All during the time I was writing the previous recipe out, I was feasting myself at the thought what came next.
Easily my new favorite recipe of the whole entire cookbook, it consists of my two favorite foods in the whole wide world - lentils and spinach.
Spinach has always been my favorite because of the dish my grandma makes with it, and lentils have been a favorite since my nutrition revolution, when I realized how yummy and good they are for you.
This is also a soup-like dish, which is always a plus in my book but the meat and crispy asparagus sort of break that up with texture. Simply incredible!
So I dived right into this meal, head first.
Firstly I chopped the onions and carrots, then blitzed in the processor with the rosemary leaves just so it is all well combined.
I spooned that out onto a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and keep in mind that this should be a rather large pan because there will be a lot of other ingredients in there.
While that was frying, I took care of the meat and seasoned it with salt, pepper and cayenne and set aside.
I then stirred in the lentils and their juices into the pan with the onions and carrots, chopped in the tomato and closed with the lid. With the unwashed processor from the first step, I whizzed the spinach to be rather fine because a) it will "melt" in the lentils so you won't see it anyways and b) as I said, there is a lot of ingredients and the spinach would've been too large for my pan. With the spinach I added the balsamic vingar after the spinach wilted, I seasoned to taste.
While that was cooking away on low heat now, I put the meat into a grill pan full of wondrous flavors. Oil, unpeeled whole garlic cloves, fresh and dried herbs, yum!
I like my meat well done so that grilled for about 5 minutes. Right after that was done, I added the asparagus into the same pan with the already wilted herbs and oil until they got lovely stripes on them, biting to see if they were done. By this time I turned the fire off from beneath the lentils but let them sit on warmth and quickly fried some pancetta on a different pan with no oil at all, because I concluded that the oil or fat should I say it releases is enough.
I tipped the lentils on to a platter, put my meat on top and bacon on top of that, asparagus shooting out from all sides and two ciabatta's nice and crispy on the side.
I skipped the yoghurt Jamie includes because come on Jamie, for the love of love, enough with the yoghurt.
Here you can see my arrangement close up:
I've really learned to love asparagus thanks to this recipe!:
Yum lentils!:
A true winter recipe to warm your heart, you can find it on page 52 of the "Chicken" section...if not, listed below:
*Ingredients out* Food processor (bowl blade) * Oven at 180C/350F/gas 4* Large lidded pan, medium heat* Large frying pan, medium heat*
Serves 4, 616 calories
Ingredients
Lentils
1 onion
1 carrot
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
olive oil
2 x 400g tins of Puy lentils
1 ripe tomato
200g baby spinach
1 tsp red wine vinegar
4 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt
Chicken
4 x 120g skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves of garlic
1 handful of fresh thyme, rosemary and/or bay
4 rashers of smoked pancetta
1 bunch of asparagus (300g)
Start cooking
Peel and halve the onion and carrot, then blitz in the processor with the rosemary leaves until fine. Put into the large pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, tossing regularly. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, pepper and the cayenne, then fold the paper over and bash and flatten to 1,5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, the unpeeled whole garlic cloves and a handful of fresh herbs, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through.
Stir the tinned lentils (and their juices) into the veg pan with the roughly chopped tomato and put the lid on. Pop the bread into the oven to warm through. Roughly chop the spinach in the processor and add to the lentils with the red wine vinegar. When the lentils are boiling and the spinach wilted, season to taste. Add the pancetta and trimmed asparagus to the chicken pan and fry until golden and crispy.
Tip the lentils on to a platter, then marble through most of the yoghurt. Remove the chicken to a board, cut in half at an angle, and serve on top of the lentils with the crispy pancetta, asparagus and garlic. Dollop over the remaining yoghurt, then serve with the crusty bread to mop up the juices.
Bon Appétit!
