Sausage & Lentils

First, soak the lentils in a bowl of cold water for four hours with a generous splash of cider vinegar. Then drain well.

Next, in a heavy saucepan, sweat the chopped onions in a good glug of olive oil until soft. Add the drained lentils and bay leaf, mix well and set aside.

Meanwhile, fry the sausage in a little butter until you get a nice colour on them. You don’t need to cook them, just colour them. It’s worth stabbing/pricking them a few times with a fork so they can let out some liquid.

Then deglaze the pan with the wine to get all the lovely crispy and brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Put the fried sausage and deglazed juices in with the onions and lentils. Do a little organisation cushioning the sausages into the lentils or even burying a few. Add the water or stock and gently simmer – with the lid three-quarters off – for 20-30 minutes until the lentils are tender. Serve with a generous sprinkling of chopped parsley and a hearty glass of red.

Food cooked and styled by Domini Kemp and Gillian Fallon