Vegetable and red lentil stew

This is really filling, yummy winter food that doesn't require much effort apart from chopping vegetables and slicing and buttering some good bread.

You need lots of root veg in this stew to make it really good, so grab some carrots, sweet potato, squash and anything else you can find that came from the ground (and that will not send you to the hospital) and stick it in the stew.


Ingredients:

• 1/4 pack of washed, ready to eat spinach
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• one red/yellow pepper, chopped
• one carrot, chopped
• other root veg of your choice, chopped -I used about a quarter of a butternut squash, and half a sweet potato.
• about half a cup (american cup) red lentils
• Mixed herbs
• tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
•  freshly ground pepper
• ketchup
• red and green pesto
• squeeze of lemon juice

Method:

• In a large deep pan, sweat the onions and garlic until starting to pick up some color.
• Add the rest of the veg, stir it around, and then add the tin of chopped tomatoes.
• Re-fill your tin with water from the tap, and add that to the pan. Half-fill it with water again and add that.
• Mix it all up
• Add a generous amount of herbs, the sugar and some ground pepper
• Place a lid on the pan and allow it to simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring it only occasionally.
• When the 40 minutes are up, add the lentils. These will take about 10 minutes to cook.
• When the lentils are done, add the spinach and allow it to wilt in to the dish. Remember to stir, as the stew will be quite thick by now, so it will need to be prevented from sticking on the bottom.
• Season with the salt, and add ketchup, lemon juice and pesto to taste, let it simmer for a few minutes longer, and ta-daa! It's done.
• Serve with some fresh thick sliced bread and butter.