3 Delicious High-Protein Lentil Recipes

I didn't even know what lentils were until I was in my 30s. My sister-in-law had posted on Instagram that her one-year-old baby loved to eat lentils. And I was like, what are those? I literally had no idea. Which is so crazy because lentils are high in protein, rich in fiber, are really great to help stabilize your blood sugar, and have so many nutrients. Plus, they're cheap, they're affordable, they're versatile. We all should be cooking with more lentils. And that is why I have today's video just for you. Here are three go-to, delicious, high-protein lentil recipes. Our first recipe today is going to be a high-protein lentil soup. No soy, no nuts, it's low in fat, and delicious. Oh, and the best part about this lentil soup is you can make it in the slow cooker. Woo! We'll first add the lentils. And did you know that in one cup of dried lentils is about 48 grams of protein. So this is adding 48 grams of protein right there. And of course, I do need to rinse these, so I'm going to quickly rinse this out, and then add them back in. And now I have one cup rinsed lentils. Next we'll add the quinoa, and we'll do about three-fourths a cup of quinoa. And three-fourths of quinoa will also add 18 grams of protein. So we have 48 grams, plus 18 grams right there. I'm going to throw in just some diced carrots, this is about two and a half cups of diced chopped carrots, which is not a ton of protein, it adds about three grams of protein. Now, I just chopped up a box of button mushrooms, and this is actually about 12 to 14 grams of protein. But before I put it in, I'm actually going to take it outside so it can sunbathe for just a second while I finish with everything else so it can absorb extra vitamin D. I'm even leaving it in its carton. Alright, let's get back to it. I'm adding about half of a red pepper that's diced, and these are just leftover veggies. This is my favorite part about this soup, is you kind of can just put in whatever. This is leftover from the meal that we had last night. Also leftover from our meal last night is about a fourth of a red onion. Just throwing that in there instead of a typical regular onion. I'm also going to use the green onion pieces that we have leftover from our meal from last night. But a regular onion would suffice here in this recipe, just add one regular onion. You can also add celery or anything else that you have on hand. I have some diced tomatoes I'm going to throw in. Getting rid of all of my veggie leftovers is my favorite thing about soups. I'm also going to add in a can of diced tomatoes, a regular can of diced tomatoes, because of all the flavor that adds. And the celery is about to go bad, but I'll dice up a few ribs and throw it in there. Next we'll add about three cloves of minced garlic, I'm just going to eyeball it. Then we'll add in two teaspoons of Italian seasoning. And then for some smoky flavor you can do smoked paprika, or I'm going to actually use this wood-fired garlic just to add in a little bit of smoky flavor. And this does have salt in it, so I'll keep that in mind and don't make the mistake I have in the past. All right, about one teaspoon of either smoked paprika or I'm using this wood-fired garlic. Okay, and then I just found these veggie bouillon cubes, so I'm adding five of those and we'll do five cups of water. But before I fill this up with water, I want to add in my mushrooms that have been sun bathing. I gave them a good five, seven minutes in the sun, which is great. So your choice of veggie broth or five cups of water and your choice of bouillon cubes. And then you'll add salt and pepper afterwards to taste, so we'll just start cooking this on low for six to eight hours or on high for four to six hours. Perfect. Okay, the lentil soup has cooked, woo, for four hours and so now we just turn it off. And the last part is to make it even higher protein, we want to add peas, some frozen peas. It's going to cool it down, it's going to add more protein. But I also, not only with the peas, I actually really like corn too, and I need to save some of my frozen peas for another recipe I'm making, so I'm going to add a mix of peas and corn. But you can choose if you just want the peas and you want to save it until the end to keep the colors nice and vibrant, otherwise they get like gross and mushy. Okay, taste this, add more salt, pepper, anything else you need, and let's just finish it off with a little bit of cilantro. Oh, and I also wanted to add some microgreens too. I love soups from microgreens because they just kind of disappear. Tons of veggies, a decent amount of protein, all plant-based, no soy, no nuts, super low in fat, super filling. It's pretty good actually. Yeah? You were afraid to try that one, huh? Yeah, it looks pretty questionable. It looks like just a bunch of random vegetables combined into one. That's what it is. With water. But it has veggie broth, it's good. Good. Awesome. I'd actually eat this whole bowl. You'll eat the whole bowl? Yeah. This is, in my opinion, the best one. The best out of all of our recipes today? Yep. The best one was the one that looked the worst. For our next recipe, today we're going to make lentil meatballs. Okay, I have previously made lentils cooked in taco seasoning. So all I did was cook these lentils in taco seasoning in my Instant Pot for another recipe that I made. I just made lentil tacos. And I made it for a huge group, and this is what was left over. So we're going to use this as the base for the meatballs. So you'll just want to cook your lentils in taco seasoning first, and then follow the rest of this recipe. As a binder in the recipe, we're going to use actually pumpkin seeds to add more protein. And these are already salted. They've just been sitting around my house, so it's a great excuse to use them. So we'll add a half of a cup of pumpkin seeds. They're already salted. And then a cup of oats. Now I need to grind these up into a fine powder, so let's do that right now. All right, we'll mix everything together in our food processor. So we'll add in our lentils. One, two, three, and we'll do four. Four cups cooked. Now with this, when I cooked it, I did slightly overcook it. So already, I mean, look, it looks like ground beef. I overcooked it. In the Instant Pot, I let it cook for eight minutes, and I let it naturally release. And you're supposed to manually release it, so they were a little mushy. But that's perfect because it makes it perfect for meatballs. Okay, so now let's put in all of the powder, the oats, and the pumpkin seeds. If you don't have pumpkin seeds or don't want to use them, you can just do more oats. So it would be a cup and a half of oats. Then we'll add a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, a teaspoon of fennel. And we want a smoky flavor, so you can use liquid smoke. You can use wood-fired garlic, or you can even just use smoked paprika. And it's about a teaspoon. So whatever you use, it's about a teaspoon. And to bind it all together, we need two tablespoons of tomato paste. All right, I'm excited to see how this all turns out. Now remember, I had already added taco seasoning to this, so we already have that flavor. And this wood-fired garlic has salt in it, so I did not need to add more salt or savory flavor. But if you taste it and you feel like it needs something, you're welcome to add more. But I think it's perfect. It does look a little bit like cookie dough, but that's okay. So let's make our little meatball cookies. Have you ever wanted to read the book How Not to Die, but it's just too big? If that's the case, then you're in luck, because I have made Cliff Notes of this book, where all of the best parts are put into one simple, short document, where you can get everything you need to learn how to avoid the top 10 causes of death. And all you have to do is click on the link below to grab it, and I'll send it straight to your email. I'm going to cook mine in the air fryer to speed up the process, and I am going to use my cookie scoop. Scoop them out, roll them up. Mine are a little spicy because my taco seasoning was spicy, but I like it. The only problem with lentil meatballs is they look like cookies. My kids will think they're cookies, or my energy bites. They look just like my energy bites. You can also, instead of doing pumpkin seeds, you can also use flax seed if you want to do that instead to add a little bit of the healthy fats to this, which is a great option. We'll do about 15 minutes at 400. Okay, the meatballs are done. They smell amazing. Like, they smell so, so, so good. So good. They're such a pretty color. I love them. These meatballs are perfect if you dip them in a marinara sauce. So just grab marinara sauce. You can heat it up in the microwave. So good. Let me see your shirt. You're a good engineer. I'm good at math. All right. Lentil meatballs, what do you think? I didn't try it yet. What did you first say when you saw it? Oh, it looks like poop. It may look like poop, but it tastes really good. Not really good. Really? But it tastes good. But it tastes good? Yeah. Would you, like, snack on it? It's like the texture's kind of weird, but the sauce saves it. It's crunchy on the outside, and then kind of, not crunchy, but like harder on the outside. It's too chewy on the inside. It's too soft on the inside. I don't like it that gooey. I don't like gooey stuff. But that's just my opinion. It's good, though, huh? Yeah. Not as bad as it looks? Definitely not as bad, but if it was as bad as it looks, ooh, this would be disgusting. And for our last recipe today, we're making a red curry with green lentils. We'll first saute one onion with a little bit of water. Next, we'll add in three cloves of garlic. And then we're going to throw in some ginger. I cannot find, for the life of me, my grater. My cheese grater. I need to just buy a smaller one. So instead of this fresh, luckily I have some frozen on hand. And each of these cubes is a teaspoon, and we're going to do about tablespoons. So about three of them. I figure the more ginger, the better. I love ginger. So good. But you want about a tablespoon, or as much as you want, of ginger. Fresh ginger, either frozen or freshly grated. Next, you'll add two tablespoons of this red curry paste. It's, like, spilling, and I already opened the lid. This is a spicy one, and two tablespoons. Usually about any packet you get, two tablespoons will be about half of the container. I had to add a little bit more water so it wasn't burning. Next, I'm going to chop one medium sweet potato. I kept the skins on because I don't really care, but if you wanted to, you could peel it. Then you want to add one cup of dried green lentils, and you'll want to quickly rinse them. I'm just going to add them to my little colander, and then rinse them out real quick. Next, we'll add a can of diced tomatoes. These just happen to be fire-roasted, but it is not required. Next, we'll add three cups of veggie broth, or three cups water, with three teaspoons of veggie bouillon. Okay, now we need this to cook for about 20 minutes just on medium-high heat until the lentils and potatoes are cooked through. Okay, our red curry and green lentil dish has cooked all the way through. It's almost actually a little bit burnt on the bottom. Not too bad, though. So next, we add in our soy milk. So I'm going to turn down the heat, and actually, I want to add in first our frozen green peas. This is what's also going to add more protein to the dish. Those green peas increase our protein amount, again, all with just healthy plant-based proteins. Now, the next option, if you want to go completely soy-free, you totally can. You can also add just regular coconut milk. I want to keep it low in fat, though, for those who are more sensitive to that, so we will add some sweetened soy milk. Yes, I said sweetened. Now, make sure it's not vanilla soy milk. That's the key. It can't be vanilla. It can be unsweetened, and then you'll just add in a tablespoon or two of sugar afterwards. But since I usually actually only have sweetened on hand, we're going to do it with sweetened. So we'll add one and two cups to make it nice and creamy. And this just added 14 grams of protein as well. See how much creamier that is? Amazing. I want it to have that coconutty flavor just like a regular curry would have, so I'm going to add about a half a teaspoon of coconut extract just so it tastes like I added coconut milk instead of soy milk. Just be careful not to add too much coconut extract or else it will smell like a pina colada. All right, now we want to balance out all that sweetness with about a tablespoon of soy sauce. This is what we add instead of like a fish sauce, a tablespoon or two. Then you'll want to add in whatever more veggies you want. So I'm going to add in just some diced red pepper to this and some basil. Any kind of basil works. Thai basil is awesome if you have it. Let's mix it all in there. And then you can add it on top of rice, even eat it as is. So good. You can also add in the juice of a lime actually on top. Let's do that real quick. All right, we're just adding it on top of rice here. What do you think? Spicy. Yeah, it is a little spicy. Well, that red curry paste is a little spicy. Tasty. Tastes like flavor. Lots of flavor? Definitely. Good flavor? I don't like the sweet potatoes with it. They're good though. I like sweet potatoes. People have different opinions. That's good. The only thing about the curry is that soy milk just tastes different than coconut milk. So if you don't like the flavor, it's just slightly a little bit different. Then use the full fat coconut milk and go with like the typical red curry taste. But if you're really watching your fat intake, if you're trying to get a little bit higher protein, then this is a great option. As always, the recipes for today's videos are linked below, along with more information about our membership if you need more help and support. We like to help people transition to a plant-based diet to make it simple, easy, so you can lose weight, feel better, improve your gut health, and live a healthier, longer life. And not get sick. And if you loved today's video, then I know you'll absolutely love our red lentil video. So make sure to check out the red lentil recipe video as well. That one's super good. It was so yummy. I loved it. So yummy. You didn't like it actually? But you're eating it? Uh-oh.