Baked Lentil Spinach Croquettes
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #DGUnitedByFootball #CollectiveBias
A crunchy, spiced, almond coating envelopes sauteed and spiced potatoes, lentils and spinach in these Baked Lentil Spinach Croquettes – making them a fun way to get your friends and family to eat their veggies!
Over the years, just about every get-together at a Sri Lankan home that I’ve been fortunate to have attended, seems to have involved some sort of a “cutlet.” What is referred to in most other parts of the world as a croquette, the Sri Lankan cutlet consisted of some sort of sauteed meat or vegetable, cooked potatoes and a plethora of spices that were rolled up together, dipped in an egg mix and breadcrumbs, and then fried up.
When it comes to cutlets, my mom makes a mean fish one. Her fish cutlets are so good us Charles Chicas will risk scalding the roofs of our mouths while taste testing them as soon as she pulls them out of her frying pan! I’ve tried making her version of them (as seen here), but, her idea of measuring ingredients in “pinches, dollops, and fistfuls” doesn’t quite help me out in duplicating hers exactly. So, I’ve tried taking over and perfecting the veggie cutlet/croquette niche in our family. Now, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but toot I will do…because some of those veggie ones I’ve churned out were pretty darn good, like those Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens Croquettes I made for our New Year’s Eve Shenanigans.
To me, cutlets/croquettes are delicious, simple, fun, finger-food that’s perfect for game day get-togethers or any kind of shenanigans – especially when paired with a cold, refreshing, glass of Coca-Cola or Coke Zero!
However, sometimes, standing there frying batches up can be a lot of work (for me, at least). So, sometimes, I just bake them up. Instead of dipping them in breadcrumbs after dipping them in an egg mix, I simply dip them in a mix of roughly ground up almonds and spices like cumin, coriander and paprika, like I did with these Baked Lentil Spinach Croquettes. Bite into one of these Baked Lentil Spinach Croquettes and you will still get a crunchy coating enveloping a tasty and spicy blend of potatoes, lentils and spinach. Such a fun way to get your friends and family to eat their veggies – eh?!
I plan on taking some of these Baked Lentil Spinach Croquettes to the pot-luck game day get-together my daughter and I plan on attending, along with a cups and plates and a couple of 6 packs of Coke Zero I picked up at my neighborhood Dollar General Store. By the way, if you shop at Dollar General, make sure you download and launch the Dollar General App and turn on your Bluetooth® settings as you will be notified of some pretty rad deals just by walking by a new beacon-enabled “Destination Coca-Cola” end-cap – how cool is that?!
Make sure to check out more inspiration for your game day events here!
Ingredients
For the Croquettes:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion finely diced
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 cups frozen spinach
- 1 cup cooked lentils
- 2 boiled potatoes skin peeled off
- 1/2 jalapeno chopped optional, for a bit of heat
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper according to your taste
For the Almond Coating
- 1 and 1/2 cups roughly ground up almonds can pulse regular almonds in a food processor or place them in a plastic bag and whack 'em with a rolling pin
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 eggs whisked well
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Add olive oil and onion to a pan and saute till onions begin to caramelize
- Add in the garlic and ginger and frozen spinach and let cook, stirring a bit, till spinach is warmed through
- Add in the cumin, coriander, turmeric, and paprika
- Then, using a fork, roughly mash up the potatoes and add them to the spinach and spice mix
- Add in the cooked lentils
- Season with salt and pepper (according to your taste)
- Finally, add in the jalapeno and remove pan from heat
- Let cool a bit and when mix is comfortable to touch, gather up spoonfuls and form into balls/croquettes.
- When all the mix has been formed into balls, prep the almond coating by mixing the almonds, cumin, coriander, paprika and salt together in a plate.
- Then, use one hand to dunk a ball in the egg mix and the other hand to dunk it into the almond coating.
- Place all the balls/croquettes on an aluminum foil lined baking tray and bake for 35-40 minutes - till crispy.
- Enjoy plain or with sambal oelek
I love fried anything, but frying can be messy. So I don’t do it all that often. Love the idea of these baked croquettes! Much easier to make. And the flavoring in these? Touchdown! Perfect for gameday. 🙂
That almond coating makes these oven baked croquettes even more tempting!
The croquettes look delicious Shashi and nutritious as well.
Yum! These Croquettes look so creamy! Love all those spices. Definitely sounds perfect paired with Coca-Cola.
Brilliant that you keep the calories down by baking these. The almond coating sounds very tasty too
I love this recipe! Absolutely amazing!
I never let myself fry anything.. I’m awful at it and always burn myself! I love that these are baked instead!
They look just gorgeous, thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
Janie x
I love everything about these croquettes, Shashi – the fact they are made of lentils (one of my favorite things), the fact that you baked them, but the most importantly that you didn’t use bread crumbs but opted for the almond coating. The only one thing I don’t like about them that I’m not having these for my lunch right now:) Do you think you could fix it shortly, please?
I have never tried anything like this before, but I have to say, you do make it look and sound delicious!!!
Mmmm…It sounds delicious Shashi. I really liked the photography and the presentation of yours. Amazing!!!
Now this is my idea of the perfect football food! These croquettes look perfectly crispy, Shashi…and those spices + flavors! I’m going to need a place an order for these bad boys stat. Ok, maybe for delivery right about the time for kickoff on Sunday’s games? 🙂 And what a cool feature for the Coca Cola endcaps…technology these days!
These croquettes look mouthwatering!!! Wish I was closer so I could drop by unannounced and have an icy cold glass of Coke and these croquettes. I love how you describe preparing the almonds….”whack ’em with a rolling pin”! Just my style. You my friend, have a winner in these croquettes – delicious and healthy. BOOM! Yes, Fri-Yay is coming!!!
I need to invite myself over to your house, hop in my ride and knock on your door, Shashi, because I love love loooooove me some croquettes!! They remind me of my father, because he was always turning leftovers into some sort of croquette. These lentil and spinach ones look just delicious!! There is something so comforting about crunchy on the outside, tender and delicious on the inside croquettes, right!? Love that these are baked and you used healthy ingredients like lentils and spinach! Now I can get my croquette grub on and not feel so guilty! Yesss!! Cheers, dear!
I’m coming to your game day party for sure! You always make the best food!
Ah Shashi. I love these!
It’s funny how food invokes memories isn’t it? I’d completely forgotten than my mum used to feed my brother and I frozen potato croquettes nearly every single night when we were young. They were quick and easy to grab from the freezer when she had been out working all day!
I so wish that we could have had your baked lentil spinach croquettes instead. They look and sound amazing. Plus I love the fact you’re baking and not frying them.
Thanks for this wonderful recipe and the fond memories! Pinning!
So interesting to learn that cutlet is used instead of croquette! Either way, I’ll take them! Especially if they look THIS good, Shasi. Charles Chicas is such a cute name for you gals! Oh goodness, my mom measures her recipes in “pinches, dollops” and fistfuls” too. Lolol. I think our moms would most certainly get along well. 😉 Please do toot your own horn, and meanwhile, hand over some of these amazing cutlets! I love that you did a baked version instead of frying–that means I can enjoy more of these, right? 😉 Hope you and your family are having an amazing weekend! Hugs! xoxo
Also, apparently it’s too early in the morning on a Saturday for me… that’s a good reason why I misspelled your name right? Lolol. Sorry Shashi!! <– There, that proves I can actually do something right this early. Lol.
I love the new look of your blog. You have photographed these croquettes beautifully. I love the ingredients and all the spices. These must have a lovely aroma. I didn’t know in other parts of the world these are called ‘cutlets’!
Awesome croquettes!! It is yummy.. And i must say about the pics.. They are amazing!!
thanks shashi, your recipe looks amazing, i’ll try making it soon
Anything with a crispy coating gets my attention every time! And the combination of flavors in this lovely croquette is a winner in my book! Thanks for sharing, Shashi!!
What a beautiful recipe, I love this kind of things and the fact that they are baked and not fried makes the balls even more appealing. And I know what you mean about measuring in fistfulls and dollops, I really have my issues with deciphering some of my grandmother’s or aunt’s old recipes. It takes quite a few tries to get them right and when it comes to baking it can get really frustrating.