Devised recipe to celebrate United Nations International Year of Pulses 2016, created by Jenny Chandler.
Middle Eastern Lentils
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
4 brown onions, sliced finely
4 tbsp. olive oil
200 g/7 oz. brown or green lentils
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and then ground
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 pinch of chilli flakes
1 small bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
Preparation Method:
Begin by frying the onion in a large saucepan. Keep the temperature fairly low and allow the onions to soften, sweeten and turn gold, this may take about 20 minutes. Be patient.
Set aside half of the onions from the pan, turn up the heat and throw in the garlic, cumin and chilli. Stir and, as soon as you can really smell the garlic, add the lentils and enough water to cover them by about 5 cm.
Bring the pot up to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the lentils soften and begin to break down. You may have to add a little extra water from time to time if they are getting dry but go carefully, remember that you don't want to drain away any delicious juices later.
Once the lentils are really soft, and this can take over an hour, have a taste and season with salt, pepper and enough lemon juice to really freshen the dish up. Stir in the coriander leaves and garnish with the remaining sweet fried onions.