I have to admit, I do genuinely enjoy cooking and if I have
visitors coming for food, I could spend hours pouring over recipes, trying to
create the perfect menu to suit everyone, and then lose a day in the kitchen
literally cooking up a storm. But on an
average weekday evening, when everyone is tired from school and work, all I want
is simple, nutritious, easy to prepare dinners, that don’t have an encyclopaedia
of ingredients needed.
I know there’s many wonderful ideas out there for how to have
a “batch cook” day so you just have to move prepared food from freezer to oven,
or slow cooker recipes that turn from a bag of ingredients into a dish worthy
of Michelin standards whilst you are at work.
But neither do I have a slow cooker, nor do I want to spend half my
weekend preparing meals for during the week.
Today was one of those day’s ridiculously busy days where I
hardly had time to think. By the time I
got home it was late, I was tired and my son wanted affection and some Mammy
time. I needed something that took very
little preparation time, but I also needed some comfort food. The first thing I found were some lovely
white organic potatoes (I emphasise the organic part as I tend not to eat the
skin if they’re not, but tuck in greedily when they are). I gave them a quick rise, wrapped in tin
foil, and popped in the oven. I then
went to change into some loungewear and helped my son do the same. We played some hide and seek and after half
an hour, I went back to the kitchen.
Looking aimlessly through the fridge and cupboard, I then decided to try
to make some sort of “lentil baked beans” to go with my comfort-inducing baked
potato.
I quickly chopped up one glove of garlic and added to a pot
with one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and left to simmer for a minute
whilst I chopped a white onion. I added
that to the pan and sautéed until soft and fragrant. I then added in about 100g split red lentils
to pan, and stirred to mix all the ingredients together. I poured in 300ml of vegetable stock and added
2 tbsp. of tomato puree and left to simmer for 20 minutes whilst I returned my
attention to my son.
At that stage I gave everything a stir and added in a tbsp.
of soy sauce for that extra saltiness. I took the potato out, sliced down the
middle and filled with my lentil “beans”.
I always feel guilty if I don’t have something green on my plate, so I
quickly chopped a handful of baby spinach and put this on top. Once it was mixed through the lentils, the
heat wilted it and it was actually a nice accompaniment.
Not the prettiest of dishes but so comforting, wholesome and
filling! And the icing on the cake – there was plenty of leftovers for another
day.
