Magical Miso Mushrooms with Brown Rice & Lentils

“I made this today - so good!! Thanks!!” ~ Miriam (via facebook)

I'm obsessed with mushrooms! I love their flavour and I LOVE that they are so healthy for you!

And if you've followed this blog for a while you will know that I absolutely ADORE finding ways to tweak delicious recipes to make them even healthier!

This recipe has all the flavour of a mushroom risotto, but with a few tweaks to really lower the glycemic impact!

You see, using lentils and brown rice instead of white rice adds extra fibre and protein. This means that your blood sugar and insulin won't spike so fast or so high.

And wait, THERE'S MORE! When I make this recipe, I use rice and lentils that I have cooked the day before and refrigerated overnight. When you cook "carby" foods like rice and legumes and then cool them for 12-24 hours, a portion of the starches convert to Resistant Starch. resistant starch cannot be digested, so you will have a much lower glycemic response! You can read about this HERE. And check out THIS POST for some other benefits of resistant starch!

Ingredients

3/4 cup brown or green lentils (don't use red lentils for this recipe as they will turn to mush!)
1/2 cup brown rice

4 punnets mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion (or 2 small), peeled and finely sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons miso paste
Juice of one lemon
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Rinse brown rice and lentils, add to a large saucepan, add water to cover and bring to boil
Once the water has boiled, reduce heat and simmer until cooked
(Yes I cook my brown rice and lentils in the same pot. Because it works OK, and less washing up!).
Now if you are wanting to create lots of awesome healthy resistant starch, cover your cooked rice and lentils and refrigerate overnight.

Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes until just translucent.
Add in the mushrooms, reduce heat, cover and leave to soften.
While mushroom is softening, put the miso paste, lemon juice and sesame oil in a bowl and mix to combine. Don't stress too much if it doesn't combine too well as it will dissolve once it is added to the pan.
Uncover your pan with the mushrooms and add in the miso mix and stir in until the miso dressing is completely mixed in.
Cover and continue cooking over low-medium heat until the mushrooms are cooked to your liking.
Stir in the cooked (and cooled!) rice and lentil mix, stir to combine (and if you have cooled your carbs overnight, continue cooking until they are heated through).