A warming vegetable lentil stew
On those cold winter nights a vegetable lentil stew is the perfect way to end a hard day. Little effort but wonderful warming returns.
Cooking our vegetable lentil stew
Within an hour we can have the vegetable lentil stew on the table. After the first 20 minutes you can sit down and relax while the stew simmers away. Ten minutes before the end, if you are adding any optional vegetables, add them in and prepare the table.
Preparation
Gather all you ingredients and equipment onto your workbench and lets begin. Rinse the lentils in cold water and drain them in a sieve. I generally put the lentils directly in the sieve and run them under the cold water tap. Dice up all the vegetables that we are going to add to the stew.
Cooking
Heat the oil in the saucepan over a medium heat and then add the onions, carrots, celery along with the oregano and mixed herbs. Sauté them for 5-6 minutes until the onions become translucent.
Add the tomato paste and stir for a minute. This reduces the sharpness that tomato paste can have and ensures all the vegetables are coated.
Add the stock, chopped tomatoes and lentils to the saucepan. Stir in and break up the lentils if they have clumped together. Simmer with a lid on for 40 minutes.
Add any additional vegetables you want. Remember that if you are adding harder vegetables that take longer than 10 minutes to cook, put those in prior to the 40 minute mark to ensure that everything is ready at the same time.
Turn off the heat and stir in the garamasala and season to taste.
Serving
Serve the vegetable lentil stew in a wide bowl and garnish with the chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. To accompany the stew a slice of Beautiful Soft Seeded Wholemeal Sandwich Loaf is wonderful, scones or soda bread.
Vegetable Lentil Stew
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Rinse lentils with cold water and drain in a sieve
- Peel and dice onions
- Peel and dice carrot
- Wash celery and chop into 2cm pieces – bite size
- Chop any optional vegetables into bite size pieces
- Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the onions, carrot, celery, oregano and mixed herbs.Sauté for 5-6 minutes1 tbsp olive oil, 2 onions, 1 large carrot, 2 celery sticks, ½ tsp oregano, ½ tsp mix herbs
- Add tomato paste and stir for 1 minute1 tbsp tomato paste
- Add stock, chopped tomatoes and lentils.Simmer for 40 minutes3 cups vegetable stock, 1 can chopped tomatoes, 1½ cups red or green lentils
- Add any optional softer vegetablesSimmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the garamasala and season to taste¼ tsp garamasala
- Serve in large bowls and garnish with parsley and parmesan.2 tbsp fresh parsley, 2 tbsp parmesan cheese