I bought a bunch of canned lentils and chickpeas from the import grocery store yesterday. I'm a total newb to incorporating beans into my diet - what are some fun and simple ways to use them? I was thinking of making curry rice but using lentils instead of rice.

Lentils and chickpeas both lend themselves very well to middle eastern and Indian cooking.

If you just google "lentil recipes", you'll find hundreds to look through. In the US, dried lentils are readily available so I've never worked with canned lentils. As for canned chickpeas, I like roasting them or just throwing them in a salad.

Here are a bunch of lentil recipes, although again most of them are probably using dried lentils so you'd need to adjust the recipe:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?board=178.0

Here is a good roasted chickpea recipe, you can adjust the oil (I use oil very sparingly)
http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.c...chickpeas.html

Lentils are so great because they cook up so quickly if you get dried ones. No overnight soaking and all that jazz. I haven't seen canned ones before, though. There's a soup I make with lentils that has mostly spinach, onions, salsa, and chicken broth. Roasted chickpeas are great too because you can snack on them through the day - but they take so long to cook, I get impatient.

I like chickpeas on my salads, with ham and pineapple.

have you tried hummus with the chick peas?

I love chickpeas! I'll snack on them alone, raw or heated, or I top salads with them (garden salad, chicken salad, any type).

Lentil soup is great. I have never made it from scratch, but I do like buying the canned version. I'm sure you can find a good recipe online.

You can make hummous as someone mentioned. All you need is some Tahini, garlic, lemon and you can easily make it.

I like to mix beans like kidney, chickpeas, black beans with italian low fat dressing and eat them. Beans are sooo good for us. I also like refried beans to make wraps with low fat cheese and veggies.

Lentils with kale is one of the best dishes in the world.

Saute several onions.
Add lentils and broth/water (volume to match the lentils, per instructions on the bag).
Add too much garlic and too much cumin.
Add a bunch of kale 20 minutes before done.
Eat alone, or over brown rice.

Delish.

From time to time I make this with a one pound bag of lentils. I freeze half; half serves five lunches for me.

Recipe please??? That sounds delish!!!