Curried Lentil One Pot

“I love a one pot dish!! They make cooking from scratch so easy. In this recipe two types of lentils are used, one to thicken the sauce and the other to add texture. They make this dish hearty so it will keep you full up for hours.”

Prep time - 10 minutes

Cook time - 30-40 minutes

Difficulty - Easy

Serves / makes - 4

Ingredients (one pot)

3 large carrots, cut into bitesize pieces

2 sticks celery, finely sliced

1 large onion, finely sliced

200g cavolo nero, leaves removed from stems and roughly chopped

1c green or brown lentils

1/2c split red lentils

3-4T spice mix*

1T stock powder

2t ground turmeric

Salt, to taste

2 tins (400g each) of chopped tomatoes

4T creamed coconut

500ml water

*Ingredients (spice mix)

I make the spice mix in advance and store it in my spice cupboard. Note that in the recipe you do not need to use all of the spice mix, just 3-4 tablespoons depending on how spicy you want it to be.

8T coriander seeds

8T dried chillies

1T black peppercorns

1T cumin seeds

1/2t fenugreek seeds

1/2t mustard seeds

- all the above is toasted

2T split red lentils

1/4 cinnamon stick

1/2t turmeric

- grind all of the ingredients to a fine powder, I use a nutri-bullet type blender for this

Equipment

Large saucepan with lid

High speed blender

Method

Put all of the ingredients for the one pot into a large saucepan. Put the lid on and turn the heat to medium - high.
Once the food is bubbling remove the lid and allow it to simmer until the carrots and lentils are cooked through. This should take around 30-40 minutes but it depends on the type of green lentils you use as some take longer to cook.

Tips

If a lot of the liquid evaporates and the one pot is quite thick just add some hot water.
This is a great dish to batch cook. Cook as great a quantity as your pot can manage and freeze what you don’t eat.