Red wine lentils

I hardly ever eat lentils & think that they are something I should eat more of but I never know what to do with them. When I saw the recipe for Red Wine Lentils on Polenta on "Where's The Beef" I thought that it was definitely something I wanted to try.

This was so delicious!! I couldn't believe how much flavour was in it - this is a great recipe & made awesome leftovers.

This is the recipe:

Red wine lentils on polenta
(based on directions from Elizabeth Bennet)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 carrot
2-3 sticks of celery
1 zucchini (not in the original recipe)
2 x 400g cans lentils, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup red wine
1 sachet of tomato paste (not in the original recipe)
1 1/2 cups 'beef' stock (I only used maybe half a cup)
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crushed
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
2 large vege sausages
1L water
1 cup polenta

Bring the oil to medium heat in a frypan, then saute the onion and garlic in it for 2 minutes. Add the carrot, zucchini & celery and saute for a further 5 minutes. Stir through the tomato paste, lentils, wine, stock and herbs and simmer the lot until the lentils are tender and the sauce has reduced a little.

Pop the sausages under the grill, turning them once or twice, until they're crisp on the outside but still tender in the middle. (The original recipe calls for them to be cut into chunks & mixed into the lentils but I thought they would be nice separate & placed them on top of the cooked lentils.)

Bring the litre of water to the boil in a medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in the polenta, ensuring there are no lumps. Reduce the heat and continue whisking the polenta for 10 minutes. (I also added salt & pepper & nooch at this point) Remove the polenta from the heat and allow the polenta to stand for 5 minutes.

Season the lentils and polenta to taste. Scoop polenta mounds onto plates and top them with the red wine lentils, topped with sausages . I served mine with garlic broccoli & garlic bread on the side - mmmmm