29 May 2012 danstowell   » (Journeyer)

Rustic green lentils

A simple lentil supper that happens to have a nice variegation of good strong flavours. Serves two, takes 40 minutes.

  • 100g green lentils
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion (chopped)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 4 garlic cloves (chopped)
  • 1 carrot (peeled and chopped in bitesize chunks)
  • 1 pinch asafoetida
  • 1 handful fresh thyme
  • 3 mushrooms
  • Small handful beans e.g. aduki beans (optional)
  • 1 handful fresh parsley

Put the lentils in a sieve and rinse them under running water.

Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and start the onion and the cumin frying. After a couple of minutes, add the garlic. After another minute or two (maybe you're taking this time to chop the carrot) add the carrot and the asafoetida. Stir around and allow to fry a bit more. Overall, the onion etc should have been frying for 5 minutes or so before the next step.

Add enough boiling water to just cover what's in the pan, and let it boil strongly for a couple of minutes. Then turn the heat down to a simmer, bung the thyme in, and put a lid on.

This is now going to simmer for almost 30 minutes but halfway through we'll add the mushrooms. So about halfway through, heat up a frying pan with 1 tbsp olive oil in, peel and slice the mushrooms, and fry them quickly for a minute or so - no need to overdo it. Then bung the mushrooms in with everything else, and also the beans if you have any. Now is a good time to wash and chop up the parsley.

When the food is almost ready to serve (not much water left in the pan, and the lentils are almost soft, but still with a bit of a bite), add the parsley and 1 tbsp olive oil and stir through. Then serve.

Syndicated 2012-05-29 15:18:24 (Updated 2012-05-29 15:35:51) from Dan Stowell

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