Skillet Beef with Lentils

I'm loving my More-With-Less Cookbook that I got at Christmas from Tim.  I bought the cookbook for the Honey Baked Lentils recipe that my mom sometimes made.  If that was the only recipe I ever made from it, the purchase would have been worthwhile ... it is delicious (post to follow soon)!  The cookbook has 5 different lentil recipes, with variations on some, and I plan on trying them all.




So, here is lentil recipe #1 - Skillet Beef with Lentils.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed
2 T butter
2 medium onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lb ground beef
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 T long-grain rice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1 T cider vinegar
cheddar cheese (optional)
corn chips (optional)

Directions
 1.  Bring 1 qt (4 cups) of water to a boil in a saucepan

 2.  Add the lentils and cook for 20 minutes.

 3.  Drain the lentils, reserving the liquid.

 4.  In a deep skillet, saute the onions in butter until soft and then add the garlic.

 5.  Add the beef to the onions and brown well.

 6.  Dissolve the beef bouillon cubes in the reserved liquid from the lentils.

 7.  Add the liquid to the mixture. 

 8.  Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

 9.  Add the lentils, long-grain rice, sugar, salt, cumin, and pepper to the mixture.

 10.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until lentils and rice are tender and liquid is absorbed.    (I did not cover it because I wanted the remaining liquid to cook off)

11.  Add 1 T cider vinegar.   (This absolutely makes the dish!)

In the end, I found the actual dish to  be quite boring and I wasn't quite sure how to eat it.  It wasn't a casserole and it wasn't a soup, but it looked like something in between ... almost like chilli.  So, I decided to go that route.  I topped a bowl of the lentil/beef mixture with shredded cheddar cheese and ate it with corn chips.  This is the way to go - yum!