Success! I did not poison us! I did not burn the onions! There was minimal raw potato! I totally count last night as one of my better cooking nights AND the food was tasty! So what if dinner didn't get eaten until 8:30 at night. Who cares if I was still hungry afterwards (though I suspect that is purely me and not the fault of the cooking)? I know I don't.
Ingredients:
4 Onions, sliced crosswise
5 med. potatoes sliced and quartered (I used Klondike Gold - either red or Yukon gold potatoes would work.)
5 large-ish Carrots, peeled and coined
3 Celery Stalks, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
10 Greek Olives, pitted and diced1/4 cup finely chopped, re-hydrated sun dried tomatoes*
Sun Dried Tomato Juice*
1 tbs olive oil (I used Australian Olive Oil)
1 1/2 cups of cooked lentils
3/4 tsp Sea Salt (I only say Sea Salt because that's all we use in our house and I'm not sure if other salt would change things or not.)
Lemon Juice, about one lemon's worth
2 Bay Leaves
Feta Cheese or Goat Cheese (optional)
Note: We cooked this with our heavy roaster pan on two burners. This yielded about 4 and 1/2 servings. I swear to you, I would not have been able to do this without Avie. Seriously. She is an amazing cook and really has a flare for knowing what to put into things when all she has to go with it is, 'I feel like we need more color'. Everyone should have an Avie is their home; but you can't have mine. Anyway, onto how to get this sucker made!
*** IMPORTANT! ***
Make sure that everything is prepped and ready to go. I made the mistake of chopping up the onions first and tossing them into the pan before having everything else prepped.
* Add your olive oil to the pan and let it heat up before you add the chopped onions. Give them about 5 to 10 minutes to simmer saute on high heat. Keep an eye on them and stir as needed.
* Add your potatoes and salt after your onions are slightly brown. Let them sit and think with the onions for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring as needed.
* Add your carrots, celery and garlic. Leave for about 5 minutes, stirring as needed (noticing a pattern yet?)
* Add your lentils, stir.
* Add your sun dried tomato juice and sun dried tomatoes. Stir and simmer for a few minutes, making sure that the juice and tomatoes are spread through out.
* Add the two bay leaves and the lemon juice
* Stir everything and let sit for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and serve with some creamy feta or goat cheese.
How to Make Re-hydrated Sun Dried Tomatoes and Juice/Goop as per Avie:
* Fill one pint jar to top with dried tomatoes.
* Add boiling water.
* Store in fridge overnight
* Ignore the fact that the jar that now looks like a jar filled with blood with 'bits'
* Voila!
All in all, I feel that it's a pretty good recipe, though it will need some tweaking the next time I do it. Like I said, Avie was a HUGE help in that she kept suggesting stuff to put in it. Plus, she was giving me on the spot lessons (like how to handle the potatoes) which was very helpful.
I think the best part is that I get to have it for lunch tomorrow -- wahoo!
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