Comfort food for rainy spring days

Bonjour!

It was a rainy day here today and Olav and I spent it on building works so it was a day well spent! I felt like cooking something really comforting and made this dish, trying to find a bit more wintery ingredients although I know its May :)
I recently discovered Gaz Oakly ‪@gazoakleychef‬ and oh my! I LOVE his channel! He made a dish in which he uses thinly sliced potatoes on top which I also did in my recipe. My recipe was inspired by his, by Jamie Oliver ‪@JamieOliver‬ who've I've followed since forever and who showed me that mashing beans in a stew makes it super creamy, and by Sarala Terpstra ‪@SaralaTerpstra‬ who's a vegan chef and her "veganized French favorites" cookbook is a must have if you're vegan.

So my dish today, with mostly ingredients from my pantry as I only had springy and summery fresh ingredients after the lovely warm and sunny weather we've had these past days, but today on this rainy and busy day I just wanted something comforting to go with my cocooning on the couch evening!

Ingredients
olive oil
2 onions
3 cloves of garlic
fresh thyme
handful of dried porcini
4 carrots
2 tablespoons tomato paste
splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of soy sauce
1 can peeled tomatoes
1 can chick peas
1 can brown lentils
3 potatoes
300ml water
salt
pepper
ground coriander

Start by adding the porcini to a pan with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 7 minutes. While it's cooking, chop the onions, garlic and carrots. Rinse the porcini and strain. Heat some olive oil in a Dutch oven. Fry the porcini for a few minutes then add the onions and carrots. Add about a tablespoon of coriander, pepper and salt. Stir, cook for 2 minutes. Then cover and cook for 10 minutes on a low heat. Add balsamic vinegar and let it bubble for a few seconds. Scrape the veggies to the side of the pan and add the tomato paste to the bottom of the pan, make sure to cook it for about a minute before stirring it in the vegetables. Add the garlic. The rinsed chick peas and lentils, the canned tomatoes, the thyme, about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and a large glass of water (300ml). Cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Mash most of the chickpeas and the tomatoes and cover again, let the stew simmer for about 10 more minutes. While it simmers, preheat your oven to 180 Celsius. Peal the potatoes and cut them into thin slices.
When the stew is finished, remove the thyme, season with a tablespoon of onion powder and 1 to 2 teaspoons of garlic powder (to taste) and a teaspoon of truffle oil.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Lay the potato slices on top, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes.

I had a lot of extra potatoes and made chips (or crisps as my UK family would correct me!). Just rinse them in cold water, dry carefully. Mix with olive oil, pepper and salt, lay on a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for about 15 minutes.

Bon appétit!

Marloes

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My husband Olav's YouTube channel on our renovations and building works (in Dutch):
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