Red pea stew

*I call it red coz it has tomato, I also make another version of this stew with avgolemono (=egg and lemon sauce)

Ingedients:

• peas 350-400 grams
• 3 medium carrots 
• 2-3 big potatoes 
• 1 medium onion
• 10-12 mushrooms 
• flat leaf parsley or dill
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• tomato puree or fresh tomatoes in the blender or tinned chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 lemon (optional)

This is an one-pot dish; to make it, I chose a not-too-tall but rather wide pot with a lid as at some stage you will need to cover and let it simmer. 

First start with the olive oil, I poured 6 Tbl spoons of olive oil in the pot, you can use more if you like for a more traditional Greek version. In medium high heat, first goes the onion, finely chopped preferably, then the peas and the carrots cut in 4-5 pieces each. Then the potatoes and the button mushrooms too. The traditional recipe is done with dill but I tend to like parsley more. I put about two or three table spoons of parsley, a pinch of salt and pepper and of course the tomato. I used 300-350 gram of Italian tomato pasata and half a glass of water. I then covered it and let it simmer in medium heat for about 30 minutes. When serving I squeezed a little bit of lemon juice. It's also nice with some Greek style yogurt or feta cheese. And don't forget to have some nice bread to dip into the sauce.