LENTIL & VEGGIE BAKE

Lentils are so underrated in my opinion! They are super nutritious, being a great source of plant protein as well as fibre, they store well, are easy to cook and they are cheap - what’s not to love! Fun fact, lentils are actually one of the most environmentally friendly foods as they have very low greenhouse gas emissions and they actually leave nitrogen in the soil which is beneficial for the next crops to grow. Lentils are so good for us they are technically classified as a serving of vegetables! So here I’ve created a delicious bake mixing lentils with veggies, a rich tomato sauce and topped with ricotta - enjoy!

If you want to keep this meal dairy free, steam some cauliflower and use that in replace of ricotta with some nutritional yeast or just sprinkle over some almond/dairy free fetta before baking.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 x onion, diced

1 x leek, diced

2 x garlic, crushed

1 x sweet potato, diced into small squares

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 cups (or 2 cans) of cooked lentils (see note below for cooking lentils)

1 x eggplant, diced into small squares

1 cup mushrooms, diced

1 x zucchini, diced into small squares

2 cups spinach

2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes

1 handful fresh basil

500g ricotta

1/4 cup parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200⁰C.

Place some extra virgin olive oil in a heated fry pan to medium heat and add the onion and leek. After 2 minutes add the garlic. After another minute add the sweet potato and oregano and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the lentils, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Stir well cooking for another 2-3 minutes and then pour the mixture into a baking dish. Crumble over the ricotta and parmesan and bake for 20 minutes.

Note: Cooking lentils: I used dried green lentils and placed 1 cup rinsed lentils into 3 cups water to cook for 20 minutes (no pre-soaking required).