About a month ago I found a copy of the Clean Eating magazine at a grocery store. Curious, I picked it up. It was the September/October issue and I LOVED the range of pasta sauce recipes it had. Since then I’ve made a version of the Mussel Stew.. and finally, last night I made a version of their “Hearty Lentil Soup.” The soup had a few problems though. First of all, when it was all cooked up it really wasn’t much of a “soup”. It was barely liquid. I don’t mind that.. it was very tasty.. but I think I’ll call it a stew instead of a soup. Second of all, Fearghus said that although it was tasty, it wasn’t very filling. I thought it was plenty filling.. but even then I think as it is, calling it “hearty” is a bit presumptive. So I’ve fiddled with the recipe and bumped it up a bit. I added more onion, more rice, added carrots (optional) and celery (optional) and changed from using water (which really adds nothing to the final taste) to using chicken broth. I suppose if you wanted to stay vegetarian you could use veggie broth instead. Because I added more rice I also will be using more chicken broth than called for in the original. Normally I’d also add a couple of handfulls of spinache to this.. but Fearghus says that’d be “too much”.. (you can add it anyway).

We found it to be very tasty. I though there was just enough spice from the red pepper flakes. Fearghus declared it good.. but added more red pepper flakes to it. He also told me that he “really loved the flavor the bacon brought to the dish” When I looked at him puzzled he said there had to be bacon in it.. because there’s no way it could be this good without some kind of meat in it.

The nice thing about this is it’s 90% pantry-fare. Almost everything in it would be found normally in my pantry. Even then, the things not found in the pantry (the onion and red bell pepper) is something I almost always have on hand. So this is a very easy week-night stew that’s tasty and (with a few modifications) plenty filling. A version of this recipe is definitely going on my rotating menu. So I expect to have it again really soon.

Add to that, I think this would be super easy to make while camping. Camping without a cooler food.

Somewhat Hearty 🙂 Lentil Stew

Modified from the original from Sept/Oct 2010 Clean Eating Magazine

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 onion, chopped (red, yellow or white, whatever you have on hand)
(optional) 1 red bell pepper, chopped
(optional) 2 carrots, chopped
(optional) 4 celery stalks, chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, ground
1/4 tsp cumin, ground

6 cups chicken broth
1 cup dried lentils (I used green, you can use red)
1 cup whole-grain or brown rice
1/2 tsp sea salt

Rinse Lentils, pick through and discard any debris.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and bell pepper (and carrots/celery is you’re including them) and sauté for 5 mins or until brown. Stir in cumin and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute.
Add chicken broth, lentils and rice. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
Add salt, stir and cook for an additional 30 minutes.