Back on those lentils for another delicious, easy, meatless meal! With just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry, this recipe is perfect for a weeknight meal. This was another one of my recipe’s to attempt to clear out my pantry, and I’m not disappointed. Even the carnivores of the family will enjoy it! I gave my roommate, Colby, a plate of this and I got his stamp of approval!

The fire roasted tomatoes give it this slightly sweet, slightly smokey flavor, and the almond butter gives a smoothness and richness that rounds it out. And cumin, can’t forget cumin. For real guys, it’s a pretty awesome combination.

Raw almond butter is more nutritionally advanced than the typical peanut butter. While almond butter contains a high amount of fat, most of it is unsaturated heart-healthy fat. Almond butter also contains Omega-3 fatty acids. These acids aid in the prevention of heart attacks. Your typical peanut butter contains 135mg sodium, and 3g of sugar. By comparison, raw almond butter contains 5mg of sodium, and 1g of sugar. Definitely worth trading in that PB for AB.

I served this with Jasmine rice, but you can use brown, basmati, minute-rice, whatever you’d like! You could even switch it up for some of those high protein ancient grains if you’d like.

Ingredients

1 C lentils

1 white onion

1 can fire roasted tomatoes

3 garlic

2 heaping T tomato paste

2 T almond butter

1/2 t cumin

salt and pepper to taste

2 C dry rice

Directions

Prepare rice, or whatever grain you are using.

Prepare lentils according to instructions. It is a good idea to soak these for 7-18 hours beforehand if you have the time. This helps to remove the raffinose sugars that are responsible for the uncomfortable bloating that can occur when eating legumes.

Chop the onion into a small dice, place in large skillet with a small drizzle of olive oil and cook over medium-low until translucent. Mice the garlic and add to the onion, and cook until fragrant, just a couple minutes.

Add the tomatoes and lentils to the onion. in a small bowl, mix the tomato paste and almond butter with a couple tablespoons of water. Once the mixture is even, stir it into the lentil mixture. If you’d like a thinner mixture, add more water to the pan.

Add cumin, salt, and pepper to taste and cook until hot through. Serve over rice immediately. (Nutrition facts do not include rice)