Lentil Burritos

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Since I didn't stick with the right heritage for St. Patrick's Day I thought for this holiday I should try and make something befitting the day. I needed something vegetarian, and I was trying to use up items I had on hand since we're heading out of town soon. Jen B. made these lentil burritos recently and really liked them, so I figured I'd give them a try since I had some lentils in my pantry already. I don't think they're very authentic, but burritos are, right? Maybe. I may have to have a margarita along with dinner because it's just been that kind of day.

Jen found this recipe on a great budget-friendly blog, $5 Dollar Dinners. I've read it a few times but need to be better about checking it because I love finding new, inexpensive dinners to make. I just wanted to give credit where credit was due!

Lentil Burritos
From: $5Dinners.com

1 cup white or brown rice
1 cup lentils, any color
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt/pepper
6-8 tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
1. Cook rice. In saucepan, bring 2.5 cups of water or chicken broth to boil. Add 1 cup of white or brown rice. Return to boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. For white rice, cook for 20 minutes. For brown rice, cook for 50 minutes.
2. Cook lentils. In saucepan, add 1 cup of lentils plus water to cover lentils by an inch. Bring to boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until lentils are soft. Drain any excess water.
3. Combine rice, lentils and can of Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles. Stir in garlic powder, ground cumin, salt and pepper.
4. Lay tortillas (corn or flour…whichever you prefer!) out and spoon rice/lentil mixture into the tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese and roll up. Place burritos in 8×8 baking dish.
5. Place lentil burritos in a warm oven (250) for about 20 minutes, giving cheese time to melt. Don’t leave in too long or the tortillas will get crispy!

*****

Mine are in the oven now. Jen's family really liked these, and I hope we do too. This is only my second time using lentils, and the first attempt was kind of a bomb. I filled up six tortillas and put them in a 12x8 casserole dish. I have at least half the filling mix left, so if we like these I'm going to try freezing what's left to have a quick, easy dinner for another night. I'm going to make some guacamole to go along with these and have that and Tostitos as a side.

*****

I didn't need to have low expectations for these at all--they were great! They were really filling tasty. I'd maybe add in some additional green chilies next time to add a little more flavor, but they were fine on their own. I'm glad it ended up making so much--we'll gladly have this again!