Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes minutes
Reduce the amount of sodium by using low sodium chicken broth.
This is a very forgiving recipe and its easily adaptable to your tastes.
We use regular dried lentils for this (Goya brand usually and they are greenish-brown in color).
If you enjoy spicy food, add in a chopped jalapeno, red pepper flakes or both.
If you want more vegetables, you can add in chopped red or green peppers or even small sweet potato cubes.
The fresh herbs are not necessary however I feel they help make the dish shine.
Sometimes I simply add just water as the liquid and sometimes vegetable broth. I've even used chicken broth. If I have an open bottle of red or white wine, I toss in a half a cup, if not, I replace that with broth or water (so, in the end, I add 1 ½ cups liquid).
If you enjoy the texture of tomatoes, you can swap out the crushed tomatoes for diced tomatoes. If you can get your hands on fire-roasted tomatoes (crushed or diced...I say always choose those).
It's easy to make this dish your own.