I was cooking sausages for P, his favourite meal, but as I am not supposed to eat them on my low-cholesterol diet I was looking for a quick and easy alternative for me.
I am afraid that I didn't follow my blogger colleague's recipe exactly but used his initial idea and then made it up as I went along.
Whilst P's sausages and veg were cooking in the oven, I prepared the ingredients for my supper.
First, I peeled a small sweet potato and chopped it into bite size pieces, put them into a small bowl with a little water, covered the bowl then microwaved for 2-3 minutes until the potato was cooked. Drained it and set aside.
Meanwhile I chopped a stick of celery, half a red pepper and half a courgette into cubes and cut a handful of mushrooms in half.
Into a pan I splashed a little olive oil then added some dried chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, turmeric and garlic and stirred into a paste. I gently warmed the spices through then tipped in all the chopped veg, mushrooms and sweet potato chunks. Gave a good shake and a stir to coat everything then added a spoonful of tomato puree and then a splash of white wine to stop it sticking to the pan.
At this point I thought it needed something else so grabbed a packet of red lentils, quickly rinsed a large handful and added them to the pan, with a little more white wine to cover (other liquids are also available).
I put a lid on and gently simmered it all for about 10 minutes, until P's sausages and roasted veg were ready.
Unfortunately I had misjudged the amount of lentils. It didn't look too much when I tipped them out of the packet but, of course, once they had absorbed all the liquid they had expanded quite alarmingly.
P exclaimed when he saw my plateful "You'll never be able to eat all that!" but, dear reader, I am ashamed to say that I did indeed. It was quite tasty and there would not have been sufficient leftover to freeze for another day.
I did suffer for it all night though. My stomach felt quite bloated and I had trouble sleeping.
A lesson learned for next time - go easy on the lentils.
A good sort of recipe when the day of the week comes to clear our the veg drawer in the freezer. A few good herbs and a packet of lentils and everything in the way of veg chopped up and hey presto - a meal.
ReplyDeleteYes, and to use up any fresh veg that is starting to get past its best, although that usually goes into a soup.
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ReplyDeleteGot the lentils and the sausages mixed up.
DeleteWish we could get a good English banger. Greek sausages have lumps of fat and gristle and usually too many spices.
Your lentils sound great. I like adding red lentils to dishes
We get our sausages from the local butcher. He makes quite a variety amd they are all really good - with proper skins, not that awful plastic stuff you get with supermarket sausages.
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