Savory French Toast with Lentils

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized dutch oven or small soup pot over medium heat.

Add the onion, shallots and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until fragrant and translucent.

Add the carrots and cook a few moments longer.

Add the lentils to the pan, stirring to get them well coated in oil. Then add 3 cups of the beef broth, the bay leaf and the thyme sprig. Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper.Cook about 5 minutes then taste the broth for salt. Adjust as needed. Continue to cook about 15 minutes more, uncovered, until the lentils are tender, and have absorbed most of the liquid.

Remove them from the heat and cover them with a lid.

Let rest at least 15 minutes.When ready to serve add more beef broth and some water if necessary to get this as brothy as you like. I like it somewhat brothy but not too soupy. Just enough to wet the toastts with out letting them get too soggy too fast.

Heat a nonstick or well seasoned cast iron frying pan over medium heat. In a shallow soup bowl mix the eggs, with the milk, thyme leaves and a tiny bit of salt and a pinch of ground black pepper. Dip the bread triangles into the mixture until well coated. Using your fingers remove some of the egg from each piece and move them to the frying pan. Cook all the toasts until brown on each side. Working in batches as needed.Move the hot toasts to individual shallow soup bowls, and top them with a helping of lentils.

Drizzle a good bit of very good olive oil over the top, and serve warm.