Lentil Stew with Pasta Recipe
This is a very tasty comfort food, delicious tender lentils with soft and satisfying pasta, to make you feel good.
There is nothing like the meal that gives you that warm, and happy feeling.
We all have ingredients, and foods that transport us to a time when we felt secure, safe, and reassured.
The power of food is amazing.
Making these recipes allow us to revisit the times that those particular foods became ingrained in our brains.
I love that food can take us back in time, and remind us of points in our lives that were meaningful.
I remember being at my grandparent’s house in Jerusalem where we would play in the backyard, with few restrictions.
We had dogs, chickens, rabbits, gazelles, and even a cow called amti, which means aunt in Arabic.
It was great to grow up learning so much about animals, and the circle of life, and where our food comes from.
Our dogs had puppies, our chickens had chicks, the rabbits had kits, which delighted us to no end.
We always had cute little creatures to play with, and to learn about the world from.
And the food we used to eat was wonderful.
From the eggs we’d have in the morning, along with zaatar, cheese, and a cup of tea.
We would have big lunches when the whole family would show up for a sit down meal.
I loved the days when we had rolled stuffed grape leaves, with lamb, with stuffed squash, and salad.
Another favorite was when we would have bamia, okra cooked in tomato sauce with meat, served on a bed of rice.
I love the coriander flavor this dish has, along with the soft yummy sliminess of the cooked okra.
One great dish.
After lunch we would often go and play in the park behind my grandparent’s house, where the remnants of the sixty seven war were.
A series of trenches and foxholes, that we used to play army, using sticks as guns and pinecones as hand grenades.
Sadly we knew more about war and weapons than people our age should have known.
But we played army, ‘shooting’ each other, yelling ‘bang I got you’ to which there would always be a dispute, or an acceptance that your target was indeed hit, but only wounded.
It seemed impossible to ‘kill’ anyone during our games, and each one of us was certainly not going to collapse either.
But we had endless hours of fun in the deserted bunkers left over from the fierce fighting that went on in !967.
We learned a lot from a young age growing up in the Middle East, and even though it was stressful at certain points, I guess I wouldn’t want to change anything as that would make me a different person to who I am today.
I would love to hear from you about the comfort foods in your life, and favorite meals from your childhood, and what memories they conjure up for you.
Lentil Stew with Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 cup Pasta your choice, I used bowtie pasta
- 1 cup Brown Lentils
- 1 Onion chopped
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 Garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 cups Chicken Broth
- 1 tsp Coriander ground
- 2 cups Water for cooking
- Fresh Coriander chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil.
- Cook pasta until done, about 15 minutes.
- Drain pasta and set aside.
- While pasta is cooking heat oil in a pot.
- Add garlic and onions. Fry until translucent.
- Add the lentils.
- Add the chicken broth.
- Cook untils lentils are tender. Aprox 15 minutes.
- Add pasta and stir.
- Add additional water if necessary.
- Serve hot.
