Easy Lentil Mashed Potato Pancake Recipe

Hmmm, what to do with leftover lentil soup? I'd made some soup from scratch a couple of days ago. While sitting in the fridge the leftovers had soaked up all the liquid giving it more of a chili consistency.

So this morning I mashed a potato and lightly mixed the soup and potato together, formed them into small round patties, and fried them in my cast iron frying pan. Then I fried a single, pasture raised egg to accompany them. A little salt and pepper and I had a fantastic breakfast! It was delicious and a novel way to use up some of the soup.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized potato (I peeled mine but you could leave the skin on) - mashed
1 cup of lentil soup, liquid drained
Cooking oil or butter to grease frying pan
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Form patties from a mixture of the mashed potato and leftover lentil soup
2. Place in greased, preheated frying pan or skillet on medium heat. 
3. Flip patties when browned. Mine only took a minute or two.
4. Brown other side
5. Remove from frying pan
6. Add more oil or butter and fry egg in frying pan
7. Plate egg with pancakes
8. Add salt and pepper to taste

From one medium potato I ended up with enough of the mixture to eat two Lentil Potato Pancakes this morning, freeze two, and throw one in the fridge to be able to test how they reheat from the fridge and freezer in the coming days. I'll come back here to post updates when I find out.

The soup was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy to make it blew my mind. I was chatting with my mom on the phone and she said she makes lentil soup from scratch. I buy my favorite brand (Amy's) in cans for around $2.50 a can. She said I should make it from scratch. Just use broth, dried lentils and veggies.

As we talked on the phone I went to the kitchen and threw two cups of vegetable broth, a cup of dried green lentils and some chopped up celery, potatoes, and onions into a pot. You can use whatever veggies you have sitting around. My mom said she likes to add carrots and tomatoes. I brought it to a boil, put a lid on, then let it simmer for 50 minutes. I'd stir the pot every 15 minutes or so and added about a cup of water in as the broth cooked down. Soon it was ready. One bite and all I could think was this was my new favorite lentil soup! And it cost so much less than the canned variety. I'll still keep some cans on hand as emergency preparedness food but from now on I'll be whipping up my own soup from scratch.

I'm trying to eat more lentils because they contain a significant amount of iron, which I was missing from my diet. They also contain plenty of fiber, protein, vitamin B1, and potassium. Two other great features about lentils? They're low in price and calories. You can get three pounds of lentils for the price of a single pound of beef.

I think my next lentil project will be to find a good lentil chili recipe. It'll be a nice and cozy comfort food over a bowl of steamed brown rice on a cold, wet, winter night.