Oh my god I looooovvvveeee this dish! I have to start with a slight apology for the fact it doesn’t look very appetising, but my god is it delicious!

I came across a recipe for this on BBC Good Food and decided to give it a go in an attempt to give my immune system a boost through all this cold weather we’re having, and also because I feel like I’ve barely eaten any vegetables the past few days.

Of course, I’m not one to follow a recipe word-for-word, so this is my take on it. A lot of the changes are based on what I had in my cupboards, but some are purely to make it suit my taste a bit more.

This would be perfect for vegetarians as well if you substituted the pork sausages with veggie ones, and took out the bacon – you would need to add a bit of salt though if you did this, as most of the salt comes from the lardons.

Ingredients – serves 2

• 1tbsp of olive oil
• 6 pork sausages – I try to get at least 85% meat in my sausages, but obviously if you can’t afford it, just find some decent cheap ones.
• 200g of smoked bacon lardons
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and diced
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 pint of chicken stock
• 100ml red wine
• 250g of puy lentils
• 1tbsp of mixed herbs
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 baton

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan – I use a shallow casserole dish that I can transfer from the hob to the oven, but if you just have a large frying pan that’s fine too, just see how to adapt the recipe below. Preheat the oven to 180C or gas mark 4.
2. Add the sausages and the lardons, and fry for 10-15 minutes until the sausages are browned and sticky.
3. Remove the sausages from the pan and add the carrot, onion, and garlic. Fry for a few minutes until the onion has softened.
4. Pour the stock into the pan, followed by the chopped tomatoes and the wine. Stir to combine, then pour in the lentils and stir again.
5. Sprinkle over the mixed herbs, and put the sausages back into the dish. Stir again.
6. Cover the pan and place into the oven, leaving to cook for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven every 10 minutes or so to give it a quick stir. If you don’t have a hob to oven casserole dish, just turn the heat down on the hob and leave it to simmer, again stirring frequently.
7. About 10 minutes before the stew is due to be done, put the bread in the oven. I tend to just do this as it is, but if you wanted a bit of extra punch, slice the bread and rub the slices with a garlic clove for some easy but tasty homemade garlic bread.
8. Remove the dish from the oven and give the stew one last stir before serving. Make sure you taste it before you serve it in case it needs more seasoning. For me I find that the lardons give off enough salt, but everyone is different, so give it a try and adjust to your taste.