Recipe video above. In this recipe where both lentils and sausages are baked together in the same pan, the lentils absorb the sausage juices as they cook, making the humble lentils tastier than you ever dreamed possible! The recipe starts on the stove sautéing aromatics right in the roasting pan. Any metal pan will work, and it doesn't matter if your stove burner isn't large enough for the roasting pan- mine certainly isn't.Don't skip the cumin seeds. It gives this a special touch!
Cooking vessel - Use a metal roasting pan ~23 x 33 cm / 9 x 13". Fold a sheet of baking/parchment paper (large enough to cover pan) in half and cut 4 x ~10cm/4" slits (steam vents! Note 4). Else, use foil - just tear steam vents.
Sauté aromatics - Put the pan directly on the stove (really, it's ok!) and heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add eschallots and garlic, sauté for 3 minutes until soft. Add cumin seeds and stir for 1 minute.
Lentils & stock - Add dried lentils, carrot, salt, pepper and stock. Bring to a simmer.
Sausages & paper - Gently place the sausages on top (don't press in). Cover with the paper, gently pressing so it "sticks" to the stock.
Bake for 25 minutes on the middle shelf. Remove paper and bake for 20 more minutes to brown the sausages.
Rest 5 min - Remove from the oven. Rest for 5 minutes.
Serve the sausages with lentils. The flavour-loaded lentils are saucy so they act as the sauce for the sausages! Also pictured in post - baby spinach with Everyday Dressing.
Notes
1. Eschallots are the small onions also known as French onions and shallots. (It can be very confusing because here in Australia, green onions - the long green stems - are sometimes sold labelled as shallots!). Substitute with 1 large normal brown onion2. Puy lentils, also known as French Lentils, French Green Lentils or Black Lentils. Small, greenish-black lentils sold dried at larger supermarkets in Australia. Better, firmer texture and (in my opinion) best flavour compared to other lentils. Brown lentils / green lentils also work great. They are a little softer than puy lentils.Canned - Recipe as written won't work with canned as the whole point here is that dried lentils are cooked in flavour!3. Sausages - Recipe assumes 2 sausages per serving, I like to get small(ish) ones weighing around 85g / 3oz each. But you can really cook as many as you want / can.4. Paper cover - No need to be exact here! Just need a sheet of paper large enough to cover surface with slits to allow steam to escape. It's a technique used in cooking (like Persian lamb shanks) that allows some steam to escape but prevents the surface from drying out too much (in this case, the lentils). You could also cover with foil and tear slits for vents.5. Leftovers will keep for 3 days.Nutrition assumes 2 sausages per serving and all the lentils are consumed which is a VERY big serving! Realistically there will be lentils left over and some will only have 1 sausage per serving.