Steaks With Mushrooms And Lentils: Two Variations

Steaks with mushrooms and lentils are a particularly good choice if you want to limit your intake of meat, for whatever reason. They are also great if you just want to add a healthier option to your daily diet.

In addition, they are a very versatile dish that can be mixed well with other dishes such as rice, salads, vegetables and different types of bread.

The Benefits of Adding Vegetables and Legumes to Your Diet

There are countless health benefits of eating more vegetables and legumes. All in all, these are some of the many benefits of eating vegetables:

• They contain a large amount of fiber and therefore improve your digestive health and also regulate your cholesterol in the blood. In addition, they can help relieve constipation and will also make you feel full for a longer period of time, thus reducing your total calorie intake.

• From a nutritional perspective, vegetables are whole foods. Therefore, they are neither processed nor refined. As with everything, the kind of vitamins and minerals you get from them depend on which ones you choose to eat.
• They also contain polyphenols, which are antioxidants that provide many benefits to your body. For example, these nutrients help reduce LDL (low-density lipoprotein), better known as “bad cholesterol”.

In addition, among the reported benefits of daily consumption of legumes, we can highlight the following:

• They contain a large amount of fiber and are very nutritious, just like vegetables.
• Legumes are good sources of vitamins B1, B6 and B9 and essential minerals such as calcium, potassium, zinc, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. Your body needs these to function properly.
• By eating them you get a high dose of energy and very little fat. (Apart from soybeans and peanuts, which are often classified as nuts, legumes are very low in fat).

• In addition, they contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and low amounts of unsaturated fats.
• Best of all, they are also inexpensive and mix easily with other ingredients. They are also very simple to make.

Also read: Follow a vegetarian diet without losing nutrients

Recipes for vegetarian steaks

1. First recipe: Steaks with mushrooms and lentils

Ingredients
(4 servings)

• 140 g lentils, raw or cooked
• 85 g mushrooms, any species
• 4 cloves garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• Salt, pepper and parsley to taste

Course of action

• First, soak the lenses for approx. 5 hours. (If you are pressed for time, you can use raw lenses instead).

• Then wash the vegetables and mix or mash them to a homogeneous mixture.
• Finely chop mushrooms, onions and garlic and add them to the lentil mixture.
• Then season with parsley, oregano and basil (you can omit one of these or add more of your choice). You can also add structure with a little flour or breadcrumbs if the mixture is too liquid.
• Shape the mixture into steaks and then place them in the fridge for a few hours. This will help them retain their shape when cooking them.
• There are two options when it’s time to cook these burgers. You can either grill them in the oven at 175 ° C until golden, or fry them in a pan with a little oil.
• In the end, just enjoy them!

You can make most of the above steps in advance – except of course the cooking itself – and save your burgers for a later date. Store them in the fridge and keep them for a few days until you are ready to cook them. They go well with a vegetable mixture or a salad.

Also read: Delicious recipe for vegetarian meatballs with eggplant

2. Second recipe: Steaks with mushrooms and red lentils

Ingredients
(5 servings)

• 30 g dried red lentils
• 1/2 small onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 100 g mushrooms
• 100 g leeks
• Salt, pepper and basil
• Extra virgin olive oil or extra virgin coconut oil

Course of action

The procedure for this version is the same as the previous recipe. The only thing to keep in mind is that red lenses require less softening time than other types of lenses. In addition, you can add or exclude ingredients, depending on what suits your taste.

Also note that red lenses are a little harder to find. However, they probably have them in the international food department of your local supermarket.