A cup of tea
Doesn't ring the bell of evil now, does it?
Watch and learn.
[flv]0808/WallMildlyevilTea0802.flv[/flv]
Watch and learn.
[flv]0808/WallMildlyevilTea0802.flv[/flv]
Avil Upma - A Dire Consequences Recipe
Recipe-writing is an art-form. The "Dire-Consequences" recipe elevates this art-form to its most evil pinnacle of glory. Reading a well-written "dire-consequences" recipe is a hair raising experience. Readers are taken on a roller-coaster journey of things that can go potentially wrong in the kitchen and are encouraged to take the sundry escape routes available. As if this were not enough, just as the reader is ready to quit and throw in the kitchen towel, it is subtly impressed upon the reader that only wimps take the escape route, and it does not behoove any adventurous kitchen-farer to start the recipe, and not finish.
The dire-consequences recipe is a very subtle samurai art of psychodeviant and subconscious kitchen torture. I am not claiming to be any kind of expert at this art. NO! Don't heave that sigh of relief yet because complacency is never the name of any game and I self appoint myself a dire consequences recipe-writer-wannabe. :)
So, all this bright, crisp, summer sunshine-soaked green outdoors inspired me to bring in that very same green into my early dinner, today. I made Avil Upma, but since none of you really know what that is, you could call it anything you like. It's traditionally a very light breakfast or "tiffin" or served at tea time in South India.
A sharp knife does short work of all this chopping about to follow, but if you have blunt knives, then your wrists might get tired easily. A demotivated cook is not really a good cook. Blunt knives are also known to bring on severe depression on many chefs and make them consider slitting their wrists. Considering all these ill-effects on wrists, in general, you might want to start with a well-sharpened knife.
1. Chop
- Green Beans
- Carrots
- Bell Peppers
- Green Chillies
- Ginger
- Karuvepelai (or "Curry" Leaves)
I think the Karuvepelai is the heart and soul of this dish. I cannot guarantee that your Avil Upma would be even half as good if you omit this leaf from culinary heaven. Considering all Indian stores stock this leaf, you really have no excuse, unless of course, you like eating junk.
2. Take some peanut oil in a pan, turn on the stove and add a pinch of
- Black Mustard Seeds
- White Lentils (Urad ki Dal)
- Split yellow lentils (Channe ki Dal)
- Dried Red Chillies (pieces)
- Cumin
Wait for the mustard seeds to sputter. Keep stirring. Don't let this seasoning char!! If you do char this, refrigerate the chopped veggies and throw the charred stuff away. You might need to consider going out to eat at this point because your kitchen might be filled with acrid charcoal-ridden smoke and might be a health hazard. What a waste of time, just because you didn't remember to stir for a couple minutes. Tsk Tsk.
3. Once the mustard just starts sputtering, add
- the chopped ginger, green chillies and Karuvepelai.
- Stir for around 20 seconds and then add
- a pinch of asafoetida (Hing in Hindi, Perungayam in Tamil)
- Green Beans
- Bell Peppers
- Salt
- Turmeric Powder
Stir some more. Sprinkle water over it and wait for the beans to get to a BRIGHT green colour. If the Beans turn yellowish green, you have let them cook too long!
4. Toss in the carrots. Stir a couple more minutes. I think its a different experience altogether to leave the vegetables crunchy and crispy. But I also know of people who like to punch and murder their veggies till they are smushed and have lost their form altogether. You need to pick sides NOW. Tick Tock.
4. You need thick/thin rice flakes for this step (Avil in Tamil, Poha in Hindi). You need to have sprinkled a generous amount of water on the rice flakes and set them aside to soften, earlier. If you didn't do it, it's too late now. You better turn off the stove and eat the veggies. If, on the other hand, you did sprinkle the rice flakes with water and have them moistened and soft - add them to the veggie mix now.
5. Stir for a couple minutes till everything reaches a nice high temperature. Add a little water, if necessary, to make it softer.
6. Turn off the stove. Squeeze half a lemon over the upma. Serve on a plate and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
7. A wonderful accompaniment to this light fluffy meal is a bunch of cherries washed in cold water.
8. And no summer meal is complete without some awesome Mango Tea with a touch of foamy milk. :)
The dire-consequences recipe is a very subtle samurai art of psychodeviant and subconscious kitchen torture. I am not claiming to be any kind of expert at this art. NO! Don't heave that sigh of relief yet because complacency is never the name of any game and I self appoint myself a dire consequences recipe-writer-wannabe. :)
So, all this bright, crisp, summer sunshine-soaked green outdoors inspired me to bring in that very same green into my early dinner, today. I made Avil Upma, but since none of you really know what that is, you could call it anything you like. It's traditionally a very light breakfast or "tiffin" or served at tea time in South India.
A sharp knife does short work of all this chopping about to follow, but if you have blunt knives, then your wrists might get tired easily. A demotivated cook is not really a good cook. Blunt knives are also known to bring on severe depression on many chefs and make them consider slitting their wrists. Considering all these ill-effects on wrists, in general, you might want to start with a well-sharpened knife.
1. Chop
- Green Beans
- Carrots
- Bell Peppers
- Green Chillies
- Ginger
- Karuvepelai (or "Curry" Leaves)
I think the Karuvepelai is the heart and soul of this dish. I cannot guarantee that your Avil Upma would be even half as good if you omit this leaf from culinary heaven. Considering all Indian stores stock this leaf, you really have no excuse, unless of course, you like eating junk.
2. Take some peanut oil in a pan, turn on the stove and add a pinch of
- Black Mustard Seeds
- White Lentils (Urad ki Dal)
- Split yellow lentils (Channe ki Dal)
- Dried Red Chillies (pieces)
- Cumin
Wait for the mustard seeds to sputter. Keep stirring. Don't let this seasoning char!! If you do char this, refrigerate the chopped veggies and throw the charred stuff away. You might need to consider going out to eat at this point because your kitchen might be filled with acrid charcoal-ridden smoke and might be a health hazard. What a waste of time, just because you didn't remember to stir for a couple minutes. Tsk Tsk.
3. Once the mustard just starts sputtering, add
- the chopped ginger, green chillies and Karuvepelai.
- Stir for around 20 seconds and then add
- a pinch of asafoetida (Hing in Hindi, Perungayam in Tamil)
- Green Beans
- Bell Peppers
- Salt
- Turmeric Powder
Stir some more. Sprinkle water over it and wait for the beans to get to a BRIGHT green colour. If the Beans turn yellowish green, you have let them cook too long!
4. Toss in the carrots. Stir a couple more minutes. I think its a different experience altogether to leave the vegetables crunchy and crispy. But I also know of people who like to punch and murder their veggies till they are smushed and have lost their form altogether. You need to pick sides NOW. Tick Tock.
4. You need thick/thin rice flakes for this step (Avil in Tamil, Poha in Hindi). You need to have sprinkled a generous amount of water on the rice flakes and set them aside to soften, earlier. If you didn't do it, it's too late now. You better turn off the stove and eat the veggies. If, on the other hand, you did sprinkle the rice flakes with water and have them moistened and soft - add them to the veggie mix now.
5. Stir for a couple minutes till everything reaches a nice high temperature. Add a little water, if necessary, to make it softer.
6. Turn off the stove. Squeeze half a lemon over the upma. Serve on a plate and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
7. A wonderful accompaniment to this light fluffy meal is a bunch of cherries washed in cold water.
8. And no summer meal is complete without some awesome Mango Tea with a touch of foamy milk. :)
The Taste of Summer
I made some absolutely delicious lunch today because I didn't want to go overboard eating all the junk food at the Taste of Buffalo. It's the same principle as eating something before going grocery shopping. I seldom follow that principle, however. I find that I am more alert if I don't eat before going to the grocery and make better and faster food decisions.
I am calling this the Taste of Summer. It has two of my very favourite ingredients. No, wait. Make that three.
1. Mustard Greens
2. Garlic
3. Bulghur Wheat
It's an extremely quick recipe. Some of you might know how averse I am to using cooking oils other than my darling peanut oil but I made an exception and went with extra virgin olive oil today. The result blew me away. I am not a convert yet, but some of my insularity about cooking oils is slowly fading. Mind you, I still hate corn oil, canola, vegetable oil and the ilk. I especially loathe vegetable oil because I think it has a fishy unacceptable overtone. I am marginally okay with sesame oil if the dish calls for it. I am not saying that I would use oilive oil for regular cooking but I *might* consider it for light and offbeat cooking. Peanut oil still rules my cooking oil domain. If I had the misfortune to be stranded in an unknown nasty island, I would hunt for and take a bottle of Peanut oil with me when I am getting away from the wreck of the airplane. (Notice here, that I don't say "swimming away from the wreck of the boat". The reason being, I don't know how to swim.)
Here's how you concoct and distill the Taste of Summer.
1. Chop into very fine pieces
- Ginger
- Red Chillies
- Green Chillies (SUPER HOT!)
- Garlic
- Mustard Greens.
The key here is "very fine". You could make an exception for the Mustard Greens and go with just "coarse-fine".
2. Take Extra Virgin Olive oil in a sauteing pan
- Add a pinch of ground black pepper
- Add a pinch of semi-ground cumin
You have to have some full pieces of cumin here and some amount of cumin powder. It's a flavour balancing trick.
3. When the cumin begins to pop a bit
- Add the ginger, red chillies and garlic
Saute till the aroma of garlic wafts up and fills your kitchen. You may not want to wait that long if you live in the Buckingham Palace and your kitchen is the size of a warehouse.
4. Add Mustard greens and saute till the water comes out and the greens turn a very bright green.
This bright green can be precisely described as the green of the grass when the sun shines through and you wonder how it might be like to walk on it without any shoes on.
5. Add cooked Bulghur wheat (I would say in a 3 greens:1 wheat ratio) Don't add too much. The mustard greens, though very pungent, cannot beat the sheer carbohydraty-heaviness of Bulghur, so you might need a little moderation here. Favour the mustard greens, not the Bulghur.
6. Add cooked orange lentils (Around 3 tablespoons - not too much).
Same rule as above. Too much ruins the taste of mustard greens. And yes, I am not one of those people who primly list all the ingredients up front. I am assuming that you didn't start cooking the minute you started reading this journal and then found, when you hit step 6, that you didn't have any orange lentils to begin with. Deal with it.
7. Stir well. Turn off heat. If you don't, a kitchen fire will follow. Though it might well be in the spirit of summer with the heat and all, it won't quite match "The Taste of Summer". You get the idea.
8. To elevate the summer theme, garnish with a handful of HOT GREEN CHILLIES.
9. Enjoy with Lemonade. (You know the recipe for this, don't you?) What are you doing reading this recipe if you don't know how to squeeze a lemon into some cold water and add some honey, rock-salt and black pepper flakes to it?
10. Wish fervently that this summer goes by very very very slowly and winter forgets to visit Buffalo this year.
I am calling this the Taste of Summer. It has two of my very favourite ingredients. No, wait. Make that three.
1. Mustard Greens
2. Garlic
3. Bulghur Wheat
It's an extremely quick recipe. Some of you might know how averse I am to using cooking oils other than my darling peanut oil but I made an exception and went with extra virgin olive oil today. The result blew me away. I am not a convert yet, but some of my insularity about cooking oils is slowly fading. Mind you, I still hate corn oil, canola, vegetable oil and the ilk. I especially loathe vegetable oil because I think it has a fishy unacceptable overtone. I am marginally okay with sesame oil if the dish calls for it. I am not saying that I would use oilive oil for regular cooking but I *might* consider it for light and offbeat cooking. Peanut oil still rules my cooking oil domain. If I had the misfortune to be stranded in an unknown nasty island, I would hunt for and take a bottle of Peanut oil with me when I am getting away from the wreck of the airplane. (Notice here, that I don't say "swimming away from the wreck of the boat". The reason being, I don't know how to swim.)
Here's how you concoct and distill the Taste of Summer.
1. Chop into very fine pieces
- Ginger
- Red Chillies
- Green Chillies (SUPER HOT!)
- Garlic
- Mustard Greens.
The key here is "very fine". You could make an exception for the Mustard Greens and go with just "coarse-fine".
2. Take Extra Virgin Olive oil in a sauteing pan
- Add a pinch of ground black pepper
- Add a pinch of semi-ground cumin
You have to have some full pieces of cumin here and some amount of cumin powder. It's a flavour balancing trick.
3. When the cumin begins to pop a bit
- Add the ginger, red chillies and garlic
Saute till the aroma of garlic wafts up and fills your kitchen. You may not want to wait that long if you live in the Buckingham Palace and your kitchen is the size of a warehouse.
4. Add Mustard greens and saute till the water comes out and the greens turn a very bright green.
This bright green can be precisely described as the green of the grass when the sun shines through and you wonder how it might be like to walk on it without any shoes on.
5. Add cooked Bulghur wheat (I would say in a 3 greens:1 wheat ratio) Don't add too much. The mustard greens, though very pungent, cannot beat the sheer carbohydraty-heaviness of Bulghur, so you might need a little moderation here. Favour the mustard greens, not the Bulghur.
6. Add cooked orange lentils (Around 3 tablespoons - not too much).
Same rule as above. Too much ruins the taste of mustard greens. And yes, I am not one of those people who primly list all the ingredients up front. I am assuming that you didn't start cooking the minute you started reading this journal and then found, when you hit step 6, that you didn't have any orange lentils to begin with. Deal with it.
7. Stir well. Turn off heat. If you don't, a kitchen fire will follow. Though it might well be in the spirit of summer with the heat and all, it won't quite match "The Taste of Summer". You get the idea.
8. To elevate the summer theme, garnish with a handful of HOT GREEN CHILLIES.
9. Enjoy with Lemonade. (You know the recipe for this, don't you?) What are you doing reading this recipe if you don't know how to squeeze a lemon into some cold water and add some honey, rock-salt and black pepper flakes to it?
10. Wish fervently that this summer goes by very very very slowly and winter forgets to visit Buffalo this year.
Heavy Metal Cous Cous
In an interesting experiment today, I made dinner in 20 minutes flat set to some heavy metal goodness. The recipe is as follows:
~--Prologue: Witchery->> Fast as a Shark (Accept Cover)--~
Chop/Prep Veggies
Boil water, Turn off, Add cous cous. Set aside.
~--Body: Barilari->> Amo de la Oscuridad--~
To 1 tablespoon of peanut oil
Add a pinch of cumin
Add 4-5 small thai red chillies (chopped), saute for 10 seconds
Add julienned onions, saute for a minute
Add salt, pinch of turmeric powder, a pinch of black pepper powder
and a pinch of coriander powder
Add chopped Zucchini and saute for a minute
Add chopped carrot and sweet peas, saute for a minute
~--Epilogue: Grave Digger->> King Pest--~
Add cous cous and salt to taste
Stir Stir Stir
~--Conclusion: Deep Purple->> Rat Bat Blue--~
Dinner is Served!
;) ~--Postscript: Motorhead->> Smiling like a killer--~ ;)
~--Prologue: Witchery->> Fast as a Shark (Accept Cover)--~
Chop/Prep Veggies
Boil water, Turn off, Add cous cous. Set aside.
~--Body: Barilari->> Amo de la Oscuridad--~
To 1 tablespoon of peanut oil
Add a pinch of cumin
Add 4-5 small thai red chillies (chopped), saute for 10 seconds
Add julienned onions, saute for a minute
Add salt, pinch of turmeric powder, a pinch of black pepper powder
and a pinch of coriander powder
Add chopped Zucchini and saute for a minute
Add chopped carrot and sweet peas, saute for a minute
~--Epilogue: Grave Digger->> King Pest--~
Add cous cous and salt to taste
Stir Stir Stir
~--Conclusion: Deep Purple->> Rat Bat Blue--~
Dinner is Served!
;) ~--Postscript: Motorhead->> Smiling like a killer--~ ;)
Crispin Apples are SO WITHOUT
I think the best form of apples are Granny Smiths. They are superior to every form of apple there is and will be. So imagine my heartfelt disgust when I came home and realized that, in a moment of unpardonable distraction, I had picked up a bag of the traitorous Crispin apples at the grocery. Words cannot describe the gastronomical misery I feel, now that I have a 5 pounder of Crispins to get through! You might think that, as similar as they look, they would taste the same. But NO. They don't.
The difference starts right when you bite into the Granny Smiths. You can hear it resounding in your skull, the crunchety crunch of absolute anticipation. Scarcely has this sound of foreplay died down when the delightful nectar slides down your chin and slithers its way into every little pit of taste sensation on your tongue. The taste is precisely described as EXPLOSIVE. It's sour at first and if you are in the right mood, raises a series of goosebumps up and down your whole body. Then the sugary syrupy potion takes over your senses with undertones of the sour explosion that hit earlier.
Here is when you forget that you are eating a mere apple. It transcends into a higher sensual experience. You can't stop yourself and take another massive bite of this piece of perfection in your hands. The reverberation of the most joyful music you have ever heard livens up your sinuses once more. Then the most narcotic of textures caresses your teeth and your palate. It doesn't stick to your teeth or coat your palate with slime. It's not gritty or cloying or pasty. It feels like you have swallowed a light happy spirit. It lights your thoughts up and spurs energetic brain function as it makes its way across your mouth. Devouring a Granny Smith is like having an apple high.
The Crispins on the other hand are just disappointing to say the least. In fact, I am not sure I can devote any more alphabet real estate to these pathetic loser breed of apples. I just wish I had been a bit more awake during yesterday's zombie walk through the aisles.
Alas. This lamentable crispin week is going to stretch so unbearably long.
The difference starts right when you bite into the Granny Smiths. You can hear it resounding in your skull, the crunchety crunch of absolute anticipation. Scarcely has this sound of foreplay died down when the delightful nectar slides down your chin and slithers its way into every little pit of taste sensation on your tongue. The taste is precisely described as EXPLOSIVE. It's sour at first and if you are in the right mood, raises a series of goosebumps up and down your whole body. Then the sugary syrupy potion takes over your senses with undertones of the sour explosion that hit earlier.
Here is when you forget that you are eating a mere apple. It transcends into a higher sensual experience. You can't stop yourself and take another massive bite of this piece of perfection in your hands. The reverberation of the most joyful music you have ever heard livens up your sinuses once more. Then the most narcotic of textures caresses your teeth and your palate. It doesn't stick to your teeth or coat your palate with slime. It's not gritty or cloying or pasty. It feels like you have swallowed a light happy spirit. It lights your thoughts up and spurs energetic brain function as it makes its way across your mouth. Devouring a Granny Smith is like having an apple high.
The Crispins on the other hand are just disappointing to say the least. In fact, I am not sure I can devote any more alphabet real estate to these pathetic loser breed of apples. I just wish I had been a bit more awake during yesterday's zombie walk through the aisles.
Alas. This lamentable crispin week is going to stretch so unbearably long.
I waited and waited and waited...
... for some plums to ripen. I bought them more than a month back at Guercio's. Usually, I just eat them, ripe or not. But I remembered Paul and James wax eloquent about the merits of ripened plums at the Garden Walk Party and I decided to give ripening a try. I got the special ripen-your-pear-plum-peach bag from Wegmans, kept the plums carefully in the bag and waited.
And waited... and waited and waited, till I could wait no longer.
Today, I checked them out and they had metamorphosed into shrivelled PRUNES!
I was somewhat hesitant to try them out but I am super-glad I did. They are just absolutely DELICIOUS! I am in Prune-Heaven!
Moral of the Story: Patience pays rich and rocking dividends!
Cheers!
And waited... and waited and waited, till I could wait no longer.
Today, I checked them out and they had metamorphosed into shrivelled PRUNES!
I was somewhat hesitant to try them out but I am super-glad I did. They are just absolutely DELICIOUS! I am in Prune-Heaven!
Moral of the Story: Patience pays rich and rocking dividends!
Cheers!
Mybento
Hope I don't fall off the make-my-own-lunch wagon this time around. It just takes 5 minutes, but it's so hard to get up 5 minutes early. Now that the extra hour has factored in, I am hoping to psychologically kid myself by not changing the clocks. Thus, theoretically I would wake up an hour ahead. Heheh, I love this little wicker gate to future insanity.
@libertad, you really just need a lunch box with a lid, like this one:
(My lunch last Friday.)
@libertad, you really just need a lunch box with a lid, like this one:
(My lunch last Friday.)
Esiolbonerg Etaks
Thanks to @jbeatty in more senses than one...
All hail Lebanese cooking! Since this delightful little dish has an unpronounceable Arabic/Lebanese name, I decided to be more than a little inspired by beatty's book and blog.
All hail Lebanese cooking! Since this delightful little dish has an unpronounceable Arabic/Lebanese name, I decided to be more than a little inspired by beatty's book and blog.
The best pizza in town...
... is my own! New and improved, with 75% less fat and 1000% more happiness.
Recipé:
Place a high fibre pita bread (available at wegmans) on a plate.
Layer with thinly sliced tomatoes.
Layer with chunks of cheese curd cheese (from Guercio's)
Layer with sliced red onions
Sprinkle with dried basil and oregano
Layer with a generous dose of red chillie powder
Layer with sliced capsicum/bell peppers.
Sprinkle a generous dose of salt.
Pop into microwave and cook on high for 10 minutes.
File this recipé under the generic classification of "relatively healthier fast food".
Recipé:
Place a high fibre pita bread (available at wegmans) on a plate.
Layer with thinly sliced tomatoes.
Layer with chunks of cheese curd cheese (from Guercio's)
Layer with sliced red onions
Sprinkle with dried basil and oregano
Layer with a generous dose of red chillie powder
Layer with sliced capsicum/bell peppers.
Sprinkle a generous dose of salt.
Pop into microwave and cook on high for 10 minutes.
File this recipé under the generic classification of "relatively healthier fast food".
Knock yourself out - Indian Recipes
I downloaded a bunch of recipes, packed them all together and uploaded them here: 
I know. I know. I should probably have typed out the recipes. But hey, I am lazy. Deal with it. Besides, my recipes change everyday and the results are as varied as the tropical vegetation in the Amazon. I am also chronically challenged when I am asked to use butter/ghee/sugar in a recipe and have a lot of trouble bringing myself to accept the cold plain fact that things taste better with butter. I am against all "replacement" products so I end up not making the dish or taking the non-buttered bumpy highway.
Getting back to the point, the archive is in the .7z format. It opens and extracts with this OUTSTANDING opensource program: Ditch those stupid winzip/winrar programs; they are no good.
If you are having trouble figuring out what the hell the recipé³ are talking about, let me know. I have to admit that I haven't really tried all of them, but I did read through a few and they sounded fine.
Oh, and when they say "oil", it means PEANUT OIL (or in rare cases, Sesame oil). Don't ever use any of the other crazy oils out there for Indian cooking. They just don't make the cut. I can't emphasize this point enough. If you are thinking, "Oh, maybe I could substitute with vegetable/corn/canola/soybean/rape seed/olive, STOP. STRANGLE and KILL that thought right now. In fact, even if the recipé ³ays "vegetable oil", you will get infinitely better results cooking with Peanut oil. FYI, Peanut oil is called Groundnut oil in India.
As a general rule, you may want to tone down the butter and and the ghee and the sugar and the cream and the coconut. None of them are particularly good for you. You could subsitute butter for ghee, but you cannot substitute "I can't believe its not butter" or any non-belief short-changed product for any of the above.
Here is a lentil list for reference:
Happy Cooking! :)
PS: I also like this site: However, some of the recipé³ on there are non-traditional with equally unreliable results. Try with caution and use your discretion about the saturated fat content.
I know. I know. I should probably have typed out the recipes. But hey, I am lazy. Deal with it. Besides, my recipes change everyday and the results are as varied as the tropical vegetation in the Amazon. I am also chronically challenged when I am asked to use butter/ghee/sugar in a recipe and have a lot of trouble bringing myself to accept the cold plain fact that things taste better with butter. I am against all "replacement" products so I end up not making the dish or taking the non-buttered bumpy highway.
Getting back to the point, the archive is in the .7z format. It opens and extracts with this OUTSTANDING opensource program:
Ditch those stupid winzip/winrar programs; they are no good.If you are having trouble figuring out what the hell the recipé³ are talking about, let me know. I have to admit that I haven't really tried all of them, but I did read through a few and they sounded fine.
Oh, and when they say "oil", it means PEANUT OIL (or in rare cases, Sesame oil). Don't ever use any of the other crazy oils out there for Indian cooking. They just don't make the cut. I can't emphasize this point enough. If you are thinking, "Oh, maybe I could substitute with vegetable/corn/canola/soybean/rape seed/olive, STOP. STRANGLE and KILL that thought right now. In fact, even if the recipé ³ays "vegetable oil", you will get infinitely better results cooking with Peanut oil. FYI, Peanut oil is called Groundnut oil in India.
As a general rule, you may want to tone down the butter and and the ghee and the sugar and the cream and the coconut. None of them are particularly good for you. You could subsitute butter for ghee, but you cannot substitute "I can't believe its not butter" or any non-belief short-changed product for any of the above.
Here is a lentil list for reference:
Happy Cooking! :)
PS: I also like this site:
However, some of the recipé³ on there are non-traditional with equally unreliable results. Try with caution and use your discretion about the saturated fat content.