Lentils, Sausage and Spaetzle

Matt and I are trying to figure out where to go on vacation this year. Right now the place on the top of the list is Munich and the Bavarian Alps. One of the things that kept coming up while Matt was doing research was this dish.

It seemed a little weird to me, both lentils and spaetzle, but we loved it. We cooked the lentils with bacon and vegetables to give them a lot of flavor and seem a little more like a stew. Traditionally, this dish is made with German hot dog, but we went with a bratwurst. These were wonderful housemade brats from our local grocery store, Kowalski's. They added another layer of flavor to what I was afraid would be a band dish.

We didn't make our own spaetzle, because I can't seem to get the hang of it. Luckily, one of our local German restaurants sells their in the grocery store.

Lentils, Sausage and Spaetzle

2 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 T olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 c dried lentils
handful fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 bratwurst links
salt and pepper
hot cooked spaetzle

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until it renders its fat. Add the olive oil and heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Sauté until the onion is translucent and the rest of the vegetables are starting to get tender. Add the lentils, 2 cups water and parsley. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let cook for about 20 minutes. Add the brats and cook covered for another 15 minutes until the brats are cooked through and the lentils are tender. It should be the consistency of a stew. If it is too watery, let cook with the top off until thicker. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve over spaetzle with mustard.

Makes 2 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2012 Kathy Lewinski