Jeez–I can’t believe I haven’t posted in almost a month!! I’m not even really sure why, but I suppose that I now have so many recipes on here that I’ve been making those, rather than discovering new ones!

Today I was experimenting with making my favourite lentil stew in my Instant Pot, however, so I thought I’d post my process so I can make it again.

Because the lentils cook slower than the potatoes/carrots/celery, and the potatoes/carrots/celery cook slower than the broccoli/red pepper/zucchini, I figured I’d better break the process down into three “pressure achievements” (I made that expression up) of 4 minutes, 1 minute, and 0 minutes. You’ll see what I mean in a minute.

So…here we go!

Instant Pot Lentil-Vegetable Stew

Start boiling the kettle and turn the Instant Pot onto “saute.” Spray the IP with a bit of olive oil, and saute for a few minutes:

• 1 chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic

Add:

• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp tarragon
• 1 tsp pepper

Saute until the kettle boils, and the pour in…

• 6 cups of boiling water
• 3 TBS Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base
• 4 cups sprouted green lentils (let them sprout for three or four days)
• OR 2 cups of dry red lentils

Set the IP for 4 minutes, and while it’s achieving pressure, chop up….

• 2 stalks celery
• 2 cups peeled potatoes
• 1 cup carrots

When the IP finishes up, do a slow controlled release, and then dump in the above vegetables. Set the IP for 1 minute….

….and while it’s achieving pressure again, chop up…

• 2 – 3 cups broccoli
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 red pepper

When the IP finishes up, do a slow controlled release, and then dump in the above vegetables. Set the IP for 0 minutes. The last three vegetables are soft and will be cooked by the time the stew achieves pressure, which is why you set the pressure for “0.”

 

Once it’s done, do a slow controlled release, and your stew is DUNZO!!!!

It’s perfect!! None of the vegetables are too mushy (though I did chop the potatoes a little small, so some of them seem to have blended into the stew (which is fine–it just makes the stew a bit thicker).

We’ll feast on this lovely stew this evening with freshly baked mini baguettes…and perhaps a few leftovers from the past week. We had a houseful of guests, so there has been MUCH cooking and eating.

And I set up my new Flora-light grow system for starting my seeds. I’m SO excited to start my garden this year….particularly after last year’s garden fiasco!

We’ve come to the conclusion that the problem with the vegetable garden was that James put some sawdust from pressure-treated lumber into one of the compost bins, and I used the compost in the planters. We consulted with a fellow at the Denman Island Harware Emporium and he agreed that sawdust from treated lumber could both inhibit and kill certain plants because the wood contains chromated copper arsenate.

Well….that explains my stunted garden last year!!