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Very good LENTILS!!!

Dear all, please welcome me back from my [almost] six month blog hiatus. My intention was not to abandon you. However, sometimes a brilliant law student is faced with only two options. To balance a full course load - including her first real trial  - with a part-time job or to enjoy cooking and blogging. Clearly, I opted for the former.  Luckily, as all in life, that too, was temporary and here I am thinking of you as I explore vegetarian cooking. 

This recipe was originally posted by Martha Rose Shulman in The New York Times about a year ago. I tweaked it a little and here it is. 

Ingredients 
 
  • 2 tbl of Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp of red pepper flakes
  • 1 can of grated tomatoes
  • 1 cup of lentils
  • water (obvious but just in case)
  • 1 small escarole
  • bouquet garni: bay leaves, thyme, cilantro, parmigiano romano rind
 Preparation
  • Heat oil in dutch oven (or any pot)
  • Add onions and carrots and cook for about five minutes
  • add garlic & red pepper flakes and stir for about about a minute or two
  • Stir in tomatoes and bring to a simmer (5-10 min)
  • Add lentils & simmer for a few minutes
  • Add bouquet garni and water
  • Bring to a boil, reduce heat, add salt to taste (cover and simmer for half an hour)
  • Add escarole & bring back to simmer for about 15-20 min until escarole and lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper and remove bouquet garni.          
 Preparation in pictures
Tip: always a good idea to use a food processor (especially for onion and garlic). Organic canned tomatoes are just as good and they are already grated and seeded saving you time.

The recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of pepper flakes but being Mexican I threw in about a teaspoon (or more).

Add tomatoes and it should look like this. Notice the Virgen of Guadalupe watching over me as I cook

Now the lentils.. yum yum yum but not yet...

This was the first time I used the garni and I felt somewhat official. Don't know how to explain but using it gave me some sense of legitimacy in the kitchen.
 Final Product looks like this:
Hmmm de-lish! The delightfully spicy aroma is filling my lungs with flavor (salivating already) hmmmmm Once again, I fell madly in love with myself. Ok gotta go eat now. Enjoy!
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