Lentils and sausage

The Recycled Cook

By Adrian Sleeman

Lentils and sausage


In the spirit of recycled cooking, today I am revisiting a previous blog of mine, Lentils that great alternative and versatile staple much loved by health food shops and Indian restaurants.

 While trying to find something to make for dinner yesterday I remembered that I had two lots of leftover lentils in the freezer, along with a tomato based sauce that had once accompanied a pasta dish. Be creative and see what else you could add to change the character of the original dish.

Before I froze the sauce I pushed it through a conical sieve (also known as a Chinois because of its resemblance to a traditional Chinese hat).
Lentils and Tomato sauce
Chinois


Just combine the sauce with the lentils, heat through and reduce until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning, in this case I added a little Pimenton (smoked paprika) and some coarse ground black pepper. Be careful with salt as reducing down can often make dishes far too salty. This seems to be a common problem in restaurants where they make sauces in bulk and keep reheating.

Just combine the sauce with the lentils, heat through and reduce until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning, in this case I added a little Pimenton (smoked paprika) and some coarse ground black pepper. Be careful with salt as reducing down can often make dishes far too salty. This seems to be a common problem in restaurants where they make sauces in bulk and keep reheating.


What you serve with the lentils is entirely up to you, you can always just serve them with some nice crusty bread. This is Corn bread which has a really nice nutty flavour but you can use any fresh crusty bread of your choosing or you could even make your own if you have the time.
Dal

 You could of course add some Indian spices or a couple of spoons of curry paste and serve this dish as your own home made alternative to a Dal to accompany a curry or Biriani. The word Dal comes from the Sanskrit meaning to split rather than the dish itself and refers to the various dried split pulses that are used such as lentils, pidgeon peas, mung beans or even kidney beans.
I chose some local Welsh Pork and Leek sausages that were in the freezer and the combination worked pretty well. Finished off by topping with some chopped fresh basil that I have growing on the kitchen window sill. After all, why buy small and expensive packs of herbs in supermarkets when you an buy a growing pot that will provide fresh herbs for weeks. There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh herbs to bring any dish to life.



Disclaimer: The suggestions and tips on these blog pages are meant to be used in conjunction with common sense. Keeping your family healthy is the priority. Do not use food that is unfit for human consumption and always follow sensible food hygiene guidelines.  

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/homehygiene/Pages/food-leftovers-safety.aspx




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