Easy Lentil Bake Recipe
I love lentils which is entirely apparent from the number of lentil recipes on this website and my Ebook – 10 Easy And Low Cost Lentil Recipes
Lentils are low cost, easy to cook and very nutritious. If you are on a tight budget, lentils can give you lots of recipe options with a good variety of nutritious meals at low cost.
Amongst the most popular lentil recipes are Easy Lentil Bake and Lentil Bake with Blue Cheese. So here is a spicy lentil bake recipe as a variation on these dishes. The lentil bakes require a short time of preparation and then goes in the oven, leaving you to get on with something else – or rest! They are ideal for filling, warming midweek suppers.
This lovely, delicious lentil bake with red lentils is spicy and warming. Made with lots of vegetables it is low in fat and nutritious
This bake is still quite soft when it is cooked so won’t really come out in slices – but it is really delicious almost like a cross between a dhal and a lentil bake.
Red Lentils
Red lentils are ideal for bakes as they go quite soft and mushy when cooked so are great to combine with other ingredients. They are the quickest and easiest to cook, requiring no prior soaking. Just be careful when you bring them to the boil as they can easily boil over – potentially losing some of the measured water leaving not sure how much more to add! Once they come to the boil, turn down the heat quickly and watch they don’t boil over.
You can vary the vegetables you use, depending on what you have and what you like.
Serving Suggestions
Serve the bake with boiled potatoes, or potato wedges and some salad or some lovely green vegetables. Alternatively a piece of nan bread would go well with the bake.
Spicy Lentil Bake
Ingredients
- 200g / 7oz red lentils
- 500ml water
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
- 2 sticks celery, sliced and diced
- 1 green pepper deseeded and chopped
- 1 large (or 2 small) carrots, peeled and grated
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon tumeric
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 3-4 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Cooking Directions
- Place the lentils in a saucepan
- Pour over 500ml water
- Bring to the boil and simmer until soft an mushy (about 15 minutes)
- Meanwhile heat the oil in a large frying pan
- Add the onions and cook for a few minutes until soft
- Add the cumin seeds, celery and pepper
- Cook for a further 5 minutes
- Add the grated carrots
- Add the lentils
- Add the turmeric, garam masala and chilli
- Add the tomato purée in 2 tablespoons of hot water
- Place all the ingredients into a baking dish
- Place the tomatoes on top of the bake
- Bake in an oven at 180 degrees C for about 30 minutes
Lentils are a bit of a miracle food aren’t they? They are just so adaptable. Really good at holding flavour too… Thank you for sharing these ideas.