Food Fiend Experience

Rainbow Puy lentils

Rainbow Puy lentils RecipeThis dish using Puy lentils is ideal as a vegetarian main and also works beautifully as an accompaniment for a main course with barbecued meats or pan fried or baked fish. Packed with goodness and flavour and a delicious wholesome crunch. It is also great eaten cold the next day as a side salad with cold cuts or with BBQ meats. You can add other vegetables too. The ones I have selected give a balance of taste, texture and colour and all important flavour. However, I have also used asparagus and mushrooms with good results. If you would like to create a more robust vegetarian main course using this dish I would also recommend adding 75g cooked quinoa and 100g cooked soya beans and 50g roasted pine nuts.

Ingredients
200g Puy lentils
Vegetable stock cube
2 red onions
2 medium carrots
1 red pepper
4 cloves garlic
2 medium courgette
Olive oil
Handful of mint
Handful of parsley

Method

  1. Wash the Puy lentils and place in saucepan. Dissolve a stock cube and add to the lentils and cover with boiling water until twice the volume. Cook uncovered on high for 10 minutes and then for a further 25 minutes on a lower heat with the lid on - check to ensure it does not boil dry adding water if required. Season with pepper and salt
  2. Dice carrots and place in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
  3. Dice, peppers, courgettes and onions.
  4. Finely chop parsley, mint and garlic.
  5. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in non stick wok and cook onions on medium heat until caramelised. Place cook onions in dish.
  6. In hot wok add 1 tbsp olive oil and when hot add diced pepper and after one minute add chopped garlic. Cook for a further 2 minutes and then add cooked diced carrot and courgette cook for a further 5 minutes until vegetables just cooked. Season with pepper and salt to taste. Stir in chopped parsley and mint and switch off heat to wok. Stir in cooked onions.
  7. If there is any liquid in the saucepan containing Puy lentils this can be boiled off with the lid off. Add the cooked lentils to the cooked vegetables mixing well.
  8. Serve warm with a garnish of parsley or mint.
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Recipe column - by Kathy Fitchett, Photography by the Paul Burrows Studios, Havant
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