The most common way that Greeks eat lentils, enriched by us with some aromatic vegetables
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 2 € pp)
- 250 g lentils
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 100 g spinach
- 1,2 litre vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 tsp of coriander seeds
- Salt
- 100 ml EV Olive oil + for garnishing
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 leek
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
My relation with the Greek cuisine is not stable. I really adore some dishes, but I don’t appreciate some others, although they are known all over the world. I love the dishes of both the Ionian and Aegean islands. I also consider the Cretan cuisine magnificent, one of the best of the Mediterranean. But, as far as the Greek inland’s dishes are concerned, I find many of them too “Turkish” for my taste.
Lentils are widely consumed in Greece, every family menu contains lentils almost twice a month!! But, unfortunately lentils are consumed only in soup and, most of the times, without any particular addition. The result is monotonous in terms of taste and visually ugly. That’s why we decided to enrich the lentils with aromatic vegetables and spices.
So, in a pot we put 100 ml EV olive oil and the garlic, cut in slices. We bring to gentle heat, and when the garlic turns golden, we add the stock, the lentils, the bay leaf and some salt. We let the lentils simmer, till tender. 15 minutes before cooking ending, we grind the coriander seeds and we add them in the pot, along with the tomato paste.
Meanwhile, in another pot we bring salted water to a boil. We cut the carrots in dice and the leeks in slices. We trim and cut roughly the spinach. We blanch the vegetables, each one separately. The spinach for 60 seconds, the leek for 2 minutes and the carrots for about 4.
When everything is ready, we remove the bay leaf, we check the lentils saltiness and we correct the acidity with the balsamic vinegar.
We add the vegetables in the soup, we stir and we serve, garnishing, if we want, with more EV olive oil.
