Instagram because it’s their job to create these yummy videos and recipes and all I have to do is pick one and then make sure I have the ingredients.

For this particular recipe, it’s actually contains a few vegan pantry staples like artichokes and Beluga lentils. Okay, so sure, artichokes aren’t necessarily a pantry staple BUT they are. Here you can find the ones in oil all over the place but it’s hard to find the ones in water so whenever I find them, I buy a jar or can…or two.

And here we are.

Sarah’s Vegan Recipes is the inspiration for today’s vegan meal. I saw the video last week and I knew this was going to end up in my belly and today…it has.

Kitchen Tools:

*Saucepan
*Cutting board
*Baking mats
*Blender or Food processor

Ingredients:

*Tofu (I used firm tofu in water)
*Beluga lentils
*Artichokes (recipe calls for quarters, all I had were hearts so I halved them)
*Eggplant (roasted)
*Onion
*Water or Waste free broth
*Pesto
*Lemon juice
*Herbs & spices

Instructions:

*Preheat the oven to 200C/400F

*Halve the eggplant and roast it about 20 minutes or until the flesh is soft. Set aside and let cool.

*Rinse the artichokes and let drain until as dry as they can get, then toss them with your favorite herbs & spices and let them chill on a baking mat. Bake until crispy, about 20 minutes but really use your best judgment.

*Sauté onions in a sauce pan until brown and almost crispy. Add water and lentils and cook until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the brand.

*Add eggplant and tofu into the food processor along with salt, black pepper and lemon juice. I peeled a few strips of lemon skin off and tossed them in also for a bit of a pop of flavor. Run until smooth, adding water or broth as necessary. The original recipe says to add vegan yogurt and I did eventually add 25 grams to help with texture.

*Plate everything: tofu/eggplant mixture on the bottom – onion & lentils on top of that – artichokes next and then garnish with pesto.

*For the pesto: I made a wild green pesto with parsley, leustean, dill, radish greens, plus all the other vegan pesto ingredients. Get more details on making an excellent vegan pesto here and here.

**Add extra lemon juice on top if you want. I also added a few drops of chili oil because I thought it was pretty and I love spice. Totally optional but recommended.

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