Legumes and grains
Bulgur, red lentil & butternut squash skillet
Red lentil, bulgur and vegatable skillet that is a satisfying simple healthy vegan dinner, solid for weeknights. You can easily double the recipe and meal prep this for the entire week. This vegan recipe makes 3…
Red Lentil, Bulgur and Vegetables Skillet – A Tasty Vegan Dinner Recipe Ready In Less Than 30 minutes!
We don’t know what to call this dish, really. It’s not vegan paella or risotto, it’s just bulgur, red lentils and butternut squash dinner recipe from heaven.
One thing we know for sure: this is satisfying. Like satisfying. And yes, we made another recipe with almost the same ingredients we used in the bulgur, lentil and spinach soup recipe. Sue us. Or you know, try them both – you already have the ingredients anyway.
Now to be honest with you, we made this recipe a while ago. We know, we are a horrible person and we are behind with our posts. It was the time when butternut squash was still kinda popular…so about beginning of December last year. We told you, we are a horrible person.
Where are you going to find butternut squash now? We don’t know. But we know you can use frozen spinach, carrots, kale or whatever vegetable you have and love. Don’t use anything you don’t like.
There are about 576718236.6 things we love about this healthy dinner recipe. But one of our favorites is that it cooks in just one huge pan. This means, since our dishwasher was non-existent when we made this, we could still enjoy our dinner without the fear that we will have to clean like Cinderella afterward.
How it comes together
- Aside from some chopping and stirring you don’t need to do much here. You just start with some onions, garlic, spices.
- Then the rest of the ingredients, you pour some sugar, ummm no, better hot water on them. Then you leave it alone at medium, medium-high maybe.
- But, you still keep an eye on it and stir from time to time. You’ll be ready in about 20-30 minutes (depending on how long your lentils need).
- After we made this and tried it, we couldn’t believe this thing was completely vegan. It was just sooo good.
- Usually, we would need some yogurt sauce with it, but this was so satisfying just like that. It’s a simple, but satiating taste.
Health and Beauty Benefits
Dreams do come true, because this fast, tasty and plant-based dinner is also healthy. Are you kidding us? We are not. But we obviously am talking to myself a lot.
This dish has the solid combination of fiber, protein, magnesium, iron, folic acid, beta carotene and a lot of other nutrients with weird names found in plants that make us feel good and prevent disease.
The one thing that might be on the low here is vitamin C, since it disappears after being heated. But you need it, to make collagen and more importantly with this dinner recipe – to absorb the plant iron better. There’s a lot of iron here, it would be a shame if you don’t get most of it. So make sure you drink some fresh juice, water with lemon, or just have some salad on the side.
Okay, so next time it will be just bulgur and spinach, so we get all those recipes done 🙂
- Yield: 3
- Prep: 5 minutes
- Cook: 15 minutes
- Total: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 cup butternut squash, chopped (or other vegetable)
- 1/2 cup red lentils (soaked)
- 1/2 cup bulgur, coarse
- 1/2 cup mint leaves, washed
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce or 2 small tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 tsp cumin (dry, ground)
- 1/2 tsp coriander (dry, ground)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric, ground
- 1/2 - 1 tbsp hot red pepper flakes (or paprika)
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt to taste
Method
- In a large pan at medium-high, heat the chopped onion, minced garlic and butternut squash with 1 tbps olive oil for about 2 min, stirring.
- Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, red pepper flakes, black pepper, stir.
- Add tomatoes or tomato sauce, stir. Then add lentils and bulgur and 1/2 to 1 tsp salt (you might need to add more salt later).
- Add 2/3 cup hot water, stir well together. Cover with lid and let cook at medium for 7-8 min. Add the mint and cook a little more - about 7-8 more minutes, until red lentils and bulgur are ready.
- Take off heat and sprinkle some olive oil (about 1 tbsp). Stir again.
- Garnish with fresh herbs like parsley or more mint.
Notes
Instead of butternut squash - use any vegetable you love.
This dinner recipe is completely vegan, but it's not gluten-free. To make gluten-free you can use rice (but it won't have all the nutrients that bulgur has).
