Your children loved...

Lentil Rice Cakes

Ingredients:
1 cup green lentils
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cups cooked brown rice (I used a mix of white and brown)
3 egg whites (I used two whole eggs)
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning


Method:

Put lentils, garlic, oregano and onion into a medium sized pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil over med-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Cover and simmer for half an hour. Check about every 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If water has reduced by too much, add about half a cup more. (You want the lentils to absorb the water, but you don't want to let the water reduce so much that the lentils on the bottom scorch.)

When lentils are cooked, let cool at least 10 minutes. Drain off any excess water.

In a large bowl, mix together rice, lentil mixture, eggs, flour and seasoning. Using your hands, form into 10 patties, about 10 cm in diameter. Set aside. (I put them in the fridge for a couple of hours. I also didn't find I got ten patties. More like six.)

Preheat frying pan on med-high heat for a minute. Add enough oil to prevent sticking, and let it heat another minute. Using a spatula, place patties into the pan. Give each side a good three minutes at least before turning. The patties are a little fragile at first, but firm up nicely as they cook. If you flip them too soon, though, they might crumble apart.

That's it! When my family ate these, I made a sauce from plain yoghurt and super-hot salsa. (The original recipe included a cilantro cream sauce recipe.) Your kids ate them broken into chunks and, for everyone except Astrid, who had hers plain, dipped in ketchup. (Kind of cheating, I know. We all know little kids would happily chow down on styrofoam if you let them dip it in ketchup.)

And chow down they did! Everyone ate their first helping with gusto, and most of them asked for seconds and even thirds.

(Recipe from the July/August edition of Clean Eating magazine.)