Hot sauce (Recipe: smoky brown rice and lentils) {vegan, gluten-free}

Originally published in November 2006, this updated ingredient post features new photos, links, and tweaks to the recipe. To me, lentils plus brown rice equals comfort food. Use your favorite store-bought or homemade smoky barbecue sauce; I love Rhode Island's own Cowboy Ketchup, gluten-free and not too spicy. Serve this vegan combination as a side dish, or a Meatless Monday main dish with a side salad.

For as long as I can remember, I've had a bottle of Tabasco hot sauce in my pantry.

For many years, it was the same bottle. I used to buy the little two-ounce supermarket standard, and those two ounces would sit on the shelf for a few years, until the sauce turned brown and gunky. I'd throw it out, and buy another little bottle, and start the cycle all over again. No matter what a recipe called for, I never used more than a drop at a time. Sometimes I just left out the hot sauce altogether. I was afraid of the heat.

Then my husband Ted, Cousin Martin and I visited New Orleans, and followed our noses to the McIlhenny headquarters on Avery Island, where the unmistakeable aroma of peppers and vinegar seeped in through the car's vents long before we actually arrived at the Tabasco factory building.

I got hooked.

Yes, friends, today I am a hot sauce junkie. I'm convinced everything tastes better with a little bit of heat — sometimes with a lot of heat. My hot sauce of choice is still Tabasco (I go through a twelve-ouncer every month), though each of the sauces in my pantry adds a slightly different flavor and heat intensity to my cooking.

The process of making hot sauce from peppers, vinegar and salt is simple. Hot peppers are picked as soon as they ripen to the perfect shade of bright red. The same day the peppers are picked, they're mashed, mixed with a small amount of salt, placed in wooden barrels, and allowed to ferment and age. When that process is completed, the mash is strained and diluted with vinegar.

Tabasco (a trademarked name referring not to the type of sauce, but to the region in Mexico where the peppers originate) is the easiest to find and the standard against which all other hot sauces are measured. I'm a purist, but if you prefer chipotle, sweet-hot, or jalapeño flavored hot sauce, go for it. You can never have too many hot sauces in your pantry.

Smoky brown rice and lentils

From the pantry, you'll need: lentils, brown rice, bay leaf, dried oregano, tomato sauce, onion, barbecue sauce or Cowboy Ketchup.

The basic recipe as I've made it is vegan, but you can add leftover cooked chicken, sausage, shrimp or roasted vegetables to this dish. Serves 6, can be doubled.

Ingredients

1 cup lentils
1 cup brown rice
6 cups liquid (water, or a mix of chicken stock and water)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
8 oz tomato sauce
1 large onion, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1/3 cup smoky barbeque sauce, or more to taste (I use gluten-free Cowboy Ketchup)
1 Tbsp hot sauce, or more to taste
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms, any kind

Optional: 1 cup chopped chicken breast, or 3/4 pound peeled and deveined shrimp, or 1 cup leftover shredded chicken breast, or 1 cup roasted vegetables, or 1/2 cup sliced cooked sausage

Directions

In a stockpot, bring lentils, rice and liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, bay leaf, oregano, onions, carrots, barbecue sauce and hot sauce, and cook, covered for 15 minutes. Add mushrooms, and optional chicken, shrimp or sausage. Continue cooking 20 minutes or until everything is tender, and the finished dish is quite thick. If you need more liquid to keep it from sticking to the pot, add water a tablespoon at a time.

Serve hot.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More comfort foods made with brown rice or lentils:
Vegetable fried rice
Slow cooker lentils with chicken sausage, spinach and feta cheese
Vegan barley and lentil pilaf with mushrooms and spinach
Spiced lentils with squash and raisins
Smoky pumpkin and brown rice enchiladas

Other recipes that use these pantry ingredients:
Lentil and quinoa chili, from Ambitious Kitchen
Spicy sausage, lentil and tomato soup, from Kalyn's Kitchen
Sesame almond brown rice balls, from 101 Cookbooks
Baked Greek brown rice, from Food Doodles
Mushroom and brown rice casserole, from Annie's Eats

Then my husband Ted, Cousin Martin and I visited New Orleans, and followed our noses to the McIlhenny headquarters on Avery Island, where the unmistakeable aroma of peppers and vinegar seeped in through the car's vents long before we actually arrived at the Tabasco factory building.

I got hooked.

Yes, friends, today I am a hot sauce junkie. I'm convinced everything tastes better with a little bit of heat — sometimes with a lot of heat. My hot sauce of choice is still Tabasco (I go through a twelve-ouncer every month), though each of the sauces in my pantry adds a slightly different flavor and heat intensity to my cooking.

The process of making hot sauce from peppers, vinegar and salt is simple. Hot peppers are picked as soon as they ripen to the perfect shade of bright red. The same day the peppers are picked, they're mashed, mixed with a small amount of salt, placed in wooden barrels, and allowed to ferment and age. When that process is completed, the mash is strained and diluted with vinegar.

Tabasco (a trademarked name referring not to the type of sauce, but to the region in Mexico where the peppers originate) is the easiest to find and the standard against which all other hot sauces are measured. I'm a purist, but if you prefer chipotle, sweet-hot, or jalapeño flavored hot sauce, go for it. You can never have too many hot sauces in your pantry.

Smoky brown rice and lentils

From the pantry, you'll need: lentils, brown rice, bay leaf, dried oregano, tomato sauce, onion, barbecue sauce or Cowboy Ketchup.

The basic recipe as I've made it is vegan, but you can add leftover cooked chicken, sausage, shrimp or roasted vegetables to this dish. Serves 6, can be doubled.

Ingredients

1 cup lentils
1 cup brown rice
6 cups liquid (water, or a mix of chicken stock and water)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
8 oz tomato sauce
1 large onion, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1/3 cup smoky barbeque sauce, or more to taste (I use gluten-free Cowboy Ketchup)
1 Tbsp hot sauce, or more to taste
1/2 lb sliced mushrooms, any kind

Optional: 1 cup chopped chicken breast, or 3/4 pound peeled and deveined shrimp, or 1 cup leftover shredded chicken breast, or 1 cup roasted vegetables, or 1/2 cup sliced cooked sausage

Directions

In a stockpot, bring lentils, rice and liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, bay leaf, oregano, onions, carrots, barbecue sauce and hot sauce, and cook, covered for 15 minutes. Add mushrooms, and optional chicken, shrimp or sausage. Continue cooking 20 minutes or until everything is tender, and the finished dish is quite thick. If you need more liquid to keep it from sticking to the pot, add water a tablespoon at a time.

Serve hot.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More comfort foods made with brown rice or lentils:
Vegetable fried rice
Slow cooker lentils with chicken sausage, spinach and feta cheese
Vegan barley and lentil pilaf with mushrooms and spinach
Spiced lentils with squash and raisins
Smoky pumpkin and brown rice enchiladas

Other recipes that use these pantry ingredients:
Lentil and quinoa chili, from Ambitious Kitchen
Spicy sausage, lentil and tomato soup, from Kalyn's Kitchen
Sesame almond brown rice balls, from 101 Cookbooks
Baked Greek brown rice, from Food Doodles
Mushroom and brown rice casserole, from Annie's Eats

Comments

You remind me that some day I'd love to visit McIlhenny Co and see how tabasco is made - as you suggest, it's bound to be a life altering experience. Where do you stand on the green version?

TW, I love green Tabasco. It's milder, and for some dishes, just perfect.

I'm a huge fan of the green Tabasco, but the red one is a bit hot for me except in very small doses! This sounds like a perfect Meatless Monday dish!

Kalyn, the green tabasco will work perfectly in this dish, which is a great Meatless Monday main course.

Lydia, you have been a a good guide for me to liberate myself from fear of heat. My tolerance has really grown since I opened the door of the Perfect Pantry.
I have an adult kid who loves hot sauces (he bought a case of one he likes, from Blair's); he also gets headaches, and I think the uses the sauce to self-medicate.
What do you think?
And the dish looks like a model for endless variations. Pretty photo!

I love hot sauce and Tabasco but I admit I also like a little Texas Pete and crystal!

I love all hot sauces and always have a bottle of Tabasco in my pantry. Great on anything and everything!

Susan, I'm so pleased to know that you're increasing your tolerance to heat. That's what happened to me, a slow increase over a number of years. And if self-medicating with hot sauce works for your son's headaches, that's great! I'm sure there is some property in the capsaicin that acts on headaches, though I have no scientific knowledge to support the theory.

Jeanette, I have Tabasco at all times (red and green), and half a dozen other hot sauces, too.

Carol, what's Texas Pete? New to me!

I tried this recipe with lentils and leftovers -- leftover tomato sauce with carrots, onion and celery and leftover roasted cauliflower and onions. I was hesitant to use 1/3 cup barbecue sauce and 1 entire whole tablespoon of Tabasco. I thought maybe it might be too sweet and too hot. It worked! It is delicious!

Dear Lydia, I love hot sauce too!! I think it is fun to add the heat.
I don't think you can have too many hot sauces either.

This dish does sound real good and healthy too.
Blessings, Catherine

Natasha, I'm so glad you liked it! And I love your repurposing of leftovers -- I might even have to try this with cauliflower, which is not my favorite.

Catherine, I agree, you absolutely cannot have too many hot sauces in your pantry.

Dear Lydia,
I read your blog each week her in Perth Western Australia. Love your recipes and yes! have made many for my friends and parishioners in the parish I care for. Keep up the good food coming, from one cook to another.

Fr Wayne, thanks so much!