Reporting thread for February:
SAUSAGES & LENTILS WITH HERB RELISH
Got one last recipe in. This was probably my favorite of everything I’ve made from this book, mainly thanks to the herb relish, which brings bright flavors to what would otherwise be a fairly bland dish. You start by browning some sausages in a skillet, then setting them aside (I used Beyond brats here). Then you sauté onions, celery, and carrot. There is supposed to be some pancetta in there as well, which I omitted. You then add lentils, garlic, and bay leaves. Add a mixture of white wine and stock, and transfer to the oven. You are supposed to add the sausages back to the pan at this time, but I held them out. After 15 minutes, you add more of the wine/stock mixture, and that is when I added the sausages. Cook for another 25-30 minutes. YMMV if using real meat sausages, but I knew that Beyond would dry out if cooked for the whole 45 minutes. While the lentils and sausages are baking, you make a relish of herbs (I used cilantro and mint), garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and olive oil. Serve with bread on the side.
Like I said, the relish really makes the dish here. The lentils and sausage are good enough, but they need that punch of bright herbs and lemon. I only cooked 4 sausages, while making the full amount of lentils. Neither Mr. MM nor I like to eat more than one sausage in a sitting, so if the lentils made four servings, as the recipe said, four sausages made sense. But we ended up getting six servings out of it, and I had to cook up a couple more sausages on the last day.
Final note on this book: I bought the ebook since my library didn’t have a copy. The ebook was annoying because the bookmarks don’t work, but I used highlights as a workaround. Generally, the food from the book was fine, but not things I’m likely to repeat. I really don’t think Diana Henry has a clue on how to build a plant-based meal, and I found myself getting grumpy when paging through the book. I’m OK with having the ebook, but it isn’t a shelf-worthy book for me.
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