Spicy lentil and bacon stew

[lnr]

I cooked this on Friday for me and Mike and Karen, and promised her the recipe, so may as well post it here.

Ingredients

• 1 large or 2 small onions
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• 3 small carrots
• 4 rashers of smoked bacon
• 1 cup of dried red lentils
• 400g tin tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• oil or fry-light for frying
• 1/2 a glass red wine (optional)
• 100g chorizo - whole rather than sliced (optional)

(In this case I used 1 tsp olive oil, 75ml red wine and no chorizo, to serve 3)

Method

Peel and dice the onion, peel and finely chop the garlic, gently fry in the oil or fry-light until softening. Chop the bacon (remove fat if desired) and add to the frying pan and fry until cooked. Peel and dice the carrot into reasonably large pieces and add to the pan, along with the lentils and fry for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. If desired add the wine and the chorizo, chopped into large dice, at this point. Add the tomatoes, season with the chilli, salt and pepper, and slowly bring to the boil. Turn down low and simmer for around half an hour until the lentils have absorbed most of the liquid and it's thick and tasty.

Serve with crusty bread or garlicy mashed potatoes (just peel a couple of cloves of garlic and chop in half and add to the water while the potatoes are boiling, and they'll mash in once cooked). This quantity serves 2-3 people, and it is even better with the chorizo as well.