REC: Lamb and Lentil Stew

I made a very nice stew tonight, adapted from a recipe in the Cook's
Illustrated book "The Best Recipe." In truth, the original recipe would
probably have been delicious, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand
and at any rate I prefer lentils to chick peas, which is what the original
called for.

Here's what I made:

Lamb & Lentil Stew
***************
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb. lamb stew meat, cubed
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 c chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1.5 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1.5 tsp cinnamon
..5 tsp ginger
..5 c dried lentils
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. On the stove, over medium-high heat, heat
the olive oil in a Dutch oven or similar oven-safe stew pot. Sprinkle salt
and pepper on the lamb, and brown the lamb on all sides, in two batches if
necessary. Take the browned lamb out of the pot and set aside. Add the
onions to the empty pot and sauté for a few minutes until soft. Add the
garlic. Add the chicken broth and scrape up the nice browned bits on the
bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, and spices and bring to a
simmer. Stir in the lentils, return the meat to the pot and return to a
simmer. Cover and place in the oven. Cook for about two hours, or until
you are tired of waiting. :-)

I served this over cauliflower, with a slight wistful sadness that I
couldn't have it with couscous. Here are the numbers for the stew:
For the full pot, 1570 kCal, 87 g fat (28 g sat), 85 g carbs (36 g fiber),
113 g protein
It makes four nice servings with 390 kCal, 22 g fat (7 g sat), 21 g carbs (9
g fiber), 28 g protein

If you want to keep the carbs down, you can obviously leave out the lentils,
and/or reduce the tomatoes or the onions.

It would probably be nice to add chopped parsley before serving. Another
variation might be to substitute a little red wine for some of the chicken
broth. Also, the original Cook's recipe was a lot meatier, with the same
amounts of spices.

Enjoy,
carla