The road to wellness

I had been feeling the effects of the winter flu for days and, uncharacteristically, had lost my appetite for anything but fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.
Typically, I nurse myself back to health with homemade chicken or turkey soup (I always have frozen homemade stock at the ready for such occasions).
Today, my tummy cried out for a wholly vegetarian solution to the nutrition problem.
And so it is that I turned to the New York Times' Mark Bittman's quick and easy solutions.
Bittman ate a very simple rice and carrot stew at a Turkish lunch counter and it inspired him to write down the recipe. For all its simplicity, it's got wonderful depth of flavour. And it's dead easy -- so easy I had to embellish it. Here's my version of a recipe that's easy on the tummy and got me feeling better in a hurry.

Turkish Rice and Carrot Stew

4 carrots, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
3-4 cups water
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 handfuls of arugula, spinach or swiss chard (chopped)
3/4 cups rice (I used basmati)
1/4 cup red lentils
Sea salt and ground pepper to taste
Feta cheese and green olives for garnish

Drizzle olive oil in a heavy pot, heat medium high, add onions and carrots. Saute till soft. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the rice/lentil mixture (Bittman doesn't use lentils but I find red lentils are an ingenious way to turn a broth into a thicker stew so I use them liberally). Bring to a boil. Add your greens (Bittman calls for spinach but I had arugula and used it to satisfaction). Lower temperature to ensure a slow simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed (I ended up using 4 cups of water).

When the dish looks like a stew and the rice is cooked to near death, add the minced garlic and butter. Stir to incorporate and heat for 5 minutes max.

Ladle into dishes and garnish with feta and green olives. You could add dried chopped prunes to the stew as it's cooking -- I didn't but might do so next time.