3 Reasons to Add Lentils to Ground Meat

By Claire Tansey

Home cooks, by nature, are creative and resourceful. While home cooks may not have formal chef’s training, we sure like to fool around and figure it out in the kitchen. We futz with our favourite recipes, tweaking them to be just right; we flip through cookbooks and attach sticky notes (by the dozens) to pages that pique our curiosity and interest. We’re also quasi-home economists, making frittata or soup from whatever misfit collection of produce is in the crisper, slow-cooking inexpensive ingredients like dry beans and “tough cuts” into melty deliciousness and buying what’s on sale to transform into something tasty.

We are happy to try all kinds of tricks and hacks in search of a delicious meal that’s good for the health of our families, bodies, brains and budgets.

Lately, this home cook (me!) has been playing with adding pureed lentils to anything I make with ground beef. It’s easy, delicious and has so many appealing side benefits:

1. It adds a huge nutritional boost. Lentils are high in fibre and complex carbohydrates, which help keep our guts happy and our glucose steady. They’re also packed with plant protein power, low in calories and high in lots of minerals.
2. It’s a boon to my grocery budget. “Stretching” meat has long been an item in the home cook’s toolbox, and I’m always game to try to make meat go a bit further.
3. Cooking with lentils and beef is also good for the planet! Both contribute to “sinking” carbon into the earth (this is a good thing!). Lentils are also drought-resistant and need no irrigation.

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Talk about a super-charged dinner!

After a bit of (delicious!) trial and error, I’ve landed on a lentil-to-meat ratio that works for meatloaf, meatballs and burgers. Start by cooking split red lentils so they get soft and smooth. I cook 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) of dry lentils in about 4 cups (1 L) of water, then cool this mixture completely before adding it to anything else. You can keep this puree plain or add seasonings like herbs and spices and a good pinch of salt. You can never add flavour too early!

Once the mixture is cool, measure out 1 cup (250 mL) of lentil puree for every 500g of ground meat. Simply mix in the lentil puree along with whatever seasonings your recipe calls for. If you’re making meatballs or burgers, the lentil-charged mixture is a little bit more delicate to work with, so I’d recommend cooking the balls or patties in a little canola oil in a non-stick frying pan.

One more bit of home cook/ economist wisdom: I’m a big fan of using my freezer to make life easier for future me, so whenever I make this lentil puree, I make a big batch and freeze it in 2-cups (500 mL) portions. It freezes perfectly, thaws easily in the refrigerator and makes this simple, healthy swap a snap.