This past week has been very cold, so cold that I have resorted to wearing my ski jacket everywhere. Maybe I am poorly tolerant of the cold. With the cold came a craving for warm comforting food. As usual I scanned my kitchen for something that could help with this desire and my eye was caught by a packet of lentils. So, having a husband of Spanish origin, the obvious answer was Spanish lentil stew. I consulted my friend, Google and was served up with this recipe. It was a pleasure to make and very very easy. The result was amazing, I am not exaggerating! It was so tasty, far more than I expected, in truth somehow I thought it would be pretty bland and oily. No, I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. I am very happy, I now have an easy to make go-to recipe under my sleeve.

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups of lentils
1 chorizo (9 oz), sliced
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 medium onion, diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 tbls of Spanish paprika (smoked or hot)
Olive oil for sautéing
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Wash lentils. Place lentils, chorizo, whole garlic cloves, carrots, and potatoes in a large pot. Pour in enough water until everything is covered by the at least the width of 3 fingers.
2.  Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Let cook uncovered stirring occasionally.
3.  Fry onions in a pan with olive oil until slightly browned, then add Spanish paprika and cook for a minute. Add onions to the pot of lentils. Cook for 45 minutes.
4.  Remove the cloves of garlic, squeeze garlic from its skin and mash. Return to the pot. Salt to taste.