Description
This easy lentil recipe was inspired by the German lentils I ate while I lived in Germany. I served it with sausage and a traditional sauerkraut to round out the meal.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Scale
Oils/Broth:
- 2 ½ cups of chicken or beef stock. I used chicken stock. To make this a vegetarian lentil dish (use vegetable stock.)
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil to saute the veggies in.
Veggies, Herbs, Spices:
- 2 peeled and chopped carrots — I like mine in discs
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 garlic clove peeled and minced
- 3 stalks of celery chopped
Legumes:
- 8 oz. of brown lentils
Other:
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 tablespoons of white vinegar
- Sauerkraut — found in your international section of your market or refrigerated deli section
Meat:
- 1–2 sausage links per person. I used a chicken based smoked sausage.
Seasonings:
- ½ tsp. Salt
- ½ tsp. Pepper
- Extra vinegar to taste
Instructions
- Prep — do this first.
- By prepping your food before you begin to cook you can save time in the long run. Plus, you won’t forget anything.
- For each of the items below, after the prep stage, just set aside until the fun begins.
- So you don’t have a million dishes to wash, take a large plate or even a paper plate and make neat piles of the ingredients after they have been prepped.
- It’s important to keep the ingredients separate unless noted. They are added at different times during the cooking process.
- Don’t combine the liquids into one container. They will be used at different times.
- Feel free to get your chef on and use separate ramekins if you would like.
- Measure out your oil and stock
- Dice the onions
- Dice the celery
- Dice the carrots
- Set aside a bay leaf
- Mince the garlic
- Chop the fresh herbs
- Rinse the lentils and drain
- Cook the sausages and set aside
- Warm up the sauerkraut
Saute onions, celery and carrots:
- Heat the olive oil to a shimmer then and add salt, onions, celery and carrots.
- Saute until the onions are translucent and the carrots start to soften.
Add the garlic:
- Add the garlic to the onion/carrot mixture and saute for about 2 minutes.
Add the lentils and stock:
- Add the lentils, bay leaf and stock to the sauteed veggie mixture.
- Bring the pot to a boil, lower to a low to medium simmer and cover. Cook the lentils for about 30 minutes, until tender.
- Once finished, add the sugar and the vinegar to the lentils and stir.
Add the cooked sausage to the pan:
- Add the sausage to the lentils and cook for about 5-6 minutes to heat all the way through.
Notes
Serve with a side of warmed sauerkraut and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.
White wines all day long with this dish.
A nice German Riesling would be delish with this. German Rieslings can vary from dry to sweet. I tend to enjoy the Trocken (dry) or Halbtrocken (semi-dry) versions as opposed to the süß or Süss (sweet) ones.
You could also drink a nice non-oaked Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.
And Beer…this is so good with a nice German Pils .
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: German
