Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
I recently enjoyed a fairly healthy (I think) dinner on United that I want to recommend here. If you’re looking for something light and tasty, try the lentil chili.
Generally, I find it nearly impossible to mess up pasta on an airplane. If it comes out a little al dente, perfect. If it overcooked, it’s probably going to be a tasty pasta bake. I’ll still order chicken or fish, but more and more I am ordering pasta.
On a United flight a few months back, however, there was no pasta option. And I was ticked…at least at first. I still opted to take the vegetarian choice, described as:
Lentil Chili
Roasted garlic polenta, sautéed spinach
I don’t know about you, but “lentil chili” doesn’t sound very appetizing to me. But it arrived in a bowl and turned out to be quite tasty.
The dish is a bit bland; I added salt and pepper. It’s also not spicy at all. But the mix of polenta, spinach, and lentils made for a nice combo. Very delicious, in fact, in that healthy sense in which it leaves you feeling good, not bad.
It’s not a filling dish, though. I was happy to see the dessert cart roll up and enjoyed a nice sundae to top off the meal…so much for eating healthy.
Sounds good. I always carry some crushed red pepper packets in the event of bland offerings.
Is that Polaris or just a domestic turn on a wide body?
That has been a meal on 2 hour domestic F flights for a few years now
Haven’t seen that domestically. This was Polaris SFO-FRA.
Back in 2016 I had that once on a LAX-DEN flight on a 787
I’ve had it on the LGA-ORD-LGA turn. Fine for a two hour domestic meal. Not really up to par for Polaris.
They have been serving it frequently out of DEN on domestic for a while now. Agree its one of the better-for-you options. I always order it.
You start by saying it’s bland but 3 sentences later you’re saying it’s really delicious. You’re not very articulate and don’t seem to have a strong opinion . . . .
We Americans find bland delicious, at times.
I mean…I love the taste of lentils, but I wouldn’t exactly describe them as flavorful. Meanwhile, this article has sent me on a mission to find a great lentil chili recipe. Will report back if I find one 🙂
continue to eat the SAD diet that satisfied your taste bud and it will be an early grave for you. not a warning but reality fact.
The lentils are lethal?
Matthew – I am vegetarian (no egg but diary is ok) and do travel quite a bit on EWR to SFO. I have routinely skipped the pasta dish as it has eggs. I am hoping that they start serving this out of EWR as well.
On a related note with those who responded negatively, go find another site to vent out!
For EWR-SFO, you can pre-order Asian vegetarian (no egg) meals in both business and Economy Plus.
Man…you really have more than your fair share of weird commenters, don’t ya? lol.
Did you find that chili recipe?
The dish is a bit bland.
It’s very delicious.
So which is it? Or is it just too hard for you to say anything positive about United without throwing a little shade first?
I like bland food. Why is bland and delicious mutually exclusive?