Sausage and Lentils

Lentils are making a resurgence not only in the blogsphere, but also in the Klis family kitchen. The very first time I ever cooked with lentils, I opened a can of them and dumped them right into some soup. Not very rustic-romantic-lentily. This time around, I gave it a better go. Lentils are healthy and filling, and relatively affordable, however the Mr. will be the first to tell you they are "bland". So when making lentils, don't be afraid of giving them pizazz. For something new, lentils are excellent when mixed with a bit rice, seasoned up with smoked paprika, and tossed with roasted sweet potatoes, but the old standby sausage and lentil combination never goes out of style. If you're a lentil first-timer, it might be a good place to start.

Sausage and Lentils

Ingredients:
1 lb lentils
1 small onion, peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 beef bullion cubes
1 package smoked kielbasa
1 zucchini
olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt
pepper

Method:

Rinse and sort through the lentils to remove any strange-looking ones. Cover the lentils with 1-2 inches of water. Drop in the onion halves, bay leaves, and bullion cubes. Bring to boil, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the kielbasa into bite size, or whole-mouth size, pieces. Place them in a hot pan over medium-high heat, drop in a 1/3 C water, and let the water cook away and the skins crisp. Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, then slice into pieces. Toss with olive oil, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and throw them in the pan with the sausages.

Drain the lentils, if necessary, and discard the bay leaves and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with crisped sausages and zucchini.



May I also mention that using kielbasa in this makes me really appreciate my Polish friends and their wonderful heritage of food? Oh, and my heritage by marriage (I wanted to say "marritage" here, but no one would probably think it's as funny as I do...). Yes folks that's right. Klis is the easiest, shortest, Polish name you will ever see; somehow, people still mispronounce it. I'm still working on getting the Mr. to take my name. He's held off for a good year and a half now, but a girl can still hope :)

Stocking Up

My sister, Krista, teases me about this.

But I think it's wonderful so I am going to share. Here's how to make superbly delicious broth at no additional cost to your budget-a kind of broth that will jazz up your soups and knock your slippers off. And since it's getting colder and soups are sounding more and more like a good dinner idea, consider this a timely suggestion.

I call it "saving vegetable ends". I must admit this wasn't all my idea, it was a suggestion I found somewhere online at some time, but I implement the technique of saving veggie ends as I'm sure no one does. It's rather simple, really. Just whenever you are slicing and dicing vegetables, save the pieces you would normally throw away, put them in a large freezer bag, and stash them in the freezer. When the bag is full, it's time to make stock!

Some stashing tips:
Thoroughly wash all vegetables-you don't want dirt, etc. in your broth
Stash the onion skins! They give the broth a rich color and flavor
Stash unused fresh herbs! I had some leftover parsley that I threw in and it was delish
Stash chicken bones! I like to buy a rotisserie chicken every now and then, separate all the meat from the bones, and save the bones (some with bits of chicken and skin on too) to add to my broth. Bonus-rotisserie chickie makes delicious soups, salads, and wraps

The first time I made broth I let it simmer in my cast iron pot for about 2 hours. But I recently made some broth in the crock pot on the "Low" setting and let it cook for about 8 hours (I put all the veggies and things in, added about 8 cups of water and just a bit of salt, left for shcool, and when I came home it was ready). I think I like this method better, and I also think that next time I'll add 10 cups of water.
After cooking, I pour the veggies and broth through a large strainer, then again through a fine strainer which rids the broth of all the dregs and such. I then put it into a large jar. If I knew how to can things, I would definitely can this. Alas, I cannot (haha unintentional pun alert!!) so I just put a lid on and store it in my fridge. It never sits there long....delicious homemade soup calls my name....

Go ahead and try this! I promise you'll love it- even if your loved ones think you're a freezer-crazy, veggie stashing, frugal frump- it's so worth it.


jars of stock pic from elanaspantry.com