Vegan MoFo Day 28: French Lentil Cassoulet, Not Quite a Review

Attention FTC: Amazon sent me a free copy of Robin Asbell's New Vegetarian for review. I haven't made anything from it yet, but it did inspire my dinner tonight. It looks like a good book. While not vegan, there are lots of vegan recipes and suggestions for vegan substitutions. And the entire dessert chapter is vegan. Chocolate raspberry napoleons, anyone?

I significantly transmogrified her French Lentil Cassoulet recipe based on what we had in the house and needed to use up. I more or less followed her technique with a lot of changes in the ingredients - which is something I often do to cookbooks. Here's what I did:

Cook 1 c French lentils in water to cover, with a bay leaf, for 30 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt some vegan margarine in a heavy pot, and fry some butternut squash cubes, a couple of chopped potatoes, and a chopped onion with 1 t sage and 1 t thyme. Add 4 chopped garlic cloves, and 1 bunch of Lacinato kale (ribs removed, and chopped). Then add a 28 oz can of tomatoes, 1 c of water, and a bouillon cube or some broth powder. Add the cooked lentils, dried parsley, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook another 20 minutes or so, until the potatoes and squash are as soft as you want them.

In a food processor, whiz up 3 cloves garlic, 3 cups bread crumbs (I used homemade from the freezer), 1 cup almonds, 3 T olive oil, 1 t thyme, and a little salt. Put this in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and stir until the mixture is dry and toasty. Spoon over cassoulet right before serving.