Recipe Review - Lentil Hotpot EDC

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Recipe Name: Lentil Hotpot

Book Name: Everyday Cookbook

Tweaking details:
I use red lentils for this recipe.  I add an extra 150g of water, half a red capsicum (chopped in with the carrot and leek) and two large diced potatoes (roughly 2cm x 3cm dice).  I just use 1 tbsp of stock as I find it quite salty.  I use yummy local smoked polish sausage instead of the vienna sausages.

Review:
We quite enjoy this very quick and easy dish, although I suspect that it may be a little like pasta e fagioli in that you either love it or hate it.  It is certainly nothing flash but with the diced potatoes and flavoursome smoked sausage we find it to be a very tasty winter-warmer meal.  It is nice when served with a fresh cob loaf and it is extra-tasty when reheated the next day.

Score:
For a super quick, tasty and healthy family meal - 3.5/5

[meganjane]

Thanks Chelsea. Do you have any specific tweaks that you think would make this more of a 5/5 recipe?

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Hmmm tricky question. 

I think it is a good recipe with regard to the method and with my above mentioned tweaks I would probably score it a 5 for the method and consistency of the end result.  Maybe it is a 5 for method and 3.5 for taste (not outstanding but still tasty in a homestyle way).  Taste it so personal though that that score would vary with each person.

[meganjane]

Fair enough. I was just thinking to add it to the tweaked recipes for the new EDC for Tenina.
I'll try it myself first and then decide.

[Thermomixer]

Thanks for the review - I like lentils but haven't tried it yet.  Will look at the recipe and think about it.

[hopefulcook]

I have made it a couple of times and all our family like it. But I would also like to tweak it a bit and not sure how. I make something similar on the stovetop...

Fry garlic and onion, add 1tbs flour and then add lentils, 1 tin tomatoes, grated carrot, zucchini, tomato paste and then start adding stock in a similar way you would to a stove-top risotto. I then brown off some pork chipolatas and throw them in to cook in the pot. Plus some fresh herbs, salt and pepper.

Any suggestions on how to incorporate fresh sausages? Tonight I fried them in a pan seperately but it is not as good. Any ideas?

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I occasionally make it with chopped sausages but they are already cooked.  When we have steamed sausages for tea I always cook a few extra ones.  I chop them up and freeze them in ziplocks to be used in this or as a meat topping on pizza.

I'm not sure you could use fresh sausages for this  .  I think they would probably break up too much if you cooked them right from the start and wouldn't be cooked through if you added them at the end.  I would be very happy to be proven wrong though as we love this on a winters night. 

[Thermomixer]

Any suggestions on how to incorporate fresh sausages? Tonight I fried them in a pan seperately but it is not as good. Any ideas?

May be worth trying to chop the snags into 2-3cm lengths and putting them into the TM bowl that has been heated with small amount of oil on Varoma temp for 1 few minutes, like with a prawn recipe that I saw recently.  If you have the butterfly in place or go on reverse and then fry off the snags for a few minutes and remove.  Add them near the end of cooking the hotpot.

Hope that makes sense ?

[Marilyn]

I just made this and it was pretty good.  Next time I would reduce the amount of stock paste as it was a bit salty.  I never soak green/brown lentils and I didn't this time either, just added 10 minutes to the cooking time and increased the amount of liquid to about 700g.  The lentils were just barely cooked and not all the liquid absorbed, so I think the leftovers will be even better tomorrow.  I also increased the veg content a bit, using a whole leek and adding a few spring onions and half a capsicum as well as a bay leaf.  It went down well with my partner, as anything with bacon and sausage would, and I will make it again.  Would be good with mashed potato I think, or even better spaetzle.  Any Thermomix recipes for spaetzle?  I'm about to have a look...

[cathy79]

Could you adjust the cooking time and temperature, add some more liquid and steam the sausages in the varoma?

Will have to try this one after these good reviews.

[sue_purrb]

I made this last week as it looked like a quick and easy meal.
I used a tin of brown lentils, so didn't have to soak them. Next time I would use two tins.
I wasn't sure what Vienna sausages were, so pan fried some sliced chorizo and put on the top.
This was more of a soup consistency than a hotpot, but was really nice for a cold night.
I felt it was lacking something in flavour. It was salty from the stock and the bacon, but it needed something to give it a bit of "oomph". I'm not sure what to suggest though. Maybe chilli or something smokey.
It was certainly quick and easy, and I will make it again.

[zebraa]

This is one of my favourite recipes ever. I soak the brown lentils first - ideally get them to the sprouting stage and I add garlic and 1 or 2 TBS Ras El Hanout - and that absolutely makes it!

[charlieboy]

I used the recipe from the new EDC, not sure if it is the same as the previous edition or not.  It was quite good although wish I had of read the comments here first such as adding garlic and potato.  Next time I will add chorizo as well