Madhouse recipe : Lentil & Bacon Stew

If you want something warming but healthy to counterbalance all the festive over-indulgence, I have just the thing - lentil and bacon stew, bursting with winter vegetables.

Lentil & Bacon Stew

ingredients :

1/4 pack dried lentils, soaked in water for several hours then rinsed

200g bacon lardons

2 leeks

3 carrots

4 mushrooms

2 onions

2 Knorr ham stock cubes

a good dollop of Sweet Chipotle & Cola sauce or similar - chipotle sauce, BBQ sauce, etc, whatever you have in the cupboard will do !)

In a large pot, gently fry the bacon, mushrooms, onions, carrots and leeks for 10 minutes, stirring. (The kids were eating earlier than us, because Madhouse Daddy still wasn't home from work, so I took some of this mix, added cream and served it with pasta, as a vegged-up version of carbonara, which they loved.)

Add the lentils, then the stock cubes and enough boiling water to cover the vegetables and lentils. Leave to simmer and reduce for 20 minutes, stirring through some smoky chiptole sauce to taste near the end of the cooking time.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Globecooking recipe : Goulash and Spätzle (Austria)

Globe-cooking recipe : Bigos (Poland)

Globe-cooking recipe : Maftoul Couscous (Jordan)