Vegan Spicy Lentil Rice Cake with Vegetable Curry

Originally created by Daniel Pliska, Executive Chef of the University Club of Missouri and Assistant General Manager of University Catering in Columbia, Missouri, this spicy vegan lentil rice cake recipe in a vegetable curry will have your patrons in "veggie heaven" with full of flavor, texture and taste goodness, with some star seasonings like McCormick Grill Mates® Mojito Lime Seasoning, McCormick® Culinary Curry Powder and Turmeric, along with Thai Kitchen® Coconut Milk. 
"Meatless Mondays" never had it so good!

Ingredients

Procedure

Rice Cakes

1. Sauté red onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in a small amount of olive oil (½ tsp). Add Mojito Lime Seasoning, stir and cook for 1 more minute. Add lentils, wine, tomato juice and water(1 1/2 cups), and then bring to a boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook until lentils are soft, add more water if needed. Once the lentils are cooked and soft, cool slightly then puree half of the lentils and leave rest whole.
2. While the lentils are cooking, soak the flaxseed meal in water (6 tbsp). Add the cooked rice, cilantro, and scallions and stir well then add the flaxseed mixture and the mix well with bread crumbs (½ cup). Adjust seasoning with salt if needed.
3. Form into 8 rice cakes and coat with bread crumbs (½ cup) and reserve.
4. In a hot pan, brown the lentil rice cakes in olive oil (½ tsp) on both sides and then put in the oven and bake at 375°F until cooked through.

Vegetable Curry

1. In a 2-quart sauce pot, sauté the jalapeno, garlic, ginger and red onion in olive oil (¼ cup). Add the kosher salt, black pepper, turmeric, curry powder, and flour and cook on medium heat to create a roux. Cook for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add the tomato paste and cook and stir for another minute. Whisk in the water and the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes and then puree with an immersion blender.
2. Heat another sauté pan with olive oil (1 tbsp) and brown the onions, celery, carrots, red bell peppers, and butternut squash.
3. Add the vegetables to the curry sauce and simmer for 3 minutes, then add the cauliflower and golden raisins. Let simmer until all vegetables are tender and then squeeze in lime juice and add chopped cilantro.
4. Reserve and serve with the lentil rice cakes.

Assembly

1. Serve rice cakes on top of the vegetable curry garnished with lime wedges, cilantro leaves (½ tsp) and chopped scallions (½ tsp).