Split Peas and Rice

I suspected this dish wasn’t going to be a home run with the Omnivore.  I knew *I* would love it: peas, brown rice, 6 cloves of garlic.  That’s a winner.  And honestly, in my deepest, darkest, most quiet moments, I knew the Omnivore would like it, too.  But there was a problem.

It looks like this:

Bona fide baby food.  Green baby food. My usual tactics when it comes to a situation like this is to 1) cover the food with cheese 2) add breadcrumbs galore or 3) just add bacon.

Well, the peas weren’t exactly screaming “I’ll go great with cheese!” and breadcrumbs weren’t appropriate.  Bacon would have been PERFECT! if we had any in the house.

So I punted.

I made honey mustard chicken nuggets.  The tactic?  Lure him in with a classic, meaty favorite, and when he takes a bite of peas to be polite, he’ll fall in love.

So what happened?  He gagged. On the chicken *whew.*  I’m okay with making nasty chicken.  I wasn’t eating it anyway.  It started in frozen-nugget-form from the freezer (Tyson Chicken, you have let my husband down!).  And he raved about the peas.  And the best part about it?  I have a new tactic when serving a dish I am unsure about to the Omnivore: serve suspicious food with a nasty side of meat!

One Year Ago: Basic Indian Curry

Indian Split Peas and Rice (4 side dish servings, adapted from here)
1 cup dried, split peas
1/2 cup rice
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 3″ piece of ginger, grated
4.5 cups of water
salt and pepper
sliced tomatoes and lemon juice for garnish

Saute chopped onion stovetop for 4-5 minutes.   Add ginger and garlic and cook 2 minutes over low heat.  Add rice and cook 3-4 minutes.  Add water and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low and cover, cooking for 40-60 minutes or until water is absorbed.  Let stand off heat for 5 minutes before serving.  Garnish with tomatoes, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

To make this dish in the slow cooker:
Combine all ingredients and reduce liquid to 3 3/4 cup water.  Cook on high for 6 hours.

Calories 150.2
Total Fat 0.8 g
Saturated Fat 0.2 g
Total Carbohydrate 29.9 g
Dietary Fiber 5.9 g
Sugars 1.4 g
Protein 6.1 g