French Lentils

Every once and a while, the man goes out alone to see friends. Even more rarely, this coincides with having nothing planned for the evening myself. Its times like this that I like to treat myself to some quiet time. Enter the 'single girl for a night' dinner.
Admittedly, when I was a single girl, I consumed mostly a group of foods that come with a 'tm' after the name: Nerd Rope, Red Bull, and Miller Lite. Not exactly the most nutritious, but you'll find it quite slimming for whatever reason. I'm quite sure it had to do with hours of indigestion.
I imagine that if I were single today, I would manage something a bit more graceful than that. Something vegetarian, elegant, and yet satisfying. Comfort food that would at the same time be reasonably healthy and incredibly chic. I would eat it at a bistro set in my Parisian studio apartment, while I looked out over the city of lights. I'm giving myself too much credit here, I know. Instead, I come home, pour wine, wear yoga pants, and clean the pantry while I let little French lentils simmer away in a pot on the stove. I rinse spinach while humming along to the boom box, even though I have a movie on in the next room. (I know its terribly wasteful to run the TV when no one watches, but I come from a big family, when my house is empty I like background noise). I poach an egg, I stir mustard into lentils, dress spinach in acidic champagne vinaigrette, and top the little tower with a poached egg (soft boiled works lovely too). Grasp a hunk of leftover baguette from the fridge, refill your wine, and sit in front of that movie. May I suggest something French?

 

Single Girl French Lentils
Serves one, with a small amount of lentils leftover, for lunch maybe?

1 shallot chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 bulb of fennel, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp herbs de Provence

1 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 cup French green lentils

1/2 cup white wine (I never use this)

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons of olive oil



Add olive oil to a hot pan over medium flame, add onion, carrots and fennel; sweat the veggies until they are softened. Add garlic and spices, stir for another minute or two or until the garlic is fragrant. Taste and season with pepper, you may want to hold the salt, because you still have to add stock, mustard, and wine (if you are using it) which will add more flavor and salt. Add the lentils and stir to combine. If you are using the white wine, add it to the pan and cook off until almost totally reduced / absorbed. Add the broth to the lentils. You should have at least an inch of broth covering the lentil mixture, if not, add additional water.
Cook until all liquid is absorbed and your lentils yield (remember, they were dry, so they were rocks), It should take about about 30 minutes. When they are softened to your liking, stir in some Dijon mustard and season with pepper and salt.
 About 20 minutes into the lentil's simmer, prepare a poached egg, and dress some spinach with lemon and oil and vinegar. Sometimes I cheat and use some bottled champagne vinaigrette. Top the spinach with the hot lentils (this will wilt the spinach ever so slightly,) and then top the lentils with your poached egg. For the really decadent (in so far as dining alone) I like to pour some wine, grab a heel of bread, and maybe some small hunks of a hard cheese and cozy up to my plate.