Lentejas with Hummus, Flatbread and salad leaves and tomatoes

I love lentejas. I love choritzo too, but I cannot have it any more. So this version used ham flash fried off with smoked paprika for choritzo taste.

Lentejas with flatbread and salad leaves and tomatoes:

2 tablespoons Light Olive Oil
A handful of roughly chopped ham
1 red onion, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 sticks celery, sliced
1 red peppers diced (into pincer grip pieces)
3 Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced
250g dried green or brown lentils (pref Puy)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika


Heat olive oil in large pan, fry off ham with half the smoked paprika. Remove and reserve. Reduce heat to medium and gently simmer off onion, carrot and celery until starting to colour. Add garlic, bay leaves and spices. Cook 2 more mins. Add lentils, ham and cover with 1 litre boiling water. Leave to simer for 30 mins until lentils are tender. Top water up if needed.

Serve with flat bread, hummus, sliced tomatoes and salad greens.

This also works with other pulses like white beans or chick peas.

OK, so this baby mullarkey has had me pretty busy. But I am back. Got to find lots of good recipes to keep my hungry 7 month old and now 9 year old fed with. We are doing Baby Led Weaning so I am finding things to make that little man can have too. Todays offering is:

Spring Pasta

This is a rough and ready recipe - no quantities required - tailor to your hourde's tummys.

Spiral pasta (multi coloured is fun)
Eggs
Grated Manchego Cheese (or any strong cheese, I am using sheep's to help with the gallstone thing)
Chopped Raw Spinach
Chopped Raw Tomatoes
Chopped Cooked Ham
Black Pepper

Boil water in a pan (DO NOT ADD SALT - move away from the salt!!)
Boil pasta twists for approx 10 mins until al dente.
Meanwhile scramble the egg until cooked through (not runny egg for babies) and season but just with black pepper.
Drain pasta and serve out, pile on scrambled egg, cheese, then a layer each of tomatoes, spinach and ham.

And eat - YUM!!!

Super easy and lovely. We created this after we had a similar brunch pasta dish at Sweet Tomatoes, but it was saltier, oilier and did not have the ham or cheese.