Lentejas viudas (Widow Lentils)

A healthy and tasty recipe from Castilla, Spain

Aug 18, 2007 Angeles Fernández

What's the reason for that name "Lentejas Viudas" ("Widow Lentils")? Simple. Because this recipe does not include any meat, no "chorizo", or "morcilla" or "costilla"!

Yes. The original Lentejas (Lentils) recipe includes ingredients like “chorizo” (a highly-seasoned pork sausage), “costilla adobada” (marinate pork cutlet) or “morcilla” (a black pudding, made with cooked pork blood, rice, onion and a little bit spicy, very typical product from Burgos, Spain). As you cab see a lot of pork ingredients!

Although several years ago, this recipe was good for people who used to work on the land, or had to take care of the village’s flocks or herds, as these lentils contained a lot of energy and calories, today, due to a different, sedentary way of life, we have to be careful. And that’s why these are the lentils recipe most of us cook at home nowadays. And here it is:

Ingredients: (Serves four)

  • ½ kg. (1.20 pounds) of lentils aprox.
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1 garlic clove
  • Cayenne pepper (powder)
  • Salt
  • Oil

Directions:

  1. First thing to do, soak the lentils overnight, better the previous day and let them “sleep” in water all night. Cover them completely with water, as they will absorb a lot during that time. Don’t add any salt to this water.
  2. The following day, remove the water and wash the lentils with new, cold water.
  3. Prepare a pressure cooker. Add water, approximately 2-3 times the volume of lentils.
  4. Add the lentils, the chopped onion, the potatoes in several portions, the carrots cut in thin slices, the salt and finally, the diced tomatoes.
  5. Close the pressure cooker and let it cook for around 10 minutes (depending on the type of pressure cooker you have).
  6. Open the pressure cooker, add some oil, not too much, and let lentils cook, so that the water resumes and the sauce becomes thicker.
  7. Meanwhile, add some oil to a frying pan and, when hot, add some slices of onion. When they get a little brown, add some cayenne pepper. I usually add it using a knife and taking only a small quantity, the one you can take using the tip of the knife. Be careful! If you add too much cayenne pepper powder, lentils will become fire!
  8. Turn off the heat and then add the spice on the fried slices of onion. stir fast for a short time, in order the spice does not burn.
  9. Add some water to it and add it to the boiling lentils.
  10. As said before, let the lentils cook until you see their sauce gets thinker.

As you can see, this is a healthy recipe and you will really enjoy it.

The copyright of the article Lentejas viudas (Widow Lentils) in Mediterranean Cuisine is owned by Angeles Fernández. Permission to republish Lentejas viudas (Widow Lentils) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.