How good are lentils?! So good. I love them all year round and served with different side dishes which include rice, mashed potatoes, toasts, polenta and quinoa :). These lentils are super tasty, easy, with lots of amazing ingredients and extremely freezable.
With pulses in general I love a nice drizzle of good quality olive oil. Have you tried it? There’s no coming back once you do! I do it with all of them and LOVE it. It’s like a match made in heaven. Try it the next time you have pulses and let me know what you think ;).
These lentils are SO YUM. They’re packed with flavour, lots of yummy ingredients and finished with spinach. Whenever you’re finishing stews or soups with spinach (like on my chickpea stew), be careful to add it at the very end as it only takes a few seconds to cook it. If it’s in there longer it will become brown and not very pleasing to watch.
While I made these lentils I was sharing with you on Instagram stories and you guys had lots of questions about how to not get hard pulses. Making pulses go hard in the cooking process is actually quite easy so here are a couple things you need to avoid to prevent this. First of all, season with salt at the very end when the dish is done. Adding salt at the beginning can make pulses go hard. The other tip is to keep the heat on medium-low. High heat with effervescent boiling can make them go hard as well. Of course this temperature thing changes completely if you’re using a pressure cooker because it’s nearly impossible to get them hard in a pressure cooker.
Super Tasty Lentils
Ingredients
For the vegetable stock
- 150 g carrots in medium pieces
- 150 g celery in medium pieces
- 150 g brown onion in medium pieces
- 1 bayleaf
- 3 lt water
For the lentils
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 bayleaves
- 200 g brown onion finely chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp oregano powder
- ½ red bell pepper peeled, deseeded and cut in small cubes
- 2 cloves garlic minced, finely grated or pressed
- 6 tbsp tomato paste
- 150 ml red wine
- 100g carrots in small cubes
- 2 roma tomatoes extra ripe, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped
- 250 g lentils
- 1 lt vegetable stock
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 60 g baby spinach stalks off and chopped
Instructions
For the vegetable stock
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Place all the ingredients in a large pot and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
For the lentils
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Soak the lentils in cold water for 1 hour. It's not absolutely necessary but it helps you to digest them.
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Cook the onion and pepper in the olive oil over medium heat. Also add the oregano, paprika and bayleaves at this time.
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Once the onions are cooked through and smell sweet, add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a minute.
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Add the red wine and let it boil down until you have no visible liquid left on the base of the pot.
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Add the carrots and tomatoes and stir to heat up.
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Add the lentils and stock and stir. Bring it to a light simmer and put on the lid of the pot. Don't let it boil too hard or it will make the lentils go hard. Also, don't add seasoning until the very end also to prevent them from going hard.
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After 30 minutes check on them, it could take up to 50min to become soft. Once they're soft remove the lid and let the contents in the pot thicken as the liquid evaporates.
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Season with salt and pepper and add the spinach right before serving.
