Turkey-Lentil Chili

I have little experience cooking/eating lentils, but it only takes one attempt to realize that it's darn near impossible to make a lentil dish that is visually appealing. As such, I have chosen not to include a picture of what the end result of this recipe looked like, but instead a picture of different types of raw lentils haha. Despite their ugly appearance, lentils are actually quite tasty and nutritious. Here's some stuff you might not know about them...

  

• There is no cholesterol content in lentils.
• At the same time, they are very low in saturated fat.
• The sugar content in lentils is also very low.
• Lentils are rich in dietary soluble fiber.
• Lentils are high in iron, and hence are an important part of a vegetarian diet. About 60% of recommended dietary allowance of iron can be got from 100 grams of lentils.
• Phosphorous is also found in high amounts in lentils.
• The other important nutrient that lentils are rich in, is thiamin. One hundred grams of lentils contain 67% of the recommended dietary allowance of thiamin.
• Very few people are aware that lentils are also high in Vitamin C.
• Along with the above mentioned nutrients, lentils are also high in folic acid.
• Lentils provide Vitamin B to the body as well.
• Lentils are also packed with antioxidants necessary for the body.

I found this recipe for Turkey-Lentil Chili on the AllRecipes website one day when I was feeling especially poor (before payday when I had 1 euro in my bank account and like 10 in my wallet haha) and wanted to whip up a dish for which I already had most of the ingredients lying around. Luckily for me, all I had to buy were the lentils which cost next to nothing.

I have made this chili twice now, and ingredients-wise, I followed the recipe pretty closely with only a few minor changes. Once I used regular turkey breast, shredded and the second time I used ground turkey. Both turned out well, but for a more "chili-like" feel, I'd go with the ground turkey. Instead of turmeric, I used curry powder. Not gonna lie, I have never even heard of turmeric, but Wikipedia told me it's the primary ingredient in most curry powders, so I just decided to use that since I already had it. The only other change that I made was that I didn't peel the tomatoes, 1. because I couldn't figure out how to do it easily and 2. because I'm lazy. Lastly, I halved the recipe because I am one person and obviously don't need to eat for 12 (though I probably could). After halving the recipe I had enough to eat this dish 4 times so I'd really say the original recipe is for 8 instead of 12.

The prep time for this recipe isn't too bad and the relatively short cook time was especially surprising considering that with dried beans and lentils you typically have to soak them overnight before cooking them. This dish uses dried lentils and is ready after a mere 30ish minutes of cooking in the broth. Even though I've made this twice, I have yet to try topping it with yogurt. If anybody tries it, I'd love some feedback! Enjoy!