Yesterday, I made one of our family's favourite dishes: lentil stew, or as we call it, l'adas. Since it's such an easy, nutritious and delicious dish I thought I'd share it here.
Lentils are one of our favourite legumes as they're easy to make (no soaking time and a relatively short cooking time compared to beans and chickpeas), and just very versatile! When I make l'adas it usually takes some prepping time, because we do like a meaty flavour, but are conscious about our actual meat consumption. And especially when cooking legumes, I don't really see the need of putting in extra meat, which is already a big dent in our budget. So on sunday I made couscous, using lamb meat. This is where it gets a bit interesting, because I know no one else that does this. Anyway, I divided the meat in two, one in a larger pot, and one smaller. I then made the stew for couscous in the larger pan, and in the smaller pan, I made a stew/broth what was going to be the base for my lentil stew. Yes, this way you use more energy obviously (not to mention heating up your kitchen even more... 🥵), but this gives the lentils just so much extra flavour. Then towards the end, I just added the meat back in the couscous stew, leaving me with just a very flavourful broth. I left the broth in the fridge to use the next day. Then I just reheated the broth/stew and cooked the lentils in it until tender. Absolutely delicious!
This is how I made it: I made a broth with meat, Tunisian spice mixture, some onion, salt, garlic, harissa, and tomato paste. Then refrigerate and reheat it the next day (skip this step if you're making and eating it right away), then add the lentils (washed and drained) when it reaches a boiling point. I used 2.5 cups of green lentils for about 2 litres (8 cups) of water. I also added a diced onion, some potatoes, and some tomatoes as they're in season now. You can keep it very plain or add more vegetables if you prefer. We prefer our lentils without a lot of vegetables, I did serve a salad alongside the dish though. We had this with bread (this time it was baguette, but sometimes with homemade bread instead). It would probably be nice with other starches too.
I know I could just buy and use some bullion cubes... But this gives so much more flavour and nutrition, which I find the extra cooking fuel and time worth it. If I wouldn't have any meat on hand I probably would use a bullion cube for some extra flavour, but for now this is how we prefer our lentils.
Hello, I'm a new reader and enjoying your blog a lot. I live in South Africa and am fascinated by North African cooking. I don't have a lot of time but I'll be back to read more of your earlier posts as I can. Writing a blog takes a lot of time and effort, so thank you for sharing this wonderful resource with us. CJ
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! That's interesting, as of lately I've been reading more about South African cuisine. My mum made a dish called bobotie often when I was a kid. And sometimes I come across some dishes that sound a bit familiar (as I'm Dutch), but then they usually have an interesting twist.
DeleteI hope to post more recipes on the blog. I was a bit reluctant at first, but it's good to know there are more people interested than I thought there were!