If you’re sick of curried lentils or that one recipe with carrot and lemon, try this. The flavor is a little spanish, the ingredients mostly pantry basics. Even better, the substitutions are endless. I forgot to take pictures the first time I made it, so the next time I subbed in half an onion and 3 chestnut mushrooms for the tomatoes and it was also delish. This recipe is ideal for using up the butts of all those sourdough loaves you’re baking.
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 Tsbp marjoram
- 1 small tomato, chopped
- 150g/Half Jar of Lidl/Baressa Sundried Tomatoes & Capers
- 1 bouillon cube (I used Kallo Chicken)
- 1 cup red lentils Water
- 2-3 stale sourdough bread crusts
- 1/4 cup parmesan
- 1/4 cup chorizo (real or vegan)
- Juice of 1 whole lemon
- Toppings: whatever green things you have left

Instructions:
Start with a slosh of olive oil and three whole cloves of garlic over high heat. Sauté for 1 min until you can smell the garlic, then add 1 Tbsp marjoram. Quickly stir in your tomato and sundried tomatoes (including the liquid/oil!). Turn down the heat to medium-low. Continue to saute for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. It should be fairly oily (from the sundried tomatoes) and starting to stick to the bottom of the bottom.
At this point, add the boullion cube. I used my wooden spoon to start to break up it, mashing the garlic cloves and sundried tomatoes into smaller pieces at the same time. It all should be nice and soft. Stir in the lentils. At this point, you’ll want to start to chop up your bread crusts and chorizo into 1cm cubes . They might be hard to cut, so keep at it and gather up all the crumbs too.
Keep checking on the lentils, and when a fond has formed (after about 5 minutes) you are ready to add the water. I added about 2 cups – the point here is you can control the thickness of your stew by adding more or less water. I went for the bare minimum. You’ll also want to turn on the broiler at this point. Simmer for about ten minutes. Because you’ve already sautéed the lentils, they will cook quicker than usual so keep tasting until they are al dente. No mushy lentils here!!
Pour into an oven save dish and top with the chorizo and bread crusts. Pour over the juice of one lemon and drizzle on a little more sundried-tomato oil if needed. Grate over a generous amount of parmesean and pop it under the broiler for 5 minutes or until a crust has formed. Top with chives/green onions to serve.
It would have been good with salad but we only had pickles left.
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