super dooper

Today it's raining and the kids are curled up with books. My girl is reading Enid Blyton, my boy is inhaling Watership Down.

My husband is playing drums. Yes, a New Orleans groove that's lighting him up right now. (My husband is a trumpet player, but he'll spend hours tooling about on the piano or the drums too. So much music in our house!)

The kettle's on. Cats are curled up on chairs and in corners. There is no Kitten wee where Kitten wee should not be. A great day!

I'm about to reheat last night's Lentil Bolognese and gobble it up. And I thought, perhaps I should pass on the recipe for any and all who think it's worth a try?

It's our all-time favourite meal in our house. I think it might actually give us Super-Strength. So, shhh, don't tell anyone!

Here goes, then. My first ever blog recipe. How exciting!

To cook the World's Best Lentil Bolognese, this is what you do: 


fry up an onion (which you have cut up first. Just in case that wasn't clear)

Lookit! An onion!

add a clove (or two or three?) of garlic (also cut up or put through the crusher)
and cook 'til everything's softened, 


then add two carrots chopped into bits.

wow! A carrot! Don't cook the green stuff.

Then you add a can of tomatoes (I use an 800g can of diced tomatoes), and two tablespoons of tomato paste.

my paste doesn't look like this. I get mine from a jar.

Then you plonk in about 3/4 of a cup of rinsed red lentils. 

yummy

(Some people say to soak your lentils for about 7 hours to make sure the nutrients stay in your sauce. I haven't done this yet, and the lentils still get nice and soft and tasty. But I should consider it, 'cos we vegetarians need all our Nutrients!)


Then you add two cups of vegetable stock. 

the prettiest vege stock I've ever seen

Get it all bubbling and simmering away nicely and cook it for about half an hour (at least 'til your lentils are soft and the sauce is thickened). You can cook it for longer; the longer you cook it, the tastier it gets!


Keep checking it and stirring it, 'cos the lentils get thicker and thicker. If you forget, it sticks to the bottom and can burn (unless you have a pan with a mighty, unburnable bottom, in which case I am impressed!)


Then you cook up some pasta—spaghetti or any other kind you love—and serve your bolognese with lots of yummy parmesan cheese. 

no better addition to pasta than this

In fact, for an extra delicious kick, I stir some butter and parmesan (not much) through the pasta just before serving up the sauce. Then I top it with more parmesan cheese. Mmmm, mmmmm. 


There you have it. It's so simple. And so SCRUMPTIOUS! 

Now I'll go boil up some gluten free pasta, reheat some sauce, "Plate it up," and take a picture for you!

Ta Da!
The only picture in this whole recipe taken by me. You could probably tell. 

The picture doesn't do it justice—in fact, my son just said, "A picture can't show how yummy this is! You have to smell it to know!" Ah. SO true!

I hope you've enjoyed my first foray into recipe writing. If you end up cooking it, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Now, I'm off to test my Lentil-fueled Super Powers on a tall building or two…!

:)