Lentil-Spinach Stew

This recipe was posted on the Fatfree mailing list by Ruth Hoffman. This is pretty much as Ruth posted it; I've only made a few changes to the presentation and ingredients, and added measurement conversions. It's a fairly simple recipe, but really delicious. Kale works well instead of the spinach - use a bit less of that, maybe 175-200g (6-7oz). The recipe calls for quite a lot of thyme, but it really doesn't dominate the completed dish.

Serves 5

Photo © Billy Abbott

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• vegetable stock to saute
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 175g (6oz, 1 cup) split red lentils, rinsed
• 1 (400g, 14oz) can chopped tomatoes (with juice)
• 4 tsp stock powder (or equivalent stock cube)
• 1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce, or dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel seed
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 medium carrots
• 250g (9oz) fresh or frozen chopped spinach
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

Saute the onion in vegetable stock until soft but not browned. When the onion is soft, add the garlic, lentils, tomatoes, stock powder, Worcestershire / soy sauce, salt, thyme, fennel and bay leaf to the pan, along with 900ml (32 fl oz, 4 cups) water.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover pan, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils have started to break up. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, peel the carrots and chop into 1 cm (¼ inch) cubes. If using fresh spinach, wash, remove large stalks and chop roughly.

Add the carrots and spinach to the pan. Stir until mixed, and until frozen spinach has defrosted. Cover and simmer a further 15 minutes, or until lentils and vegetables are cooked. Remove bay leaf and stir in vinegar.

Notes:

• This ends up tasting fairly tomato-ey. Use only 1/2 can if you're not too fussed on tomato flavour.
• It also ends up fairly soupy - if you want it thicker, leave it until the next day to thicken, or use less water, or remove the lid for the last 10 minutes to allow water to evaporate.
• Using frozen chopped spinach gives a more homogeneous texture - fresh spinach will be in larger pieces. I sometimes like a mixture of the two.

Kake's (Vegan) Cookery Site - http://www.earth.li/~kake/cookery/
This page added 30 Apr 1998 (last altered 29 Apr 2001) - comments and questions to Kake L Pugh (kake@earth.li).