Red Lentil-Rice Cakes with Simple Tomato Salsa

I picked this recipe to use up fresh tomatoes from my garden.  The salsa was the bomb.  The lentil rice cakes were ok,  bur not really worth the time invested to make them, although my 12 year old daughter loved them and ate three!

When I made this with 4 cups water to 1 cup split red lentils, they turned to mush. I scrapped that and used 2.25 cups water to 1 cup split red lentils and it was perfect. This recipe is a keeper.

This was only an OK recipe. The cakes kept falling apart. The lentils became mush after I cooked them. The basil was too strong (I would preferred dry in this recipe) and the recipe took some time to make. The salsa was really tasty but I wouldn't serve it with the rice cakes. I am sorry to say this is a toss out.

The salsa made these, don't think I would have liked them without it, and I agree with other posters that they are best fresh, if you do reheat them do so in a toaster oven, full review at http://www.dishoverdinner.com/2013/12/red-lentil-rice-cakes-with-simple.html

these cakes were excellent, just as instructed. must eat right away, so don't make ahead and reheat. didn't feel it needed the salsa, although it was nice. i think i will try it with brown rice next time.

Delicious! My 18 y/o son, who is a meat lover, thought these were great. We all enjoyed it. I followed the suggestions, substituted cumin seed for fennel, cilantro for basil. Made sure when flipping that the spatula was as wide as the rice cakes. Served them with spicy roasted sweet potatoes and some sautéed greens. It was a wonderful meal. I will make these again. I also purchased some black bean & corn salsa, instead of making the salsa in recipe. Turned it into a Mexican themed meal. Yummy

I made these as a side dish for a Greek dinner simply because I had all the ingredients. (I did not make the salsa; we ate them with Tzatziki) The cakes were good, but very labor intensive. Don't know if I would make them again purpose though.

I'm not sure how our tastes differ so greatly, but we just really had to suffer through these to eat them.

Most amazing vegetarian dish ever! I could eat this stuff all week long and probably not get tired of it! I have no critical feedback. It's totally perfect as is.

I really liked this as a base red lentil cake recipe. I used some curry powder, cumin, and cayenne as the seasoning, used mushrooms instead of onion, and blended it all in the food processor. Next time I would make sure to thoroughly dry the lentils, and try cooking it as a loaf or in the oven to simplify. Served with an avocado and tomato salsa, which complements these cakes amazingly well. Definitely try this recipe, just taste your concoction before adding the egg whites and adjust spices accordingly!

I really liked this recipe, and so did my children, I think it did take a while to get everything together, so next time I would start earlier, or prep the cakes and put in fridge so it would be much faster. I think it would be great with feta or another stronger flavored cheese. Very filling for under 300 calories. Would make again for sure.

I was really excited about trying this recipe. Unfortunately, it took way too long (1 hour and 45 minutes, including cooking time and prep time) and the payoff just wasn't good enough. Very bland. I will not make it again.

this was great!!!! i thought the flavors blended really well together. even my 2-year-old cleaned his plate. i'll definitely make this again.

I made these as written, except using regular lentils b/c my grocery store didn't have red ones. They were tasty, but really hard to make, and time consuming. I don't expect that I will make these again because they just were not worth the effort to me... plus I really don't think my hubby would like the texture!

We love this recipe. It's a nice light meal for hot summer days. I make mine without the onion. The flavors are fresh and red lentils are so good for you. If you wash the lentils and rice really well before cooking it cuts down on any starchiness in the finished product. It's also a great recipe to put together and take to a pot luck. Cook them and layer them in a tray to keep warm in the oven.

We've been making these regularly ever since they were published a few years ago. What a fabulous change-up from the same old regular dinner rut! We love them! One issue: same as other reviewers, the cooking time for the lentils is way too long, I shorten it way down and cook the rice in my rice cooker. But the salsa and rice cake flavors come together like nothing I'd ever made or tasted before. Definitely a 5-star recipe!

I tweaked the recipe a bit, based on what I had in the pantry. One change I plan to keep in the future: sub'ing feta and a little parmesan for the mozzarella. The feta gave the cakes a nice kick and worked well with the fennel. The cakes fell apart a bit in the pan, but they tasted so good, I will definitely make again! Served with roasted broccoli and steamed artichoke.

Made them twice and my husband and I loved them both times! Followed the recipe exactly and found them extremely tasty and unique- and felt so healthy eating them! I'm going to add this to my list of regular meals. The only tricky part is patting the patties together enough in the pan so they are easier to gently flip!

Made this almost as written - used emmenthaler instead of mozz, cumin instead of fennel, and had to add some bread crumbs because the mixture was a little too moist. Also, I only cooked the lentils for about 10-12 min. I had leftover rice so this was pretty quick and easy. I also served it with a tomato salsa made from a diced heirloom tomato with fresh basil, flat leaf parsley, olive oil and garlic. Delish! Non-vegetarian boyfriend loved it.

My lentils cooked down to mush, so maybe I'll try again cooking less time. I substituted carrots and cumin for the fennel seed and it was delicious.

After reading the reviews, I decided to spice up the recipe a bit. I added more basil to both the rice cakes and the salsa. I also added jalapeno to the salsa as well as some additional capers. I happened to be out of ground fennel. I used 1.5-2 teaspoons of Old Bay instead and a dash of cayanne. It turned out really good. The next time I make this recipe, I will try to make a loaf rather than cakes to cut down on time.

We followed the recipe except for omitting cheese from the lentil-rice cakes and leaving out capers in the salsa. I liked the salsa, though my husband didn't. We both thought the lentil-rice cakes were bland. I think we'll tinker with it and see if we can boost the flavors.

We LOVED this dish. I used brown rice and made the salsa as is for my husband but substituted sun dried tomatoes for fresh in mine since I hate fresh tomatoes.

I had high hopes reading the reviews, but was sadly disappointed with the recipe once I started making it. The dish was unique and an interesting change in our dinners; but it took too long to prepare and neither my husband or I wanted to finish the leftovers or make it again. It was hard to make the patties stay together as I cooked them, and they lacked the flavor I was hoping for (I followed the recipe exactly). If you do make it, make sure you take a look at the directions carefully and plan to spend quite a bit of time preparing them.

My friend was visiting from Orlando and I knew she was a vegetarian. After finding this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine I decided to try it. It was outstanding. Not only did she love them, but the meat-eater that I am loved them as well. I'm not sure why anyone would give this a low rating, but we really loved them. The only change I made was to use Cumin seeds in lieu of the Fennel and add a dash of coriander and oregano... just a dash of each. Yum!!

I liked these the first day I made them, however, everyone else seemed to really like them on the second day. I used cilantro instead of basil, and both the salsa as well as the cakes tasted very good.

We really enjoyed this recipe. The salsa didn't appeal and we used a variety of toppings - low fat sour cream, corn salsa, chutney - the cakes did need something to moisten them a bit. I also used fontina cheese since that's what I had on hand. Seems like this is a recipe that could be adapted in a variety of ways to suit one's taste. Will definitely make it again.