I'm really not a "rice and beans" person - but lentils? Oh yeah!! So I've turned some cheapo vegetables into another dish that rocks.
Last night I was wide awake about 1am again. So I turned on some cooking videos via the "Harvest Eating" channel on my Roku. I watched the guy, Chef Keith Snow, take his basic mirepoix and pulse it to tiny bits in the food processor before he made the stew. I liked this. I'm all for chunky rustic stews, but sometimes I want something different and not all of those bites o' carrot, you know?
I had some frozen kale, some carrots, some celery. I forgot to get an onion at the store. I washed up two carrots & three stalks of celery. Did not peel the carrots. Cut them into chunks and added them to my tiny food processor. I added a cup of kale. Pulsed. Pulsed. Pulsed. Pulsed to bits.
I had a sauté pan going with the last few drops of olive oil and a pat of butter to make up the difference. I put a heaping spoonful of minced garlic in there to warm up. Then I put the vegetable bits into the pan and pushed that around a while. The burner is dying so I had it on high which is somewhat a medium-high for the pan.
Then I added a can of vegetable broth. (14.5oz). I added a second can. Let them come up to a simmer. I added what was probably two tablespoons of dried oregano, plus some salt and pepper.
I then added a cup of red lentils. Red lentils cook UBERfast and turn yellow-orange when they are done - more pale than the carrots. Go figure.
Maybe 15-20 minutes later, if that, it was done. I then diced up a smoked sausage and added that. I was able to get two smoked sausage packages for $5 at the store, so I will use one for another stew.
And I just had a bowl and it's fantastic. And mildly healthy, too. And because I minced up the veggies, it's totally different in texture from the daal that I made earlier this week. (Not to mention the flavor's completely different.) And, inexpensive.
