It is said that those who eat lentils at the end of the year have luck and money. What more could you want? Well, I would say a good slice of cotechino to satisfy the palate too! As you may have guessed, today I will cook for you cotechino with lentils, a typical Christmas and New Year's Eve dish! But I would like to offer you the lightest possible version: we will steam the cotechino, trying to eliminate as much fat as possible and we will prepare the lentils without butter and without lard!
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Identity Card of the Recipe
- 211 KCal Calories per serving
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Ingrediants
- 1 clove of garlic
- q.s. of salt
- q.s. of pepper
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 250 g of dried lentils
- Gluten-free product: 600 g of cotechino
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
- 150 g of carrots
- About 500 ml of vegetable broth
- 1 bay leaf
- A few sticks of celery
Materials Needed
- Bowl
- Casserole with lid
- Mixer
- Pot with steamer basket
- Platter
- Chopping board
- Sharp knife
Preparation
- First, soak the lentils. Pour the dried legumes into a large bowl and cover with plenty of cold water. Leave the lentils to soak for at least 10-12 hours, until they have tripled their volume.
- Just before starting the preparation of the lentils, steam the cotechino for at least 3 hours.
The advice OK
Before cooking the cotechino, it is recommended to prick the casing with a skewer stick or a toothpick to prevent it from bursting during cooking.
Here we have preferred a steam cooking to facilitate the escape of excess fat.
To speed up cooking times, it is possible to prefer a pre-cooked cotechino: in this case, however, it will not be possible to prefer steam cooking.- At this point, rinse the lentils in cold water to remove all the anti-nutritional elements contained in the seeds (phytates).
- Clean the vegetables: wash and peel the carrots and cut them into small pieces. Wash the celery and cut it into small pieces. Chop the vegetables in a mixer.
Did you know that
Those who wish can also add an onion and a shallot to the chopped carrots and celery.- Brown the chopped vegetables in a saucepan, adding 2 tablespoons of oil, a tablespoon of tomato paste and a clove of garlic.
- Pour the rinsed lentils into a saucepan and cover the surface with the hot vegetable broth. Cook for an hour and a half or 2, depending on the type of lentils chosen. It is recommended to check the lentils often during cooking: if the liquid evaporates too much, add a few more ladles of broth.
- When the lentils are soft, season with salt and pepper, and flavor with a bay leaf. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the cotechino from the steamer basket and cut the surface: the casing will be removed very easily.
- Cut the cotechino into slices and serve with the lentils. This dish is also great to combine with mashed potatoes.
Alice's comment - PersonalCooker
With the light variant of cotechino and lentils, in addition to luck, money and the satisfaction of the palate we would not even have regrets for the line! We always cook light, but with taste!
If you love cotechino, try the turkey roll stuffed with cotechino too!
And if you love Cruelty Free Christmas, discover the recipe for Vegan Cotechino!Nutritional values and Health Comment on the recipe
Cotechino with Lentils is a winter dish based on preserved meat and legumes but, based on the nutritional values, it could also perform the function of a single dish. Cotechino and Lentils mainly provide lipids, a good quantity of proteins (with a high biological value) and a smaller portion of carbohydrates (complex). The fibers are relevant, the cholesterol is not too excessive and the fat balance seems to favor the monounsaturated ones. Cotechino and Lentils is not suitable for food therapy for those suffering from overweight or metabolic diseases (including hypertension - due to the high sodium intake). The average portion of Cotechino and Lentils is about 100-200g (210- 420kcal).
