A Surprising Dish

 

 

Apparently all great chef's have a "signature dish" the one dish above all others. Perhaps If I had a signature dish it would consist of lentils....lentils?! I hear you say. Yup, lentils. It's the dish that whenever I make it, people want the recipe, the one where there they say "My husband doesn't like lentils but he loved this dish", the one that surprises people. I'm kind of relaxed about the ingredients list, I add things to it all the time - any vegetables can be thrown in especially Mediterranean ones. Eat it with some chicken, or a piece of grilled salmon or its fab on its own! Sometimes with the leftovers I just blend it up and add a bit of stock to make a creamy lentil soup which tastes great!

Rachy's Lentils

1-2 onions, chopped (I use red or white)
1 red chilli, finely chopped (use less if you want less heat)
pinch dried red chillies (use more if you have no fresh chillies or just omit completely if you don't want it spicy)!
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (again use as much or little as you like)
1 red pepper, chopped
1 -2 carrots, diced
1 stick of celery, finally chopped
around 300g red lentils, rinsed
1 cartoon passata
1TSP paprika
Some stock, I used low sodium vegetable but you can use chicken if you want
S&P
Any other vegetables you want - this time I added some diced aubergines and yellow peppers

Put a bit of olive oil in a pan, add the onions, chilli and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the celery, carrots,  red pepper and any other vegetables you want to add. Cook until softened. Add the lentils and stir for a minute or so. Add the passatta and as much stock as it needs to cover the mixture by about an inch. Leave to simmer, it takes about 30-45 minutes and if you need too you can add more stock.

If you wanted a richer dish add more passatta rather than stock, if you want an even healthier dish add water rather than stock!