Monday, February 25, 2013

Lentil & Sweet Potato Stew

From: Clean Eating Magazine  By; Emily Christopher

**This was a hit with the WHOLE family!  I love when I make a dish everyone likes.  I did add two ingredients to it that weren't on the recipe (those are in blue at the bottom of the recipe).  This feeds at least 8.  It will make for good left overs!


Ingredients:
-2 tsp olive oil
-1 yellow onion, diced
-1 celery stalk, diced
-1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-pinch of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
-2 cups dry green lentils, picked over
-1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
-1 bay leaf
-4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
-2 plum tomatos, seeded and diced
-1/4 cup chopped fresh italian parsley

Ingredients I added:
-fresh organic spinach
-acini de pepe pasta (cooked according to package)

Instructions:
In a large pot, heat oil on medium.  Add onion, celery, carrot and garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3-4 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, lentils, potato, bay leaf, broth and 2 cups of water; stir to combine.  I added an extra cup of vegetable broth to thin it down a bit.  Bring to a simmer and cook until lentils and potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in tomatoes and parsley.  Remove bay leaf.  When I served this I placed a handful of fresh spinach in the bottom of a bowl.  Then I added a 1/2 cup of pasta.  Then, I put the stew ingredients on top.  I stirred it all together and added a bit more salt to taste.  The spinach and pasta really added a lot to the recipe.