Voila…the French Puy Lentils…so delicious and so good for you.
Probably you wonder "Whatever will I do with them?"
Well this recipe I saw on The Living Channel was my original inspiration to share these ideas. This is great as a side dish or even on its own with some crunchy bread.
For 2 people and some for leftovers
2 cups Puy lentils you may substitute green/brown lentils but get
the puy if you can
3-4 red peppers quartered and pith out
1 tbs parsley chopped
1 tbs dill finely chopped
Salsa Verde
1 green chilli chopped and de-seeded
1 tbs grated ginger
2 tbs dill
3 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
Large handful Parsley roughly chopped
8-10 leaves of mint
The reserved roasted red pepper
Juice ½ lemon
1 good tsp Dijon mustard
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive oil approx 100 mls
Take your Puy lentils (or green/brown lentils)…it is not necessary to soak the lentils but they do need careful washing. Bring to boil then simmer till tender about 20 mins don‘t over cook…keep testing…salt them after about 15 mins.
(Puy lentils take less time that the brown/green variety)…
Drain.
Meanwhile take the red peppers, cut into quarters, take out pips and pith so that they are fairly flat. Push down onto grill pan and place under grill until skin blisters and blackens.
Remove skin (an easy way to do this is to place them into plastic bag to cool. This is helpful in removing skin but not obligatory.)
Chop into wide strips. Reserve a couple of slices aside for the salsa verde.
Dress the cooked lentils with the salsa verde saving a tbs of the dressing to sprinkle on at the end.
Make a criss cross pattern with the peppers and and sprinkle with some chopped parsley and dill. Then sprinkle over the remaining Salsa Verde
To make the salsa…Into the food processor take the green chilli chopped and seeded (leave seed in if you can stand the heat.) grated ginger, the roast pepper you have saved, dill, garlic- parsley, mint leaves, lemon juice, dijon mustard,
sea salt and ground black pepper, blitz and start adding the extra virgin olive oil to make dressing probably about 100 mls continue to blend until fairly smooth.
As I mentioned at the beginning there will be left overs.
Turn these into fritters as per the vege fritter recipe earlier in this site…replacing the vege
with the lentils.
This makes a tasty little lunch.
Serve with your favourite relish.