August 4th: Vegetable 'Stew' with Rice and Lentils

Ingredients

• 6oz(volume) brown rice
• 6oz(volume) green lentils
• 2 large white button mushrooms
• 3 carrots
• 1 small onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 28oz(volume) diced tomatoes in juice
• 32oz(volume) chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
  

The onion was diced, the garlic and rosemary minced, and the carrots sliced in 1/2 inch width sections. The above were sweated in olive oil(enough to coat the bottom of the pan) in Kat's 3 quart saucepan. After the onion started to turn translucent, the mushrooms(chopped) were added. After the mushrooms gained some color and began to reduce, the chicken stock, and diced tomatoes and juice were added to the pot along with the basil, rice, and lentils. Salt and pepper were added. The pot was brought to a simmer, then covered over low heat for 40 minutes and stirred every so often. It was served with hot green tea.

Reactions: Kat loved the fact it was warm(more in the Notes). I thought it was very acidic. It needed something to balance it out and I ended up adding a tin of sardines to my bowl. After that it was fine

What would I do differently: cut the rice and lentils to a 1/2 cup each. If I'm not going to add meat I'll have to find some way to balance the acidity(maybe cream?? I've never done that). If I had celery, I'd have definitely added it to the initial sweat

Notes: This meal came about because Kat was sick. She got home from work and was absolutely miserable so I started thinking about things which might help her feel better. I could have made chicken soup, but I decided to make a tomato-ish soup instead. The rosemary didn't do much for the meal EXCEPT for adding a bit of flavor to the mushrooms. White button mushrooms aren't too exciting as is, but they absorb flavors like nobody's business and can hold onto them. There really was too much in the way of rice and lentils. Even with the juice from the can of tomatoes, they absorbed more liquid than I liked.