Sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew

This sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew is ready in just 30 minutes. It’s a seriously healthy and comforting meal that the whole family will enjoy.

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What I love about this sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew is while it is ready in half an hour, it takes just 10 minutes of prep. Pop it all in a saucepan and then you can get on with whatever else you need to do. Whether that be cracking on with your new-found hobby, enjoying a glass of wine, or sitting down and taking the wait off! Oh my, those all sound like wonderful things to do. Or you could take care of two little people, which is wonderful in a different way, but frankly, after loosing 4 hours sleep last night, those other options sound blissful to me.

The sweet potato and tarragon are the stars of this sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew. As you know, I’m a sweet potato fan – the colour, the texture and the flavour does it for me. In this dish, it happily cooks with everything else, maintaining it’s shape and beautiful colour. Tarragon is a relatively new flavour to me. I love mint and coriander and have used them for a long time, but tarragon was rather unknown. Wow, what a flavour it gives. That gently sweet, aniseed like hit – all in those little leaves, amazing! (If you are a tarragon fan, try my Chicken and leek pie with tarragon and sweet potato topping). Here, tarragon which you add just 5 minutes before serving this sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew brings the whole dish together. It moves it onto a new level. A full of flavour level, wowee kind of level.

The lentils which are packed with fibre become wonderfully mushy and give an earthy, creaminess to this stew. They make this stew a bit like a dahl but without the spice. They also mean the creaminess comes without one drop of cream. Which brings me to how healthy this sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew is. I’m no nutritional expert but I’m seeing 3 of your 5 a day in this stew. Tomatoes, sweet potato, red lentils. There is just 1 tbsp of oil – that’s the only fat included. So we are talking a seriously easy, seriously delicious, seriously healthy food. Need I say more?!

It also goes with anything. We have eaten this sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew with naan bread, jacket potatoes and rice. It’s good with any of those accompaniments. Or, my personal favourite, a bowl of just the stew, another bowl of rocket and tomato salad with a little dressing, and, ooh yes, a glass of red wine. Now you’re talking!

JP and I had fun with the naan. I found this Miracle 2 Ingredient Naan Bread recipe from the great Salted Mint food blog. I went with 250g of self-raising flour, the same of yoghurt and we made 7 naan. When JP came home from nursery he enjoyed helping me cook his naan before we all then sat down to eat.

I know for some that meat makes a meal. So if you need meat, then why not stir through the roasted, shredded meat from three chicken thighs. Or for super quick chicken additions, you could buy roasted breast and shred that up and add. It will be delicious.

Sweet potato, lentil and tarragon quick stew

• Author: Holly
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
• 2 sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 250g red lentils
• 600ml vegetable or chicken stock
• 15g fresh tarragon, without stalks and finely chopped

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan which has a lid. Add the onion, stir well and sweat for 5 minutes with the lid on. Stir occasionally.
2. Add the tomatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils and stock. Stir well and bring to the boil, reduce the heat a little but ensure it’s still boiling without the lid for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
3. 5 minutes before the end stir through the tarragon. Serve.