There is a viral pasta going around – Anna Paul’s Viral Turkish Pasta – with lots of recreations of it and it inspired me to make my own. While mine is a different version from hers (hers is made with ground beef and has a butter sauce), I got the idea of adding raw diced tomatoes, garlicky coconut yogurt (she uses Greek yogurt), and parsley to top some lentil pasta. It’s very good. The raw diced tomato and garlic yogurt adds a unique and fresh twist. I will say Mark loved it with the first bite, but it took me a minute to decide if I liked yogurt on my pasta. Once I mixed it up in my bowl though, I enjoyed it. The whole combination is fresh tasting and comforting at the same time. I hope you enjoy this Turkish Inspired Lentil Pasta Recipe as well!
Turkish Inspired Lentil Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box of pasta of choice, I used ZENB Penne made from 100% whole yellow peas
- 1 cup jarred pasta sauce of choice, I used Cadia’s Organic Arrabbiata Sauce (a brand I find at a Door County grocery store)
- 1 can lentils or 1 1/2 cups prepared lentils, drain and rinse canned lentils
- 4 oz plain Cocojune Organic Pure Coconut Yogurt
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 beefsteak tomato, diced
- 1 handful of parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped
- 1 small red or yellow onion, diced – whatever you’re feeling or have on hand
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- paprika
- cumin
- dried thyme
- sea salt or Himalayan salt
- ground pepper
Method
- I use a wonder oven to dry out and toast my lentils a bit for this dish. It takes 5 minutes to preheat to 350 and 10 minutes to toast. I do 5 minutes, flip them a bit and do 5 more minutes. It’s fast and easy. By the time it takes my pasta water to boil and the pasta to cook, everything comes together in around the same time. However, if you don’t have a toaster oven and want your lentils toasted a bit too, preheat your oven to 320. Add lentils to a bowl and sprinkle with all of the seasonings above (measure with love – garlic powder to ground pepper). If using Trader Joe’s pre-seasoned lentils by chance, you can skip the seasonings here. Bake lentils at 320 spread out on a parchment lined baking sheet for 10 minutes. If they need a bit more, move them around and put them back in for a few more minutes.
- Boil water for the pasta in a large pot and cook noodles according to the box.
- Meanwhile in a medium sauté pan, water sauté the onion. Once the onions begin to soften, shake the following over the onions: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cumin, thyme, salt, and pepper. You can’t mess it up, just season them well.
- Once the onions are cooked, stir in the 1 cup of pasta sauce so it heats up in the pan.
- Drain off any liquid in the 4 oz Cocojune yogurt and stir in the minced garlic clove right into the container.
- Once the pasta is cooked and drained, add the pasta back into the large pot and stir in the onions with tomato sauce. It won’t be super saucy, just enough to coat. Quickly stir in the toasted lentils last. You can also omit mixing the lentils with the noodles and just serve them on top of the noodles.
- Assemble: To your serving bowl, add a large scoop of pasta with lentils, top with diced tomatoes, then a scoop of garlic yogurt, and then fresh parsley. Take a bite and add more salt, pepper, cumin or thyme to taste. ENJOY!
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