Ricotta, Brown Rice & Lentil Rolls

This is a vegetarian recipe, YAY!!!!! Trust me, you won't miss the meat.The past two posts have led up to this recipe. I made the brown rice and the marinara sauce in the morning on the day of. This was actually a recipe I saw on Giada at Home, she made them with goat cheese. I was all up for going to the store and buying some overpriced goat cheese. I've never tried it before so I thought it'd be fun. But then I saw she had the same recipe in her cookbook except she used ricotta instead of goat cheese. I had that lying around so, why not? I did make other changes to her recipe to suit our taste.

Ingredients

6 large Swiss chard leaves (try to buy these organic!)

2 cups of cooked brown rice

1 cup cooked green lentils

1 packed cup of baby spinach, chopped (Organic too, please)

1 cup ricotta cheese (fat free, low fat, whole milk, whatever you like!)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning

2 cloves garlic, minced

28oz marinara or tomato-basil sauce (store-bought or homemade)

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano (2 ounces)

2 tablespoons olive oil

This is how you know you're getting real Parmigiano Reggiano. It's written on the rind.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400F. Spray a 9-by 13-inch baking dish with olive oil, then pour 1 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom of the dish.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

Remove the thick stem from the center of each chard leaf.

Cut each leaf in half lengthwise.

Trim the ends from the leaves to make each leaf-half about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide.

Add the chard leaves and cook for about 10 seconds. Remove the leaves and dip in ice water. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the brown rice, lentils, spinach, ricotta cheese, olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and minced garlic.

Spoon 1/3 cup of the filling onto the end of each chard leaf and roll it up.

Arrange the rolls seam-side down in a single layer on top of the sauce.

Spoon the remaining sauce on top and sprinkle with the Parmesan.

Drizzle with olive oil and bake until the cheese begins to brown and the rolls are heated through, about 25 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve.

This recipe has about 477 calories for 2 rolls.