If you know of an amazing dish based on green lentils, we'd love to hear about it. Almost everything we've cooked with green lentils or had at a restaurant, including soups and dahls, has been "OK" at best (the lemon and mint dahl being the only exception that comes to mind).These braised lentils from Jamie Oliver are decent - about as good as lentils can be maybe - but only good enough for a side dish (he recommends serving them with "squab or grilled venison").
Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. Rinse the lentils, but don't soak them. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in an oven-proof pan that has a lid. Fry diced pancetta for a bit, then fry rosemary, onion, and garlic for a couple minutes, then mix in the lentils to coat them with oil and heat them thoroughly. After a minute, pour in chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 1 hour. (For once the oven time in a printed recipe was spot on!) Once the lentils are out of the oven, mix into them extra-virgin olive oil and the vinegar and maybe salt with pepper, to taste.
The following amount will serve 6, at least:
- 2 oz pancetta or bacon
- 1.5 cups / 3.5 dl green/Puy lentils
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3-5 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1 red onion or 2-3 shallots, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 cups / 7 dl chicken stock
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 0.5 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper