Tuesday: Chicken, tomatoes, and lentils

The idea for this particularly improv came to me in the tram on the way to work the other day.

Cook a medium diced onion and a few cloves of chopped garlic in some olive oil over medium heat. After the onion softens add some chopped celery stalk and long green chilis (pepperoncini here) and cook until they soften a bit. Add some whole cumin and a mixture of sweet and hot paprika and let toast a couple of minutes. Add some crushed tomatoes, a splash of white wine, fresh thyme and rosemary, a bay leaf, and some salt and let simmer a while, uncovered.

While the sauce is simmering, start a batch of small-green lentils cooking.

Once the lentils are started, brown some chopped chicken (I used a mixture of legs/thighs and breast) in olive oil and add the browned pieces to the sauce. Hold the breast pieces out for a while if you want so that they don't overcook.

Serve the thickened tomato sauce and chicken next to the lentils, top both with a drizzle of olive oil.

As a vegetable side I steamed some corn on the cob.

Of course we had a green salad as well.