Nurturing my inner... substitute

What would you do if you had an abundance of one ingredient left over, say lentils, from a dish you made the day before where you clearly misjudged the amount you needed?  You'd get creative, that's what you'd do.

Reston Faked Beans

1 cup cooked black French lentils
3 strips of bacon, cut into pieces and cooked until crispy
1/8 tsp onion powder
2 tsps brown sugar
1 heaping tsp ketchup
1 heaping tsp mustard

I made a familiar lentil dish the other day, but used smaller French black lentils instead of green this time.  I think I incorrectly gauged the amount I would need, because I had an over abundance of extra, cooked lentils.  They aren't really the type of thing you eat on their own, plain, and I didn't have the ingredients I would need to make some other lentil dishes I was planning on tackling, so I had to think quickly on my feet.  For starters, what was in my freezer?  Mmm, bacon!

I cut up three strips into small pieces and cooked them in a saute pan on medium heat.

Cooked slowly. I don't like burnt bacon.

When the fat rendered out of the bacon, I scooped it up with a spoon, put it into a small container and then into the freezer.

It will come in handy when cooking and
flavoring vegetables.

I had put away my extra lentils from the day before with just a little bit of liquid in the bottom.  I wasn't sure if I might need it and I didn't want them to dry out.

Cooked in chicken broth. And available,
thanks to me, in abundance.

Once I had decided to add bacon to the lentils, I knew at that point, with things in my pantry, I could whip up some sort of understudy for baked beans.  A lentil is very beany, so it would lend itself nicely to this simple one ingredient swap out.  The rest of the flavors would be tried and true traditional ones.  Like brown sugar and onion.  (I had no fresh onion, so powdered would have to do.  It was a whole day of alternates.)

Sweet and savory, side by side.

Into a pan on medium heat, I added the lentils with their liquid, bacon, onion powder and brown sugar.

The bacon will soften a bit as it
cooks in the lentils.

And really, what would any kind of baked beans be without another pair of sweet and savory items that we all know and love.  (What's with all the two by twos today?)

Picnic's favorite couple.

Add the sweet...

Adds nice color too.

... and then the savory.  And let it all simmer for just a few minutes.

Will give it some zing.

With everything all mixed together, it was time to get on with the baking part.  I got these pumpkin-colored ramekins at World Market.  A pack of two for just a few dollars.  They were the perfect size for individual portions.

They had a bunch of colors to choose from.

I scooped half the lentil mixture into each ramekin.

Filled up about three quarters of the way.

I placed them into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until they were piping, bubbling hot.  The baking time helped the flavors all get absorbed into the lentils, creating a truly blended, and very convincing, baked bean taste.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Yep, tasted nearly the same. Smokey and sweet.

Nice to know that you can create a delightful dish right out of your freezer and pantry in a pinch, so you don't waste good left overs.  With a little ingenuity, and a quick substitute, you can even fool yourself with a pretty clever stand-in.