Red Lentil and Kielbasa Stew

Our annual trip to St. Pete Beach.  It's over.  This year I finally rocked the packing the cooler test.  Put all the stuff on the bottom and then pile on and dump 20lbs of ice on top.  We filled the cooler Thursday evening, started back Friday and got here late afternoon on Saturday.  Still with ice in the cooler.  YES!  All the stuff went into the fridge and I was left wondering what in the heck to fix for dinner.  There was a bag of carrots that needed to be used up.  And, some kielbasa.  How about lentils?  How about some nouc cham?  Known in Vietnam as dipping sauce.  How about two different dishes?

A bunch of the carrots got chopped and plopped in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Then, in went a similarly diced onion.  Followed by a couple of links of kielbasa, well diced.  And, about a teaspoon of cumin.  It smelled wonderful!  Once everything was nice and brown I put in a quart of chicken bone broth, a pinch of cinnamon and pepper.  And, a cup of red lentils.  And, half a cup of white wine.  Then, let everything simmer for about 15 minutes.  The lentils were meltingly tender and had absorbed most of the broth.  

The Vietnamese dipping sauce got a handful of chopped carrots and an equal amount of chopped zucchini.  I used a recipe from Hungry Huy and it was delicious!  He goes into a lot of detail about dipping sauce.  

This was a perfect winter meal.  And, best of all, it reheated beautifully for lunches the next week!

Red Lentil and Kielbasa Stew

6 servings

Ingredients

1 T olive oil
3/4 c diced carrots
1 medium onion, diced
1 t cumin
2 links kielbasa, diced
1 c dried red lentils
1 quart chicken bone broth
pinch cinnamon
1/4 t chipotle pepper
1/2 c white wine

Directions

Saute the carrots, onion and cumin in the olive oil for about 5 minutes.  Add the kielbasa and saute until everything is a bit brown - about 10 more minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.