Frying Pan "Lentil Stew"

Here's one of my cooking "inventions."  I made a pretty quick "lentil stew" of sorts in a frying pan, a covered frying pan*.  I used those light brown lentils which cook the quickest.

• brown lentils
• onion
• carrot
• cabbage and/or squash/cauliflower etc
• water
• vegetable oil, whichever you use
• spices/salt/pepper according to taste, including a slice or two of fresh ginger

The first thing I did was check through the lentils, to make sure there weren't any "foreign objects."  Then I put them in the frying pan and added boiling water, covered, cooked until they began to get soft.  Then I added the vegetables, more boiling water and oil, as you see in the above picture.  I covered and cooked it all until the carrots and lentils were soft.  You may want to add the cabbage only later on in the cooking so it won't get over-cooked.

It really was delicious, filling and an economical and easy to make meal! 

You can be very flexible and creative with the vegetables.  I add onions and carrots to absolutely everything, but you don't have to if you don't like them or are forbidden to eat them.  You can also use cooked/left-over vegetables, but it you do, just add them once the lentils are just about finished.  Personally, I don't like over-cooked vegetables.

ps Serve with salad

*A covered frying pan is one of my absolute necessities when setting up a kitchen.  You can use them for everything!