Puy Lentils with Roasted Beetroot & Red Peppers

Lentils with roasted beetroot

One of my favourite accompaniments, although I love mashed potato, sometimes a lentil or three hits the spot just a little bit more.

With this recipe, the beetroot and red peppers are sweet and the earthy lentils compliment them marvellously.

Ingredients:

• 1 large overgrown organic beetroot or three or four regular sized ones (peeled and cubed if the former, cut into quarters or eighths depending on the size of the latter)
• 2 medium sized red peppers (roughly chopped)
• a good glug of olive oil
• a good pinch of ground sea salt
• 2 ozs of salted butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and sliced thinly
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 dessert spoon of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 4 dessert spoons of chopped fresh sorrel, plus a few ripped leaves set aside for later
• 6 oz of puy lentils
• 1 pint of stock
• 1 large glass of white wine

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade and prepare the beetroot and red peppers in a bowl,  adding the salt and oil and tossing in the bowl before placing on a baking tray and place in the oven on the middle shelf for about 30-40 minutes.  The beetroot should a little crisp on the outside and soft centred.

In a deep sided frying pan (with a lid) or a saucepan, soften the onions and garlic over a medium heat with the butter.  Add the lentils and stir through to evenly coat with the onion mixture and then add the dry herbs and half of the chopped fresh sorrel.  Stir well and then add the stock and cover the pan and lower the heat.  When the liquid is simmering slowly, uncover the pan and continue to cook through until almost all the liquid in gone.

Add the wine and recover.  Again, as the liquid comes to simmer uncover the pan and this time add the remaining chopped fresh sorrel. Continue cooking until almost all the liquid has gone.  Take off the heat and recover the pan.

Test the beetroot and if ready add these to the lentils.

Serve with the remaining ripped leaves.

This goes very well with many kinds of protein and non-protein pairings.  Handmade sausages, pan fried fish, as do halumi and falafel.

Leave these lentils to go cold and this is a very tasty packed lunch.  Add some pine nuts and some chopped feta.

Savoury Rice

This is such a good accompaniment to so many casserole type dishes.   Leftovers are also very good mixed with egg for a real carb hit on a Sunday morning - try making this as a thin omelet (with three or four dessert spoons of the mixture to two eggs) and whilst still warm, sprinkling grated cheddar cheese and rolling it up like a wrap.   

 

Garnish:

• 250 gram of small/baby potatoes, halved
• 10 mils of olive oil
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• Half a teaspoon of dried thyme
• Half a teaspoon of dried parsley

In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients together and lay on a baking tray.  Place in a hot oven (200c) and roast for 30 minutes, turning them half way through the cooking time. 

Separately:

• 5 mls of olive oil
• One medium onion - finely chopped
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• A teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 150 grams of brown rice
• 150 grams of puy lentils
• Cold water.

In a large frying pan or shallow saucepan, fry the onion in the oil on a medium heat until soft.  Add the salt, pepper and cumin and the brown rice.  Stir until the rice starts to change colour, add the lentils and again, stir until the well coated with the oil.    Add enough cold water to cover by a cm over the top of the mixture.  Bring to a gentle boil and then reduce heat to simmer for approximately 20 minutes, or until the mixture is cooked.  You may need to add additional water during this time, but all should have been boiled away.  If some is still remaining, drain before adding half the roasted potato.  Stir these into the mixture.  On serving, add the remaining potatoes on top.

Late Summer Lentils with liver / or toasted Halloumi

Puy lentils, one carb that can be cooked simply and still instills extravagance to me - or possibly this may be the romantic in me that associates these little green jewels with the South of France.

One of my tastiest suppers which takes a few nods from difference recipes over the past number of years (I won't admit how many) and which, is simply great at this time of year with the end of season celery and fennel.

 

The lentils:

• 150 grams of puy lentils
• 200 grams of roughly chopped fennel and celery (in equal proportions), include the tops of the celery if available, also roughly chopped
• One medium onion, roughly chopped
• Two large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 20 grams of finely chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• Water/vegetable stock to cover
• 25 grams of butter
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Heat the butter and oil in a shallow pan and add the vegetables and herbs and cook slowly until softened. 

Add the lentils and mix together with the vegetables until each jewel is glistening with the juices in the pan.  Turn the heat up and add your liquid, enough to cover the mixture to about a half to three quarters of a cm above the surface.  Bring to just below the oil and then simmer slowly until cooked.  Add more liquid if you feel the need.

Accompaniments:

Liver can strike most people with dread, but whether using chicken liver or, at this time of year, rabbit liver may be on offer from some artisan butchers, this is really good partnership with this dish.  Prepare your liver, clean and sliced, not too thinly, and fry in butter until brown on the outside and still pink, inside, but solid not raw.  At the end of the cooking add a little cider vinegar and let it evaporate in the heat of dish. 

Serve on top of the lentils with perhaps some chopped parsley or finely chopped tops of celery.

Alternatively, this goes very well with toasted Halloumi which is then mixed into the lentil mixture immediately before serving.  Or, for just an extra ten minutes, try slicing Brie or Camembert over the lentils in a shallow ovenproof dish and bake in a moderate oven until the cheese melts through and is just turning brown.

Summer in March? Receipe to Oz - Feta salad

Just sent this to Sue in Oz. It reminded me that you can always have Summer... and talking lentils and feta is always a good way to start...

Puy lentils (they call them "French Style" in Oz);

For 250 grams of lentils:

o 4 medium/2 large onions
o 4 large capsicums (how southern hemisphere am I?)
o 6 large cloves of garlic or one small bulb
o 2 generous sized teaspoons of smoked sweet paprika
o 2 "normal" sized teaspoons of either ground cumin or ground coriander (or one of each).
o Veg or chicken stock.

o Sweat onions first, then add garlic and capsicums together, sweat, then lentils, then dried spices. Five minutes covered, then the stock (to 1 cm above the mixture).
o At the end of cooking along with the feta, dried oregano or marjoram (same thing but one's wild, one's cultivated, apparently) to taste - for a the traditional fare.
o Otherwise, as I've done - which is I think what you would have had at our parties, 250 grams of rough chopped parsley mixed through whilst warm (it doesn't get cooked - just wilts in the mixture) and then covered until almost cool, and then the feta on top.
o Additional bits and pieces if in a spicy mood - one good sized medium chilli (finely chopped) and 4 cm stick of ginger (grated) - gives it a little kick.

I don't think I've forgotten anything. Although I've now tried the above with wild rice as well (half wild and half brown actually) and the mixture works great with smoked fish and green capsicums - same quantities.