Recipe Creamy French Lentils with Mushrooms and Kale (revisited)

[Morning Glory]

This is a re-working of Creamy French Lentils with Mushroom and Kale. A recipe from
http://www.thefirstmess.com submitted by @wintrybella for the The CookingBites Recipe Challenge. A few people commented on how complicated and/or time consuming the original recipe was - but I thought it was really quite straightforward! I think it was the way it was written up which made it sound that way. So I've taken the liberty of changing 'the method' which was rather wordy and simplifying it down to just three stages. I'm assuming here that you start with cooked lentils. If not you can easily complete first two stages of the method while your lentils are cooking.

I've changed a few ingredients to broaden the options depending on availability. Any changes are hi-lighted in red. For example, I didn't have gluten-free tamari soy sauce so I used light soy sauce. The whole process took me half an hour. Please note that I used Cooked Puy lentils from Merchant Gourmet brand. I always believed that Puy lentils (a protected name) were green but these are distinctly brown! I may have to contact the company . Anyway, this is how it turned out:

Photographed two days ago in natural light.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups cooked Puy lentils or French green lentils.
2 Tbsp tablespoon olive oil or butter
1/2 a large onion or 1 medium shallot chopped
1 lb (454 grams) mushrooms, sliced.
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons white wine
1 Tbsp light soy sauce or gluten-free tamari soy sauce
1 ½ cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup milk, almond milk or coconut milk (I used almond)
3 cups of fresh spinach (or 1 1/2 cups of packed kale)

Method

• Cooked the chopped onion gently in oil until softened. Add the sliced mushrooms and garlic and thyme to the pan and cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes.
• Add the white wine and soy sauce, vegetable stock and milk to the pot. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil.
• Blend half the mixture until smooth and then return it to the pan. Add the lentils and spinach and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil and check it for seasoning.

The verdict
This was a resounding success and I'd recommend anyone to try it. Its really very easy! The soy sauce is the key to this recipe in my opinion. It adds a really delicious taste which when combined with the milk and mushrooms produces a lovely savoury creamy sauce. I am noting the following points - the first of which I think is quite important:

• The original recipe states half a teaspoon of gluten free Tamari soy sauce. Perhaps I'm not familiar with the potency of Tamari soy sauce, but I ended up using a generous tablespoon of light soy sauce (six times the amount). Half a teaspoon was undetectable!
• I used butter not oil as I wanted to enrich the flavour. I think the stated quantity of oil (1 tbsp) is not enough to soften onions and the quantity of mushrooms (I've amended it to 2 Tbsp)
• I used spinach not kale. I am a little concerned that in the original recipe the timing would result in extremely crunchy kale! The recipe simply states adding raw kale and bringing back to the boil before serving. This is fine with raw spinach. But personally, I prefer kale a bit more cooked!

Anyway,everyone here loved it! I served it with some home made Focaccia bread. Its something I will make again.

 

[winterybella]

There we go. I was waiting to see and hear how this would go. I was going to ask if it was well received but I noticed you said everyone enjoyed it. I am getting the impression you spend the greater portion of your day in the kitchen. You must have lots of fans in the house as you do here. I can't wait to see what the next ingredient is going to be.

 

[Morning Glory]

There we go. I was waiting to see and hear how this would go. I was going to ask if it was well received but I noticed you said everyone enjoyed it. I am getting the impression you spend the greater portion of your day in the kitchen. You must have lots of fans in the house as you do here. I can't wait to see what the next ingredient is going to be.

As I said, @winterybella, this recipe took all of 1/2 an hour of my time! I spend more time thinking about food and recipes than actually cooking, on the whole. Today, for example, I spent maybe 3/4 hour all told in the kitchen cooking. I made a pesto sauce and some pork meatballs. Then I cooked some pasta and put the meatballs in the oven while the pasta was cooking.

Its true that some days I spend a bit more time. But unless its a really labour intensive recipe, or I'm cooking up more than one recipe, I tend to spend more time on thinking up ideas and writing them up and photographing them, these days!

 

[winterybella]

As I said, @winterybella, this recipe took all of 1/2 an hour of my time! I spend more time thinking about food and recipes than actually cooking, on the whole. Today, for example, I spent maybe 3/4 hour all told in the kitchen cooking. I made a pesto sauce and some pork meatballs. Then I cooked some pasta and put the meatballs in the oven while the pasta was cooking.

Its true that some days I spend a bit more time. But unless its a really labour intensive recipe, or I'm cooking up more than one recipe, I tend to spend more time on thinking up ideas and writing them up and photographing them, these days!

Perhaps I had the thinking and photography factored in. Kudos to you anyway.

 

[Vinaya]

I have never heard of a dish that included lentils and mushroom in one. I have tried variety dishes with lentils or mushroom as the main ingredients, however, never attempted cooking something that included mushroom and lentil. I like lentils as well as mushroom, thus, I believe this will be a nice combination. The recipe looks easy to me.

 

[Vinaya]

I have never heard of a dish that included lentils and mushroom in one. I have tried variety dishes with lentils or mushroom as the main ingredients, however, never attempted cooking something that included mushroom and lentil. I like lentils as well as mushroom, thus, I believe this will be a nice combination. The recipe looks easy to me.