Sweet Korean Lentils (2024)

I WON I WON I WON!

I'm so subtle, I know. I'm sure you have heard by now, but if not, Canadian Lentils chose me, along with 4 other awesome bloggers:Koko from Koko's Kitchen, Lalitha from Taylor Nutrition, Trudy from Eat Live Play, and Adam from Kook Channel, to go film a cooking show in P.E.I. with Food Network Star Chef Michael Smith. Oh boy, was that an experience!

My entry was this YouTube video where I featured one of my favourite lentil recipes, Lentil Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce.Apparently, the recipe and my quirky personality were well received, as before I knew it, I was on a terrifying little plane on my way to see Chef Michael Smith.

A full day of filming was dedicated to just little ol' me! At first, I wondered how in the world, it would take so long to film a 15 minute recipe, but the dayquickly flew by.

Filming in front of this giant crew and eight (yes eight) cameras pointing at me,was such a fun/stressful/scary/amazing/exciting/awkward experience... and I absolutely loved it. Someone give me a cooking show please. I want to do this all the time!

That's not to say it was easy, because it certainly wasn't.

The director and Chef Michael Smith would give me a 627instructions (or something like that): look here, say this, don't say that, don't talk about what you're doing, but talk about something, don't say that you are chopping an onion, tell me why you're chopping an onion... "errr... so that it's chopped?"

It went on like that. Then they follow up all of these instructions by saying"act natural". See how natural I am↓↓↓ haha!😁

I would be chopping up an extremely underripe mango (apparently the camera can't tell)and then suddenly someone would run in to do a close-up of my mango choppingskills (which are hugely lacking p.s.).

Meanwhile, I'm inchingaway from the camera afraid of injuring the expensive technology with Michael's largechef knife and the camera man keeps chasing me getting closer and closer to myawkward chopping.

Regardless of my chopping skills, and lack of knowing what to say, I seemed to work my way through filming, and I was even able to break the entire crew at one point and make them all burst into laughter when they weren't supposed to. FINALLY!!

Hardest part for sure was that there was a roomful of people that I was having a completely one-sided conversation with. I literally couldn't tell if anyone was remotely interested in what I was yabbering on about, because they couldn't respond.

At least I know thateveryoneenjoyed thefood. After every cut, the crew would swarm mytacos and quickly devour them all. Wooing the world onedelicious vegan meal at a time.Muhahaha!

I can't reveal all the secrets, because there were some fun (and slightly evil) surprises they had in store for us, but I justcan't wait to see/ I am terrified to see the final videos!

Update: You can now see the final video here.

Isn't that a lovely looking crew?? It's so much fancier than thecrew I am used to (me, myself, and I).

To celebrate the end of the festivities, Chef Michael Smith taught me how to use a knife to cut the top off of a champagne bottle.

A big thank you to Ethan from Food Bloggers of Canada for taking all of these photos (and driving my hungover self around P.E.I. the day after the shoot).. what... champagne... And to Rachel from Canadian Lentils for filming this video (and just generally being awesome).

I wanted to share a recipe in celebration of this super fun event, and since I already posted the Lentil Tacos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce, I decided to make a brand spanking new lentil recipe, cause can you ever have too many lentils? The answer is no.

So here we go my friends. All you need is 15 minutes, a few go-to ingredients, and boom, flavour-packed Sweet Korean Lentils are on the table. These lentils are sweet and mildly spiced, a serious nod to Korean BBQ.

These Sweet Korean Lentils reminds me of when I lived in LA, and my roommate Ashely and I would frequent this little Korean restaurant. They always served this sweet and tangy beef. Now obvi I wasn't going to make that, but this is why I love lentils, anywhere a recipe calls for ground beef, you can pretty much sub lentils. A much healthier and friendlier option, and oh so delicious.

To make Sweet Korean Lentils: mix all the sauciness together. Um, hello delicious looking sauce!

Sauté up some onion.

Side note: Are you supposed to use signed wooden spoons, or are you supposed to display them? I decided the spoon would have a lot more love and appreciation if it was used in my daily life, so I am going to cook with it. My mom sometimes wishes I was more sentimental... oops.

Now add your lentils and sauciness to the pan.

Cover and simmer for around 10 minutes until the lentils are cooked and tender, and most of the sauce is absorbed.

Serve over rice and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds. I also used this as a lettuce wrap filling and my oh my it was scrumptious.

A big final thank you to Canadian Lentils and Chef Michael Smith for having me. ❤️

Bon Appetegan my friends.

Bon appetegan!

Sam.