Love Your Lentils–Part III

ia”>Weczeria, a restaurant located in the heart of Saskatoon.

From the mason jar filled lights hanging from the ceiling…

the distressed wood..

to the flower arrangements on the table, the restaurant had a rustic and welcoming feeling to it.

And, of course, the company was just fabulous. I knew it was going to be a great evening.

Once we were seated, the executive chef Don greeted us and explained each of the dishes on our set menu. I loved that the restaurant bases the menu on local, fresh ingredients. The menu changes daily!

Since wine paired with each meal, I made sure to sip water throughout.

I started off enjoying a refreshing cider. Slightly sweet and thirst-quenching.

The bread basket always seems to fill me up, so I made sure only to indulge in one slice.

With our salad, we enjoyed a crisp white wine.

The salad was a fresh spring mix served over truffles. I liked the flavor of the warm truffles with the cold salad.

The pan fried gnocchi with a marinara dipping sauce was excellent. I have never seen gnocchi made this way. Such a unique twist on a classic.

Chef Don also treated us to a rhubarb tasting. We were advised to eat it right to left to get the ultimate flavor combinations.

With our dinner course, we enjoyed a nice red wine.

The entrée featured, as Chef Don called it, the cavier of lentils..beluga lentils. Seared tuna was served over a bed of beluga lentils and chopped bacon topped with snow peas.

I have never had lentils paired in this way. I loved the saltiness of the bacon mixed with the subtle flavor of the lentils. Oh man, it was good!!

For dessert, we had our choice of a few different options. But when I saw the fudge on fudge ice cream cake, I knew my decision.

This cake was incredible!! There was slight hints of mint in the sauce.

Thanks to Chef Don and the folks at Weczeria for hosting an amazing dinner!

The next day, we got to experience a little of what Saskatchewan has to offer by enjoying the Taste Of Saskatchewan.

The festival features over 30 of Saskatoon’s finest restaurants serving their house favorite dishes.

We were each provided with tickets and had some time to explore the festival. One of the girls mentioned that japchae was one of her favorites, so I started off with that.

Glass noodles stir fried in sesame oil with an assortment of vegetables. YUM!

Since Canada is known for their poutine, I tried to seek some out. This smoked potato poutine was pretty close to the real thing.

Traditionally, poutine is served with fries but I enjoyed the twist of a potato. All served over gravy and cheese.

But the dessert was where it was at!!! After seeing someone’s buttertart flambe, we knew we HAD to get that for dessert.

This dessert was out of this world delicious.

The coating got nice and crunchy! Very decadent and almost a bit too sweet.

From what I could taste, it had lots of caramel flavor with tastes of cookie mixed in.

Me along with fellow RDs (from left) Melanie, Rosie, and Vanessa. Love these ladies!

Another highlight was taking part in a cooking challenge. We were broken into groups of 3. We headed to the grocery store with $25 to purchase ingredients for our dish.

The criteria was as follows:

• Our dish must include at least one type of lentils
• Have one hour start to finish including preparation and cook time

We had free range over the types of lentils we wanted to use.

Our recipe included 3 types of lentils: beluga black lentils, red split lentils, and roasted lentils.

My cooking colleagues, Patricia and Amanda.

After an hour or prepping, chopping, and cooking, we had our final product. Slow roasted tomato red lentil soup and grilled cheese featuring beluga lentils and wild mushrooms with a crispy parmesan wafer.

We used red lentils in the tomato soup, by first boiling the lentils and roasting the tomato and garlic. We pureed the three together with broth to make a delicious soup. We added boiled beluga lentils onto the grilled cheese which added some extra flavor and fiber. Lastly the parmesan crisps were made by combining parmesan cheese, chives, and roasted lentils in the oven to make mini crisps.

Here are a couple of the other dishes!

After the judges decisions were in, we were announced as 1st place!!! Seeing all the delicious dishes that were made, it goes to show how versatile lentils can be!!

Ways you can experiment with lentils:

• Top onto a salad (I love the combo of spinach, beets, boiled lentils, and goat cheese)
• Use in place of meat such as with these lentil tacos
• Make a lentil soup or puree lentils into a more traditional soup (such as tomato)
• Enjoy roasted lentils or a lentil snack (like date balls)
• Replace half of the meat for lentils in sliders
• Serve lentils under a piece of chicken or fish

I plan on cooking up some lentil recipes for you guys soon! A big thank you to Canadian Lentils/Saskatchewan Pulse Growers for such an amazing trip!

Here is a recap of part I and part II if you missed it.

What ways do you enjoy lentils?

Tagged as: lentils, restaurant, saskatoon, taste of saskatchewan, weczeria