The Hot Chocolate Lentils from the Wicked Healthy Cookbook are an awesome taco filling – which is how they were designed.  If you seldom have tortillas on hand however, they also make a great protein candidate for bowl-making.  I therefore present you with the Hot Chocolate Lentil Bowl.  And it is a beauty (even for dark brown food).  For the lentils, in order to respect copy and recipe rights, I will steer you to the book via the link above (or a link to a similar but adapted recipe from the A2K blog in the ingredient list below).

Yield: 4 bowls

What you need:

• 1 recipe Hot Chocolate Lentils
• 2 ripe plantains (dark yellow/brown with lots of black spots), peeled, quartered lengthwise and sliced into 1″ chunks
• 4 packed cups of de-stemmed kale, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 cup stewed tomatoes, chopped fresh tomatoes or salsa

What you do:

1. While you’re heating up or making the Hot Chocolate Lentils, set up your steaming apparatus.  Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the steamer basket with the plantain chunks in there.  Steam for 7-10 minutes, until the plantain has gone from orange to yellow and is getting soft and sweet.
2. Uncover, strew the kale on top of the plantain, cover over again and steam another 2-3 minutes, until the kale is wilted but nice and bright.  Turn of the heat and uncover (so the kale doesn’t turn dark olive and drab…)
3. Artfully split equal amounts of the lentils, plantain kale and tomato between four bowls.  Alternatively, layer it into a mason jar for a quick lunch later in the week.  (Since you really want chocolate at lunch rather than supper.  Unless you’re on the night shift.)
4. Serve.