I'm a decidedly lazy photographer... or more appropriately lazy wanna-be-photographer. I don't like planning ahead. I don't like using props. Really, all I want is to take a picture of my food just before I eat it, fuss with it as little as possible and have it turn out beautiful. That's it.
So anyway, this dinner... I made this dinner with no intention of sharing it with you. But it was just so surprisingly good, I pulled out my pretty dishes and pulled together a meagre attempt at a photo so I could post the recipe. I can't post the recipe without a photo... so yes, this was late at night, without a plan and in my too dark kitchen - not ideal conditions. So I'm sorry.
But this was just so good.
I adapted this from a recipe I saw in Fine Cooking magazine. I followed the recipe almost exactly except I used canned lentils for the ground lamb. Side by side, I have no idea if lentils would stand up to the lamb flavour wise, and I really don't care to find out. All I know is that the lentils were amazing in this pita.
Oh and dinner was ready in like 20 minutes. This one deserves a spot in your regular rotation.
To make this easy and quick, I used store-bought tzatziki sauce to top the pitas. Personally I think the little bit of creaminess and tang from the tzatziki made this sandwich amazing. I just love typing out words with "z" in them. But vegan, absolutely you could totally do it. If you wanted to go vegan, either skip the sauce all together or try vegan sour cream spiked with garlic and lemon juice, or here is a recipe for a vegan tzatziki sauce made with tofu.
📖 Recipe
Lentil and Sweet Onion Pitas
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 sweet onion like a Videla cut into half-moon slices
- salt and pepper
- 19 oz can lentils
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large oranges
- 2 mini cucumbers
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh mint chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup tzatziki sauce or vegan sour cream with garlic and lemon
- 3-4 small whole wheat pitas cut in half and lightly toasted
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add ¾ of the onion slices, season with salt and pepper, and saute until soft and lightly browned. About 8-10 minutes.
- Meanwhile prepare salad. Finely chop remaining onion and add to a small bowl. With a sharp knife remove the peel and pith from the orange. Over the bowl, to catch the juices, section the orange. Cut the segments into chunks. Thinly slice the cucumber and add to the bowl. Add vinegar, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, mint and season with salt and pepper.
- To the skillet with frying onions, add the lentils and cinnamon. Cook to warm through. Season with salt and pepper is needed.
- To serve. Open each pita pocket and fill with onion and lentil mixture. Top with orange and cucumber salad and a dollop of tzatziki sauce.
