Lentil & Chorizo Hotpot with Garlic & Lemon Yoghurt

A rich, hearty bowl of stew that literally takes 20 minutes to put together

After a weekend of not overly exciting eating, I am looking forward to getting home this evening and cosying up with this warming bowl.

This weekend I have been flat out being literary. I was being literary in Kildare on Friday night when I sat down with national treasure, cool-t-shirt-wearing, all round mensch Rick O’Shea at the Kildare Readers Festival to discuss writing and particularly my horror novel, Where I End. I then went to Kinsale to the Words By Water Festival to have a chat in the gorgeous Methodist Church with lady-mensch Colette Sheridan. Here’s me proving I do actually bother my hole from time to time.

In between all of the literariness, I was being my usual goblin self. When I am away for work and have the joy of a solo hotel room stay, I tend to dodge being sociable in favour of eating Koka noodles in my room and watching TV and this weekend was no different. I finished the talk on Friday night and after the strain of trying to appear intelligent for an hour straight, I needed to decompress with an edifying evening of chicken flavour Koka noodles, chocolate pretzels and Evil Dead Rise directed by Irish horror-mensch, Lee Cronin. Evil Dead Rise is fucking FANTASTIC – the first seven minutes ALONE are scarier than anything I’ve seen in years. After I finished it, I actually had to watch 20 minutes of Love Is Blind just to calm myself down a bit.

The next night in my hotel in Kinsale, I pushed the boat out and opted for curry flavour Koka noodles (a bit of a crime as there’s so many great places to eat in Kinsale) and an evening of mountaineering themed content. I watched Dying For Everest a documentary about Kiwi climber, Mark Inglis, who became the first ever double amputee to summit Everest. Then I re-watched Everest the film which I never get tired of and then capped it off with another re-watch, this time Free Solo about Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan in Yosemite without ropes – the mad bastard.

So after all those Koka noodles I am dying to make this marginally more nourishing hotpot of lentils and chorizo this evening. As usual my rambling how-to video is below. Let me know in the comments or tag me on insta (@sophwhitewhoop) if you give it a go ;) Big love and happy Sunday everyone.

Lentil & Chorizo Hotpot

Serves 3-4

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, finely diced

160g roughly of chorizo, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tbsp oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tin green lentils, drained

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 tin water (using the tomato tin)

2-3 handfuls of baby spinach

Crusty bread to serve

For the Garlic & Lemon Yoghurt

4 tbsps Greek yoghurt

1 clove garlic, crushed

Juice of half a lemon

To make:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot then add the onion and chorizo and cook for a few minutes till the onion is softened and the chorizo has released its oils. Next add the garlic, oregano, cumin and smoked paprika and stir together.

Tip in the drained lentils, chopped tomatoes and half a tin of water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until thickened slightly. While the pot is simmering, make the garlic yoghurt. Mix 4 tablespoons of yoghurt with one crushed clove of garlic and the juice of half a lemon.

When the hot pot has thickened nicely, remove from the heat and add the baby spinach to the pot.

Stir it in, using the heat of the stew to wilt the spinach. This tends to not need any seasoning as the chorizo brings a lot of salt to the table but give it a taste anyway to check you’re happy. Serve right away in bowls topped with the yoghurt and a side of crusty bread. I also drizzle over a little olive oil as I am a fiend for the stuff.