Continuing my theme of cooking on the weekend for the week ahead, I picked this recipe because The Book says it serves 6 to 8, and since there's just 2 of us (my son's not going to be eating solid food for a while now), I knew that we'd get a least three meals out of one day's worth of cooking. I also picked the recipe because it looked like a hearty vegetarian meal (sort of ... it's got chicken broth) packed with all sorts of wholesome ingredients. That, and it looked really easy to make. Basically, all you do it throw all of the ingredients - including canned tomatoes, chicken stock, lentils, brown rice, carrots, onions, celery, and flavorings like garlic, thyme and a bay leaf - into a pot and simmer for about a hour. Then I stirred in some parsley and some smoked turkey sausage that I had leftover from the jumbalaya I made the week before. The sausage isn't in the recipe, but the blurb in The Book suggests that "adding about a pound of smoked sausage makes a great dish even better." How could I not add sausage?
This stew was good. It didn't change my life, but it was a very satisfying weeknight dinner, and I'd make it again. The combination of the rice and lentils gave it a nice substance and texture. The flavor was good, if difficult to place. I don't know if it was the thyme and bay, or the flavor from the sausage, but the stew made both me and my wife think of barbecue sauce. Strange, no?
This stew did well in the freezer and microwave.
Date Cooked: January 17, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: B+
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