Creamy French Lentils with Mushrooms & Kale

Recipe from The First Mess

If you don’t have any white wine around or you choose not to consume it, a teaspoon of white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice will substitute just fine. I serve this as a thick, stew-y mixture fit for serving over toast, but you could add extra vegetable stock/non-dairy milk to make it more soup-y if you like.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
3⁄4 cup French green lentils, rinsed
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 medium shallot, fine dice (roughly 1/3 cup diced shallot)
1 lb. mixed mushrooms, stemmed + sliced
Pinch of Himalayan salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, minced
2 tablespoons white wine
(or lemon juice)
2 teaspoons gluten-free tamari
1 1⁄2 cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3-4 kale stalks, stems removed + leaves sliced (1 1⁄2 packed cups of sliced kale)
Fresh bread or toasts, for serving

Directions:

1-Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the lentils to the water along with a fat pinch of salt. Simmer the lentils until they’re just tender, about 15- 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2-In a medium soup pot, heat the avocado oil over medium heat. Add the shallots to the pot and stir. Cook the shallots until slightly softened and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pot and let them sit for a full minute. Stir the mushrooms up and season with pepper. Let the mushrooms sit in the pot for another full minute.

3-Stir the mushrooms until they start glistening slightly. Season the mushrooms liberally with salt. Add the garlic and thyme to the pot and stir. Once the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds, add the white wine (or lemon juice) and tamari to the pan. Stir the mushrooms. Add the drained lentils, vegetable stock and coconut milk to the pot. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil.

4-Ladle half of the mushroom mixture into a blender pitcher, making sure that you include enough of the liquid. Blend on high until completely smooth. Scrape the creamy blended mushroom mixture back into the pot. Add the sliced kale and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil and check it for seasoning. The texture should be like a thick and creamy stew.

Serve hot with toasts or other accompaniments of your choosing.