Brown Rice with Lentils – Cookin Canuck

Warm spices, tender lentils and fluffy brown rice come together with browned onions and roasted cauliflower for a dish that’s as nourishing as it is delicious. Serve it as a side dish or vegetarian entrée.

Let’s be real—some nights you want a five-star meal, and other nights you’re eating cereal out of the box. This brown rice with lentils and roasted cauliflower sits somewhere in the middle: delicious enough to impress yourself, but easy enough that you won’t accidentally set off your smoke alarm.

The mix of warm spices, crispy cauliflower, and hearty lentils is so satisfying, you might just forget that you were considering ordering takeout (again). Bonus: it makes amazing leftovers! It works as a meatless main dish or as a hearty side dish.

Ingredients and substitutions

• Lentils: Brown or green lentils. Do not use red lentils in this recipe. The cook time required for the rice will turn red lentils to mush.
• Rice: Brown rice, such brown basmati or brown jasmine.
• Vegetables: Use a yellow onion and a large carrot.
• Cauliflower: Cut into small florets.
• Broth: Use vegetable broth to keep this recipe vegetarian/vegan. Chicken broth can be substituted if you prefer.
• Seasonings: Ground cumin, ground coriander, red pepper flakes and garlic for the rice and lentils. Dried oregano for the cauliflower.
• Olive oil: For sautéing the onion and roasting the cauliflower.

How to make brown rice with lentils

1. Sauté the onion and carrot until the onion is brown, then add the spices and garlic.
2. Add the broth, rice and lentils. Simmer until tender.
3. Roast the cauliflower in the oven, then stir it into the rice and lentils.

Printable Recipe

Brown Rice with Lentils

Warm spices, tender lentils and fluffy brown rice come together with browned onions and roasted cauliflower for a dish that’s as nourishing as it is delicious.