Vegan comfort

Somehow this blog has been vegetarian so far - I haven't even cooked meat at home for over a month. This takes it even further with it being my first true vegan dish. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan but I enjoy cooking in this way, as I'm not actually very good at cooking meat! This is a wonderful lentil recipe from Smitten Kitchen which falls into the vegan and comfort food categories. Om nom nom. It was also relatively easy to prepare - just make sure you leave enough time to cook the lentils... I didn't and we ended up eating them a little before their prime. But it still turned out pretty well I'd say!

Stewed lentils with tomatoes

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups large-diced yellow onions (2 onions)
2 cups large-diced carrots (1 really big carrot!)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
1 800g can whole plum tomatoes
1 cup French green lentils (400g)
2 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

I fried the onions and carrots in olive oil until the onions started to brown, then added the garlic and cooked for a further minute. I then added the tomatoes, lentils, stock, curry powder, thyme, salt and pepper and cooked for about 40 minutes - until the lentils were tender and nice. I then added the vinegar and served.

I would probably advise maybe 3/4 tablespoon of vinegar in future as it was a little overpowering.