Nigel Slater’s lentil recipes

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Nigel Slater recipes

We all have old boxes of lentils in the larder. Why not give them the star treatment with these delicious recipes?

Nigel Slater

Sun 13 Mar 2016 09.00 EDT

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There’s a surfeit of lentils in the cupboard. Not only beautiful lentilles du puy, those diminutive beads the colour of country roof slates, but the less fashionable yet equally delicious brown lentils. This is the common variety – the sparrow of the pulse world – and it has a warm, spicy note and keeps its shape, rather than collapsing to a purée when cooked, like its khaki and orange cousins.

I lightened my load by turning one batch into a creamy, mildly spiced dish (ginger, garam masala, crème fraîche) with a flash of deep red beetroot swirling through. The others found their way into an unashamedly retro dish of baked onions the size of tennis balls, with a cheese sauce so hot it almost took the skin off our lips.

Baked onions, lentils and cheese sauce

The bay leaves don’t add a fat lot of flavour to the onions, but they do, I find, take the edge off the smell of the boiling onions. That said, they make a subtle difference to the cheese sauce – as does a little patience. The best cheese sauces are those that you have allowed to cook slowly, leaving them to bubble and blip sleepily, with just the occasional stir to stop them from sticking. This is not a dish to be hurried.

Serves 4
onions 4, large and sweet
bay leaves 2

For the filling:
onions 2, medium
olive oil 2 tbsp
garlic 4 cloves
brown lentils 200g
chopped tomatoes 1 x 400g can

For the sauce:
plain flour 2 tbsp
olive oil 2 tbsp
milk 500ml
bay leaves 2
mature cheddar cheese 150g
grated parmesan 4 tbsp

Peel the large onions, then bring them to the boil in 1.5 litres of water. Add the bay leaves then lower the heat to a simmer. Leave to cook, partially covered with a lid, for a good hour – maybe a little longer depending on your onions, until they are tender to the point of a skewer. Drain the onions and discard the water.

Creamed lentils and beetroot

Beetroot takes an age to roast. To speed up the process, halve the unpeeled beetroot, place on a large piece of tin foil, then trickle over a little oil and 1 tbsp of water. Season, then scrunch the edges of the foil together to form a parcel. Roast at 200C/gas mark 6 until you can pierce them easily with a skewer then peel the skins. Alternatively, steam the beetroot over boiling water until tender.

Serves 4
beetroot 5
olive oil 4 tbsp
brown lentils 300g
onion 1, medium
groundnut oil 2 tbsp
garam masala 2 tsp
ginger a large thumb
vegetable stock 250ml
crème fraîche 200g
sprouted seeds to finish

Wash and trim the beetroot and place in a metal baking dish. Pour in the olive oil, season and cover in foil. Bake at 200C/gas mark 6 for an hour or until tender to the point of a knife. Peel the beetroot and discard the skin. Alternatively, boil it in lightly salted water until tender, drain and slip off the skins with your thumbs.

Bring a deep pan of water to the boil and add the lentils, let them come back to the boil, remove froth from the surface then lower the heat and leave to cook for 30 minutes or until just tender. Salt the water only near the end of cooking.

Peel and slice the onion; cook in the groundnut oil until soft and golden. Grate the ginger and stir in, then add the cooked, drained lentils. Pour in the stock simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the crème fraîche and check the seasoning. Blitz the beetroot to a rough purée.

Nigel Slater’s lentil recipes | Food (2024)

Baked onions, lentils and cheese sauce

Creamed lentils and beetroot

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