Hi, this recipe is from the 'BOSH! Simple Recipes, Amazing Food, All Plants' cookbook, page 160 by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby.
This dish was a bit of a failure for me: the veg was undercooked, because the timings in the book were very optimistic about how long it would take to roast veg (30mins, when they probably need 45 mins to an hour) and I couldn't leave them in the oven for any longer because my sister's fishcakes (she doesn't like lentils and roast vegetables) were in the oven too and were done.
Then, the lentils were too spicy for my Dad and he didn't like them. However, all is not lost as the vegetables were cooked just enough and soft enough (just not super soft and crispy like my Mum likes) to eat and I enjoyed the spiciness of the lentils. And the avocado helped cool down them down too, as did my Dad's addition of Greek yogurt.
Also, there was a lot of roast veg, which would be fine if you were serving this as a side salad but for a main there were lots of leftovers of vegetables. So, if going for the 3 serves, I would suggest reducing the vegetables a bit. We saved the leftover veg and re-roasted it the next day to have with our tea and it worked fine.
Enjoy!
Hazel :)
Dietary Info:
-Vegan
-Vegetarian
-Dairy Free
-Gluten Free
-No Nuts
-Main Meal
-Side Dish
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Serves: 3-6 {The amount of veg serves about 6 as a side, but if serving as a main, decrease the veg and increase the lentils.}
Takes: 1hr {The veg needs much longer to roast than stated in the recipe, see below for suggestions.}
Ingredients:
-1 onion
-4 garlic cloves
-1 fresh red chilli
-1 tbsp fennel seeds {I left these out as we didn't have any.}
-4 tbsp olive oil {I used less olive oil.}
-4 tbsp balsamic vinegar, plus extra for drizzling
-1 tbsp maple syrup {I used less syrup as I prefer the tangy, balsamic vinegar taste.}
-3 tbsp tomato puree
-250g pre-cooked puy lentils {I cooked 100g of dried puy lentils: Rinse under running water in a sieve, add to a saucepan with 500ml boiling water, simmer for 20 mins, top up the water, simmer for another 20 mins.}
-350g butternut squash {I just used one butternut squash.}
-1 fennel bulb
-200g cherry tomatoes
-1 yellow pepper
-1 red pepper
-1 courgette
-1 avocado
-100g baby leaf spinach or kale {I used spinach.}
-10g flat-leaf parsley leaves
-salt and black pepper
Method:
1: Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4 / 350°F. {The veg took longer to roast than stated, this could be in part due to the lower oven temperature, I would normally roast at around 200°C / 180°C fan, for about 45 mins to an hour.} Get out a medium saucepan and a roasting tray.
2: {I made this tomato sauce when the veg was roasting, in step 5.} Peel the onion. Peel the garlic. Rip the stem from the chilli then cut it in half lengthways and remove the seeds if you prefer a milder flavour. {I left the seeds in, however it was too hot for my Dad's liking, next time I would only leave in a few seeds.} Finely chop the onion, garlic, chilli and fennel seeds. Spoon into the saucepan and add the 4 tbsp of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and tomato puree. Stir for 5 mins then add the cooked lentils. Stir through, remove from the heat and set aside. {You could prepare this in advance and keep in the fridge, if you like.}
3: Peel the squash, cut it in half and remove the seeds, then cut into 2 cm chunks. Tip into a roasting tray, drizzle with a little oil, season and put the tin in the hot oven for 15 mins then remove.
4: Meanwhile, trim the fennel bulb, remove the core and cut into 1cm wedges. Halve the tomatoes. Cut the peppers in half, cut out the stems and seeds. Trim the ends of the courgette. Cut the pepper and courgettes into 1 cm pieces. {To try to get more variety, I cut the courgette into rounds and the peppers into strips.} Add the fennel, courgettes, peppers, and tomatoes to the roasting tray with the squash and drizzle over a little more oil. Return to the oven to cook for 15 mins, {They probably need 30-40 mins in this step, not 15.} until tender.
5: {Only do this just before serving, otherwise the avocado will go brown. Or drizzle with lemon juice to slow down the browning.} While the vegetables are roasting, halve and carefully stone the avocado by tapping the stone firming with the heel of a knife so that it lodges in the pit, then twist and remove the stone. Run a dessert spoon around the inside of the skin to scoop out the avocado halves and cut into chunks. Wash and lightly chop the spinach or kale and roughly chop the parsley leaves.
6: Remove the roasted veggies from the oven and tip into a serving bowl with the avocado, spinach or kale, parsley and lentils. Stir and serve.
While you're here...
I have a Pinterest for all my recipes, where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html.
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile
This recipe:
https://pin.it/1hzuZNs
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